Penguins Practice: Malkin Still Missing; Crosby Takes the Lead
CRANBERRY — The Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoff prospects seem to be perilously close to going on life-support, but their roster appears to be rather healthy.
All expected players were on the ice for their workout Friday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
The only absentee was second-line center Evgeni Malkin, who has missed the past two games because of an unspecified lower-body injury. He did not participate in the practice or have an on-ice workout before it.
Malkin is listed as “week to week” and the Penguins have not announced a target date for him to rejoin the lineup.
Kyle Dubas, the Penguins’ president of hockey operations and general manager, watched a portion of the practice from the management balcony outside his office.
Aye aye, Captain
Perhaps the least surprising development of the upcoming Four Nations tournament has been Sidney Crosby being named captain of Team Canada.
But after Friday’s workout, Crosby downplayed being selected for that duty.
“When you get on those teams, there are so many great leaders,” he said. “For me, just having the opportunity to play for Team Canada, to be part of this group … it’s been a long time. Regardless of who’s wearing the letters, there are a lot of great leaders. I’m just really happy to play for Team Canada again.”
Penguins Lines
Coach Mike Sullivan used the following forwards lines and defense pairings during the workout:
Rickard Rakell-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting-Cody Glass-Anthony Beauvillier
Drew O’Connor-Kevin Hayes-Phil Tomasino
Boko Imama-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari
Extras: Jesse Puljujarvi, Matt Nieto
Matt Grzelcyk-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves-P.O Joseph/Ryan Shea
Setting the standard
Phil Tomasino, a healthy scratch for the Penguins’ 3-2 overtime victory at Utah Tuesday, practiced on the third line and looks like a candidate to rejoin the lineup when Nashville visits PPG Paints Arena Saturday.
Sullivan made clear what he wants to see from Tomasino when he is back in uniform.
“When Philip’s at his best, I think he drives a lot of offense for us with his tenacity and his speed,” Sullivan said. “He plays a straight-ahead game. He’s strong on pucks. He’s willing to get inside and go to the net. … We don’t think he was at his best (before the Utah game). That’s one the reasons that we made the decision the way we did.”
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Dan hoe will Geno being on LTIR effect the cap?
DOC to center, Hayes out, JP to wing. Passes the eye test
Hayes has contributed more than anyone else in the bottom 6 since he came back from being a healthy scratch.
Not mine.
I wish trades would start. Hopefully Dubas can get an actual center who can fill in on the 2nd line while Malkin is out. Glass at 2c is a waste. Hayes has been better imo
Bring back Fleury, let him retire as a penguin!!!!!
Love that guy, but i think he deserves another playoff run and he seems to like Minnesota, so i wouldn’t want to pull him from his family to lose. It would be nice if they sign him for a day and retire his jersey with lemieux, briere, and jagr!
Why would Fleury want that?
I agree Robert, I felt that even last season as they badly missed a 2C who can play. Until that void is filled, the Pens will be a 1 line team,
I will settle for serivceable. They don’t even have that now. Glass is better on wing on one of the bottom 2 lines. Geno is fine there when he is healthy, but i feel like he has been battling a nagging hand or wrist injury because he doesn’t shoot like he used to. He is also battling father time. I fully expect him to retire when his contract is up
I’m confused. Many people talk on here like we are making trades to improve the team today. I don’t see that as the case, first we don’t have assets to attract that, secondly we are pursuing picks and youth that are blocked, are still developing or are reclamation projects. Best case is to suck right now, get those assets, get younger, Tank for Schaefer and hope we get back to the playoffs next year and contention the year after. In that vain, I think Edmonton needs more offense. Send Rakell, insist they take Jarry, we’ll eat a bad contract and… Read more »
Well, to explain. The Penguins are rock bottom. Trading away players from this team which is vastly underperforming would be an improvement. That is the case no matter what the return of the trades would be. For example, trading away Guentzel took a 30 goal scorer off the roster. However, the farm team is vastly improved with 2 players and 2 future prospects also came in that trade. To me, that makes the team better. As far as my comment about 2C, “hopefully” was the key word. As in i am hoping somehow Dubas brings in a player that can… Read more »