Monday's practice had a few indications that Marcus Pettersson is nearing a return to the Penguins' lineup.
Pettersson, for the second consecutive practice, took contact as a full participant.
He took regular rushes on a pairing with Cody Ceci, bumping Chad Ruhwedel to the extra pairing with Yannick Weber.
One of the more telling signs was during the special teams work, when Pettersson worked with the top penalty-killing unit the entire practice.
I asked Mike Sullivan following Tuesday's optional morning skate specifically if Pettersson will be available for tonight's game against the Capitals, and he said that all positions other than the starting goaltender will be "game-time decisions."
That's an improvement from Sunday's pregame availability, when Sullivan was asked if Pettersson would play and answered that Pettersson was definitely out and hadn't been cleared to play yet.
If Pettersson does play this evening, it'll restore left-right balance to the defense pairings, with three left-handed defensemen and three right-handed defensemen, for the first time since Pettersson and Juuso Riikola were both injured on Jan. 19.
"I think the guys on the blue line have done a really good job," Sullivan said. "We've put guys in circumstances where they're not most comfortable playing on the off side. Those guys just embrace it. It's not perfect back there, but I love our compete level, I love our willingness to embrace the challenge each and every night. I think these guys are competing hard. They're working hard to try to help our team be successful."
MORE FROM THE POST-SKATE AVAILABILITY
• Tristan Jarry will start. Casey DeSmith took part in the optional skate after missing Sunday's game and Monday's practice with a non-COVID illness. Sullivan said he anticipates DeSmith being the backup goaltender.
• Mark Jankowski practiced with the second power play on Monday in a net-front capacity. Sullivan was asked on Tuesday about Jankowski being in that role.
"We're trying to cast guys in certain roles and put them in certain positions where they can be successful," Sullivan said. "That's one area where we think Janko could help us, is on that second power play unit. With the people that we have in the lineup (on the second power play) right now, we don't necessarily have a center iceman that could take a faceoff, for starters, and Janko is a big, strong guy that we think could be pretty good at the net-front. That was some of the reasoning behind it. It should give Janko an opportunity to get more minutes in the game so that we can spread the minutes the way we need to given the demands of the schedule here moving forward."
