Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson rejoins team for practice
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson participated in his first practice of the team’s training camp in Cranberry on Thursday.
An undisclosed injury has largely sidelined him until this point.
Karlsson took to the ice in a non-contact fashion. To this point, he has been limited to a handful of skating sessions before practice or morning skates since training camp opened Sept. 18.
During Thursday’s session, Karlsson alternated between individual skating with assistant coaches overseeing him and team-wide drills.
At one point, he worked on a presumed power-play unit (with no defenders) that includes forward Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell and defenseman Kris Letang. In that deployment, Karlsson manned the left flank while Letang operated at the center point. Crosby and Malkin alternated between the right circle and net side while Rakell was stationed in the slot.
Coach Mike Sullivan has been largely optimistic that Karlsson will be available when the regular season opens with a home contest against the New York Rangers on Wednesday.
“The players of Erik’s stature, in my experience, they don’t tend to need as many repetitions to get up to speed,” Sullivan said Tuesday. “If they’re not quite as sharp (or) not at the very top of their game, they’re still pretty good and they can help you win. From that standpoint, we’ll get (Karlsson) up to speed in due time.”
Karlsson’s official status remains “day to day.” Last season, Karlsson led all Penguins defensemen in scoring with 56 points (11 goals, 45 assists) in 82 games.
Notes:
• Sullivan indicated all other injured players with “day-to-day” designations remain status quo. That includes forward Vasily Ponomarev, who appeared to injure his left shoulder during a 2-1 home preseason loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday.
• Forward Bryan Rust was absent from practice for the second consecutive day. On Wednesday, the team termed his absence as a “maintenance day.”
• Goaltender Tristan Jarry is scheduled play all of Thursday’s preseason road contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets, according to Sullivan.
In two games this preseason, Jarry has a 0-1-0 record, a 2.69 goals against average and a .911 save percentage.
Filip Larsson is scheduled to dress as the backup goaltender.
• The Penguins’ lines and pairing during Thursday’s morning skate:
2 Rutger McGroarty – 13 Kevin Hayes – 18 Jesse Puljujarvi
41 Ville Koivunen – 26 Tristan Broz – 48 Valtteri Puustinen
12 Corey Andonovski – 22 Sam Poulin – 52 Emil Bemstrom
44 Jonathan Gruden – 15 Joonas Koppanen – Boko Imama
5 Ryan Shea – 25 Sebastian Aho
38 Owen Pickering – 6 John Ludvig
82 Filip Kral – 4 Nate Clurman
• The top power-play unit included Aho, Hayes, McGroarty, Puljujarvi and Puustinen. The second power-play unit involved Bemstrom, Broz, Koivunen, Kral and Poulin.
• Defenseman Harrison Brunicke did not participate in the morning skate but is listed in the group of players scheduled to travel to Columbus. Per Sullivan, Brunicke is participating in the practice session with the non-game group of players and will participate in pregame warmups.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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