Everyone held their breath, even if just for a moment.<\/p>\n
Roughly 25 minutes into practice Thursday in Cranberry, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin crashed into the wall after colliding with a teammate.<\/p>\n
Of all the players on this roster who could least afford any kind of mishap, it was the oldest player on the team who, at 39, has labored through a productive but challenging regular season with a creaky left shoulder and who knows however many other wonky body parts.<\/p>\n
But Malkin recovered to his skates, completed a drill and returned to the bench.<\/p>\n
After yelling something in jest at his teammates with his booming bass voice, Malkin chuckled then got a playful back rub from athletic trainer Brandon Mazza.<\/p>\n
Nothing could dampen the mood of the Penguins on this day.<\/p>\n
After all, they\u2019re a playoff team.<\/p>\n
For the first time in four years, the Penguins held a practice in preparation of a postseason game in mid-April.<\/p>\n
Instead of wearing golf shirts, shorts and baseball caps while answering questions about potentially being traded, who the next general manager might be or playing for Sweden in May\u2019s IIHF World Championship tournament, the Penguins sat in their locker stalls in their gear and discussed the power play, the composition of the third line and playing the rival Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSid will be in soon, guys,\u201d the media-shy Malkin quipped as he quickly vacated the dressing room once reporters were granted access.<\/p>\n
Answering queries about the postseason instead of the offseason was far more agreeable to the constitution of Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWay better,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cThis is what you play for, is the opportunity to compete for the Stanley Cup. And I think after some years not being able to do it, I think you appreciate it even more. The regular season\u2019s done, so everyone starts fresh here now, and everybody\u2019s excited for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time the Penguins had this opportunity was in 2022 when Ron Hextall was the general manager, Mike Sullivan was the coach and Louis Domingue made pork and broccoli a popular dish in Western Pennsylvania for a few days.<\/p>\n
After an overtime goal by New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin gave his team a 4-3 win at Madison Square Garden in Game 7 of a first-round series May 15, 2022, the Penguins entered a three-year stretch full of long, uncertain summers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t been fun,\u201d Penguins forward Bryan Rust said of the past three offseasons. \u201cThey haven\u2019t been fun to go home and watch Game 1s, see the crowds and see the excitement from the couch.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be back in the mix and be part of that, for everybody\u2019s that\u2019s been here, I think we\u2019re all really excited for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also exciting? Playing the rival Flyers in the first round.<\/p>\n
Frankly, the Penguins could be enthusiastic to be playing just about any opponent in the playoffs given the doldrums of the past three years. But getting the Flyers is something of a chef\u2019s kiss for this group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more about emotion,\u201d Letang said. \u201cEmotion that you get coming to the game. Saying \u2014 when I came into the league \u2014 playing (the Arizona Coyotes) versus Flyers, there was no difference, it would have been wrong. It\u2019s always special.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brings another dimension, another element.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time in three years, the Penguins are in another place.<\/p>\n
The playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to get in the playoffs and play,\u201d Letang said. \u201cAnd play for something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone held their breath, even if just for a moment. Roughly 25 minutes into practice Thursday in Cranberry,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-589376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589376","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=589376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}