Penguins Tweak Fourth Line at Practice

As the Penguins look to start getting results after losing three in a row and five of their last six, they tweaked the fourth line at practice on Thursday before flying to California for a three-game road trip that begins Saturday in San Jose.

Vinnie Hinostroza skated on Noel Acciari’s right wing with Matt Nieto remaining on the left, while veteran Jeff Carter skated on the extra D-pairing with P.O Joseph. Here is the full Penguins workflow:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust

Smith-Malkin-Rakell

O’Connor-Eller-Zohorna

Nieto-Acciari-Hinostroza

Graves-Letang

Pettersson-Karlsson

Shea-Ruhwedel

As for what Hinostroza brings to that line, speed is definitely his biggest contribution.

“I think he utilizes it on both sides of the puck, but he’s a real good pursuit guy with his tenacity and just playing on top of defensemen,” Sullivan said. “He’s another one of those guys that I think, just with the speed element and his anticipation skills, he has the ability to make it hard on our opponent’s defensemen – on breakouts, for example.

“He has good offensive instincts. He’s got some scoring touch. He’s a guy that I think checks hard… and he’s a real good pursuit guy with his tenacity.”

Hinostroza had earned a call-up from the American Hockey League a few days ago because, as Sullivan put it, “Vinnie was playing the best.”

The 29-year-old forward had picked up two goals and four points in five games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Starting down there after an extremely competitive training camp allowed Hinostroza to regroup and just get back to believing in himself and not overthinking the situation.

“This is like my ninth year now, so I think there's never surprises in this sport,” he said. “You just got to take it with a grain of salt and just go to the rink every day and work hard and do your job. That tends to be when good things happen. When you tend to overthink it and pout about it, that’s when you kind of fall behind. So, take it day by day, and try to get better.”

Hinostroza – who’s accumulated 53 goals, 95 assists, and 148 points in 360 career NHL games – felt like he did that during his time in WBS, and is ready to go if he does get the call to step in at any point in the near future.

“I feel comfortable with where I’m at now and played a lot of minutes, so I feel like my body is ready to go, and just looking forward to getting that opportunity,” Hinostroza said. “You don't know what's going to happen here, but I’d be really excited (to get in), obviously. It's my goal to help this team win and play as many games as I can. So, if I'm able to step in there, I'll be prepared.”

The Penguins will practice again on Friday before returning to game action after four full days between contests, as their schedule has been light for the first month-plus of the season. This trip will last about nine days, and the guys feel like it’s coming at a good time considering where they’re at right now.

“It should be good. I think we need to go, clear our minds, have a little bit of fun and things like that, be together as a group,” defenseman Ryan Graves said. “We've been home a lot, and obviously, it's great to be at home with your families, but you don't spend as much time together as a team. So, it'll be nice, especially since we have so many new guys. Being a new guy myself, it'll be a good chance to really get to know guys on a personal level and things like that, which helps.

“As far as hockey goes, we're looking to get wins when we go there. It's unfortunate where we are right now. If you look at the way the games have gone, it's not like we're getting outplayed. We’ve played some good hockey, just have to find ways to get wins out of the good hockey.”