3 Things: Schultz okay after crosscheck
1. Schultz okay after crosscheck
Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz skated after he left in the third period of Thursday's game following a crosscheck from Dustin Brown.
"I feel fine," Schultz said. "Everything went well out there, so I'm good to go. I was pretty nervous at first, luckily all the tests went well and a good day on the ice today. I'll be ready to go tomorrow."
On the play, Schultz had fallen to his knees facing the boards and was completely defenseless when Brown skated up and leveled him from behind, sending his face into the dasher.
The Kings forward received a five-minute major and a game misconduct, as well as a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety this afternoon. However, Brown did not receive a suspension, merely receiving a fine of $10,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA.
"The league deals with that, I'm not going to comment and start anything," Schultz said. "It is what it is. I'm not hurt, so that's alright. I'll be back next game."
Evgeni Malkin also received disciplinary action for a play in the game. He was fined $5,000 for spearing Brown in the first period.
2. Pens monitoring workload
The team stayed the night in Los Angeles following their 3-1 win over the Kings and had an 11 a.m. flight to San Jose this morning. When they landed, one bus went to the team hotel while the other took Schultz, Jean-Sebastien Dea, Daniel Sprong, Ian Cole, Chad Ruhwedel, Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith to the Sharks' practice facility for a skate.
The Penguins have been taking advantage of every opportunity they have to get rest, especially since entering the second half of the season. For this California swing, they've only had one full practice - on Tuesday in Anaheim - and will finish the trip without having held a morning skate for any of the three games.
"We're obviously trying to monitor our workload and for example, this particular week, we're in the middle of three games in four nights," head coach Mike Sullivan explained. "We just had back-to-back games, two pretty tough games against two really good teams. To give them an opportunity to recover today, we felt as though it was really important so that we can be at our best tomorrow."
3. WBS streaking
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins extended their season-best winning streak to 8 games with a 4-1 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Wednesday.
Arguably the most impressive part of that streak is that a number of WBS' top forwards and both goaltenders they started the season with are currently with Pittsburgh: DeSmith, Jarry, Dea, Sprong and Dominik Simon.
Talking with Dea, who made his season debut on Thursday centering Tom Kuhnhackl and Ryan Reaves, he credited the entire organization from top to bottom for making it easy on guys to slot in wherever they're needed.
"The whole organization does a great job, starting in Wheeling," Dea said. "When guys come up they're ready to play so it makes everything easier. In Wilkes we had good guys down there who work hard. That's the way we play here in the Pittsburgh organization. We work hard and skate. So that's why, I think. All three groups of players on the teams make a big group and everybody works hard and helps each other. Every time guys get called up and stuff, they're ready to go and they know what to do."
It also helps that WBS head coach Clark Donatelli, who is one of the absolute best people in the game, and first-year assistant coach Tim Army do a tremendous job of finding that balance between development and winning.
"They're the best, obviously," Dea said with a smile. "You look at Clarkie, you can't ask for a better guy to make you feel comfortable. Always there to talk to you and make sure you're comfortable. Obviously they're doing a really good job down there."
