Sullivan admitted that it's been tough for the team to have so many players get the virus - eight total including Kris Letang, Jeff Carter, Jake Guentzel and Zach Aston-Reese - when they're doing so much to mitigate the risk, like taking on more responsibility with testing and things of that nature to keep the players and their families as safe as possible.
"But I said to them last year, we can do all the right things and still get it. And that's the reality, I think, of the world we live in right now," Sullivan said. "It's not an easy thing to put your finger on. I still think everybody's trying to figure it out, quite honestly.
"Kids are going to school every day, our players have kids, and they're trying to live their lives as best they can. And that's all we can do. We're trying to control what we can, we're trying to mitigate the risk as best we can, and then we're just going to react accordingly the best way we can."
And while the Penguins will be without some key players in their next game on Thursday versus Philadelphia, they will hopefully have their franchise defenseman back in the lineup. Letang joined the team for practice after completing his own COVID-19 protocol, where he experienced "pretty much all the symptoms" during the first 4-5 days before starting to improve.
"I had congestion, headaches, pressure in the forehead, coughing, loss of taste and smell, body aches and pain in the lower back," Letang said. "After that, it was getting better and better every day."
Letang couldn't do a whole lot from an exercise standpoint, initially because he was so tired and fatigued during those first 4-5 days. From there, he had to complete all of the necessary medical tests and screenings before getting cleared.
He first stepped onto the ice at the end of practice on Monday. Letang then skated on his own for an hour-and-a-half on Tuesday at what he called a pretty high intensity, before going through a full practice today.
"I felt like yesterday I cleared up all the bad stuff inside me, and today I felt really good," Letang said. "So I wouldn't say I'm where I want to be, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get there pretty quick."