Equipment Boy

At the beginning of December, the boys did a shootout to end practice. It wasn't to decide who had to keep their upper lip fur from November to be
Mustache Boy
- it was to find out who would be "Equipment Boy."

Whoever lost had to wear gear of his teammates' choosing. The final two skaters that day were Sidney Crosby and Brian Dumoulin … with the defenseman ending up as the last man standing. He had to pay the piper at practice on Wednesday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in a getup that the boys got a kick out of.
"I guesshe looked great, in a certain way," the captain said with a smile. "That's something to kind of lighten the mood. That could have easily been me. I was in the finals with him. But he wore it well, and it was fun to see him out there in all the equipment."
Dumoulin said that a lot of the ideas came from Crosby about what to wear. He took the ice to stick taps from his teammates in a festive red jersey, an interesting helmet with a cage visor - "that was definitely the worst part," he said - ill-fitting shinguards and pants, old school gloves, and a Sherwood wooden stick that belongs to Crosby.

"A little short, but he practiced pretty good. So we might all have to go to wood sticks," Crosby grinned.
Tristan Jarry isn't so sure.
"I would say his shot got off the ice a couple times," the goaltender joked. "Not much more than that, though. He looked good. The guys did a good job."
The Penguins have been using these monthly shootouts to add some levity into the grind of an 82-game schedule. "I think it's important," Crosby said. "We've got a long season, and you've got to come out and work. But obviously, you want to have fun too."
Prior to this, defenseman P.O Joseph had to drive the equipment truck, and after this, we'll see what the guys come up with. "I'm usually good for about one a year, so it wasn't a bad one to lose. It could be worse," Dumoulin said. "We'll see what else they come up with for our shootout drills."