CRANBERRY, Pa. -- After an embarrassing 4-0 loss to the Hurricanes on home ice Tuesday night, Mike Sullivan changed up the lines and defense pairings at Wednesday's practice at the Lemieux Complex.
These were the lines and pairs the Penguins used in practice:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby -Nick Bjugstad
Bryan Rust - Matt Cullen - Phil Kessel
Dominik Simon - Jared McCann - Patric Hornqvist
Tanner Pearson - Teddy Blueger - Garrett Wilson
Marcus Pettersson - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - Jack Johnson
Olli Maatta - Juuso Riikola
(Justin Schultz - Chad Ruhwedel)
The changes to the new pairings compared to Tuesday night's starting lineup are ...
- Nick Bjugstad moves from center to Sidney Crosby's right wing.
- Matt Cullen gets bumped up two lines to replace Bjugstad on the second line
- Bryan Rust goes from first-line right wing to second-line left wing
- Tanner Pearson is bumped down from the second-line to the fourth line
- Marcus Petterson/Jack Johnson and Brian Dumoulin/Kris Letang flip partners.
- Only the third line and all-Finn defense pairing stay intact.
It's quite the shakeup.
Are these changes just Sullivan trying to send a message in practice? Or are they something we could see in a real game? Dumoulin seems to have the sense that these new pairings are real.
"We're trying to get as balanced as we can," Dumoulin told Chris Bradford of the new combinations. "Obviously, looking for different results than the last two. You want to play with everyone in the lineup and sometimes you have to. We just go and do as we're told and play."
This is the first time that Dumoulin and Johnson will have been paired together. They've only spent about 35 combined minutes on the ice together all season in five-on-five play. They aren't totally familiar with each other, but Dumoulin doesn't think it'll be too much of a challenge if he does have a new partner.
"It seems like I haven't played with Jack all that much this year but it'll be good playing with him," said Dumoulin. "You should be comfortable with whoever you play with in our lineup. This should be a good test for us."
Pettersson said the new combinations could be seen in future game action or they were "just for practice, might have been, we'll see about that." Regardless, he enjoyed his time on the ice with Letang.
"It's great," said Pettersson. "He's an all-star player. He's going to be a Hall of Famer one day. It was pretty awesome to practice with him."
Both Sullivan and Jim Rutherford have talked about Bjugstad's ability to play wing, Bjugstad has said he would feel comfortable in that role if needed, and now there's a good chance he could see some games in that position. Bjugstad again spoke on his comfort at wing after Wednesday's practice.
"I don't really have a preference," he said. "Played center my whole life up until these last couple years, if that's where I need to be that's fine. I can play wing, I'm pretty familiar playing right wing in Florida. But wherever they put me I'll be fine."
Bjugstad, who has watched Crosby since he was a kid, doesn't feel any additional pressure playing alongside him. Bjugstad played next to Aleksander Barkov in Florida. Barkov is no Crosby, but he's still a star player.
"If you do play on a line with (Crosby), it's just got to be doing the little things right," said Bjugstad. "He'll be there to support you. It's a good player just to be on the same team with to watch and learn from."
Sullivan kept the power play units intact, for the most part.
- The first power play unit remained Kessel, Crosby, Hornqvist, Letang, and Guentzel.
- The second power play unit was Pearson, Bjugstad, Simon, Pettersson, and Riikola. As with Monday's practice, Justin Schultz also got some time with the second unit.
Sullivan said "all things are on the table" when it comes to the combinations.
"The reality is that we've had stable defense pairs and fairly stable line combinations for a significant amount of games. We're 4-and-6 in the last 10," said Sullivan. "So, the way I look at it is there's always that fine line between riding through it with defense pairs or line combinations, or try and effect a little bit of change, and a little bit of urgency, or whatever the word is to describe it. All I know is that I know this group is capable of more, and our expectation is higher, and we're going to continue to try to find ways to be proactive to try to get this team playing at the level we think its capable of on a consistent basis."
• Schultz again practiced in full, and remains day-to-day.
• Matt Murray did not practice and is being evaluated for an upper-body injury that is not a concussion, Sullivan said after the practice. Mike Chiasson, the Goalie Development Professional at the Lemieux Complex, subbed for him in net. Tristan Jarry will have to make the trip from Illinois if he is needed, as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton prepares to face the Rockford IceHogs.
Zach Aston-Reese and Evgeni Malkin did not practice with the group. All currently injured players will make the trip to Florida.
• The Penguins again broke in their black Stadium Series pants and gloves during practice. Casey DeSmith debuted his new Stadium Series gear -- all-gold "banana" pads, not unlike those of a young Marc-Andre Fleury.
"I wanted the yellow pads," DeSmith told me of his decision after practice. "I heard what the jerseys were going to look like, and I thought the yellow would really pop and look really cool, so I went with it. Obviously the last person to do that was Fleury, so hopefully people like that. I know people liked his gold pads, hopefully they enjoy me having some gold pads. A little Fleury tribute."
• After 58 NHL games, 24 with the Penguins, Garrett Wilson is still searching for his first NHL goal. It isn't for lack of trying, though. He's attempted nine shots over the past five games, and has come within inches more than a few times now this season.
"I'm just trying to get chances" Wilson told me of his ongoing search. "Hopefully I'll put one away here soon. It’s kind of frustrating, I'm starting to think about it more and more as the games go by. It would be nice to get one out of the way and relax a bit."
As frustrating as it is, Wilson is trying to not overthink his game, and thinks he's getting closer to that goal each game.
"I've had lots of chances," he said. "As long as I keep getting chances, I'm not going to grip my stick too tight. Hopefully, I'll find a way to bury one here pretty soon. I'm going to be doing everything I can to try to help the team get a couple of goals here."
