ELMONT, N.Y. -- The Penguins will be without one forward against the Islanders tonight in Evgeni Malkin, who will be serving the first of his four-game suspension.
They'll have one forward back in the lineup, though, as Brock McGinn makes his return from his wrist injury, suffered while blocking a shot March 11 in a game against the Golden Knights.
"Those are things you've got to do," McGinn said of blocking shots. "Maybe sometimes that's the consequence. But I'm happy that everything is going smoothly. And the trainers did a good job with my rehab and making sure everything went well."
McGinn had a number of solo skates with skills coach Ty Hennes early in the rehab process. He began with using a short stick in only his left hand, and eventually progressed to skills work with both hands, before rejoining the team for practice on April 6 in a non-contact capacity. McGinn shed the non-contact jersey the following day.
"I think our trainers and our staff did a good job at keeping me active, just going on the ice there," he said. "At the start, I was using half a stick, but it was good to be able to keep skating and stay in shape."
Based off of the line combinations in Tuesday's morning skate at UBS Arena, McGinn will slot in on the left side of the third line, alongside Teddy Blueger and Evan Rodrigues.
McGinn has played alongside Blueger for much of this season, and he credits their "similar styles" to the chemistry those two have formed.
"I think the more we play together, the more we learn off each other and kind of build on it," McGinn said. "So I think it's a lot of fun playing with Teddy and I think hopefully he enjoys it as well."
The Penguins have a tough challenge over these next four games in replacing Malkin in the lineup. Getting McGinn back at the right time certainly helps ease that burden.
"We're going to get Ginner back in the lineup tonight," Sullivan said. "We know he's going to help us. We believe we have a deep enough lineup to have success. We've done it all year long. This is just one other challenge in front of us that we've got to find a way to overcome."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Casey DeSmith will start, only the second time this season in which he's started two games in a row.
"Casey played really well the other night," Sullivan said of the decision. "Casey, he's really gotten better with every game that he's played here over the last couple of months. We're obviously trying to manage Tristan's workload, and this gives us an opportunity to do that. And so that's part of the decision why we did what we did."
• The Penguins used these line pairings and combinations, with Mark Friedman getting back into the lineup and Marcus Pettersson going back out:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Jeff Carter - Rickard Rakell
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Evan Rodrigues
Danton Heinen - Brian Boyle - Kasperi Kapanen
Mike Matheson - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - John Marino
Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel
(Marcus Pettersson - Evgeni Malkin)
• Tristan Jarry, Malkin and Pettersson all stayed out late for extra work because they're not playing tonight.
• I asked Sullivan what he thought of Malkin getting four games for his crosscheck on Matt Borowiecki.
"We certainly respect the league's decision," he said. "We felt it was a little heavy, but we respect their decision."
• The top power play began as Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and Rodrigues, and the second power play began as Mike Matheson, Rickard Rakel, Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kapanen and Jason Zucker. About midway through the special teams work, Rakell and Rodrigues swapped spots, with Rakell being bumped up to the top unit and Rodrigues going down to the second.
• When Sullivan brought everyone into a circle to speak following the skate, he reminded everyone that a (regulation) win will clinch a playoff spot for the Penguins. Still, it's not something that's weighing too heavily on players' minds entering tonight's game.
"I think everybody wants to get a win tonight, whether it's to clinch or not," McGinn said. "But I think we just have to really focus on this last little stretch here in the regular season to make sure that we're prepared for the playoffs and playing the right way."
• Defenseman Nathan Beaulieu, acquired at the trade deadline already injured, resumed skating this week in Cranberry. He's expected to be sidelined until sometime in the postseason.
"That's a big step for him," Sullivan said of Beaulieu being back on the ice. "We haven't really had an opportunity to get him involved, other than sitting in some of the team meetings. So he's getting more familiar with how we're trying to play the game and some of the details associated with that. But as he gets healthier here and gets on the ice and gets stronger on the ice, we look forward to getting him involved in team practices. And I think that'll be the opportunity to really get him acclimated."
It seems like Matheson's just played with more of an edge this season. He's been getting involved in more scrums and physical battles as of late, then of course he gets into a fight with Tanner Jeannot last game after Jeannot had a huge hit on Letang:
I asked Sullivan if he's like seeing that edginess from Matheson more this season, and if it's surprising at all, given Matheson's usual mellow demeanor.
"You know, he plays an assertive game," Sullivan said. "He's a really good skater, he has unbelievable physical attributes. I think the way he stuck up for Tanger the other night is just a testament to the type of teammate that he is. He cares, and he's invested. We want all of our players to be invested. But we know that's not in Mike's nature, we want Mike to be the player that he is. But certainly we have so much respect and appreciation for how much he cares and how invested he is."
