CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins had a familiar face join them on the ice for Saturday's morning skate at the Lemieux Complex.
Sidney Crosby, after skating on his own for much of training camp while rehabbing from his offseason wrist surgery, rejoined his teammates on the ice for the first time since the start of camp.
Mike Sullivan said after the skate that that Crosby is "on schedule" in his recovery process, and that joining the team in this capacity does indicate progress, and that he's anticipate more of Crosby skating with the team moving forward.
"We're really encouraged with the progress that he's made to this point," Sullivan said.
Crosby wore a regular jersey -- not a non-contact one -- and seemed to have no trouble handling the puck with both hands on his stick. The game group took line rushes, but Crosby participated in the rushes as a defenseman alongside Mike Matheson. After the rushes, the game group worked on special teams drills while Crosby worked with skills coach Ty Hennes at center ice:
"He's in terrific shape," Sullivan said of what he saw from Crosby on the ice. "He's been working real hard with Ty Hennes behind the scenes with what he can do. He's making real encouraging progress. So it's great for our team when he's back on the ice."
Sullivan said that Crosby being back on the ice provides the rest of the team with an extra "jump." It definitely provided his teammates with a boost in morale.
"It was great to see him back," Jeff Carter said. "You know, it's exciting for us to be out there and skating with him having him back in the group. ... It's a good sign for our team that he's back and integrating into some practices and whatnot so hopefully we'll just keep moving forward with him."
Sullivan said that it's too early to say for sure yet, but he would anticipate that Crosby travels with the team on the season-opening Florida road trip just to continue practicing with the team.
"I would anticipate he would join us and just get more involved with the team practices here as we go," he said.
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Matheson will not play tonight, but he was a full participant in the skate. He left Friday's practice with what Sullivan called a "nagging lower-body thing."
• Sullivan said that Jake Guentzel remains asymptomatic but is still in COVID protocol. Aston-Reese is medically cleared to rejoin the team. His first day back on the ice was Friday, skating with Hennes. Today was his first day back on the ice with the team.
"Now it's just a matter of getting him re-acclimated to the practice environment," Sullivan said of Aston-Reese. "He's coming from a different point than someone like Jake, because Zach did have (COVID) symptoms. So he's in the process of recovery. I had a discussion with Zach after practice, he felt much better today than he did yesterday, which is real encouraging. But we'll monitor him every day."
Aston-Reese worked with the second penalty-killing unit midway through the special teams work, an encouraging step.
• Tristan Jarry will play the full game tonight.
• The Penguins used these lines/pairings at the skate:
Danton Heinen - Jeff Carter - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Evan Rodrigues - Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Dominik Simon
Drew O'Connor - Brian Boyle - Sam Lafferty
(Radim Zohorna, Anthony Angello)
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - John Marino
Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel
Mike Matheson - Sidney Crosby/Zach Aston-Reese
• The first power unit was Kris Letang, Jason Zucker, Carter, Kasperi Kapanen and Bryan Rust.
Zucker is the newest addition to that group. Danton Heinen briefly filled that role after Guentzel was sidelined, Zucker began skating in that spot Friday.
"He's good at the net front," Sullivan said of Zucker in that role. "He's a gritty guy, he likes to play in the battle areas, he likes to play in the traffic. He has decent hands, he has the ability to make low plays."
• The second power play was Marcus Pettersson, John Marino, Dominik Simon, Drew O'Connor, and Evan Rodrigues.
