Penguins move Jason Zucker to third line

The Penguins’ bottom three lines displayed considerably different looks during their morning skate Sunday at PPG Paints Arena in advance of their game against the New York Rangers.

Most notably, struggling left winger Jason Zucker was bumped from the second line to the third line, flipping spots with Jared McCann.

Zucker has been limited to a single assist through five games this season and took an ill-timed hooking penalty in the offensive zone while his team trailed by a goal in the third period of Friday’s 4-3 shootout win at home against the Rangers.

Meanwhile, McCann has been slightly more productive with three points (one goal, two assists) in five games. He scored the Penguins’ second goal of Friday’s contest during a power-play opportunity.

The team’s lines and defensive pairings were:

59 Jake Guentzel – 87 Sidney Crosby – 9 Evan Rodrigues

19 Jared McCann – 71 Evgeni Malkin – 17 Bryan Rust

16 Jason Zucker – 53 Teddy Blueger – 42 Kasperi Kapanen

13 Brandon Tanev – 14 Mark Jankowski – 7 Colton Sceviour

8 Brian Dumoulin – 58 Kris Letang

6 John Marino – 4 Cody Ceci

73 P.O Joseph – 2 Chad Ruhwedel

“Obviously, we’re trying to find combinations that help us have success and give us the balance we need,” coach Mike Sullivan said via video conference. “There’s a number of things that we discussed when we’re putting line combinations or defensive pairs together. We’ve kept certain line combinations together here for a little while. We feel, at this particularly point in time, that a little bit of change might be good for the group. We’ll see where it goes.

“When you look at a player like Jared McCann, he has shown an ability to score goals. He has a great shot. He brings a certain element of speed to any line that he plays on. Zucker is a guy that’s a good player, he’s a good 200-foot player. We have a number of options that we can go to to try to create the balance and the chemistry on each of our respective lines. My sense is that we’ll probably tweak some of these lines until we get what we’re looking for.”

Notes:

• The Penguins are expected to start goaltender Tristan Jarry. In three games this season, Jarry has a 1-2-0 record along with a 5.28 goals against average and an .828 save percentage.

• With two assists in his first two games with the Penguins, Kapanen has had a satisfactory start to his season, albeit in a bottom-six role primarily.

After spending a week in quarantine and off the ice following a delay in securing a work visa, the Finnish winger is still trying to build up his conditioning. That has led the Penguins to deploy him in a conservative fashion.

Regardless, Sullivan still intends to place Kapanen on the team’s top line at some point.

“He’s making progress,” Sullivan said. “He’s trying a few different things here. He’s trying to get up to speed from a conditioning standpoint. He’s trying to acclimate himself in five-on-five play which he hasn’t played in a long time. And he’s trying to learn the style of play that the Penguins are trying to play, which my sense is very different than where he’s come from.

“The objective is at some point here that we’d like to get him with Sid and Jake because we think his speed dimension and some of the attributes that he brings to the table will help that line and be complimentary to that line. But it’s going to take a little bit of time here to put him in a position to be successful and to put that line in a position to be successful.”

• The Rangers will make some lineup changes as well. Most notably, head coach David Quinn announced his team will scratch former Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson in favor of Brendan Smith.

Johnson has played in all four of the Rangers’ games to this point of the season and has yet to record a point. During Friday’s contest, he lost position to Rust who scored the game’s opening goal on a deflection near the cage.

“Jack was solid for us the first few games,” Quinn said. “I thought he struggled a little bit the other night. … Guys have to play well to stay in. I just thought it was the right move.”

• The Rangers recalled forward Colin Blackwell from their taxi squad. He is expected to make his Rangers debut and replace forward Brendan Lemieux in the lineup.

• Goaltender Igor Shesterkin is slated to start for the Rangers. In three games this season, he has a 0-1-1 record along with a 2.95 goals against average and a .899 save percentage.

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