After signing a two-year contract extension following a tremendous finish to last season, the 28-year-old goaltender had gotten hurt in a preseason appearance on Sep. 30 in Detroit. He called it “just a weird play off the half wall.”
“The puck came back out the same side, wasn't expecting it, and it was just kind of a bang-bang play,” Nedeljkovic continued. “The muscle didn't kind of feel right, so a little sore for a couple days there. We wanted to be a little careful with it, not let it linger throughout the rest of the season.”
He credited Penguins director of high performance Marty Lauzon and the staff for keeping him on a set plan, and making sure that Nedeljkovic didn’t stray from it.
“Because there were a few days there where I was pushing for a little bit more,” Nedeljkovic said with a smile. “But no, the whole staff was great.”
Now, Nedeljkovic said he’s feeling back to 100%, and is joining the Penguins for their four-game road trip through Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver that begins Sunday against the Jets. Head Coach Mike Sullivan said the Penguins brought all three of their goalies – Nedeljkovic, Tristan Jarry and Joel Blomqvist – on the swing.
Nedeljkovic said there’s different ways to look at the situation, but his view is that there are three guys deserving of the net that are pushing each oher every single day.
“Joel obviously has made it a very difficult decision for the staff to see which way we go,” Nedeljkovic said of the 22-year-old rookie, who was an AHL All-Star last season in WBS. “So, it's not a negative on anybody. It's not a knock on anything. It's just, he's playing really well. And right now, we want to win. We need points, and the best guy that's going to give us the best chance to win is going to get the net.
“So, I mean, it's not ideal when it comes to practice, but we've got plenty of ice before and afterwards to work on things. So, you know what, it is what it is.”
As for the skaters, the coaching staff made some adjustments at Saturday’s practice. Michael Bunting was the odd man out. When asked to assess his play thus far, Sullivan said, “I think our expectation is higher.” Valtteri Puustinen slotted in up top, while Ryan Shea did so on defense.
Here’s how they lined up:
Beauvillier-Crosby-Rust
O’Connor-Malkin-Rakell
Puustinen-Eller-Puljujarvi
Hayes-Glass-Acciari
Grzelcyk-Letang
Pettersson-Karlsson
Graves-Shea
(Bunting-St. Ivany)
