Erik Karlsson returned to Penguins practice on Monday.
The Pittsburgh Penguins practiced for almost an hour and a half on Monday.
It was another high-spirited practice, during which head coach Dan Muse put his team through it. He wants everyone ready to go for Thursday's game against the New Jersey Devils, which will come three weeks after their last game against the Buffalo Sabres.
Every healthy player was on the ice, except for Sidney Crosby, who was coming back from the Olympics. He's also still banged up, and the Penguins don't have an update on him yet. The Penguins are off on Tuesday, so an update on his status for this week may not come until Wednesday when they return to practice.
Crosby was injured during Team Canada's quarterfinal game against Czechia and missed the semifinal against Finland and the Gold Medal loss to the United States.
Erik Karlsson returned to practice on Monday and was paired with his usual defensive partner, Parker Wotherspoon. It was Karlsson's first practice back after representing Sweden at the Olympics.
Rickard Rakell and Arturs Silovs, who also went to the Olympics, were back at practice on Sunday.
Avery Hayes was a full participant at practice after being called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Monday morning. He was on the top line with Rakell and Bryan Rust.
Here is what the forward lines looked like:
Hayes-Rakell-Rust
Chinakhov-Malkin-Novak
Mantha-Kindel-Brazeau
Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari
Kevin Hayes was the 13th forward.
Defensively, the Penguins showcased Wotherspoon-Karlsson, Kulak-Letang, and Shea-Clifton. Ryan Graves and Ilya Solovyov were listed as the fourth pair.
Muse had the Penguins go through several 5v5 drills. He also set aside time for a lot of special teams work and some 6-on-5 work.
The Penguins will have three games this week to jumpstart the stretch run of the 2025-26 season. After Thursday's game against the Devils, the Penguins will play the New York Rangers on Saturday and the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
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