Penguins Practice Updates: October 28

The Penguins practiced on Monday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex after a travel day on Sunday. Here’s all the updates from the session:

Rust being evaluated

Bryan Rust was the only absence after suffering a lower-body injury in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to Vancouver. The star winger hopped off the ice and had to be helped down the runway after being angled into the boards by Canucks forward Nils Hoglander. He did not return to the game.

“Rusty is being evaluated as we speak,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ll have more clarity once he goes through the process with the doctors.”

Nieto, Lizotte skate with the group

The Penguins had a couple of new faces join the group for the first time this season.

Forward Blake Lizotte, who signed a two-year deal in free agency after spending the first five-plus seasons of his career with Los Angeles, participated in a no-contact fashion. He had gotten a concussion during the Hockeyville preseason game after being struck with a puck while sitting on the bench.

Forward Matt Nieto was full contact after undergoing successful reconstructive MCL surgery on his left knee on May 2. It’s been a long road to this point for the 31-year-old, who also inked a two-year contract in the 2023 offseason. His last game action came nearly a year ago, on Nov. 22, 2023.

"Yeah, it's not easy when you're not playing and kind of on a different schedule from the guys, you don't feel part of the team in a way,” Nieto said. “So, yeah, just extremely tough and difficult. But everyone here's been awesome with me, the staff, the guys. Put a lot of work in this summer to be in this position. Just happy to be back out there. It’s an exciting day.”

Nieto said he’s been skating for about 6-7 weeks now and that this is just the next step in his recovery process. The expected recovery timetable was around 6-7 months.

“I think we're just making sure I hit the steps necessary to keep progressing, and we feel like I'm in a good spot to start some contact and join some team practices,” Nieto said.

Two-Head Monster joins forces

With the Penguins 3-6-1 on this young season after grabbing just one point during their four-game Canadian road trip, the coaching staff decided to put Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the same line during rushes.

"They're pretty dynamic players. We're trying different combinations to see if we can create a spark for the group,” Sullivan said. “We've had a number of different combinations here the first little while in the early part of the season, and given the circumstance we're in and where we are right now, we thought we'd give it a try in practice today and see what it looked like.”

Sullivan has actually deployed Crosby and Malkin on several occasions through these first 10 games outside of the power play, more so than any other year in his time with the Penguins. For example, Crosby and Malkin had a fair amount of time together in the third period against the Canucks. They’ve also gone over the boards together following icings, and whenever the coaching staff felt like the Penguins needed to create momentum or generate offense.

“Obviously, they're generational talents, both of them,” Sullivan said. “When they're potentially out there on the ice at the same time, that could pose a particular threat. We thought we would give it a shot. We'll see where it goes."

For Crosby’s part, he’s happy to do whatever gets the Penguins back on track after a tough road swing.

"I mean, whatever's going to translate into wins. I think that's whatever the combinations are,” the captain said. “So, yeah, I don't think we change anything other than hopefully with losing some here, we find another level of desperation, urgency and find a way to get back in the win column."

Here are the lines and D-pairs:

Malkin-Crosby-Rakell

Beauvillier-Hayes-Puljujarvi

O’Connor-Eller-Acciari

Bunting-Glass-Puustinen

Pettersson-Letang

Grzelcyk-Karlsson

Graves-St. Ivany

“We've got to establish more structure on both sides of the puck and for me, that's been our challenge,” Sullivan said. “Our coaches are committed to trying to provide that structure on both sides of the puck to set players up for success. I just don't think we've had enough sufficient structure, on either side of the puck, to set all of our players up for success. That's where we've got to get to. That's what we're trying to work towards."