Penguins eager for rest after a busy January

The Pittsburgh Penguins closed out the first month of the new year the same way they began it.

With a practice.

In between, they didn’t do very much of that.

Altogether, they only practiced nine times in January. In contrast, they played 15 games.

Monday’s practice in Cranberry wasn’t particularly grueling. It was optional, and the formal portion of it lasted roughly a half-hour.

Having played seven games in the past 11 days — and three games over the previous four days — the Penguins need a break.

And they’ll get one following Tuesday’s home contest against the rival Washington Capitals. The team is expected to give players five days off from team activities in conjunction with the NHL’s All-Star Game event this upcoming weekend.

“We recognize, as a coaching staff, the workload that our team is going through,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “(Sunday), for example, was our seventh game in 11 days. (Tuesday) will be eight (games) in 13 (days). It’s a heavy workload. We’re trying to manage that workload the best we can, allow some guys to get some rest and recovery.”

A large part of that is listening to the team’s sports science staffers who monitor seemingly everything on players’ bodies, from their hearts to how they sweat.

“We try to use some of the metrics that our sports science department collects to try to make the best decision for the hockey team,” Sullivan said. “For example, with respect to workload, one of the metrics that we rely on is heart rate variability. … It’s a measure of potential fatigue.

“At the end of the day, I think coaches mostly rely on their own intuition and their coach’s instinct to make the best decisions. Some of the science just provides affirmation that what your instinct is or what your intuition is, is correct. We start with our own coach’s intuition but we rely on some of the metrics or some of the science as affirmation for what we think is the best course of action. If those two things don’t agree, then we have deeper conversations around it. That’s how we utilize it as a coaching staff.”

It wouldn’t require 20/20 vision to see the Penguins are fatigued. Even Sunday’s game, a 4-3 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings, offered evidence of that.

The Penguins never led in the game and trailed for most of it. They battled to force a 3-3 tie in the third period, only to allow a breakaway goal late in regulation to be the difference.

“Maybe lately, we’ve been chasing the game a little bit more,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said. “You have to exert yourself, either to come back into the game or when you’re going back and forth all the time. You exert yourself. You’re pushing through adversity. You’re pushing through fatigue. We’ve been playing a lot of West Coast teams, bigger teams. Maybe we didn’t manage the games the right way, which puts us in trouble.

“We’ve had to probably put more energy on the ice lately. I would say that’s a fair assessment, yeah.”

The Penguins aren’t eager to blame or cite fatigue as a reason for their ongoing three-game losing streak. But they do acknowledge it and admit their upcoming break can provide some badly-needed rest.

“For whatever reason, we’re at a particular phase of our schedule where it’s a pretty condensed (sequence of games),” Sullivan said. “It is what it is. We’ve got to manage it appropriately the best we can to help our players have success and put them in positions to be successful. Do I think a little bit of rest will help our team? For sure I do. We’ve relied on certain guys that are playing heavy minutes.

“To have an opportunity to get away from it for a couple of days and recharge the batteries, I think doesn’t hurt our group, that’s for sure.”

Notes: The start time for the Penguins’ road game against the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 13 was adjusted from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. … Sullivan declined to offer an update on forward Danton Heinen, who suffered an undisclosed injury during warmups prior to Sunday’s game. … Forward Drew O’Connor, who is currently on long-term injured reserve because of a suspected collapsed lung, skated before practice Monday.