Crosby took part in the entire session, which marked his first team practice since leaving in the second and final period of the Penguins' first intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday (July 18). He had been skating on his own since Wednesday. No injury update has been provided per the current NHL Return to Play protocol, which says clubs are not permitted to disclose player injury and/or illness information.
"It's always a good sign and a relief when you see your top player step on the ice and participate in the entire practice with us," Kris Letang said.
Crosby will speak to the media following Saturday's fourth and final intra-squad scrimmage of Phase 3 training camp, which will be the last time the Penguins take the ice before heading to Toronto on Sunday.
With Crosby taking part in line rushes and Patric Hornqvist back in the fold after being held out of the first week for precautionary reasons, we got our first look at the workflow with everyone present. Here's the lines and D-pairs the Penguins used:
Guentzel-Crosby-Sheary
Zucker-Malkin-Rust
Marleau-McCann-Hornqvist
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Tanev
(Lafferty, Rodrigues)
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Johnson-Schultz
Riikola-Ruhwedel
"I wasn't here for most of it, but the injuries that this team has gone through this entire year and still being able to succeed and have other guys pull the weight and step up in those situations has been incredible," Jason Zucker said. "They're definitely no strangers to having guys out, but it's definitely nice to have a full lineup. Especially when you get a guy like Sid back and practicing with you. You got to make sure you let him know. But yeah, everyone is excited and got to give him some crap with it, too."
Crosby also practiced on the power play. All of the Penguins power-play personnel who got reps today set up on one side of the ice to work on plays without pressure. The first unit was Letang, Crosby, Malkin, Guentzel and Rust. After a while, Schultz and Hornqvist replaced Letang and Rust.
Before today, McCann had been practicing on that top unit when Hornqvist and then Crosby were out, and had done really well. It's a testament to the Penguins' depth that they have so many players they can spread out between both units.
While Letang said he's happy with how the special teams have looked thus far, they'll be able to get a better gauge of where they're at in Tuesday's exhibition game against Philadelphia.
"It's tough to know where they're at right now, because our power play is playing our own PK that we know so well. Same for them," Letang said. "But I think overall, we showed this year that we can be really dangerous on the power play but we can also be really good on the PK and make a big difference in a short series. We're working hard right now. I think the intensity, the attention to details are there. We're going to keep working and playing games is how we're going to build our confidence and try to get better."
