CRANBERRY, Pa. -- If you came here looking for line combinations and defense pairings from Friday's practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, you're out of luck.
That's for good reason, though.
The Penguins' 45-minute practice on Friday was almost entirely devoted to special teams, an area of weakness for the Penguins, with their power play and penalty kill both ranked No. 24 in the league.
"In a season like this, there isn't too much practice time," Bryan Rust said after practice. "So to be able to get out there and get some reps in when things haven't been going great, I think is key. It allows us to get a little bit of confidence back, get a little bit more structure."
The top unit featured the same personnel -- Rust, Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. The second unit included Mike Matheson, Jason Zucker, Kasperi Kapanen, Jared McCann, and Drew O'Connor and P.O Joseph alternating in the last spot.
The power play work was similar to the setup from Thursday's practice. One end of the ice, one five-man unit worked against no penalty killers, just a couple of stationary tripod dummies as obstacles. On the other end, the other power play unit was working against a rotating cast of penalty killers. The power play units would switch back and forth after a number of run-throughs, alternating between working against the dummies and the actual penalty killers.
"It was good to get some practice in and get back to the fundamentals," Guentzel said of the power play. "Make sure we're getting recoveries and retrievals, and doing the simple things. It's just good to have some practices."
Guentzel added that the work against the tripods was helpful because it simulates working through the legs of defensemen.
No matter how much they work on the fundamentals in practice, though, it still comes down to just the execution and having a shot-first mentality during games. While the power play's conversion rate isn't quite the worst in the league, its rate of shot production and shot attempts is the worst of all 31 teams.
"It's more about just going out there and executing and gaining some momentum in-game," Sidney Crosby said earlier in the week when I asked about the power play's struggles. "We weren't able to do that (Monday) night, and it's a difference-maker. We've got to find a way to correct that."
It seems like a simple concept, to just shoot the puck more. Mike Sullivan has said a few times now that with so many skilled players on the top unit, they often spend time looking for the better play rather than just taking what's given to them, and that's why they sometimes struggle to get shots off. He said that the most important thing in Friday's practice was to "try to encourage a shooting mentality."
Rust expressed a similar sentiment on Friday.
"I think that's just kind of the nature of the game sometimes," he said. "Those kinds of things happen when you have such high-skilled players on the ice. You always want to make those nice plays to make sure the puck can get into the net, then a lot of times it won't work out. Then you start gripping your stick, keep trying to make more and more plays, It might be a little bit of a snowball effect. Just getting back to that simplistic identity of keeping it simple, getting pucks to the net, and working hard. It doesn't matter who is out there, I think that gives you a chance at success."
It remains to be seen how this work will pay off in an actual game, but it's hard to imagine it could get much worse as far as shot production is concerned.
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• John Marino rejoined the Penguins after spending the previous two days on the NHL's COVID Protocol list. The amount of time a player spends on the list depends on their reason for going on the list. Since Marino rejoined the group so quickly, it's safe to say that he didn't test positive himself.
• Letang, Matheson and Zach Aston-Reese were all full participants again. Sullivan said after the game that they will all make the road trip out to Long Island and then Newark, and that he's "anticipating some game-time decisions."
Getting those three healthy (and Marino being cleared so quickly) is a morale booster for a team with the injury luck the Penguins have had this season, especially on defense.
"It's huge," Guentzel said. "Whenever you get guys back from injury I think it gets guys excited for one another, and whenever you can get some players back I think you just have to get them acclimated right away. We're glad to have guys back out there in practice, we'll see what happens in these games."
"It's great to have them back," said Tristan Jarry. "It's great to have them practicing with the team. It's great to see guys getting back healthy into the lineup, and I think it'll help boost our team a lot, and it'll make our team better."
• Jarry said that this week has been helpful mentally from his work with goaltending coach Mike Buckley.
"He's a huge help to me and Casey (DeSmith) and even the organization," he said. "He helps quiet our minds, and he helps us get a good mindset going into games. Just watching video, he has some good insight on things and helps us a lot and translates into our game and helps us be better in control."
• On Thursday the NHL announced new regulations that aim to prevent the spread of COVID-19. One of those was that players must be six feet apart while in their stalls. Given the size and number of stalls in the locker room, that's impossible without adding additional temporary stalls or relocating players entirely. At the Lemieux Complex, some of the players were relocated to the two smaller locker rooms nearby the main locker room in order to ensure prosper distancing.
• Skills coach Ty Hennes leads this shooting drill at the end of formal practice every day, it's optional for guys to join. Some take part in the drill, some are off working on other things after practice. The celebrations after every goal or save are always big:
"We just like to have fun with a little competition after practice and make it light and fun out there," Guentzel said. "We kind of just ran with it and we're getting into it now. It's been fun."
• Teddy Blueger has started doing this at the end of every single practice, well after the formal session has ended.
• Sullivan made his pick for the Super Bowl.
"It would be hard for me to bet against Tom Brady," he said.