PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) With all those COVID cases popping up seemingly every day, it's actually kind of refreshing for the Penguins to have a player returning from a good old fashioned hockey injury.
Bryan Rust, who has been out since suffering a lower-body injury in the second game of the season appears poised for a comeback this weekend after he shed the no-contact jersey at Friday's practice. As you'd expect, Rust is raring to go.
"I felt good on the ice," said Rust, who stepped in at right wing on the top line. "I don't know how I looked, probably you guys can answer that, but I definitely felt good out there. We'll see how things go here in the next little while and then kind of go from there."
Since he brought us into it, Rust looked just fine to me. Assistant/now acting head coach Todd Rierden thought so, too. "Today was a big day for him to be able to go through a full contact practice," Rierden said. "We'll have him talk over availability with our trainers and make the decision that puts him in the best position to have success. We like a lot of what we saw today and will be a game-time choice tomorrow."
Unless something crops up between now and then, expect Rust to suit up against Minnesota at PPG Paints Arena in the manner that Kris Letang did Thursday, the night after his first pull practice with the team. Also in the manner of Letang, as long as he's up to it, Rust will do whatever Rierden needs him to do – which may be a lot.
"He certainly brings a ton of different attributes that allow us to play Penguins hockey," Rierden agreed, "the way he pursues pucks, his ability to makes plays in tight areas, (we can)use him on the power play, four-on-four (and) obviously he's a guy that's killed penalties in the past so when we get shorthanded in terms of personnel he's able to do that."
Fellow winger Jason Zucker says Rust is a sight for sore eyes. "He's a huge catalyst for our team," Zucker noted. "Obviously a great locker room guy but a fantastic player so it's great to have him back and we hope to have him back (in a game) sooner rather than later."
This is the second time in three seasons that Rust has missed games early. "Extremely frustrating," Rust admitted. "You don't like getting hurt, ever, but that early in the season stings maybe a little bit more."
Yet, what he learned a couple of years ago will help him ease back into the line-up. "I've been injured before," Rust reflected. "I've been able to read my body fairly well so I'm not going to rush things if I don't have to. If I feel ready to play there isn't any pressure from myself or anybody else to get back out there.'
Maybe not, but Rust also knows how much his return will mean to a Covid-ravaged line-up that seems to get thinner on a daily basis. "It's unfortunate but obviously we've lost - now with coach – a number of important players," Rust said." It's getting pretty hard right now but we've learned to expect that these things can and will happen."
Rierden expects that Rust's return will give the Penguins a big boost, on top of the boost they got in Thursday's OT win. "He's a really important player. Until you don't have him you don't realize how good he really is," Rierden said, even though he was already well-aware of Rust's worth. "He's extremely valuable to us and we're looking forward to having him in the line-up as soon as possible."
All signs point to that being Saturday night.
