PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Friday night is essentially the end of training camp as the Pens host Buffalo at 7p for the final exhibition game. Tristan Jarry will start and play the whole game with only Marcus Pettersson, Chad Ruhwedel and Teddy Blueger ruled out for tonight.
"We are going to try to get better," said Pens Head Coach Mike Sullivan. "We haven't played a game for a while. I think the guys are excited to get into a real game against a real opponent. We've worked on a number of things in practice and we feel we've made a lot of progress in respect to introducing certain aspects of our team concept."
With Friday morning being an optional skate, here were the line combinations for the last full practice, with Joseph or Friedman likely in for Pettersson.
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen-Jeff Carter-Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn-Ryan Poehling-Josh Archibald/Sam Poulin
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Jeff Petry
Ty Smith-Jan Rutta
Mark Friedman-Chad Ruhwedel-PO Joseph
As you see there are still camp battles on the fourth line, especially with Blueger currently out. Sullivan said the competition speaks well of their overall organization.
"They have certainly made our jobs difficult in some of the decisions that we have to make," Sullivan said. "Those are good challenges to have as a coaching staff because it suggestive that we have quality players and we have depth."
"We acknowledge these decisions are really difficult. Regardless of the decisions we make, no rosters are never set in stone. They are always evolving. If decisions are made in the short-term and certain players get sent to Wilkes-Barre for example, it doesn't mean they are out of the conversation of playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins at any point and time."
Josh Archibald could get an opportunity against Buffalo as a fourth-line winger. The 5'10", 30-year-old was a Pens sixth-round pick in 2011. He's since played 243 games in the NHL with 39 goals and 32 assists with 100 penalty minutes.
"He's a great energy guy," Sullivan said. "He skates really well, brings a ton of speed. He has a physical edge to his game. He's good on the forecheck. I think he's one of those guys that can help us build and sustain momentum with the way he plays. He's on the puck, he's tenacious and he's hard to play against."
The man likely to center the fourth line is on the rebound from an upper-body injury late last month. Teddy Blueger skated for the first time in over a week with his teammates before Friday's game.
"It is a step," Sullivan said. "He stakes this morning with Ty (Hennes, strength and conditioning coach). He joined the group, that's an important step for us. We are really encouraged. We're hopeful he will join us for practice after the game here for the next week or so and participate in a full capacity."
"He's making progress."
Cap Day Coming
With the approach of the regular season means within days the Pens have to become salary cap compliant. According to 'Spotrac.com', the Pens are 3.34 million over the salary cap. That could be accomplished by multiple roster moves or even just one. Here are a couple scenarios
· Trading Marcus Pettersson would free up $4.02 million
· Kasperi Kapanen is worth $3.2 million
· Much talk of trading defenseman PO Joseph, but that would only free up $825,000. If he were to be sent to the minors, he would have to clear waivers. They tried that with Radim Zohorna and he was claimed.
· Defenseman Mark Friedman makes $775,000 and Chad Ruhwedel $800,000
Just getting down to the roster limit will free up room, but the choices to do that will be difficult.
