Crosby on whether outside help's needed: 'I think that's up to Ron'

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- No matter what Ron Hextall does in the coming week leading up to the March 3 NHL trade deadline, he won't be doing anything that remotely resembles the Penguins becoming sellers.

Whether or not a trade is made to bring in additional support for the roster is another thing.

There's been no shortage of vocal confidence regarding the current group of players from both Sidney Crosby and Mike Sullivan. Both believe this is a capable group as currently constructed. 

But with the Rangers going out and adding Vladimir Tarasenko, the Islanders nabbing Bo Horvat, the Devils establishing themselves as one of the front-runners to land Timo Meier, and the fact that, well, the current group hasn't been able to find much consistency when it's needed most, it's difficult not to feel as if upgrades are necessary to compete with the best the Eastern Conference has to offer.

"I think that's up to Ron," Crosby responded after practice here at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex Wednesday when asked if, despite his confidence in the group, he feels they could benefit from a trade deadline addition. "Ultimately, it's up to us to go out there and perform. We've shown that we can be a pretty good team, and I think that everyone in here believes in each other. That's the main thing. It's his job to evaluate that and see what he needs to do.

"There's a lot of belief in here. It hasn't gone our way lately, but this is when you get tested as a group, and you've gotta respond the right way."

As hard as it may be to quantify confidence and belief, it's obviously a huge factor. But an even bigger factor is being able to get the job done, and this group continues to struggle in that regard.

Rickard Rakell's sentiments echoed Crosby and Sullivan when it comes to those struggles.

"We still have that confidence. Motivation is still there," he said. "We’re not that discouraged because we felt that we played good, we know we have it in this room. We’ve just got to bring it for a full game without having any breakdowns that cost us. We have to be a confident group. That’s the kind of players that we have. We’ve got to find a way to win. It doesn’t matter what it is."

That said, he's not ignoring the additions that've been made around the Metropolitan Division.

"I don’t know. It’s really tough to say," Rakell responded when posed with the same question as Crosby. "When we’re a healthy group, we’re a really good team. I think that we can beat every team in the league, but you see all the other teams in our division, they’re stacking up, so we’ve got to lift our game here."

Jason Zucker, however, is ignoring those additions. At least to the best of his ability.

"That’s not gonna do anything for us. It does nothing for us worrying about what other teams are doing," Zucker said. "They’re making trades, every team is in a different situation with cap space, with players, with contracts. There’s a million different things that go into trades. It’s not as easy as just, ‘Oh, let’s go make a trade.’ It’s not that simple."

And he, too, has the utmost confidence the pieces are already in-house in order to take care of business.

"We like our group, we know we just need to play better," Zucker said. "When we’re rolling and playing our game, there’s never been any questions or any doubt from anyone, and there never has been from our room. We feel good about it. We just need to get focused on ourselves and win these games."

MORE FROM PRACTICE

• Wednesday's practice was a bit bizarre. There was a 15-minute stretch in which Mark Friedman got tangled up and went crashing into the boards in the corner, Kasperi Kapanen tripped up Josh Archibald, who went down in discomfort, Sullivan nearly got blasted with a puck in the neutral zone, and Zucker went down in pain for a few moments after what appeared to be blocking a shot.

Everyone is OK.

• Jeff Petry missed practice due to illness, per Sullivan.

• Marcus Pettersson was excused prior to practice and wasn't out there, either. Sullivan did not provide a reason, though it's worth mentioning he and his wife are expecting their first child.

• Ryan Poehling was also absent from practice. He's continuing to deal with the same nagging upper-body injury that's had him in and out of the lineup over the past couple months. He last played on Feb. 11 in Los Angeles.

• Aside from Petry and Pettersson missing, there weren't any changes to the Penguins' workflow:

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
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel
Mark Friedman - Jan Rutta

Danton Heinen skated as an extra defenseman.

• The power-play units remained unchanged, other than Joseph slotting in on the second unit in Petry's absence.

PP1: Crosby, Guentzel, Rakell, Malkin, Letang

PP2: Carter, Zucker, Rust, Kapanen, Joseph

• It's now 23 games in a row without a point for McGinn. I'm not trying to unnecessarily pile on here, but there are 434 NHL players who have logged at least 280 minutes since Dec. 27 (the first game of McGinn's drought). Of those 434, just two of them haven't recorded a point: McGinn and Jack Johnson.

Yikes.

I'm well aware that McGinn kills penalties and is a positive-impact defensive player, but get Heinen in the lineup. If it's that important for pretty much every member of the bottom six to kill penalties, then let Heinen get some short-handed action. He kills penalties here and there during practice when Carter and Rust are working with the power play, and he has a sliver of experience doing so from his time with the Ducks. It isn't a calling card of his game, but he has a pretty active stick and reads the game well. Can't hurt at this point.

Heinen feels as if he was starting to turn his season around in his most recent stretch of games. He recorded two goals and two assists over a two-game sample on Jan. 24 and Jan. 26., only to play one more game on Jan. 28 before becoming a healthy scratch. He's been out of the lineup in each of the last seven games.

• Hextall and Brian Burke typically take in practice from the perch above on of the benches at the Lemieux Complex, but it was just Burke doing so Wednesday. Hextall remained in his office. 

• The Penguins play again Thursday. It's a 7:08 p.m. puck drop against the Oilers at PPG Paints Arena. I'll be there with Dejan Kovaceivc for your coverage.