{"id":334770,"date":"2025-12-07T09:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T09:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/334770\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T09:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T09:21:10","slug":"malkin-sits-injured-players-close-muse-superstitious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/334770\/","title":{"rendered":"Malkin Sits, Injured Players Close; Muse Superstitious?"},"content":{"rendered":"

FARMERS BRANCH, Tex. \u2014 There was no Evgeni Malkin<\/a> at the Pittsburgh Penguins practice Saturday, but a couple of the injured players were full go on the lines, and former Penguins defenseman and assistant coach Sergei Gonchar made an appearance. <\/p>\n

Malkin was out with a maintenance day, per the team\u2019s announcement before practice began. He was present at the rink and in the locker room during practice. <\/p>\n

Without the second line center, the lines were a little bit jumbled, though perhaps coach Dan Muse<\/a> was preparing for the possibility of not having Malkin Sunday afternoon when they visit the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Arena. <\/p>\n

Rather than a stopgap on the second line, Muse put Kevin Hayes in the middle of Anthony Mantha and Justin Brazeau. Tommy Novak elevated a line, taking Hayes\u2019s spot beside Sidney Crosby<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And in a sign of one of the things the Penguins need to clean up, Muse integrated practice tracking back on rushes with full line drills. <\/p>\n

The top power play also had to replace Malkin for the day, at least. Anthony Mantha jumped to the top unit, and Brazeau rejoined PP2.<\/p>\n

The practice was otherwise uneventful. <\/p>\n

Penguins winger Noel Acciari<\/a> said he felt good after practice, and th evidence was another brisk practice. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they call my number, I\u2019ll be ready to go,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s still unclear whether or not Acciari and Brazeau will be available Sunday. Muse said further conversations with the training staff were required, but acknoweldged the were full go and full contact in the 45-minute practice Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI still need to have some conversations just with our staff, just to get some more updates. You get a good practice like that\u2013I think it was a practice where (they were) able to get a little bit of bumping in there too,\u201d Muse said. \u201cAnd so now \u2026 there needs to be some conversations before I can get any more updates.\u201d<\/p>\n

It certainly looked as if the players would be ready. <\/p>\n

Practice Drills<\/p>\n

Among the drills Muse put the team through was some forms tracking back on defense while the attacking forward tried to score. <\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Lightning scrambled the Penguins defense and scheme Thursday in the Penguins 4-3 win. <\/p>\n

We first asked defenseman Connor Clifton<\/a> what it said about the team that they were able to win a game they should have handily lost. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had goaltending,\u201d he remarked simply. <\/p>\n

But if you\u2019d like a more detailed explanation, Clifton dove deep into the Tampa Bay attack. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think I think Tampa specifically, they gave us a lot of trouble just because they have so much speed,\u201d Clifton said. \u201cThey send one guy out (to the neutral zone), they try to pull us (defense) back, and then they hit that guy and (who) bumps it back to speed (rushers). And then you got Kucherov and Cirelli flying at you. So they\u2019re really good at it, you know, and they got us. They broke our gaps and we weren\u2019t able to kill plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is Superstition?<\/p>\n

Many NHL coaches including the last Penguins coach would almost never change the lineup after a win. It didn\u2019t matter if a player had a terrible night or was merely a stopgap measure. Win and you\u2019re in. <\/p>\n

However, Muse has tossed that superstition aside. Win or lose, the goaltending platoon remained in tact, and players would come in and out of the lineup regardless of the result. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game is different, every game. I think you take things game to game. Am I totally not superstitious?\u201d Muse said before a big smile emerged. \u201cI don\u2019t know. There\u2019s probably a couple little things there, but no, I think you\u2019ve got to evaluate each game.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll ask about his actual superstitions another day. <\/p>\n

Penguins Lines<\/p>\n

Tommy Novak-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust<\/p>\n

Anthony Mantha-Kevin Hayes-Justin Brazeau<\/p>\n

Rutger McGroarty-Ben Kindel-Ville Koivunen<\/p>\n

Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari\/Boko Imama<\/p>\n

Defense<\/p>\n

Parker Wotherspoon-Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n

Ryan Shea-Kris Letang<\/p>\n

Ryan Shea-Matt Dumba\/Connor Clifton<\/p>\n

Goalies:<\/p>\n

Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: Dan Muse<\/a> Evgeni Malkin<\/a> Penguins Practice<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized: Penguins Practice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FARMERS BRANCH, Tex. \u2014 There was no Evgeni Malkin at the Pittsburgh Penguins practice Saturday, but a couple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[86604,56347,385,82778,1790,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-334770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-dan-muse","9":"tag-evgeni-malkin","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-penguins-practice","12":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}