CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Long after most of their teammates had showered and headed to catch their charter flight to New York, Olli Maatta, Marcus Pettersson and Erik Gudbranson remained on the ice at the Lemieux Complex to get in some extra work with Sergei Gonchar and Jacques Martin.
It did not go unnoticed.
If they hadn't already, apparently, all three were still trying to make one more strong impression on the coaching staff. Any of the three, Maatta, Pettersson or Gudbranson, could be the odd-man out when the Penguins' defense corps has its full complement. It appears that time is near.
For the second straight day, Brian Dumoulin was a full participant in practice. Afterward, Mike Sullivan said that Dumoulin -- along with Zach Aston-Reese -- would be a game-time decision for tomorrow night's Game 1 of the Penguins' first-round playoff series against the Islanders.
"We, obviously, want him in the lineup," Justin Schultz was saying of Dumoulin, who missed the final two games of the regular-season with a lower-body injury. "He's a huge part of this team."
As he did a day earlier, Dumoulin skated alongside Zach Trotman on a fourth, extra defense pairing. But whether Dumoulin plays tomorrow night or Friday night in Game 2, Sullivan will soon have to make a big decision. I asked the coach how fluid the situation was and whether his mind had already been made as to who his three pairs will be. What I got was, well ...
"We've discussed it at length as a coaching staff," Sullivan said. "We'll make the decision accordingly when the time comes. Obviously, those are difficult decisions when we have a healthy group of defensemen. All those guys have done a great job in helping us win games down the stretch. It presents a difficult decision for the coaching staff. It's a good problem ... It's not even a problem. It's a good challenge to have. We'll communicate with our players as best we can, as we always do. But everyone has to stay ready. We're going to need everybody."
Obviously, Dumoulin's uncertainty for the playoff opener allows for Sullivan to punt for now.
While the forward lines remained the same on Tuesday, the coach did make one small tweak to his defense pairs. A day after Olli Maatta had been paired with Justin Schultz and Jack Johnson with Kris Letang, Sullivan reversed course. He reunited Johnson with Schultz, and Maatta with Letang. Those had been the pairs used in recent games since Maatta's return from a separated shoulder on March 29. In Johnson and Schultz's case, that's been the case in recent months.
While Sullivan is clearly open to change and, yes, no lineup decisions are etched in stone, the fact he reunited Schultz and Johnson is a fairly strong indication that at least that left-right pairing will enter the postseason together. With the Penguins likely to hold just an optional skate tomorrow at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, going with familiar pairs would seem to be the prudent move for now.
Johnson told me he had "no idea" whether he'd be paired with Schultz tomorrow night, but the two have formed a formidable pair for the Penguins since mid-February. Schultz says that the defensive-minded Johnson complements his game.
"He's so solid, really good at breaking out the puck," Schultz was telling me of Johnson. "He's just easy to play with and makes it easy on me, and lets me do my thing when we need to. And I think we found some good chemistry together."
While advanced metrics have never been kind to Johnson, the team leader in both hits and blocked shots, the Penguins do have a 59.26 goals-for percentage when he's been paired with Schultz.
No matter who he is paired with, it will be his first postseason action since he lost to the Penguins in the first-round while with the Blue Jackets in 2017. The veteran was a healthy scratch for all six of Columbus' playoff games last spring against the Capitals, something that clearly still does not sit well with him. He signed a five-year, $16.25 contract in free agency last summer with the Penguins to be a part of a playoff run. Now he has his chance. After 13 seasons and 870 regular-season games, he's never advanced beyond the first round.
"Any time you play in the playoffs, I'm excited," Johnson told me. "I've moved on from last year completely."
• After using the same lines for consecutive days, it would seem that Sullivan is locked into a balanced attack. Barring something unforeseen, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel will indeed be separated. Here were the lines and pairs:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McCann-Malkin-Hornqvist
Simon-Bjugstad-Kessel
Blueger-Cullen-Wilson
Maatta-Letang
Johnson-Schultz
Pettersson-Gudbranson
(Dumoulin-Trotman)
• Whether it's at the start of a practice -- like it was Tuesday -- or at the end, the Penguins work on the power play. Sullivan added a new wrinkle on Tuesday when he had his team work the full 200-feet. They worked on retrievals, breakouts and, most importantly, entries.
"We're just trying to get to execution," Sullivan explained. "We have to make the right decisions there. Timing is important, cooperative play, you have to skate proper routes, you have to finish your routes. Puck support is a critical part of having success on the entries."
Typically, the Penguins begin power-play drills in the offensive zone with a faux faceoff. About 25 minutes of Tuesday's 40-minute, on-ice session was dedicated solely to special teams play. The power play is one area where the Penguins should be able to exploit the defensive-minded Islanders and their 17th-ranked penalty kill.
• Wilkes-Barre's season isn't over yet but that appears to be a mere formality. To qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs, the Baby Penguins would need to win their final three games while Providence would have to lose its final three games. Jim Rutherford essentially conceded that Tuesday by recalling Tristan Jarry from the AHL. Sullivan said that Jarry was recalled to bring in an extra body. Jarry, who went 0-1-1 with an .857 save percentage and 3.50 goals-against average in the NHL this season, figures to be the first of a handful of Black Aces to be recalled in the days ahead.
• Aston-Reese did not take part in line rushes but did take reps on the penalty-kill.
• Dominik Simon and Jared McCann split time on the second power-play unit.
• With the exception of Chad Ruhwedel, who is still out longer-term with an upper-body injury, all players were present and accounted for.
• The Islanders skated again at their practice facility in East Meadow, N.Y. Barry Trotz employed the same forward lines and defense pairs, with Tom Kuhnhackl splitting reps with Michael Dal Colle as the second-line right winger. Matt Martin split reps with Ross Johnston as the fourth-line left winger, while Thomas Hickey split time with Luca Sbisa on a fourth defense pair alongside Dennis Seidenberg.
Here's the Islanders' lines and pairs:
Lee-Barzal-Eberle
Bailey-Nelson-Kuhnhackl/Dal Colle
Beauvillier-Filppula-Komarov
Martin/Johnston-Cizikas-Clutterbuck
Leddy-Boychuk
Pelech-Pulock
Toews-Mayfield
Hickey-Sbisa/Seidenberg
• It's believed that Robin Lehner will start Game 1 over Thomas Greiss, but Trotz is still keeping that a secret. Sullivan said that nothing changes for the Penguins no matter who is New York's starting goalie.
"They're both good goalies, they both stopped the puck for them this year," he said. "Our focus is more about us and our team."
