PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) – We knew he was on the ice. We knew he was feeling better. Monday, Jake Guentzel was back in a full practice with the Pens after what was thought to be a season-ending shoulder injury in December.
“I thought Jake looked terrific,” said head coach Mike Sullivan. “He’s been on the ice for quite a while now. He’s been working through the rehab process and Jake’s worked extremely hard to get himself to this point. He looks really strong.”
“It always takes a little bit of time,” said teammate Sidney Crosby . “He’s looked really good on his skates. He looks really comfortable and strong. He looks really good and for someone that has had as much of a layoff as he did, I think he’s done a great job of rehabbing and making sure he’s ready to go,”
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Even though Guentzel missed all of that time, he was still the team’s third leading goal scorer and fourth on the team in points. AT&T Sportsnet hockey analyst Bob Errey told ‘The PM Team’ they couldn’t win the Stanley Cup without Guentzel, he’s that important.
Sullivan didn’t mess around, he put Guentzel with the player he’s had the most success with, Sidney Crosby.
“The reason we put him with Crosby is because we thing they have a certain chemistry that has been really productive for us for quite some time,” Sullivan said. “Not that he didn’t have a chemistry with Geno (Evgeni Malkin), they were certainly good when they played together as well.”
“We are pretty familiar with each other,” Crosby said. “We had a chance to skate in the small groups for a while. We had some fun together and tried to prepare the best we could. Hopefully that will help going forward.”
Pens lines are often shuffled more than a deck of cards depending on the results, injuries, etc. Sullivan, though, likes his pairings and the Crosby-Guentzel couple is as formidable as the NHL has.
“Coaches are excited because we have some options where we can move people around Sid and Geno to try and create a balanced attack that we are looking for that make it tough to play against as a group,” Sullivan said.
The Pens will practice in Cranberry until July 27th and head to Toronto for a few practices and then the post-season tournament start August 1st.