PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) After completing his quarantine protocol, Kasperi Kapanen has finally joined the rest of his Penguins teammates on the ice for a practice.
It was Kapanen’s first skate with the team and he was bounced between a couple of lines to get reps in.
When Kapanen was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, head coach Mike Sullivan and general manager Jim Rutherford said that he would most likely be starting on the first forward unit.
After the Penguins dropped the first two games of the season, and won the third in a shootout, maybe it was time for some changes, as practice opened up with Kapanen on the second unit with Evgeni Malkin and Jason Zucker.
Bryan Rust played up with Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby.
Things were put back to normal soon after when Kapenen joined Crosby and Guentzel on the first line.
Part of the reason the Penguins went after Kapanen in a trade during the offseason was his defensive ability; The team wasted no time in seeing his skill when he worked on the first penalty killing unit.
In an interview following practice, Kapanen said that he is “looking forward to seeing what he can do” with Crosby and Guentzel.
He said he feels he can bring speed and get pucks to his linemates.
As for what took Kapanen so long to get to the United States from his home country of Finland, he said that he started his visa process in October.
While he may have missed the first three games due to the strange visa process, Sullivan said that Kapanen will be a game time decision for the Tuesday game against the Washington Capitals.