Penguins Skate: Pickering, Pettersson Updates; Sullivan vs. Tortorella

CRANBERRY — The Pittsburgh Penguins got some good and some bad news Monday.

Not only is rookie defenseman Owen Pickering out of the lineup but he’s been placed on injured reserve with a concussion. He suffered the injury after a hard hit in the second period last Thursday in the Penguins’ 5-4 win over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.

The acquisition of defenseman P.O Joseph for future considerations proved well-timed as Joseph filled in for Pickering Saturday in New Jersey. With Joseph, the Penguins have only six healthy defensemen.

The good news Monday was defenseman Marcus Pettersson has begun skating. He skated before the morning skate, in the session that coach Mike Sullivan has come to term “injured ice.”

Pettersson is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, but the pending free agent who has served as the defensive tent pole of the Penguins blue line corps has already missed more than one week, and his return could come sooner after the NHL’s holiday break.

Sullivan vs. Tortorella

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was a long-time assistant coach under John Tortorella. Sullivan worked under Tortorella in Tampa Bay and New York before the pair parted ways after a disastrous season in Vancouver.

They remain close.

Sullivan even had a little joke for his friend. When asked about Tortorella’s penchant for entertaining press conferences that can sometimes be bombastic or include colorful critiques of his players, Sullivan–who behaves in the exact opposite manner–smirked.

“Don’t kid yourself. He polishes that stick a little bit,” Sullivan said with some amusement.

In other words, the Flyers’ bench boss usually knows what he’s doing before he does it.

Here’s the full transcript of Sullivan speaking about “Torts.”

“We talk a fair amount (during the season). He’s a good friend. I have a lot of respect for him. I learned a lot from him and all the years that I worked with him. Every time we play him–I’m sure he’d have the same answer–we want to win the game, and we usually end up getting mad at each other, but I think that’s probably an indication of the competition between us,” Sullivan began.

“I’ve got a ton of respect for Torts. He’s a really good coach. He’s demanding, and I agree with a lot of his philosophy about how to run a team–just his attention to detail and his organization; he’s a taskmaster, and I learned a lot from all the years that I coached with him.

“Every time we play each other, we certainly want to win.”

Question: Tortorella said he hates coaching against you because of your relationship. Is that the same for you?

“Yeah, I mean, I probably dislike coaching against him the most just because of the relationship that we had and how many years we worked together.

It’s what I said when he got the Philly job, ‘can you get a job outside of our division, you know?’ He went from Columbus to Philly, but I root for him. He’s a great person, he’s a good friend, and when we’re playing against each other, I can’t root for him. I want to beat him.

So we have an intense rivalry amongst the two of us. He probably knows my tendencies as much as I know his, and that always makes for interesting matchups. I’d prefer not to coach against him, but that’s that’s the way it is.”