CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Over the past week and a half, an increasing number of Penguins -- including Evgeni Malkin -- have been taking part in informal group skates at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in advance of training camp beginning on Sept. 22.
Now, you can add the captain to the list.
On Friday morning, Sidney Crosby returned to Pittsburgh ice and joined a large group of his teammates for a session led by skills coach Ty Hennes.
Most of the skates have been player-led, but Hennes has instructed them each of the past two days with so many players to sort through. That's probably a big reason why the intensity and pace has picked up significantly.
You don't exactly want to take it easy when one of the greatest of all-time shows up, either, I'd imagine.
And as you'd imagine, it didn't take long for Crosby to do, well ... Crosby things:
Informal skate or not, how can you not just marvel at that edge work? To completely change the condition of the puck so instantaneously?
Throughout various drills, Crosby spent the majority of his time working with Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, as if he'd have it any other way. They enjoyed plenty of tic-tac-toe passes that diced up their counterparts during small-area drills.
Once players began to exit the ice after about an hour, Crosby stayed out with Kasperi Kapanen and Rickard Rakell, among others, to get in some additional work taking one-timers:
Before Crosby exited the ice, he had a lengthy chat with Hennes near the far blue line. They certainly could have been catching up, but Crosby's body language suggested they were spitballing about something skills- or tactics-related.
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• In addition to those named above, the following skaters were out on the ice: Jeff Carter, Teddy Blueger, Brock McGinn, Josh Archibald, Drake Caggiula, Jeff Petry, Marcus Pettersson, Chad Ruhwedel and Mark Friedman.
There also were several prospects who skated with the team: Valtteri Puustinen, Filip Hallander and Jonathan Gruden. They sported black helmets, as opposed to the white helmets the NHL skaters wore.
Brian Dumoulin and Casey DeSmith have taken part in a couple of these skates, but were not on the ice Friday.
• Puustinen, who might be the Penguins' most intriguing prospect at the moment, didn't look out of place in the slightest. Here he is getting off the wall, making a move to the slot and scoring during a drill:
Not Crosby's finest alligator impression there.
• It's been nice to get some in-person viewing of Petry. Friday's session really solidified to me how smooth and composed of a skater he is. I've said it before, but his presence could pay massive dividends toward the Penguins' secondary scoring. Don't underestimate the power of having an offensively dynamic right-handed defender on the second pairing.
• These informal skates in Cranberry are free and open to the public. There isn't any concrete or specific schedule, so you just have to catch them when they are out there, which is typically between 9:30-11:30 a.m. If you hope to catch one on a specific morning, I recommend calling the Lemieux Complex and asking if/when they will be skating.
• Taylor Haase and I will do our best to continue making it to these skates over the weekend and first few days of next week before rookie camp opens on Sept. 15.
