CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The difficult personnel decisions don't have to be made for a while.
The Penguins still have nearly two weeks of preseason practices ahead, as well as five more games before they'll play one that counts in the standings.
It will, then, be a while before anyone can make a full and accurate assessment of how this training camp has played out, and how well it has prepared the Penguins for the regular season that will begin Oct. 12 in Tampa.
Still, Brian Burke, their president of hockey operations, feels the early returns have been encouraging.
"I think camp has been excellent," he said. "The work ethic and the attention to detail, everyone's absorbing all of the information and following the systems work well. I'm impressed with our camp so far."
He probably would be even more upbeat if Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were participating in the workouts, but both are recovering from offseason surgeries. Crosby is expected to miss at least a handful of games at the start of the regular season, while the best-case scenario for Malkin is that he might return to active duty in December.
Being down a pair of future Hall of Famers is, of course, a significant setback and opens holes that can't really be filled by guys from farther down the depth chart. Burke, though, likes what he's seen from the players on hand.
"Obviously, we're starting without two centers," he said. "But so far, so good."
The real evidence of how camp has prepared a team comes in the form of regular-season results.
Until then, the people charged with constructing the regular-season roster focus on things less tangible than numbers on a scoreboard.
"As a guy in management, you look at how we play, how hard we work," Burke said. "Are they absorbing the systems? Are they playing the way we want to play? Are they listening to the coach? Those have all been positives for me so far."
Burke, who can deliver criticisms with the subtlety of a cross-check to the nose, offered mixed reviews of the Penguins' performance in a 3-0 exhibition loss to Columbus Monday at PPG Paints Arena.
"The first half of the game was better for all of our guys," he said. "I thought we had a really good first half of the game, and then I thought we really fell off."
Final scores might be the least important thing to come out of preseason games. Things like individual performances and how personnel combinations jell are of far more enduring consequence.
Here are Burke's evaluations of some players' showings against the Blue Jackets, and through Week 1 of camp:
• "(Nathan) Legare has had a good camp. He's a big, strong guy who can play."
• "Sam Poulin was really good (against Columbus), I thought. I think Poulin stood out."
• "I thought (Brian) Boyle was good. I think Boyle was really good the first half of the game."
• "(Tristan) Jarry was good. The one goal he allowed, he never saw it."
• "Danton Heinen wasn't great (Monday), but he's had a really good camp. He's an important guy for us, with our new look. Brock McGinn has had a real good camp, too."
McGinn and Heinen, both wingers, were the Penguins' two most prominent additions via free agency during the offseason.
Where they fit in, and how they fare in those roles, could be a key variable in determining what kind of season the Penguins have, especially with Crosby and Malkin in street clothes for a while.
"They're two important depth players for us," Burke said. "Depth is going to be a key for our success."
