CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Four days after being acquired by the Penguins, Derick Brassard has still not joined his new team.
The only thing more complicated than the trade that brought Brassard to the Penguins is getting him to Pittsburgh
Brassard was not at practice with his new team on Monday morning; he's still in waiting in Toronto, according to the team.
"We're just waiting on his immigration papers, and hopefully he'll be coming in today or tomorrow," Mike Sullivan said.
Jim Rutherford said later Monday afternoon that he was hoping that Brassard could be in Pittsburgh for tomorrow night's game.
NEWS AND NOTES
• Sullivan mixed up his lines on Monday, reuniting Jake Guentzel with Sidney Crosby on the top line. Here were the lines and pairs:
Guentzel - Crosby - Rust
Hagelin - Malkin - Hornqvist
Simon - Sheahan - Sheary
Aston-Reese - Rowney - Kuhnhackl
Dumoulin-Letang
Maatta-Schultz
Hunwick-Oleksiak
Crosby has been stalled of late, scoring just a goal and two assists in the last five games. Guentzel had been skating on a third line with Kessel and Sheahan.
"We'd like to find some chemistry, some traction with his line," Sullivan said. "We'd like to settle into some consistency. We'll see how it goes moving forward, but we have some ideas."
• Phil Kessel did not practice on Monday after being given a maintenance day.
• Tom Kuhnhackl has missed the last eight games with a lower body injury and he missed the biggest game in German hockey history. Kuhnhackl said the Penguins didn't get back in time Saturday night for him to watch the end of the Olympic gold medal game. He's yet to watch it since. The good news is that he practiced in full on Monday.
• Crosby hosted his youth learn-to-play program at the Lemieux Sports Complex with help from a few of his teammates after practice.