Penguins defenseman Mark Friedman missed practice in Cranberry on Wednesday because of an undisclosed injury.

Assistant coach Todd Reirden, who oversees the team’s defensemen, labeled Friedman’s status as “day to day.”

Friedman last practiced Monday, leaving mid-way through that day’s session. On Tuesday, he did not participate in an optional morning skate and was absent for the team’s warmups prior to a 2-1 home shootout loss to the Dallas Stars, a contest in which he was scratched.

Primarily deployed on the third pairing with Chad Ruhwedel, Friedman has appeared in three games this season and has one assist as well as two shots.

Forward Sidney Crosby did not participate in Wednesday’s practice, nor did he skate beforehand. Reirden indicated Crosby, who is recovering from offseason wrist surgery, was given a scheduled day off.

Carter taking most faceoffs

Through four games, forward Jeff Carter has taken the overwhelming majority of the Penguins’ faceoffs. Of the 88 draws he has taken, he has won 42 and lost 46, equating to a success rate of 47.7%.

Forward Teddy Blueger is a distant second in total faceoffs at 49.

Given the absences of Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — also recuperating from offseason surgery — to open the season, the notion of Carter, currently the team’s default top center, taking the majority of the draws isn’t a surprising development.

At the same time, management wouldn’t mind seeing a little more distribution of labor at the dot, if only just to manage how often the 36-year-old Carter is deployed.

“I probably anticipated that he would take a fair amount because he’s good at it,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “And he’s a right-handed shot as well on top of that. With (Evan Rodrigues) in the middle now, it gives us a second right-handed shot. But we haven’t had a lot of that (right-handed draws) here when we’ve (had) a healthy lineup. But I did anticipate that (Carter) would take a fair amount of faceoffs. He’s really good at it. He’s big and strong. When he does lose, he’s a very good defender.

“In a perfect world, if we could spread the workload a little bit, it would us a better opportunity to manage (Carter’s) workload moving forward so we can utilize him in other situations other than a defensive zone start, for example.”

Power outage

The Penguins failed to score a power-play goal in Tuesday’s loss. And for good reason.

There weren’t any power-play opportunities for either team.

Regardless, the Penguins have had limited success with their power play through the first four games of the season. They have converted two of the 12 opportunities they have been afforded, equating to a success rate of 16.7%, 21st in the 32-team NHL.

Of course, that group has had to operate without Crosby and Malkin. Additionally, forwards Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust have each missed time because of various maladies. Defenseman Kris Letang is the only regular member of the first power-play unit who has yet to miss any games this season.

Reirden, who also oversees the power play, views the deployment of others such as forwards Kasperi Kapanen, Jason Zucker, Carter and Rodrigues as a positive for the long-term fortunes of the team.

“It being ever-changing,” Reirden said. “That seems to be game-to-game with Rust and we didn’t have Guentzel to start with in addition to those other players. It’s obviously a great opportunity for others. We’ve got a few power-play goals. … Even when we do get our top-end players (back), the experience that these guys are getting now is just only going to help us long term. So that’s an exciting part of going through this process.”

Follow the Penguins all season long.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)