Penguins shake up forward lines with Jeff Carter in the fold

Given a new 6-foot-4 puzzle piece to play with, Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan had to consider the best way to deploy it in his forward lineup.

Sullivan divulged Tuesday that Jeff Carter would start out at center, the position he played for most of his career until trending to wing over more recent seasons with the Los Angeles Kings. But it wasn’t until Carter’s first practice with the Penguins on Wednesday that the coach revealed which line Carter would center.

The decisions had cascading effects on the rest of the Penguins’ lineup.

In taking rushes skating between Jason Zucker and Jared McCann, Carter displaced his new linemates to different positions than they had been playing: McCann went from center to left wing, and Zucker was bumped from the left to the right side on what figures to be the Penguins’ second line Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“We’ve seen Jared at the center position have some success. We’ve also seen him on the wing where he’s had a lot of success,” Sullivan said after Wednesday’s practice at PPG Paints Arena. “We think ‘Zuck’ has the ability to play both sides.

“So, there’s a number of reasons why we’ve chosen to start the way we have.”

Sullivan referenced an “exploration process” and pledged to keep an open mind in finding the best possible groupings for his forwards. His first strategy was interesting because its trickle-down effect likely means the return of Mark Jankowski to the fourth-line center role.

A healthy scratch for Sunday’s game, Jankowski is more of a natural center than the other likely option, Sam Lafferty.

“When Mark is at his best, he’s a guy who’s reliable defensively, a guy who can help on the penalty kill, a guy who can help us win faceoffs, a guy who can help us in the offensive zone on the forecheck,” Sullivan said. “There’s a number of ways that ‘Janko’ can help us when he’s at his best.”

McCann has been at his best this season over the past 16 games (eight goals and seven assists), during which he increasingly has played center in the injury absence of Evgeni Malkin.

Zucker, a left shot, has been used by Sullivan almost exclusively on his strong side since his acquisition 14 months ago. Zucker said Wednesday it wasn’t atypical for him to play his “off” side over seven-plus seasons with the Minnesota Wild, and the adjustment this time merely would take “a couple shifts.”

Sullivan went so far as to buck conventional hockey wisdom that says wings aren’t as effective playing their off side.

“Especially with how hard teams pinch the walls coming out of your end,” Sullivan said, “when you go down on a puck on your forehand versus your backhand, there’s some advantages to that.”

The remainder of the Penguins’ line combinations Wednesday kept the more conformist right shot/right wing and left shot/left wing setup. That included Evan Rodrigues being bumped down to third-line right wing alongside Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese.

The returns from injury by Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen will lead to further tweaking. As Sullivan alluded to, this initial configuration might be nothing more than a trial run. But the initial reviews were positive.

“It was good to play with them,” Zucker said of Carter and McCann. “There’s a lot of speed on that line.

“I thought (Carter) did a good job today lugging the puck up to the middle with speed and keeping the defenseman inside. It’s really tough for defensemen to try to honor that speed in the middle, and then when he’s able to kick that puck out wide to (McCann) and myself, it definitely makes it hard for defensemen to try to play those pucks. So I think it has the makings of a good line.”

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