The Penguins will roster the majority of their NHL players for Tuesday night's preseason game against the Red Wings at PPG Paints Arena, but will be without two of their regular forwards.
Jeff Carter, 37, is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, Mike Sullivan said following the morning skate. Carter left early from the Penguins' training camp scrimmage on Saturday and did not return. He has not skated with his teammates since then.
Kasperi Kapanen, 26, was listed on the Penguins' roster for Tuesday night's game, but was not out on the ice for morning skate. Sullivan said he is not feeling well, so they elected to hold him out today.
MORE FROM THE SKATE:
• Here are the lines and D-pairings that were used during morning skate:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Drew O’Connor - Ryan Poehling - Drake Caggiula
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Radim Zohorna
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
Ty Smith - Jan Rutta
These figure to be the same combos we'll see to start the game Tuesday night.
• Tristan Jarry will start the game in goal and play the first half, Sullivan said. The plan is for Casey DeSmith to take over halfway through and play the remainder of the game.
• Valtteri Puustinen has skated on a line with Crosby and Guentzel throughout training camp thus far, so this is the first look we'll get at Rakell on the top line since the end of last season, when they seemingly scored goals at will.
I asked Rakell what the keys are to picking up where they left off.
"Just trying to keep playing my game and try to score on chances we’re gonna get," Rakell said. "Just take it day by day and game by game and just don’t get too far ahead of ourselves."
Rakell also told me that he hasn't had any discussions with the coaching staff about playing on the top line or whether or not he will be given an extended opportunity in that spot.
"I think we’re just taking it a day at a time right now," he said. "I haven’t really talked about anything so far and I think we’re just gonna see how it goes."
• Despite Rakell saying he hasn't discussed his lineup placement with the coaching staff, Sullivan believes Rakell's skillset fits well with the game Crosby and Guentzel are trying to play. It sounds like it's Rakell's spot to lose for now.
"We believe he (Rakell) potentially is a guy that could complement those guys, and that line could be very good for us," Sullivan said.
• Defenseman Owen Pickering has been dealing with an injury he suffered before rookie camp began. He has been sporting a brace on his right wrist, but Taylor Haase saw him skating with non-gameday teammates on Sunday morning before the Penguins' split-squad games against the Blue Jackets. He was out on the ice for morning skate on Tuesday in a white non-contact jersey, but wasn't overly involved.
• I had a brief one-on-one with Ty Smith following morning skate. He told me he's just glad for the opportunity at hand and hopes to make his mark however possible.
"I just want to play, so anytime they put me in for preseason stuff I’m really excited about it," Smith said.
Asked for his thoughts on how he impacted the power play during Sunday's early preseason game against the Blue Jackets, Smith acknowledged a poor play he made during a breakout, but overall, he felt good about his performance in that regard.
"Power-play, I think it felt pretty good," he said. "There was obviously one breakout in the first, early in the game I hit the guy’s skate on a play. I tried to drop it back, but other than that, I think I was pretty sharp on it, moved the puck pretty well and helped us create chances. Hopefully I can keep trying to help out in that area."
• Yesterday I wrote a column suggesting that you start getting very, very excited about the Pettersson-Petry pairing on the back end. Today, Sullivan spoke on their partnership.
"Well, they’re both good defensemen," Sullivan said. "I think Marcus is a mobile guy, he’s got a long reach, makes good outlet passes, has the ability to help us on the offense. And I think Jeff’s a guy that’s an elite defenseman. He has the ability to help us on both sides of the puck. I think Jeff is big and strong, I think he’s gonna help us at our net-front on the defensive side, but we’re not compromising anything from a transition standpoint or a skill or a speed standpoint with respect to that. We’ve played those guys together intentionally to see if that combination could potentially work for us, and we’re just trying to give them some time to develop some chemistry."
• Puck drops at 7:08 tonight here at PPG Paints Arena. Taylor and I will have your coverage. Follow along with us throughout the game in our Live File.
