CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Patrick Hornqvist bore down on Casey DeSmith, looked up to pick his corner, and then just as he was about to release his shot … nothing. The puck went one way, the bottom half of his stick the other.
Unfazed, the Swede flashed his 10,000-watt smile, clutching his broken stick in one hand and flexing his bicep with the other to the delight of his teammates.
Yep, Hornqvist is back.
Saturday’s 30-minute practice at the Lemieux Sports Complex was his first as a full participant since sustaining an upper body injury which sidelined him for Games 4 and 5 in the Penguins’ first-round series against the Flyers.
"Hopefully I can be back tomorrow and help the team," said Hornqvist, who sported a black full-contact jersey.
“You want to be out there, but at the same time it is what it is. Everybody has been injured. It’s just part of the game. It’s not a great feeling to be outside the lineup and watching. You get so nervous.”
On the ice, nowhere was Hornqvist’s absence felt more than on the power play. The NHL's top-ranked unit, which converted at the highest percentage in franchise history, has gone 1-for-9 without him, including an 0-for-5 showing in Friday night’s 4-2 loss in Game 5.
During the regular season, Hornqvist was the Penguins' leading goal-scorer on the power play with 15. Through the first three games against Philadelphia, he has had a goal and two assists.
But Hornqvist brings more that just a net-front presence to the power play. He’s a presence on the bench and in the dressing room with a certain confidence about him. Perhaps his return can inspire the Penguins the way that Sean Couturier's did for the Flyers in Game 5, as Bryan Rust explained to me:
“I think it’s energy,” fellow Swede Carl Hagelin said. “He’s always positive, he brings it every day, whether it’s practice or a game. He could have a bad game and stays positive and play great the game after it. I think it’s just resilience, his aggressiveness on the ice."
Technically, Hornqvist is a game-time decision as is Evgeni Malkin and the rest of the Penguins, according to Mike Sullivan. Pressed on it, Sullivan tersely reiterated that "all players will be game-time decisions."
Malkin, the Penguins' leading scorer, was conspicuously absent from Saturday's practice. He could have been given a maintenance day after suffering an injury scare late in the first period of Game 5, though he did return for the start of the second period.
The Russian took an awkward tumble, landing hard on his back, after taking the worst of what appeared to be an attempted slew-foot on Philadelphia’s Jori Lehtera.
Sullivan will speak to the media at 1 p.m., two hours prior to Sunday's opening faceoff at the Wells Fargo Center, to give an update on both players. Despite Friday's loss, the Penguins still hold a 3-2 series lead and can end their first-round series against the Flyers in Philadelphia where they've gone 4-0, regular season included.
The Penguins are certainly no stranger to postseason injuries, but Sullivan said that his team can withstand them.
"What I do know is that our team has a next-man-up attitude and we have capable guys," he said. "Regardless of who’s in the lineup , we think we're going to win when we play the game the right way. We just have to make sure that our compete level is there."
• If -- and that's a pretty big if -- Malkin were unable to go, Derick Brassard would likely be promoted to the second line. Brassard's ability to play in a top-six role if necessary is one of the contingencies the Penguins were planning on when they acquired him from Ottawa at the deadline.
"Brass is an important player for us regardless of who is in the lineup," Sullivan said. "I thought (Friday) night was his best performance as a Penguin."
The third line of Conor Sheary, Brassard and Rust produced one of the Penguins' two goals in Game 5, while registering 11 shots on net (eight of them Brassard's). Not bad for a checking line, no?
• Jamie Oleksiak told me he saw only "a guy with a beard" when he was jumped behind his own net by Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas. Early in the third period, Oleskiak had accidentally collided with Claude Giroux, which the Flyers captain later admitted, prompting Gudas to go after Oleksiak. It was the first postseason fight of Oleksiak's career.
• A good portion of Saturday's practice was dedicated to special teams work with Hornqvist assuming his normal role as the net-front presence on the No. 1 power play unit.
• With Malkin out, Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang rotated in at his spot on the first power play. Guentzel had been serving in Hornqvist's role the previous two games. Letang also quarterbacked the second PP unit.
• The Flyers held a very optional skate at their South Jersey practice facility. All three goalies -- Michal Neuvirth, Brian Elliott and Petr Mrazek -- particpated. Matt Read, whose empty netter sealed Game 5, was the only player from Friday's lineup to take the ice.
• There was no update on Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov, who left Game 5 late in the third period with an apparent shoulder injury. Provorov took a hard fall into the end boards after joining the rush.