Sidney Crosby was among the Penguins who took part in the morning skate – and Mike Sullivan says Sid is “getting closer and closer” but the captain will not play tonight against Calgary at PPG Paints Arena.
“The timeline on how we deal with Sid we will keep internally,” said Sullivan, who describes Crosby as day-to-day. “We consult with our medical staff over the course of each day. We are trying to make sure to put Sid in the best position to be successful."
That leaves the door open for him to make his season debut Saturday night against New Jersey, which is a divisional game. Sullivan is “confident” that Jeff Carter, who is asymptomatic, to be released from Covid protocol Friday so he could conceivably play Saturday, as well.
Meanwhile, Casey DeSmith – who hasn’t played since the second game of the season – will start in goal against the Flames. He lost, 5-4 in overtime, two Thursdays ago. He’s looking forward to finally getting another shot.
“It’s a very spread out schedule here in October, so good for the guys to kind of save the legs a little and put our best foot forward every night,” DeSmith said Wednesday. “That’s obviously a positive. But, for me, a couple more game on the bench than I would like obviously.”
Of course, in between games – and on game days – DeSmith has done what he can to stay as sharp as he can. “Just working with Chico (goaltenders coach Andy Chiodo), getting used to working with him and the way he does things has been really nice and we’ve been putting in a lot of extra time after practice, things like that.
Sullivan has been conscious of DeSmith’s position. “We certainly want to keep both guys sharp and that’s an important part of managing the workload of goaltenders,” he said. “One of the things we take into consideration is the duration between starts. Obviously we don’t want any one of them going too long between starts before they get back in the net It doesn’t necessarily put them in the best position if that duration becomes too long.”
DeSmith had better make the most of tonight since – after tonight - there are five more games until they play on back-to-back nights November 13th and 14th. “We’ve looked at the schedule - and I’ve always said this,” Sullivan added, “we’ve penciled in guys in certain spots where we think it is advantageous for both of them to keep them sharp and keep them at their best but they’re penciled in for a reason.”
Another injury note – Bryan Rust who has been out for two weeks with a lower body injury skated again this morning.
Potash Alert – It is 90’s Night so expect AT&T Sports host Dan Potash to be outrageous.
Face-off tonight is just after 7:00