Malkin Out "At Least the First Two Months"; Crosby On Track

When the Penguins first announced that Evgeni Malkin underwent successful knee surgery back in June, they said a more definitive time frame for his return would be provided around training camp.
And general manager Ron Hextall kept his word, providing that time frame when the team took the ice on Thursday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

"Geno is not going to play for at least the first two months," Hextall said. "That's where we're at right now."
Hextall also provided an update on the captain, saying that Sidney Crosby is on track with the time frame he was given - a minimum of six weeks - after undergoing successful wrist surgery on Sept. 8.
"Sid has been skating pretty much every day," Hextall said. "He's one hand with the puck, but everything's going well. He's skating hard and he's right on the timeline we gave. Minimum six weeks right now is what we expect."

That news, while not ideal, didn't damper the Penguins' spirits as they officially opened a new season - one that will look much closer to normal than it has in a long time - for their first training camp practice open to the public in two years.
"It's nice to have fans back in the practice rink and just have that excitement for us to be here," forward Jake Guentzel said while speaking with the media in person for the first time since March 2020. "I think we're all excited to get going again, and look forward to a new year."
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan is constantly telling his players to embrace whatever challenges come their way, and they are confident they'll be able to do just that in this situation. Crosby's timeline takes them until at least Oct. 20, meaning he'll likely miss at least four games, while Malkin will obviously miss a few more.
"They're two generational talents, so those guys aren't easy to replace," Sullivan said. "I think that speaks for itself. Having said that, whenever players go down from an injury standpoint, it's going to provide opportunity for others. They need to step up. They've got to take advantage of it. That's the nature of pro sports. So we've got some young guys that we're excited about who have showed glimpses of pretty solid hockey, and we'll see which guys can step up and in contribute to help us win games."
During the offseason, Hextall named a few internal candidates capable of doing just that, including Radim Zohorna - who is the one player that Sullivan specifically mentioned.
"He's a real good player," Sullivan said. "He's got good offensive instincts. He's got a year of pro under his belt now, and he's 25 years old. He has some maturity to him, I think, as well. So that's one guy that comes to mind."
But as Hextall emphasized, the young players have to come in and earn a spot, and that nothing will be handed to them.
"But watching the rookie camp, I think there's a number of young guys that did a good job, and this is a big transition today," Hextall said. "This is a good pace this morning. Obviously guys are bigger, stronger, faster, so it'll be interesting as the days go on who rises and who falls out of the group of younger guys."
With it being the first day, and the 50-plus players invited to training camp

, it's obviously much too early to be reading anything into how the lines look without Crosby and Malkin and where the young guys skated. But for whatever it's worth, here are some of the notable combinations the Penguins used:
Jake Guentzel-Jeff Carter-Danton Heinen
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Brock McGinn
Jason Zucker-Radim Zohorna-Kasperi Kapanen
Sam Poulin-Brian Boyle-Bryan Rust
Dominik Simon-Evan Rodrigues-Nathan Legare
When it comes to crafting these trios at this point of training camp, Sullivan said the main goal is to strike a balance of finding competitive teams to create a competitive environment, which is what the coaching staff told the players in their introductory meeting.
"The line combinations that are out there right now, I would anticipate those changing throughout the course of training camp as we get closer to a semblance of our roster," Sullivan said. "But we're trying to put people in positions to be successful, we're trying to surround some of our younger players with some of our veteran guys that can show them the way."

There is no question that the Penguins will be relying on Jeff Carter in that regard. He immediately became a leader on this team from the moment he arrived, as everyone around him has so much respect for the two-time Stanley Cup champion. And he's prepared to do his part to fill the void both on and off the ice.
"I've been around long enough that I probably know when to say things and when not to, and I'm not going to overstep anybody," Carter said. "I'll do my part to kind of alleviate that pressure, but we're going to need it from everybody. It's going to be a big task for everybody, but I think we'll be fine."
Both Carter and Sullivan think so highly of the other players in the locker room who are going to have to find another level in terms of their contributions to this team. Sullivan named off players like Kris Letang, Bryan Rust, Jake Guentzel, Brian Dumoulin and Jason Zucker as guys who understand the circumstance and understand what is needed from them.
"I don't think it's just vocal, it's going out there on the ice in these practices and these scrimmages and trying to lead by example, through work ethic, through how we want to play the game here and things like that," Rust said. "Hopefully these younger guys, these rookie camp guys and guys from Wilkes, take notice and hopefully follow suit."

As Rust said, you don't finish first in a difficult division for nothing. And these resilient Penguins managed to do that in the East last year despite dealing with an influx of injuries last season as well, including Malkin missing 23 games.
While getting eliminated in the First Round by the New York Islanders was frustrating, to say the least, the Penguins have confidence that they can script a better ending this year.
"Every time you're out in the first round, it's a disappointment for us," Letang said. "We just look forward to training camp, trying to get back into it and start winning, and try to create something that's going to bring us far. I think we all believe in the group we have, and the players we have in our dressing room. Every time we show up in September, guys are pretty pumped to start again."
While the players were hard at work in their respective offseason homes preparing for this year, Sullivan and the rest of the coaching staff were hard at work looking at different aspects of their team game and figuring out new ideas they could bring to the table that will help them improve and get better - while also acknowledging that this group has a special chemistry that can hopefully help drive them.
"We're looking forward to the opportunity to get on the ice with these guys, today being Day 1, and working to improve and get better," Sullivan said. "There were a lot of things we really liked about last year. We won our division, we won a lot of hockey games, we really liked how we became a team in the true sense of the word. We obviously didn't meet the expectations that we have of ourselves, and that's always disappointing for all of us. So we've got to bring that much more hunger and energy and enthusiasm to the table to try and get what we want this year."