Penguins Practice: Letang Absent, Special Teams Get Work

CRANBERRY — Kris Letang, who missed the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 3-2 overtime loss to Carolina Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena because of illness, is not participating in their practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

Mike Sullivan presumably will update his status when he meets with reporters after the workout.

Letang, who works on the No. 1 pairing and the top power play, has one goal and 11 assists in 21 games this season.

Right winger Bryan Rust, who was cross-checked into the boards seconds before Brett Pesce scored the Hurricanes’ game-winning goal, is taking part in the practice.

The Penguins again are using three goalies, with emergency backup Mike Chiasson joining Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith.

Special teams time

After starting the practice with 15 minutes of four-on-four work, the Penguins shifted the focus to special teams for the next 15, after which the formal portion of the workout ended.

Their penalty-kill has been outstanding of late, not allowing a goal in the past 19 shorthanded situations, but the power play is 0-for-14 in the past seven games.

With Letang missing, Jeff Petry again filled in on the No. 1 unit, where he joined Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Rust.

The No. 2 unit was Jeff Carter, Rickard Rakell, P.O Joseph, Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen.

Those were the same combinations used against Carolina.