tristan-jarry-practice-sidekick

Here are the 3 biggest takeaways from the Penguins' Monday practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

1. Tanev week-to-week
Head coach Mike Sullivan said Brandon Tanev will be week-to-week with an upper-body injury, confirming that it occurred during Saturday's 7-5 setback to Boston.
Tanev left briefly during the first period of that contest, but returned to finish out the frame and subsequent remainder of the game. It's another tough break for the tough winger, who had returned to the lineup for the Bruins series after missing six games with an upper-body injury.
Defenseman Juuso Riikola, who has been on Pittsburgh's active roster and practicing with the team, did not skate with them today as Mark Friedman (upper-body, 16 games missed) joined the group. Neither did forward Anthony Angello, who was re-assigned to the taxi squad on Saturday. Forward Frederick Gaudreau, who was also re-assigned to the taxi squad on Saturday, did take part in the session. So did forward Radim Zohorna, who was re-assigned to the taxi squad this morning.
Sullivan also said that forwards Evgeni Malkin (lower-body, nine games missed) and Kasperi Kapanen (lower-body, five games missed) are still progressing with their rehab off the ice and did not skate today.
2. Jarry feeling "100 percent"; Blueger making steady progress
In some positive injury news, goaltender Tristan Jarry and center Teddy Blueger were full participants in the practice.
Jarry said he feels "back to 100%" after leaving Pittsburgh's 2-1 win over the New York Islanders following the first period on March 29 with an upper-body injury. He did not dress for Pittsburgh's next two games against Boston, with Maxime Lagace backing up Casey DeSmith, but returned to practice on Saturday.
"I feel really good out there," he said. "I think it was a good couple days of practice and being able to work with (goalie coach Mike Buckley) and the coaching staff and just get ahead on things. I think it'll translate into my game."
Jarry said exiting the game was more for precautionary reasons than anything.
"(The medical and training staff) didn't want it to get any worse, and I think it was just the right time and the right moment to do it," he said. "So it was just something that the staff decided and I was okay with it."

Jarry speaks with the media

Meanwhile, Blueger said he feels like he's been making "pretty steady progress" in his recovery from an upper-body injury that has held him out of the lineup for the past 10 games.
"Heading in the right direction," he said. "It feels great to be back out there with the guys and practicing with the full team. Obviously fortunately with Ty and the taxi squad, I've been able to get more ice time, so that's helped a lot too. I do feel pretty good out there."
This is the first significant injury Blueger has dealt with at the NHL level, so he's not sure what to expect when he does step back in, but will try to get back into a rhythm as soon as possible.
He praised his teammates - especially his fellow forwards, as the front end has been decimated with injuries after the blue line dealt with an influx at the start of the season - for the job they've done to keep the Penguins climbing up the standings.
"All the injuries are coming in at the same position, so it's definitely tough and unfortunate and those things are kind of out of your control," he said. "And we just try to kind of have a next-man-up mentality. Obviously, the guys have been playing great and guys have been stepping in and filling in really, really well. We just got to keep battling, and hopefully we get more and more guys back as soon as possible."
3. Workflow
With Tanev out and Angello not skating, the bottom-six looked different. Here are the lines and D-pairs that the Penguins used…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-McCann-Rodrigues
Aston-Reese-Gaudreau-Lafferty
Zohorna-Jankowski-Sceviour
Blueger rotated in for Zohorna on the left wing the second time through.
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Ceci
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel