Team splits in two groups during Wednesday's practice to focus on active recovery and additional on-ice work, respectively
Team splits in two groups during Wednesday's practice to focus on active recovery and additional on-ice work, respectively
After earning their fourth straight win in a gutsy effort against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins had only a select few players on the ice for Wednesday's practice.
With two consecutive days off, head coach Mike Sullivan is trying to manage workloads, giving his top players with larger outputs of ice time and workload some "active recovery" and those with a little less ice time some additional on-ice work.
"We had a group of players that had a formal active recovery off the ice, and we had a group of players that went on the ice," Sullivan said. "A lot of it was just based on workload, cumulative workload over the course of games, and then workload in the short-term. Some guys, we felt, needed more touches on the ice, and some guys, we felt, it was a good opportunity to get them an active recovery off the ice leading up to a back-to-back stretch here coming up."
The Penguins have a tough three games ahead, as they will square off against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Friday before coming home to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. And then, on Tuesday, they face the Colorado Avalanche at home.
Although the Penguins have had difficulty with beating teams ahead of them in the standings, they have done so in their last four games. And their most recent win against the defending Stanley Cup champions is giving them a boost going into this tough stretch of games.
"I think (Florida) is a good 'measuring stick' team, is what people like to call them. They're one of the best in the league," forward Blake Lizotte said. "So, for us to come out and win... maybe in a fashion we'd prefer otherwise... but, nonetheless, it's two points against a really good team. They expose areas that you need to work on, I think it was a great measuring stick for us to, kind of, see where we're at. And we're not far off from potentially being a good team in this league. It's exciting, but it also shows us we've got a lot of work to do."
Just a few other notes from Wednesday's practice:
- I asked Sullivan about Rickard Rakell's defensive work this season. Rakell had three blocked shots against Florida - he is third among Penguins' forwards in blocked shots this season with 28 - and one of them led directly to Marcus Pettersson's goal, as Rakell blocked the shot and then floated a breakout pass to Sidney Crosby while still on the ice.
He and the Penguins have been very impressed with Rakell's game this season:
We will see if he cracks Team Sweden for the 4 Nations Tournament. Full rosters will be announced today.
- Today, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony is taking place in Pittsburgh. Former Penguins and Stanley Cup champions Kevin Stevens and Matt Cullen are among the inductees, and Sullivan spoke on their importance to both USA hockey and the Pittsburgh Penguins' organization.
"I think it's a great moment for them, and I couldn't be happier for either one of them," Sullivan said. "They're both great people, and they're so deserving of this accolade with their body of work in the league, what they represent, and what they accomplished. But, in Pittsburgh, in particular, and what they mean to the city of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Penguins... I think it's so appropriate that the ceremony is here in Pittsburgh."
He went on to say Stevens was one of the best power forwards of his generation, and that Cullen had a lot of influence on the locker room in the Penguins' back-to-back runs in 2016 and 2017.
Congratulations to both of them and to all of the 2024 inductees.
- The beef between Owen Pickering and Cody Glass continues to crack me up.
It's relentless. Glass walked into the locker room after practice, and Pickering chirped him immediately with repeated chants of "Nice practice, Cody!" They went on to argue about dinner invites, whether or not Glass goes grocery shopping, Pickering ignoring Glass in the postgame after scoring his first NHL goal against Florida, music streaming choices, TV shows, Game of Thrones, summer chirps, etc, etc...
This is a continuous saga that is quite entertaining. I plan to do a player profile for Pickering on Friday. We'll see if anything else comes out then.