Letang excited to be back in playoffs with Penguins

Kris Letang's nerves are back. That means he's back too, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in the hunt for the first time in two years.
"It's the best time of the year," the Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman said.

The Penguins will play Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Philadelphia Flyers at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS). It will be Letang's first playoff game since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 12, 2016, when the Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks to win their first championship since 2009.
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"You don't even have to think to raise your game a level, it's automatic," Letang said. "Everything is on the line. It's so fun."
Letang had to watch the fun from the sidelines and the press box last season, when the Penguins won their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship, only this time without No. 58.

Letang had neck surgery prior to the start of the playoffs. He was ruled out for the duration of the playoffs on April 13.
The Penguins did everything they could to make Letang feel like he was a part of their run. The coaches made him an extension of the staff by welcoming him into film study sessions. He announced the starting lineups before games. He was always around, always visible.
He just couldn't play. That was brutal.
"You realize when you go through those things, sitting at home, not playing, that it's not that great," Letang said. "All year you work on different things with your team, and this time of year is when all the fun starts."
Letang had to work hard to get to this point. His journey, in fact, started long before he was ruled out of the playoffs last year.
Letang traced his neck injury to a hit he took from Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan 2:50 into the first period of Game 1 in the 2016 Eastern Conference Final. Callahan drove Letang into the boards from behind, slamming the back of his neck.
He returned to the game later in the first period and didn't miss any time for the remainder of the playoffs. But he realized his neck wasn't right once it was time to rest.
"All summer, I couldn't move," Letang said.
Letang returned for training camp at the start of last season and did what he could to stay in the lineup, including getting injections every two to three weeks in Pittsburgh and flying to New York on off days for treatment.
"I tried everything," he said.

Until he just couldn't do it anymore. Letang didn't play after Feb. 21 last season. He missed Pittsburgh's final 23 regular-season games, then had surgery in April and was done.
Getting back was harder than he thought it would be.
"I got cleared to work out in July, so I didn't get much time," Letang said. "I skated the last week of August, came to training camp and boom, I was pushing myself to go through more exhibition games, to play 25 minutes. But once you get into the real season, your body is not there. It took time. I didn't think it would be that way, but I learned the hard way."
Although he was selected to play in the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game, Letang looked like a shell of himself for most of the first half of the season. His defensive game was off, inconsistent. Back-to-back games, he said, were killing him.
He had 28 points (three goals, 25 assists), but he was minus-13 despite being having a 54.95 shot-attempts percentage (SAT) through 48 games at the All-Star break. There were glaring errors that led to Grade A scoring chances against.
"I was putting up the points, but just defensively and sustaining consistency playing against first lines every night, it was just too hard," Letang said. "It looked like I didn't have it, like I was not there mentally and physically."
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was undeterred. He kept running Letang out there, giving him the toughest assignments, playing him in every situation.
Letang led Penguins' defensemen in ice time per game (25:31), power-play ice time per game (3:36) and shorthanded ice time per game (2:46) at the All-Star break.
"I just believe in him," Sullivan said. "I think he's an elite player. He wants to do everything he can to try to help us win. We knew when he'd come back off a difficult surgery and rehab process that he was out for such an extended period that it wasn't going to happen overnight and that we were going to go through some growing pains again. Kris and I had that talk before training camp started, but our coaching staff just believes in him. I felt It was important that we continued to show faith in him through the ups and downs."
That faith is paying off.
Letang had 23 points (six goals, 17 assists) in 31 games after the break. He was plus-4 and had a 55.30 SAT. The defensive breakdowns were few and far between. His consistency level was strong.

"My body is used to it," Letang said. "I kept working on it and [Sullivan] kept sending me out there. He knew eventually I was going to get back to it."
Letang is back in it now, the playoffs, the Cup hunt.
"I would live just for April to June," Letang said.