Crosby, Dumoulin Confirmed Positive for COVID

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan announced on Wednesday that Sidney Crosby and Brian Dumoulin have confirmed positive for COVID-19.

"They are in the COVID protocol right now," Sullivan said following the team's practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. "To this point Dumo has been asymptomatic. Sid has displayed mild symptoms."
It's a particularly difficult situation for the captain, seeing as he had just made his season debut in Pittsburgh's last game on Saturday against New Jersey after being sidelined for several weeks following wrist surgery.
"I'm sure he's discouraged," Sullivan said of Crosby. "He's worked extremely hard to get to this point, and we were all so excited about getting him back in the lineup and just getting him back in the fold. This just puts another roadblock in front of it. But we'll control what we can here. We've got capable people. And we're hopeful that Sid will return soon."
Meanwhile, Dumoulin's absence means that Pittsburgh's defensive depth continues to get tested, as both Marcus Pettersson and Chad Ruhwedel remain in the protocol after the team announced on Sunday that they had also confirmed positive for COVID-19.
"They have shown mild symptoms, but are at this point improving, which is encouraging from our standpoint," Sullivan said. "Chad was able to ride the bike yesterday, so he's starting to exercise again. Marcus is in the same circumstance; his symptoms are improving. So we're just trying to monitor these guys through the process, and try and help them in any way that we can."

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."

Sullivan said they will visit with Letang and the medical staff and see how he responds to today's session, and make a decision tomorrow about whether or not he is ready for game action after missing the last four contests. The team went 1-3 in that span, versus 2-0-2 when Letang was in.
"He's a big part of our team and he brings a lot of energy," winger Kasperi Kapanen said. "You guys have seen him long enough; you know he's a tremendous player. So we're happy to have him back."
Winger Bryan Rust also skated with the team wearing a gray no-contact jersey. He has missed the last six games with a lower-body injury after leaving in the third period of Pittsburgh's 5-4 overtime loss to Florida on Oct. 14.
Rust mixed in during line rushes and on the second power-play unit. Here is the Penguins' workflow…
Guentzel-Carter-Heinen
Zucker-Rodrigues-Kapanen
Aston-Reese-Blueger-McGinn
Lafferty/Simon-Boyle-O'Connor
Matheson-Letang
Joseph-Marino
Riikola-Friedman
PP1) Letang, Carter, Kapanen, Guentzel, Rodrigues
PP2) Riikola, Zucker, Heinen, Simon, O'Connor
"As I always say to the guys, the positive sign is when a couple of guys are out, it means other guys are in," Sullivan said. "It's going to give guys an opportunity to, I think, to step up and make a positive impact on the team. They're going to play a more significant role, they're going to be given an opportunity to try to help move this team forward, and everybody's got to get excited about that opportunity."