Penguins finally starting to get healthy

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- For the first time this season, things are starting to look up on the Penguins' injury front.

Defensemen Kris Letang and Mike Matheson and forward Zach Aston-Reese were full participants in the Penguins' practice at the Lemieux Complex on Thursday and appear to be nearing a return to the lineup.

"It's a very welcome change, certainly nice to have some guys participating," Mike Sullivan said of the Penguins' injuries starting to take a turn for the better.

Sullivan said after practice that all three were still considered day-to-day.

Letang missed the Penguins' last game against New York after sustaining a lower-body injury in the first game of the series. Aston-Reese has yet to play his first game of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in August, and Matheson has been dealing with an upper-body injury since the Penguins' second game of the season in Philadelphia.

Letang, who didn't want to speak about the nature of his injury, said after practice that he "felt pretty good on the ice." He skated earlier in the day on his own, then felt good enough to join the team for the full practice.

The defense pairings rotated during practice, but Letang took most rushes alongside P.O Joseph, the likely top pairing once Letang returns. Letang also joined the top power play unit in every single drill, another sign that he'll likely be able to play next game.

Matheson said he had no lingering issues with his injury, and that he "felt good" in practice, and said that he's close to feeling 100 percent, but that it will ultimately be up to the training staff and doctors when he gets back into the lineup.

"It's nice to be back practicing with the team," he said. "It's always tough being away from the team when you're injured, especially coming to a new team like this. It's been great to be back out there with them."

It wasn't the ideal start to Matheson's Penguins career, to say the least, to go down with an injury for a few weeks after just two games.

"It wasn't easy," he said. "I wanted to come in and have an impact and start off on the right foot, and this caused me to have some patience and be able to sit back and watch a bit of hockey for awhile, which I tried to take advantage of and continue to learn in that sense, to be ready to play when that time comes."

With Matheson, a new guy on the team still trying to get acclimated, the time he spent injured gave him an opportunity to see the game from a different angle and better understand the system and team concepts.

"When you're watching a game from the press box, everything is so much slower," he said. "The game looks so easy up there. It's interesting to see it from that perspective. I think it was an opportunity to watch our faceoff plays, our D-zone coverage, just the systems, and try to pick up on those things so when I got back I fit in a little more seamlessly, instead of going to faceoffs and asking guys, 'Jeez, what does that call mean?' and that sort of stuff."

Matheson rotated in with the rest of the defensemen, and took some shifts on the second power play. If he's able to play, he will be a welcome addition to a defense corps that currently only has one healthy left-handed defenseman in Joseph.

"We've obviously had a particular challenge with a lot of the left-handed shots going down," Sullivan said. "We've got right-handed shots playing on the left side, which isn't the ideal scenario for them, but out of necessity, we've been forced to make those types of decisions, and I think the players have done a terrific job just embracing that challenge."

Aston-Reese didn't take any line rushes, but took turns with the second penalty kill, which might indicate that he's a little further off from playing a game than the two defensemen are. But he said Thursday that he feels even better than he did before his surgery.

"I feel pretty good," he said. "I've been skating for the last two months with Ty (Hennes), I think we've put a lot of work in. I don't really have any lingering side effects from surgery. It honestly feels better than what it did before."

Aston-Reese said that the issue with his shoulder dated back to an injury sustained the spring of his first season in the league, calling that injury the "catalyst." He said that surgery wasn't necessary at the time, but that his shoulder weakened more over the last two years until the point where it was causing him to hesitate more in his game.

"I just finally needed to take care of it," he said.

When Aston-Reese is healthy enough to play, it's not exactly clear where he fits into the Penguins' lineup, if he fits in at all on a regular basis. And with the hesitation gone from his game now that his shoulder feels better than it did before, that might help him play the type of game that he needs to play to cement his spot.

"I think just being able to play a physical, two-way game," he said of what he needs to do to secure a spot. "I've been pretty good defensively, but I think being able to add in offensively is going to help a lot. And just playing physical every night, I think. You see (Brandon Tanev) bring it every night. That's something that the bottom-six needs to bring, and I'm hoping to bring that every night."

It's not clear yet if any of the three will be in the lineup Saturday when the Penguins play the Islanders on Long Island. But it shouldn't be long before the Penguins finally get to start adding players back into their lineup.

"To have these guys back is real encouraging," Sullivan said. "We're excited to get them back in practice. We'll take each day as it comes. But certainly to have these guys back is a good feeling for our team."

MORE FROM PRACTICE

• John Marino was absent from practice as expected, since he's on the COVID Protocol list. Sullivan said after practice that he's not permitted to comment on Marino's status, but reminded everyone that there are multiple reasons that a player can go on the list that don't involve a positive test.

• Drew O'Connor and Kevin Czuczman joined the group from the taxi squad.

• The Penguins used the following forward lines:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Jared McCann-Teddy Blueger-Brandon Tanev
Drew O'Connor-Mark Jankowski-Sam Lafferty

Colton Sceviour rotated in on the fourth line, alternating between replacing O'Connor and Lafferty.

• The defense pairings rotated, since there were seven participating defensemen.

• A significant portion of the 70-minute practice was devoted to power play work. The two units would alternate sides of the ice, working at one end around the stationary obstacles, and then one at the other end working against the penalty killers, and then they'd switch sides. When working against the penalty killers, they worked on situations both off of the faceoff and starting on the fly extensively.

The first power play unit was the same: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, and Letang.

The second unit was Kasperi Kapanen, O'Connor, Jared McCann, Jason Zucker, and Matheson/P.O Joseph alternating in the last spot.

The second unit still seemed to be the better of the two at just simply getting shots off, which is notable given that the Penguins' power play ranks No. 31 in the league at producing both shots on goal and shot attempts on the power play. But the first unit seemed to get better as the practice went on.

"Right now we aren't getting the results," Letang said of the power play's struggles. "We want to go back to basics and we wanted to get some good habits in, and you do it by practicing. All of those drills were designed to put the emphasis on it."

He added that getting more shots isn't exactly a matter of getting more shooting lanes or strategy.

"It's a mindset," he said. "It's a mindset of wanting to shoot. Not trying to find the perfect play out there, or look for more than what's given to you."

• O'Connor, Teddy Blueger, Lafferty, and Joseph stayed on the ice by themselves well after practice ended. At one point, Lafferty and Joseph were having a conversation, and after something said by Lafferty, Joseph broke into a big smile, yelled, "Shut up!" then fell over laughing, rolling around on his back on the ice. The kid is straight-up energy.

TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS

P.O Joseph sits on the ice, recovering from something apparently hilarious said by Sam Lafferty.

• The NHL announced new measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19. More on that here.

• Interim general manager Patrik Allvin watched practice from the box above the ice. He was joined later in practice by director of hockey operations and hockey research Sam Ventura.