PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) Pretty much all are present and accounted for as the Penguins practice at the Lemieux UPMC facility in Cranberry for the first time in two weeks. For the first time all season, really, every player was on the ice (except Drew O’Conner who is week-to-week with an upper-body injury but would have ended up back in Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, anyway).
Forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Danton Heinen, plus goaltender Casey DeSmith, all returned from Covid protocol, which means Head Coach Mike Sullivan will have some decisions to make, if not Thursday night against Ottawa then likely Friday night when the Pens play in Columbus.
That is, if those three are, in fact, available. “I guess technically you could say yes since they tested out but are they ready to play? That’s a different question,” said Sullivan who is all too used to having players return from either a positive test or the virus itself.
“Everybody when they come out of this Covid protocol stuff they all react differently,” the coach continued, “so we have a lot of interaction with each player and the players’ feedback is a big part of it.
When we do insert players into the line-up we try to put them in positions to be successful and they’re prepared for it.”
With DeSmith fresh out of the protocol, Louis Domingue coming off a dazzling 40-save performance in Saturday’s 2-1 overtime win at San Jose – and back-to-back games coming up – Domingue may get another shot. “There is competition for every position on our team,” Sullivan pointed out. “We’ll see how Casey does here through the next couple days in practice.”
As for Aston-Reese, who was hit hard by Covid earlier in the season, he couldn’t believe his misfortune. “It was really frustrating,” he said after practice while skating his head. “I didn’t have any symptoms then in a morning meeting Danton and I got pulled out. I was hoping for a false positive; it wasn’t.”
But the forward was relieved that he never felt any ill-effects. “A lot different the second time, going for the double dip, no symptoms,” he said. “I was able to work out in my hotel room (in Anaheim) do my best to stay in shape. Skating today I felt like I haven’t really missed too much and lost too much, either. A lot different this time around.”
And it was a lot different at practice with everybody on the ice. “It’s exciting for sure, up and down the line-up, so much experience,” Aston-Reese said, pointing out that every forward on the roster has at least 4-5 years of NHL experience.
One of those, of course, is Jake Guentzel, voted into the All-Star game by the fans and with good reason. He hasn’t missed a beat since returning to the line-up, with 5 goals and 6 assists in those 8 games. Now he’s about to get some company. “It’s been a crazy year, with Covid and injuries,” he said, “but for us to get our full team out there for practice gives us some excitement to see new guys and new faces.