CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Tristan Jarry wasn't on the ice for the Penguins' 1 p.m. practice at the Lemieux Complex on Thursday afternoon as the team prepared for Friday's game against the Islanders in Elmont, N.Y.
The update Mike Sullivan provided after practice was a little reassuring, however.
Sullivan said that Jarry's absence from practice was just a result of a scheduled doctor's appointment to check on his recovery progress coming off of the Penguins' California road trip.
"He'll be with us in New York," Sullivan added.
Jarry has been sidelined since Jan. 22 with an upper-body injury. It's a different injury than the lower-body injury he suffered in the Jan. 2 Winter Classic that had him sidelined until Jan. 20.
Jarry resumed skating with the group in the Penguins' optional morning skate on Feb. 7, and had his first full practice with the team on Feb. 9 in Anaheim. His workload in practices and skates steadily increased over the course of the California trip and looked like he was nearing a return for Tuesday's game in San Jose, but wasn't quite ready yet.
Jarry making the trip to New York is an encouraging sign that his return is imminent. A meeting with a medical staff to get cleared to return is usually one of the last steps before that happens.
If Jarry isn't quite ready to return, it's Casey DeSmith's net for the foreseeable future. For the most part, the Penguins have mostly been in good hands with DeSmith since Jarry was injured. DeSmith is 4-2-1 in that time with a .913 save percentage and a 3.21 goals-against average. He was pulled in Los Angeles on the second half of a back-to-back after allowing three goals on 15 shots in 21:58, but the team in front of him was struggling heavily in that game. He bounced back in a big way in San Jose to close out the road trip, stopping 38 of 39 shots.
"I think Case has played well for us," Sullivan said Thursday. "He's giving us a chance to win, he played extremely well in San Jose. When you look at his last half a dozen starts or so, he's tracking the puck well, he's giving us a chance to win, he's making big saves at key times in the game. That's so important to win in this league. With respect to the back-to-back in L.A., that's not an easy circumstance for any goalie to be in. They don't get a ton of experience at that. To Casey's defense, that's not an easy situation. There are extenuating circumstances around it."
Sullivan had a conversation with DeSmith after that game in which he told him that the decision to pull a goaltender isn't always related to the goaltender's own performance -- it can often be done as an attempt to spark the team in front of him.
"I think when you look at his last handful of starts, he's played his best hockey most recently," Sullivan added of DeSmith's play.
The Penguins would benefit from Jarry's return being sooner rather than later. But for now, they're benefiting from DeSmith playing some of his best hockey all season.
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Jan Rutta was on the ice for practice but won't play Friday in New York. He skated on an extra defense pairing with Danton Heinen during line rushes and rotated in with the second penalty-killing unit. The Penguins need to clear cap space in order to activate Rutta by sending three players down to the minors, and only Drew O'Connor and Dustin Tokarski are exempt from waivers right now. The Penguins would have needed to put at least one player on waivers at 2 p.m. on Thursday in order to clear the cap space necessary for Rutta by game time on Friday, and they didn't put anyone on waivers.
• Mark Friedman also absent from practice after being injured in Los Angeles on Saturday. Sullivan said that Friedman is continuing to be evaluated, and that he doesn't have an update on his status yet.
• Ryan Poehling, who is dealing with the same nagging upper-body injury that he's had off and on since the start of December, was absent from practice. Sullivan said that Poehling was continuing to be evaluated bout is considered day-to-day.
• The Penguins used the same lines and pairings they used in Tuesday's game in San Jose:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Drew O'Connor - Teddy Blueger - Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel
Danton Heinen - Jan Rutta
• The power play units were the same. The top unit was Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell and Jake Guentzel. The second unit was Jeff Petry, Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kapanen, Jason Zucker and Bryan Rust.
• Practice was on the shorter side, just under half an hour.
• Rust called it a "weird 24 hours," getting back from a long road trip out west then heading right back out on the road. "Our staff is doing a really good job to make sure our schedule is the way it is and we're getting everything we need in terms of recovery and getting back acclimated to the time schedule."
• Rust still has a big scar on his forehead from taking the puck to the head in warmups a few weeks ago. That was one of the few times all year that he's gone without a helmet in warmups, he told me that he's "never again" going without his helmet in warmups. I told him that he looked a little like Harry Potter, he laughed and said "yeah ...I'm not a wizard though," which sounds like something a wizard would say.
• Both Ron Hextall and Brian Burke were watching practice from their balcony and working in the office, as usual.
• I'm driving to Elmont, N.Y. on Thursday to cover this Islanders game on Friday. There's a quick turnaround after, with a 5:30 game against the Devils at home on Saturday.