Penguins forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin miss practice due to illness
Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and goaltender Casey DeSmith missed a practice session at PPG Paints Arena on Monday because of undisclosed illnesses.
Coach Mike Sullivan wasn’t sure if their ailments would impact their availability for Tuesday’s home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets but suggested all three were kept at home as a precaution.
“Hopefully, they’ll feel better (Tuesday),” Sullivan said. “Obviously, they weren’t feeling well today and we thought it was best to keep them away from the rink and we’ll see how they feel in the morning.”
Forward Ryan Poehling did not practice either but did skate earlier Monday morning with assistant coach Ty Hennes. Sullivan labeled Poehling as “day to day” because of an undisclosed injury. Typically deployed on the fourth line, Poehling did not record a shift for the final 6:36 of regulation in a 6-2 home win against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
Defenseman Kris Letang, sidelined since suffering a stroke last week, also skated lightly with Poehling and Hennes. During his convalescence, Letang has skated lightly over the past handful of days.
As with Letang’s previous sessions, Sullivan characterized Letang’s presence on the ice Monday as being more for Letang’s mental well-being as opposed to being geared toward a rehabilitative workout for hockey purposes.
Letang’s presence has offered a binary benefit.
“It’s great for the guys,” Sullivan said. “They’re close friends. They’re more than teammates, they’re close friends. When he’s around and he’s part of the social fabric of the locker room and they’re joking with him before and after practice and he’s on the ice during some of the practice, just his presence, I think, is good for all of us. Everyone sees how well he’s doing. I also think it’s good for Kris to be around the group.”
Rakell promoted to top power-play unit
During Saturday’s home win, the Penguins promoted forward Rickard Rakell to the top power-play unit in place of forward Bryan Rust.
The results were mixed as the Penguins were 2 for 4 on the power play in that contest, though each goal primarily involved components of the second unit, which included Rust.
Given the Penguins’ overall struggles with the power play this season — through Sunday, they were ranked 25th in the 32-team NHL with a conversion rate of 18.3% — a fair amount of changes have been necessary.
“(Rakell) just brings a different skillset, I think, to the group,” Sullivan said. “He’s a right-handed shot, potentially a guy that could play on that backside (left) flank. He can really shoot the puck, but he also has really good offensive instincts. He sees it pretty well. It’s just a little bit of a different skillset. We have tried (Rakell) there earlier in the year. We’ve had a few different looks here the last little while. We’ve had two defensemen. (Rust) has been part of that for quite some time now. It’s just a little bit of a different skillset, trying to affect some positive change to see if we can gain some traction.”
Rakell had two power-play shots and clocked 5 minutes, 3 seconds of ice time on the man advantage Saturday. He doesn’t see his role on that unit — which included Crosby, Malkin, forward Jake Guentzel and defenseman Jeff Petry on Saturday — being overly complicated.
“Everyone else is so good at handling the puck and passing the puck,” Rakell said. “I’ve just got to be ready whenever I get a chance to shoot it and do my best to put the puck in the back of the net.”
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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