3 Things: Kapanen Update, O'Connor Practices and More
1. Kapanen on track
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan provided an update on winger Kasperi Kapanen, who missed the team's first two games of the season after his arrival in Pittsburgh was delayed due to immigration issues.
Kapanen is in the process of completing a mandatory seven-day quarantine process with testing on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 before he can be cleared to rejoin the team, per the NHL's COVID-19 protocols.
Kapanen received his first COVID-19 test on Sunday, Jan. 10, which was Day 1. That means today marks Day 7, and Sullivan said he is on track to complete the process soon.
"His final COVID test as part of the protocol and the quarantine period was today, and as long as that result comes back in a favorable fashion for us, then that's when he technically can join the team," Sullivan said. "So we'll make decisions once we get that result, and we'll get him involved as quickly as we can."
2. O'Connor practices
Rookie forward Drew O'Connor, who had been practicing with the taxi squad, skated with the main group this morning.
He rotated on a line with Jared McCann, who had a hearing with NHL Player Safety for elbowing Philadelphia's Travis Sanheim in Friday's game and was ultimately fined $10,000, the maximum amount allowable under the CBA.
"We think Drew had a real strong camp, and we think he's performed extremely well on the taxi squad up to this point," Sullivan said. "So that was one of the reasons why he joined practice today."
The Penguins put a full-court press on O'Connor after they started hearing rumors that he was considering leaving Dartmouth following his sophomore season. They loved his unique skillset, as O'Connor is a powerful skater with size (6-foot-3 and 200 pounds) and scoring touch (38 career goals in 65 career games).
"I know our hockey ops department did their homework on Drew," Sullivan said of the 22-year-old New Jersey native. "We knew he was a good player coming in. You can see his physical stature. He's a big kid. He's strong on the puck. He's a good skater. He has good poise. So he has a lot of the attributes that can potentially really translate into being a good pro."
And O'Connor, who was loaned to the Manglerud Star of Norway's Eliteserien League before returning to Pittsburgh for training camp, is doing everything within his power to become a good pro. O'Connor said when he's at his best, he's playing around the net, getting loose pucks and trying to finish opportunities there.
"I think it's been a challenge for everybody, but especially a young guy who hasn't played any games yet," O'Connor said earlier in training camp. "Just trying to do everything I can every day to keep improving. I was fortunate to be able to go overseas and play in Norway for a bit to get some games in this fall. So I think that was helpful for me. I think I'm kind of feeling a little more comfortable every day out there."
3. Workflow
The Penguins practiced with the same lines and D-pairs they used on Friday in Philadelphia (with the exception of O'Connor rotating with McCann):
Guentzel-Crosby-Rodrigues
Zucker-Malkin-Rust
O'Connor/McCann-Jankowski-Tanev
Lafferty-Blueger-Sceviour
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
Riikola-Ceci
