Penguins Practice Updates: 12.13.21

Here are the biggest takeaways from Penguins practice on Monday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex following a day off on Sunday.

1. Injury updates
Both Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel skated before practice in full gear with player development coach Matt Cullen, who is making his monthly appearance in Pittsburgh. Rust has missed the last eight games with a lower-body injury, while Guentzel suffered an upper-body injury last Monday in Seattle and is week-to-week.
Meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin, who has been skating with the Penguins in a non-contact fashion since Nov. 29, worked on the other sheet of ice for half an hour before joining his teammates for their session.
He did not participate in line rushes, but did do some reps on the second power-play unit, and Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said Malkin continues to get closer to his season debut after undergoing knee surgery in June.

"Geno's making really good progress," Sullivan said. "We're encouraged by it. So every week, the limitations are less and less, and that's real encouraging. Rusty and Jake are making progress as well.
"So all three of them were on the ice. They're at where we expected them to be. We'll see where it goes moving forward. They're all tracking the way our medical team had anticipated, and our hope is that they just continue to make progress."
2. Lines and D-pairs
The Penguins stuck with the same workflow they've used for the past two games with Guentzel sidelined, a 4-2 victory in Washington on Friday and a 1-0 shutout of Anaheim on Saturday:
Rodrigues-Crosby-Kapanen
Zucker-Carter-Heinen
Aston-Reese--Blueger-McGinn
O'Connor-Boyle-Simon
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
3. Defending with a vengeance
The Penguins go into Tuesday's matchup with Montreal having won four straight games despite being without some of their best players, which means there are a lot of positives to take out of the team's play right now. But what's particularly notable is that the Penguins have given up just four goals over that span.
And in the bigger picture, the Penguins are the NHL's third-stingiest team, giving up an average of 2.44 goals-against per game. Sullivan said that what stands out to him is how the players have been committed to defending the scoring areas - what they call "the good ice" - with a vengeance, a sentiment that's shared by goaltender Tristan Jarry.
"I think we're just going out there with a collective effort," Jarry said. "The guys are doing a great job blocking shots, and I think that's something that we wanted to step up coming into the season, just having a lot more blocked shots this year and being able to limit shots on net."

Jarry also said that the players are doing a great job of getting pucks out of their zone quickly, which is something that's been a big help to him and Casey DeSmith, who are going above and beyond to communicate with the blueliners as best they can in order to make that happen. Defenseman Chad Ruhwedel credited the boys between the pipes for both their play and their decision-making.
"Obviously it starts in our net, our goalies are playing lights out right now," Ruhwedel said. "It's so nice as a defenseman when they're just swallowing pucks, making good plays on goalie handles and making our lives easier. Then once we're playing better, playing more confident, it goes back the other way."
Ruhwedel summed up the feeling between the defense and goalies in a way that paid homage to his California roots:
"I think we're vibing right now," he said.