The three-day holiday break was a much-needed hiatus and reset for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who had won just one of their previous 10 games and are 3-5-4 in the month of December.
And it also appears to have offered space for some injured Penguins to heal and, ultimately, rejoin the team.
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Centers Blake Lizotte and Evgeni Malkin – who were both placed on injured reserve back on Dec. 9 – both skated on Saturday. Malkin skated on his own prior to team practice, and Lizotte was a full participant in practice, including slotting in at fourth-line center during line rushes.
Both players have been sorely missed in the Penguins’ lineup, as the team is 1-5-4 in the 10 games that they have missed Malkin and 1-5-3 in the nine since Lizotte went down.
With Lizotte appearing primed for a return – potentially, on Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks – it will be a welcome thing for a team that has struggled defensively as of late.
“I think it starts with just that energy he plays with,” head coach Dan Muse said. “I mean, it’s contagious. And I think he’s able to, because of the way he plays, a lot of times, he’s creating momentum for our team. Whether it’s the way he tracks and strips, or just stays on pucks, blocks shots… he does a lot of little things there that go a long way and that are greatly appreciated in the locker room.”
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Lizotte also figures to rejoin a fourth line that was creating a lot of momentum for the Penguins prior to his injury, as they are able to hone a lot of the details on both sides of the puck to generate chances and help dictate play.
“The way they’re able to create momentum in different ways,” Muse said. “Sometimes, it’s blocking a shot in the d-zone, their ability to get in on the forecheck… and I think just being able to recover pucks off the forecheck, also create off the forecheck. There’s an energy there when they’re going. They’re also a line that they’ll start in the d-zone a lot – and in the o-zone – which is always a big benefit.”
Muse said there is nothing new to report on Malkin and that he is “status quo.”
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– The Penguins’ lines and pairings largely remained the same despite the team’s uneven effort in a 6-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 23. Lizotte slotted back in for Hayes, but the top-nine remained intact – as did the defensive corps:
Forwards
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha – Tommy Novak – Justin Brazeau
Rutger McGroarty – Ben Kindel – Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar – Lizotte – Noel Acciari
(Danton Heinen, Kevin Hayes)
Defensemen
Parker Wotherspoon – Erik Karlsson
Brett Kulak – Kris Letang
Ryan Shea – Jack St. Ivany
(Ryan Graves-Connor Clifton)
Goaltenders
Stuart Skinner, Arturs Silovs
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– The holiday break probably came at just the right time for the Penguins, as their December hasn’t quite gone the way that they had hoped. Despite their recent struggles, though, they still only remain three points out of a playoff spot, but they are also just three points out of the basement of the Eastern Conference.
The break, hopefully, gave them a chance to reset and build off of some of the momentum they seized during their shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 21 and during some of their finer moments in the loss against the Leafs.
“Hockey is weird that way,” Justin Brazeau said. “When I first came back, the Dallas game and then the Anaheim game, for 59 or whatever it was minutes of it, was pretty good hockey. I thought we were doing a lot of good things, and stuff like that [last-second goal] can kind of take the confidence and stuff out of the group.”
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Brazeau also said that, despite the recent stretch of games, the locker room is still very much intact and focused on getting back to the game that worked for them earlier on in the season.
“There’s no panic setting in,” Brazeau said. “I think we all think we can get back to the way we were playing. And in a lot of those games, too, they’re losses, but we were up by three or four goals going into the third. So, we were obviously doing things the right way leading up to that, we just kind of maybe took the foot off the gas a little bit. I think that’s a mental thing, too, where it’s like, it happens one game, and then the next game, it happens again, and it’s kind of like, ‘oh boy, here we go.’
“I think the locker room’s been great. It helps when you have guys like Sid and stuff around who have kind of seen it all throughout their careers. They’ve seen the highs and the lows, and I think it’s about staying as even-keel as possible.”
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