Coming off the first off-day of training camp – and after a slew of roster cuts - the Penguins split the squad into two groups Tuesday in Cranberry. Team 1 was clearly the varsity and Team 2 the jayvee, although the rosters will be subject to change as the pre-season progresses.
Bryan Rust is excited to move forward. "As things get trimmed down a little bit we get more a semblance of what the team might look like," he said after his group's 90-minute session. "Maybe a few tweaks here and there but it's definitely nice to get a rhythm with some guys."
After several practices featuring mix-and-match lines – "old guys and young guys skating together to see who has what," as Rust put it – this workout featured lines that make sense, lines that we may see when the regular season begins in two weeks.
Jeff Carter centered Rust and Jake Guentzel, Evan Rodrigues was between Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen, Teddy Blueger's wingers were Brock McGinn and Danton Heinen (with Zach Aston-Reese in Covid protocol) while the fourth line featured Brian Boyle centering Dominik Simon and Drew O'Conner/Anthony Angello.
With Sidney Crosby expected to miss at least the first handful of games, and Evgeni Malkin out for the first two months, Carter is the obvious choice to center the top line. "Yeah, obviously Carter has been around a long time, he's done some really amazing things in this league," Rust said.
"He is a good, smart player, big body and I think we gotta try to take advantage of that," Rust continued. "He's obviously going to get to the net and make plays." Carter, of course, was the only Penguin who did much of anything against the Islanders in the playoffs, scoring 4 goals to lead the team.
Keeping Rust and Guentzel together also fits nicely into the "no brainer" category. "Jake and I have played together a lot over the last few years, so Guentz and I are very familiar with each other," Rust agreed.
"(We) try and work and play off each other, know each other's instincts and that kind of stuff. Things usually go, I'd say, fairly well when we're on the ice together."
Of course, when Crosby returns, he will reunite with Guentzel and Rust and Carter will strengthen the second line with Kapanen and Zucker. When Malkin is finally ready to play, Mike Sullivan will once again have the depth up the middle to form a solid third line around Carter with whichever wingers have earned that shot.
On defense, after Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin, the varsity pairs were Mike Matheson-John Marino, Chad Ruhwedel-Marcus Pettersson and Jusso Riikola-Mark Friedman. The goalies – Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith.
Team 2 notables included forwards Radim Zohorna and Sam Lafferty (who took 2 penalties Monday), defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph and goaltender Filip Lindberg – the NCAA champion from UMass. The practice groups will probably change from time-to- time and the down-the-liners will still see action in the 5 remaining exhibition games.
The Pens next pre-season game is Friday night at Buffalo then they're home against Detroit Sunday at noon.
They open the season against the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champion Lightning in Tampa October 12.
