Guentzel, who was previously considered week-to-week and missed the last five games, was first hurt when he took a shot off the hand from defenseman Adam Larsson in the first period of their 6-1 win over the Kraken.
"Just blocking a shot and it got me in the right spot. Not really much I could do," Guentzel said. "It was right on the knuckle there, so it was kind of just a little fracture."
That night, Guentzel scored twice and added an assist to extend his career-long point streak to 13 games - collecting 11 goals, seven assists and 18 points over that span. That also gave him 15 goals in 24 games, which is impressive in itself, but even more so when you consider that Guentzel started the year with just one tally in his first seven outings.
"Obviously was playing well, but you know injuries are part of the game and they're going to happen sometimes," Guentzel said. "You've just got to deal with it and take it in stride and make sure you're doing everything you can so that when you get back, you're ready to go and keeping it going."
The same goes for his line as a whole. Guentzel and Bryan Rust - who has missed the last 11 games with a lower-body injury and is also close to a return - skated in their usual spots alongside Sidney Crosby during rushes and are hoping to pick up where they left off.
"I thought we were gaining some chemistry and gaining some traction there," Guentzel said. "I thought maybe for the start of it, we would have liked to have been a little bit better, but we know we have chemistry together and when we're all playing well, that we can be a really good line in this league. So I think for us, we just got to get that back and get that mindset that we're a good line, and we'll have fun with it."
Like Rust, Evgeni Malkin was also a full participant
for the second straight day. He rotated on the fourth line with Kasper Bjorkvist, one of four players assigned to the
temporary taxi squad
from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Goaltender Louis Domingue and defenseman Juuso Riikola also practiced, but blueliner P.O Joseph did not after Sullivan said he tested positive for COVID this morning.
That means Joseph joins goaltender
Tristan Jarry
, defensemen
John Marino
and
Mike Matheson
, and forwards
Teddy Blueger
, Evan Rodrigues and
Dominik Simon
in the protocol. Sullivan said the players who had entered before today are all status quo.
"Nothing's changed with respect to their symptoms, or lack thereof, from yesterday," Sullivan said. "Most of them are all asymptomatic. A couple of them have very mild symptoms. So we're fortunate in that regard."
This was the workflow the Penguins used…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Heinen-Carter-Kapanen
Aston-Reese-O'Connor-McGinn
Malkin/Bjorkqvist-Boyle-Lafferty
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Ruhwedel
Riikola-Friedman
