There was a moment during the special teams portion of Monday's practice at PPG Paints Arena when Kasperi Kapanen tripped and fell and looked like he may have been a little frustrated as a result.
Just as quickly as he got back on his feet, he had a smile on his face thanks to some words from the bench.
They came from Kris Letang, standing by the Penguins' bench door in workout clothes and sipping a protein shake, laughing and chirping Kapanen and other teammates during the practice session.
Monday marked a full week since Letang suffered a stroke -- his second in eight years -- that has him sidelined on an indefinite basis. He's been around the team nearly every day since then, and has taken light skates on his own or with assistant coach Ty Hennes during most of those days, including Monday.
Letang has yet to be cleared to rejoin his teammates for a more formal, structured session on the ice. But just having his presence around the rink has been a boost to the morale his teammates over the last seven days, and a welcomed source of re-assurance that he's going to be OK.
"It's big for the team to have him around and know that he's doing OK," Kapanen told me after practice. "He's been working out and doing fine. We just love him at the rink. He's a funny guy and he's a big part of the team, it's good to see."
Bryan Rust called Letang's presence over this last week uplifting for both Letang and his teammates.
"It's awesome," Rust said. "Obviously he's a veteran presence on the team, he's a leader. He's been here forever. To have around and in good spirits after something like that, I think it's uplifting for him it's uplifting for the team, and it's just really cool to have him around."
"It's great," Brian Dumoulin said. "It's probably good for him to be able to come out and be around us and not just sit there. Knowing Tanger, he's a guy who is very active and likes to get out there and see people. It's good that he's been around and we've been able to see him, that's exciting knowing that he's skating and stuff. Obviously you don't want to rush him, but it's just good that it's not career-ending."
Mike Sullivan said that the players and Letang are "more than just teammates," and that's why it means so much to the team to have Letang around as often as he has been.
"They're close friends," Sullivan said. "When he's around he's part of the social fabric of the locker room. They're joking with him before and after practice, and he's on the bench during some of the practice. I think just his presence is good for all of us. Everyone sees how well he's doing, and I also think it's good for Kris to be around the group. I look at it as a win-win on both sides."
When the Penguins announced Letang's stroke on Wednesday, Ron Hextall said that on Tuesday night -- the day after the stroke -- Letang was already asking how soon he could be back on the ice. Sullivan said that his biggest challenge on Wednesday was keeping him off the ice. The fact that Letang is regularly skating and working out so soon isn't much of a surprise to anyone who knows him well.
"He's a bit of a freak," Rust said with a grin. "It's not surprising at all."
"Knowing Kris, he's a competitor," Kapanen added. "I'm not surprised."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Casey DeSmith all missed practice with illnesses. Sullivan said the team is hopeful they will be available Tuesday for the Penguins' game against the Blue Jackets.
"Obviously, they weren't feeling well today," Sullivan said. "We thought it was best to keep them away from the rink. We'll see how they feel in the morning."
• Ryan Poehling missed practice with an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day. He skated with Hennes and Letang prior to practice.
• Emergency backup goaltender Mike Chiasson filled in during practice in place of DeSmith.
• The Penguins used these lines and pairings in practice:
Jake Guentzel - Danton Heinen - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Teddy Blueger - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen/Josh Archibald
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
Brian Dumoulin - Jan Rutta
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel
• If at least two of the three missing forwards aren't ready to play tomorrow, it'll be interesting to see what the Penguins do. They have no salary cap space for a recall without putting Letang on long-term injured reserve, which would require him to be out for 10 games and 24 days from Nov. 28. The fact that they haven't done that yet might be a result of wanting to bank as much unused daily cap space as possible -- which isn't possible while using LTIR -- but it could also suggest that Letang might not need to be out for that long. He was sidelined for two months after his stroke eight years ago, and this stroke was less severe.
• The Penguins spent a good portion of practice working on the power play. With both Crosby and Malkin absent, Rust worked on both units and Danton Heinen filled in, too. The top unit was Jeff Petry, Rickard Rakell, Jake Guentzel, Heinen and Rust. The second unit was P.O Joseph, Rust, Jeff Carter, Jason Zucker and Kapanen.
• The team had their holiday party at the arena on Sunday evening, and players and their families were able to skate together during the party. Carter's wife Megan and Petry's wife Julie both shared videos of Kapanen playing with their kids, with Kapanen pushing Carter's daughter around on a chair on the ice and then playing hockey with Petry's sons:
I asked Kapanen about his role as the fun uncle to his teammates' kids, and it's one that's meaningful to him as a kid of a former NHL player himself.
"I try to be," he said. "I remember my time being a kid and hanging out with the guys and they'd play with me. I remember how big it was for me, I thought I'd do the same for them. Hopefully they remember it, too."
