CRANBERRY, Pa. -- It's not that Mike Sullivan doesn't recognize the importance of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to the Penguins' power play.
After all, it would be tough to overstate the value of guys who have put up 480 and 418 man-advantage points, respectively, during their careers.
And it's not as if Sullivan and his staff figure they can simply plug a couple of guys into the spots usually filled by Crosby and Malkin and have the power play produce at its customary pace.
Still, Sullivan made it clear Thursday that the Penguins won't try to completely reinvent their power play while Crosby and Malkin are unavailable because of surgeries during the offseason.
Adjust? Sure. Tweak where necessary? No doubt.
But don't look for the Penguins to stray all that far from the way they've worked with the extra man in the past.
"We have a certain philosophy with our power play and how it should operate, and some of the principles that we've put in place here that makes it predicable for one another," Sullivan said. "I don't know that that will change drastically."
The Penguins had the fourth-ranked power play in the NHL last season, when it converted on 23.7 percent of its opportunities.
Given that their penalty-kill placed 27th in the league, it's no surprise that it is the special-teams unit that has gotten the most attention through the early portion of training camp.
"Our penalty-kill has to get better," Sullivan said. "No question about that."
That doesn't mean the power play will be ignored during the preseason; just that it's not the top priority.
But with Crosby and Malkin out, generating goals might be a challenge for the Penguins. An efficient power play could make up some of that offensive shortfall.
Precisely who will be promoted to the No. 1 power play while Crosby and Malkin are unavailable hasn't been determined, and likely won't be until late in the preseason.
"We'll try multiple guys," Sullivan said. "We have some ideas on who, potentially, could go there. We'll use the exhibition season (to determine that) once we get some of our established players in the lineup. We'll start to tinker with the power-play combinations."
Sullivan all but ruled out using two defensemen, not one, on the points of the top unit -- "That's always a possibility, but I would not anticipate that," he said. -- and seemed to make it clear that Kris Letang will oversee the No. 1 power play from his customary spot on the left point.
Although Letang has, at times, been guilty of overpassing on the power play -- he wouldn't be the only teammate to go out of his way to defer to Crosby or Malkin -- Sullivan praised his willingness to put pucks on goal when the Penguins had a man-advantage last season.
That didn't show up in his personal stats -- Letang had one goal, his fewest since getting one in 2012-13, when he appeared in just 33 games -- but it was reflected in the team's success rate.
"I thought last year, he did a real good job with his shot selection," Sullivan said. "When the shot was there, he took it. We think that's an important aspect of establishing that shot up top in order for the power play to operate effectively.
"When you can establish that shot, a lot of times, it opens up opportunities underneath, to plays off the flank or low plays, things of that nature, because teams have to respect it."
Even if those penalty-killers aren't seeing some familiar faces when the Penguins are up a man.
