Injured Penguins Zach Aston-Reese, Mike Matheson making progress

Injured Pittsburgh Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese and defenseman Mike Matheson participated in the team’s practice Tuesday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Both remain on injured reserve but have been semi-regular presences at the Penguins’ irregular practice sessions as of late.

Aston-Reese is recuperating from offseason surgery on his left shoulder in mid-August, and Matheson has missed the past eight games because of an undisclosed injury.

Coach Mike Sullivan offered few details but plenty of optimism over their status.

“Mike Matheson and Zach, their progress I think is real encouraging,” Sullivan said via video conference. “They’re getting more involved in fully participating in practice. So that’s real encouraging from our standpoint.”

Defenseman Kris Letang did not practice. He missed Monday’s 3-1 road loss to the New York Rangers because of an undisclosed injury. His status has been termed “day to day.”

Roster moves

With the team off until Saturday, the Penguins assigned defenseman Kevin Czuczman and forward Drew O’Connor to the taxi squad and sent defenseman Will Reilly to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League (AHL).

Because of injuries to so many incumbent defenseman, Czuczman has been able to play in two of the Penguins’ last three games. He has no points, two shots and has averaged 11 minutes, 39 seconds of ice time per contest.

These games represent his first NHL action since he appeared in 13 games with the New York Islanders in 2013-14.

Given the nearly seven-year gap, primarily spent in the AHL, Czuczman has considerable appreciation for the rare opportunity.

“It feels like a lot of development, seven years of it,” the 30-year-old said. “It’s just an unbelievable opportunity. It’s such a good culture here, it’s such a great dressing room of guys. It’s definitely something that I’ve been working towards for a lot of years. It’s one of those things, you’ve just got to keep building, keep getting confident in practice and whatnot. And keep learning because the game keeps changing; you’ve got to adapt with it. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m enjoying every moment.”

Lacrosse goal attempt

Early in the second period of Monday’s game, Penguins forward Sidney Crosby attempted a “lacrosse goal.” That’s to say he picked up the puck with his stick and tried to tuck it into the net from behind the cage. The shot attempt was unsuccessful as Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin batted the puck away.

“I don’t usually get that much time behind the net,” Crosby said. “I just had a lot of time back there. The goalie made a great read. Enough guys have done that now that (goalies) are somewhat anticipating it. But it would have been nice for that to go in.”

Crosby scored one such goal while playing for Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League during the 2003-04 season.

AHL season set to begin

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins had their final game of the preseason, a road game against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Allentown, rescheduled from Tuesday to Thursday because of the winter weather that struck the Northeast.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is scheduled to open its 2020-21 season Saturday with a home game against the Binghamton Devils.