Maatta, Niederreiter move on from ugly hit

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Penguins returned to the ice Saturday morning after the four-day Christmas break with a triple-jolt of good news: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang all were pronounced ready to play in their 8:08 p.m. game against the Wild.

Mike Sullivan confirmed that after all three participated in the game-day skate.

"They'll be in the lineup," he said.

Crosby missed his first game of the season Monday in the 5-2 victory over the Blue Jackets with an undisclosed lower-body injury. It wasn't seen as serious at the time, but he proved that, he told me, by skating with a few friends in an annual pickup game in his native Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the break.

"That was a good test," he said. "To get out there with those guys and have some fun was great, but I could also tell I was better."

More from the captain and coach:





Malkin finished that game against Columbus, but he also had his right knee struck by the Blue Jackets' Boone Jenner in the second period and was out of the game for several minutes before returning. Malkin doesn't speak with reporters on game days, but he skated with no more than scant signs of possible discomfort with the knee.

Letang has missed the past six games, and eight of the past nine, with an undisclosed upper-body injury. He was visibly ill this morning -- and confirmed as much afterward -- but downplayed it as "something in my throat that won't affect my playing at all."

He'll be playing his first game under Sullivan, but both shrugged that off as anything that should hold him back.

"Kris has been in all the meetings we've had, and I've had my own discussions with him about what I hope to see from him," Sullivan said.

The focus of those meetings, both confirmed, was on simplifying his game.

"Just do the right thing," Sullivan said.

"That's always been big for me, just keeping things as easy as possible and making the play that helps the team," Letang said.

HARD FEELINGS FOR NINO?

Don't expect the Penguins to retaliate against Minnesota's Nino Niederreiter for his shove from behind on Olli Maatta Nov. 17 in Pittsburgh, the one that resulted in that ugly spill into the visiting bench when Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper opened the door:



I spoke with players on both sides Saturday about the incident, including Niederreiter and Maatta, and nothing resembling hard feelings emerged.

"What happened then was really tough," Niederreiter was telling me. "If the door was closed, nothing happens. Unfortunately, the door was open. I wish I could have seen that. It happened so quickly. He's such a good player, and I know he's been through a lot."

Niederreiter added that, on the night it happened, he texted Mike Johnston -- whose cell number he still had from their time together in juniors -- to check on Maatta.

"Mike told me he thought he'd be OK," Niederreiter said. "I'm glad he's back."

Maatta didn't come across as angry at all.

"If the door isn't open, I probably just go into the boards a little bit and bounce back up," he said. "He didn't hit me that hard. It was more like a push."

SECONDARY ASSISTS

• Matt Murray was the first goaltender off the ice and, thus, is highly likely to get a third consecutive start ahead of Jeff Zatkoff.

• Marc-Andre Fleury did not accompany the team on the trip. He'll miss his fifth consecutive game because of a concussion. Sullivan had no update, other than to say he hadn't yet spoken to athletic trainer Chris Stewart on the matter.

• Sullivan's skate was focused much more on loosening up tight legs than strategy, so there were no line rushes or power-play combinations evident.

• Both the Penguins and Wild stayed an extra 15-20 minutes on the ice, though the Penguins had the added disadvantage of having to fly from Pittsburgh early in the morning. NHL rules prohibit teams from traveling on Christmas.