CRANBERRY TWP, PA (92.7 The Fan) – Late scratches to the game on Tuesday, Bryan Rust and Mikael Granlund each went through a full practice on Wednesday. Each missing for very different reasons.
Granlund believes he just had a 24-hour bug and had no issues during the workout. Rust was smiles most of the practice after the birth of the family’s second child and second boy.
“Very excited, very fatigued,” Rust said. “Just overall really happy.”
It was a day where his son was born and then he watched his teammates fall behind 4-0 to Columbus, then fight back to win 5-4 in overtime.
“It was a bit of a rollercoaster the entire day,” Rust said. “That was pretty much summed up by the game and everything turned out great on both fronts.”
About last night
When the players were asked about the win Tuesday and what they take away from it, the talk is mixed but started with needing better first periods.
“Just the importance of our starts, we keep talking about it,” said Pens captain Sidney Crosby. “We gotta learn. It’s not always going to be where we can do that, regardless of our mindset. Last night I thought we did a great job of sticking with it. It goes to show that when you do that you give yourself a chance, but it doesn’t always work out that way. We have to figure out a way to be better off the start. It’s an area that has been a little difficult for us the last few games at different points. We got to fix that fast.”
“You got to look at why and how and what happened,” said defenseman Brian Dumoulin. “We gave them some chances off the rush, simple little plays. It wasn’t like they were trying to make that mistake, they were trying to make a play, make the right play. Maybe, especially early in the game, cycle it down low and continue to establish that offensive presence, that offensive zone. Columbus did a great job of capitalizing on those opportunities. They had those early ones and they scored on them.”
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves, showed some character to be able to crawl out of that.”
Sullivan said give his team credit for fighting back, during the game he mixed up some defensive line pairings because it wasn’t working and they were being proactive in making changes.
At practice in Cranberry Wednesday he had Dumoulin with Jeff Petry and Marcus Pettersson with Kris Letang.
Dumoulin said it doesn’t matter to him who he is paired with, whatever gives the team the best chance to win. They didn’t do line rushes for a lengthy time, it could revert back to usual on Thursday against the Islanders or stay how it was in practice.
Make-A-Wish
Even after the NHL trade deadline, the Pens made four transactions on Wednesday. GM Ron Hextall added Luke, Logan, Dominic and Steven. All are young fans from Make-A-Wish chapters in the Atlantic Providences of Canada, Southwestern Ontario and Pennsylvania/West Virginia. The new signees had breakfast in the Pens locker room, watched practice with their families and skated with members of the team after the workout. All four families will attend Thursday’s Pens home game against the Islanders in the Sidney Crosby charity suite.
“I get a lot of energy from being around them,” Crosby said. “I think the smiles and the joy that they have being around us and experiencing this. This is a place that we get to come to every day and probably take for granted. To come in here and see them be so wide-eyed and so impressed with everything. I think it’s something that keeps things in perspective and you enjoy being a part of it.”
“I think we gain every bit as much fulfillment out of these days than they do as far as gaining a certain perspective,” Sullivan said. “It’s hard not to have that conversation with yourself when you meet these kids and some of the challenges they are trying to overcome.”