CRANBERRY, Pa. -- In less than 24 hours, the 2020-21 NHL season will be underway for the Penguins when the puck drops at 5:30 p.m. in Philadelphia.
They've had just seven days of on-ice sessions and no preseason to prepare for it.
"It's always hard, with no preseason games," Evgeni Malkin said after Tuesday's practice at the Lemieux Complex. "I think tomorrow, it's a huge game, it's very important. But I think every team has the same rules, we can't do anything. It's reality right now. It's a little bit harder, of course, the first couple of games, but it's fine. We played a couple of scrimmage games here. I feel okay, myself. I think I'm ready to play. I miss hockey, a lot. We haven't played in a long time, I'm excited to tomorrow in Philly."
Jason Zucker made a point last week that he thought the shortened camp could help the Penguins play a faster game, because it gave them no choice but to "get after it" right from the first day of camp. Brandon Tanev made a similar point on Tuesday, that the shortened camp made the few practices they did have just that much more intense.
"I think everyone puts it on themselves to get ready for training camp regardless of how long that is," Tanev said. "With the shorter training camp, each scrimmage and each practice meant more, so I think the guys put a little bit more into that. I think we're all chomping at the bit, ready to go and I'm excited to play."
That excitement was evident on the ice Tuesday in the final practice of camp. The mood was lighter, players were celebrating more and just having fun. After one drill, the entire team came together in celebration:
What exactly will the lines and pairings look like when Wednesday's game gets underway? It's not clear. The past three days, the coaching staff has used these personnel combinations:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rodrigues
Zucker-Malkin-Rust
McCann-Jankowski-Tanev
Lafferty-Blueger-Sceviour
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Marino
Pettersson-Ceci
Riikola-Ruhwedel
In the earlier days of camp, Tanev was the fourth line and Lafferty was on the third, and Pettersson and Marino were the second defense pairing with new guys Matheson and Ceci together on the third pairing.
Will these more recent combinations be the ones the Penguins stick with for opening night, or will we see the earlier combinations? Mike Sullivan wouldn't give any indication either way on Tuesday.
"We just wanted to take every opportunity we could to explore the different combinations," Sullivan said. "We'll make decisions accordingly. We know certain guys are familiar playing with certain people, whether it be defense pairs or line combinations. Given how short the camp has been, we're trying to take every opportunity to explore those combinations with some of our new guys and see what we think might work. My sense is that this will be a work in progress. We'll make adjustments when we think it's necessary to try to create the balance we're looking for throughout the lineup."
That work begins tomorrow evening in Philadelphia.
