CRANBERRY TWP, PA (93.7 The Fan) – 'They are making encouraging progress on the ice'. That's how Pens head coach Mike Sullivan described Evgeni Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen as they skated before practice Friday.
Neither has yet to join the team for workouts.
"We are all excited for the opportunity to get them back in the lineup at some particular point and time," Sullivan said. "We certainly think we are a better hockey team when they are in our line-up."
Brandon Tanev has not yet begun skating.
Line Combinations
There was only a slight change to the Pens lines at practice Friday. It did not involve new forward Jeff Carter.
Forward Radim Zohorna replaced Sam Lafferty on the fourth line before playing a pair of games at the Sabres Saturday and Sunday at 3p.
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jared McCann-Jeff Carter-Jason Zucker
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Evan Rodrigues
Radim Zohorna-Mark Jankowski-Colton Sceviour
Jared McCann-Jeff Carter-Jason Zucker
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Evan Rodrigues
Radim Zohorna-Mark Jankowski-Colton Sceviour
Defensive lines remained the same.
Fast practice
A day after Sullivan wondered if they were rusty for having a couple of days off the ice in the loss to Philadelphia. He put them through a fast-paced, contact on the walls, 35-minute practice. There were times a couple of players had to take knees due to exhaustion.
Buffalo rolling
The Pens have owned Buffalo this year, outscoring the Sabres 17-4 in four wins. However it is a Buffalo team playing much better hockey than the last time the Pens saw them on March 25.
Buffalo is coming off a 5-2 win in Washington with wins against the Flyers and Rangers this month. The once laughing stock Sabres have points in 8 of their last 10 games.
"You can see they've been playing well," said defenseman Marcus Pettersson. "Once they got that win under their belt they've been playing a little more freely. These are tough games no matter who you play in this league. We have to give our best the next two games coming up and hope for the best."
"Their transition game is really good, when you turn over pucks at their blue line they transition really quick. That's a staple of their team. That's something we have to watch out for. Make sure we put pucks deep and put pucks forward."
"We know they are playing hard, they're playing fast," said forward Jake Guentzel. "They made some trades, but you know what you are going to get out of them. They are going to play fast and we have to be ready for them. We have to set the tone early. These are big games for us and we need as many points as we can. We have to make sure to go in there and trying to get those points for us."
"I have so much respect for this league," Sullivan said. "How good players are. How well prepared coaching staffs are. It really doesn't matter who your opponent is or where they sit in the standings. Every night is a hard game. That's just the reality of today's game in the NHL."
"I look at this team that has a lot of skill. They have a lot of young talent playing with a lot of enthusiasm. When they are in the circumstance where they are in, they made some trades at the deadline. They are playing the game with a free spirit. Those are dangerous teams to play against."
"We are going to have to bring our best. We know that. It's a great opportunity for our team to continue to try and establish ourselves in the standings. That's how we have to look at it. We also have to understand we need to bring our very best to have success.
Quote of the day
Pettersson discussing Brian Dumoulin 6-game point streak-"I like to believe in the hockey gods, you pile up credits and they are going to come back for you."
