Penguins' Notebook: Muse Backs Carlile, Kindel Practices With First PP Unit

CRANBERRY, Pa. — The Pittsburgh Penguins have lost three games in a row for the second time in this young season, so they got back to work during Wednesday's practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

And, whether surprising or unsurprising, they trotted out nearly the same lineup that has been iced for those last three games.

The only change to the lines Wednesday came on the forward front, with Evgeni Malkin - who missed Tuesday's gut-wrenching 3-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights with a lower-body injury - entering back into the the fold on the second line with Ben Kindel and Egor Chinakhov, while forward Andrei Kuzmenko rotated in.

However, despite the recall of young left blueliner Jake Livanavage Tuesday and the struggles of the Penguins' back end, there were no changes to the defensive unit.

Sam Girard and Erik Karlsson remained together on the top pairing, as did Spencer Stastney and Kaedan Korczak on the second. And the third pairing of Declan Carlile and Kris Letang remained the same, too.

It's no secret that Carlile, who is a minus-10 on the season and has been at the scene of the crime for multiple goals against in recent games, has drawn the ire of Penguins' fans. On Vegas's game-winning goal Tuesday, Carlile failed to disrupt Tomas Hertl at the net-front, who netted the power play tally with just 38 seconds left in regulation. 

But, when asked by King Jemison of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Carlile remaining in the lineup, head coach Dan Muse stood firmly by his 26-year-old defenseman, who he says is doing a lot of good that's going unnoticed.

"If you go through the goals against, there might have been one that we had him marked down in terms of being on him," Muse said, quite curtly. "Either that or last night's was the first one. And, so, those things are there. But if you want to put blame on him, I think it's a misstep by you and by everybody else because there's also some other things he's doing really well.

"And he's a guy who played 40-something NHL games prior to this year. So, he's come in here, [and] is he taking on bigger responsibilities? He is. Is that part of it? Is that something that sometimes players need in order to grow and to get better? It is."

Other notes from Wednesday's practice:

- In other news, the Penguins worked on special teams - as they typically do at the end of practices - and it looks like a change has been made on the first unit. 

Center Ben Kindel took the place of Ville Koivunen on the top unit, with Koivunen sliding down to the second. The Penguins' power play went 0-for-6 against Vegas, including a botched 5-on-3 attempt with a tie game near the end of regulation that was a minute and 22 seconds long. And that could have secured the Penguins two points. 

Kindel simply wants to help be a faciliator on a power play with as many weapons as the Penguins possess.

"Just play my game," Kindel said. "Try and help the unit as best I can, win pucks back, make plays, just kind of try and facilitate when I can."

He also spoke on the unit as a whole, which, despite the most recent results, may be turning a corner. 

"I think it's definitely had its ups and downs," Kindel said. "But, I think, at least, recently, I feel like we've been consistently generating chances. That's all we can do. Sometimes, the puck's not going to go in. But it's more about just controlling what we can control. We've been doing that. 

"I mean, even last game, we didn't score, but I thought it looked really dangerous. But, it's obviously a big part of the game, and we've got to put the puck in the net."

- Late-game losses are a big topic of discussion right now, but as Muse pointed out in the postgame Tuesday, they're happening in a lot of different ways. 

Captain Sidney Crosby agreed Wednesday that there is not much commonality between the late losses despite them happening with alarming frequency this season. 

"Obviously, they're different," Crosby said. "I mean, one's a power play goal that they get that we had the opportunity on the 5-on-3 that we don't convert, and they score. The other one is just a late goal. So, I don't really see any similarities there other than the fact that it's a late lead that we gave up."

- The Penguins play Thursday's game against the Boston Bruins before heading on the road again Friday ahead of a three-game California road swing. They will return home to face the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 14, and they will have a four-day gap between home games to allot for more practice time. 

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