1. Letang, Rust take contact
The biggest news at practice was that both Kris Letang and Bryan Rust skated for the first time wearing full-contact jerseys.
Head coach Mike Sullivan has not ruled the pair out for this weekend's games against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday and the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.
"That's obviously the last step, they were both full contact today," Sullivan said. "We'll see how they respond. Right now their status is the same, it's day-to-day."
Letang has missed nine games after suffering an upper-body injury against the Philadelphia Flyers during the NHL Stadium Series at Lincoln Financial Field on Feb. 23.
"I've been skating forever," Letang admitted. "So my conditioning is there, that's for sure."
"He plays every situation for us," captain Sidney Crosby said of Letang. "It's good to see him out there with us. It's always a big step."
Rust has missed the last seven games after suffering a lower-body injury against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Feb. 26.
"When I first got injured, it didn't feel very great then," Rust said. "It's something I'm taking day-by-day now, and hopefully it's sooner rather than later."
2. Defense raising their game
With Letang, Olli Maatta and Chad Ruhwedel being out for an extended period of time now due to injuries, the defensive core has had to step up in their absence.
Three defensemen (Erik Gudbranson, Justin Schultz, Marcus Pettersson) all played 20-plus minutes against Buffalo. Those three, along with Brian Dumoulin, also logged 20-plus minutes against Washington on Tuesday.
Having the defense step up in Letang and Maatta's absence has been key in the Penguins last three victories.
"They understand it, they've been through so much," Sullivan said. "The ups and downs that inevitably this league presents to teams and players, they've had the benefit of that experience and that perspective. This group of veterans we have are an accomplished group. They tend to elevate their own respective games when the stakes get high, and they've certainly done that over the last few weeks."
3. Power Play
It seems that the Penguins' power play units are back to their usual selves after their recent success in their last two games. After some tinkering over the past few games, it seems that Pittsburgh is going back to the top unit that ranked No. 1 overall in the NHL last season - which features their explosive forward group and one defenseman.
The units for today's practice were the following:
Unit 1: Justin Schultz, Phil Kessel, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist.
Unit 2: Marcus Pettersson, Kris Letang/Zach Trotman, Dominik Simon, Nick Bjugstad and Jake Guentzel.
The power play helped the Penguins defeat Washington on Tuesday as it went 2-for-4 in their 5-3 victory.
On Thursday, the power play shined once again as it scored three power-play goals in a 5-0 defeat of the Buffalo Sabres.
