3 Things: Last Practice Before Playoffs

Here are the 3 biggest takeaways from Saturday's skate at PPG Paints Arena.

1. DeSmith day-to-day; Malkin doesn't do rushes
Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith did not skate after leaving yesterday's practice midway through the session.
DeSmith appeared to be in pain after making a save during special teams work, and was slow to get up before heading down the runway into the locker room.
"He is dealing with a lower-body injury," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "His status is day-to-day."
He confirmed that DeSmith's current injury is related to the one that kept him out of the lineup for the last three games of the regular season.
If DeSmith cannot go for Game 1 on Sunday, Maxime Lagace - who became the first goaltender in Penguins history to
post a shutout in his team debut
in the regular-season finale - will likely back up Tristan Jarry.
Sullivan said that all other players who participated in practice will be game-time decisions, including Evgeni Malkin. He took the ice early for a second straight day to skate on his own with skills coach Ty Hennes, and then stayed out for practice with the team.
However, Malkin - who played in the final four games of the season after missing 23 contests with a lower-body injury - did not do line rushes or work with the first power-play unit. Sullivan wouldn't get into specifics into his current status.
2. Workflow
Here's how the Penguins' lines looked without Malkin…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McCann-Carter-Kapanen
Zucker-Gaudreau-Rodrigues
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Tanev
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Ceci
Pettersson-Marino
If Carter is called upon to slot back as the second-line center, he said he feels completely confident in filling that role.
"I think from Day 1, I've been with Jared. Besides that, I've mixed in with Zach and Kappy and Freddy, so I've had my fair share of guys so far," Carter said. "Whatever happens here over the next little while and whatever the lines may be, I feel comfortable out there."
McCann, who led the Penguins with seven man-advantage goals during the regular season, slotted in on the first power-play unit with Letang, Crosby, Guentzel and Rust. The second unit was Marino, Carter, Kapanen and Zucker, with Matheson and Rodrigues rotating.
3. Ready to go
The Penguins last played a week ago, when they hosted Buffalo on Saturday, May 8.
It would be a long layoff regardless of the situation, but factor in the anticipation of waiting for the playoffs to open tomorrow with Game 1 against the Islanders set for noon at PPG Paints Arena, and the players are chomping at the bit to get going.
"I think obviously with a little bit of extra time here, you can't get lackadaisical, so to say," McCann said. "You got to stay in the mindset. I feel like our coaching staff and even our trainers have done a good job of kind of keeping our legs moving with practice and workouts and stuff like that, so we feel ready to go and we have to be for puck drop, obviously."
Sullivan said they tried to use these past few days as an opportunity to get some rest and recovery, along with some much-needed practice time they didn't have a lot of during the regular season.
"I think we've handled it as best we can," Sullivan said. "We can't control it, so we're just going to try to react to it the right way. And we tried to utilize the time as best we could to keep our team ready and prepared. Some of our guys that have been banged up have had an opportunity to recover. We tried to utilize the practice time to get better in certain areas. And we built in some scrimmages so that we did have game-like action. And for me, I look at it in a positive way. I think it's going to help us moving forward."
Having such an early puck drop is a little bit unusual, but Carter said he's actually a fan of afternoon tilts.
"For myself, personally, I've always enjoyed them," Carter said. "You get up, you eat, and you go play. There's no messing around, there's no waiting all day to get it going, it's kind of wake up and go. I'm looking forward to it."