In the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first practice since a grueling five-game cross-country road trip, their defensive pairs looked a little different Friday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
While the top pair of Parker Wotherspoon and Erik Karlsson remained intact, Sam Girard skated with Kris Letang, and Ryan Shea skated with Connor Clifton. That left Ilya Solovyov and Ryan Graves on a spare pairing.
Girard has missed the past five games because of injury, but coach Dan Muse confirmed Girard was a full go Friday.
Muse was noncommittal about whether Letang and Girard would be deployed together Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets.
“Taking a look at it here in practice,” he said. “(We’ll) firm things up when it comes to the game and how we want it to look. … We’ll have some conversations.”
Letang and Girard played some together after Girard was acquired from Colorado in late February and before Girard got hurt.
“He’s one of the best,” Girard said of Letang. “I was watching him growing up, so it’s pretty fun playing with him. He helps me a lot out there.”
Graves, who is on IR, just returned from a conditioning assignment in the AHL.
Defenseman Jack St. Ivany, who appears to be healthy or close to it after hand surgery in January, also was at practice but he spent part of the session working out separately.
Before practice, forward Filip Hallander (blood clot) skated.
The forward lines remained the same:
Rickard Rakell-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Egor Chinakhov-Tommy Novak-Evgeni Malkin
Anthony Mantha-Ben Kindel Justin Brazeau
Egor Soderblom-Connor Dewar-Noel Acciari
Tags: Defensive pairs Pittsburgh Penguins Shelly Anderson
Categorized:Pittsburgh Penguins