3 Things: Injury Updates, Marino in COVID Protocol and Workflow

Here are the 3 biggest takeaways from the Penguins' Thursday practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

1. Updates on Letang, Matheson and Aston-Reese
In some much-needed positive news on the injury front, Kris Letang (lower-body), Mike Matheson (upper-body) and Zach Aston-Reese (shoulder surgery) were all on the ice.
"Certainly nice to have some guys participating," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "Tanger obviously participated in full capacity today, so did Mike Matheson and Zach Aston-Reese. Right now their status is still day-to-day, but that's certainly encouraging.
Letang left in the first period of Pittsburgh's 5-4 overtime win against the Rangers on Saturday, Jan. 30 and missed the second game of the series on Monday, a 3-1 loss. While Letang said he would not go into specifics about the injury, the 33-year-old defenseman did say he felt good and was able to join team practice after skating on his own in the morning.

Matheson has been out longer-term, missing the last eight games after suffering an upper-body injury in the second game of the season on Jan. 15 at Philadelphia. It's always a difficult circumstance to get hurt, but especially when you're trying to get adjusted to a new team after a shortened training camp.
"I feel good. It's been nice to get back to practicing with the team," the 26-year-old defenseman said. "It's always tough being away from the team when you're injured, especially coming to a new team like this. Obviously, I wanted to come in and have an impact and start off on the right foot. This caused me to have some patience and be able to sit back and watch a bit of hockey for a while, which I tried to take advantage of and continue to learn in that sense."
Matheson said it will be up to the training and medical staff as to when he'll be cleared to return, but feels like he's making significant progress.
"I think I'm getting close to 100%, and that gives me a lot of confidence," Matheson said.

Meanwhile, Aston-Reese has yet to play this season after undergoing left shoulder surgery on Aug. 17 and getting a six-month recovery timeline.
"I feel pretty good," Aston-Reese said. "I've been skating for the last two months with (skills coach Ty Hennes). I think we've put a lot of work in, so I don't really have anything lingering from surgery. It honestly feels better than when it did before."
Aston-Reese said he had a shoulder injury right before playoffs his first professional season, which was the catalyst for ultimately needing surgery.
"It kind of just weakened over the last two years," Aston-Reese said. "It was something I was having to deal with. It was adding a little hesitation to my game. And I just finally needed to take care of it."
There is no timetable for Aston-Reese's season debut, but the 26-year-old forward said when he does return to the lineup, he needs to bring a physical two-way game. It's what made his line with Brandon Tanev and Teddy Blueger so successful for the majority of last season.
"I think I might have gotten away from it in playoffs a little bit last year," Aston-Reese said. "I've been pretty good defensively, but being able to chip in offensively I think is going to help a lot, and just playing physical every night. That's something that the bottom-six needs to bring and I'm hoping to bring that every night."

2. Marino in COVID protocol
Defenseman John Marino was absent after being placed on the NHL's COVID Protocol Related Absences List on Wednesday.
Per the NHL, that can be the result of a number of factors including, among others: an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed; mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals; required quarantine as a high-risk close contact; isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol.
"Players are on that list for a number of different reasons, and that's all that I can comment on with respect to that," Sullivan said.
Marino, 23, had anchored the top pair alongside rookie Pierre-Olivier Joseph on Monday and logged a career-high 30:44 of ice time.
Additionally, defensemen Marcus Pettersson (upper-body, longer-term), Juuso Riikola (upper-body, longer-term), Brian Dumoulin (lower-body, week-to-week), Zach Trotman (knee surgery) and forward Evan Rodrigues (lower-body, longer-term) all remain out.
3. Workflow
Here is the workflow the Penguins used…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Kapanen
McCann-Blueger-Tanev
O'Connor-Jankowski-Lafferty (Sceviour rotated in)
Letang, Joseph and Ruhwedel rotated
Matheson-Ceci
Czuczman-Weber
They also used the following power-play units:
1) Letang, Crosby, Malkin, Rust and Guentzel
2) Joseph, Kapanen, Zucker, McCann and O'Connor