Malkin Out for Next Two Games

Here are the updates from the team's first practice coming out of the All-Star break on Monday afternoon at Warrior Ice Arena in Boston.

- Malkin enters COVID-19 protocol
Evgeni Malkin has been ruled out for both games on this road trip - Tuesday in Boston and Thursday in Ottawa - after entering the COVID-19 protocol.
Head coach Mike Sullivan said that during the break - which began on Wednesday, Feb. 2 and went through Sunday - Malkin was symptomatic and reached out to head athletic trainer Chris Stewart about getting tested. The result came back positive.
"My understanding is the symptoms aren't severe, but they were significant enough that that Geno reached out to Stu," Sullivan said. "And so we'll see where it goes moving forward. But that's the timeline. I don't think he can go to Canada, just based on the protocol in Canada."
He may be good to go for Sunday's matchup in New Jersey as the isolation period is now at five days for fully vaccinated players who
meet the required conditions
, but time will tell. It's a tough break for the Penguins superstar center, who has already been sidelined for so much of this season after undergoing knee surgery in June and not making his debut until Jan. 11.
After Pittsburgh's last game heading into the break on Tuesday, Feb. 1 vs. Washington, where he extended his point streak to nine games, Malkin spoke about how
he still wanted to find another level to his game
coming out of it.
"Obviously, we're disappointed. We feel like we're a better team when Geno's in our lineup, that's for sure," Sullivan said. "It's important for Geno to get some traction with his own game having missed the amount of games that he's missed already to this point. But as far as the guys that we will put in the lineup, this isn't anything that that we haven't dealt with all year."
- Other injury updates/workflow
Jeff Carter slotted into Malkin's spot between Brock McGinn and Kasperi Kapanen. Evan Rodrigues moved from wing to third-line center with Radim Zohorna and Danton Heinen, who was a full participant in practice after missing the last two games with an upper-body injury. Sullivan said Heinen will be a game-time decision for Tuesday against the Bruins.
Drew O'Connor, who has missed the last nine games with an upper-body injury, joined his teammates in a limited capacity. Sullivan said he will not play tomorrow, but they are encouraged with his progress.
Valterri Puustinen, Pittsburgh's seventh-round draft pick in 2019, was recalled along with Michael Chaput from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Sullivan raved about the 22-year-old forward after practice, using the words "thrilled" and "ecstatic" to describe how pleased they are with Puustinen's game, overall development and potential moving forward.
"He's a guy that we're excited about that we think potentially can play the game that we're trying to play in Pittsburgh," Sullivan said. "He's done very well in Wilkes. He's got 13 goals now. He's got 27 points in that range. And he's a guy that's playing on both sides of the puck."
Here is the workflow the Penguins used…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McGinn-Carter-Kapanen
Heinen-Rodrigues-Zohorna
Aston-Reese--Boyle-Simon
O'Connor-Chaput-Puustinen
Dumoulin-Letang Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
PP1: Crosby, Letang, Rodrigues, Guentzel, Rust
PP2: Marino, Carter, Kapanen, Heinen, Zohorna
Rodrigues, who ranks second on the team behind Bryan Rust with six power-play goals, returns to that top unit in Malkin's absence. It could be the spark he needs, as Rodrigues has now gone 13 games without a goal after scoring 15 in his first 33. Sullivan said that they've just been emphasizing the importance of playing the game the right way, as it's amazing how opportunities present themselves to guys when they do.
"The puck hasn't gone in the net for him as much, but we believe that it will," Sullivan said. "He's a good player, he's got good offensive instincts. Every time I walk away from a game, and the next day when I'm breaking the film down, I always walk away saying, he makes a half a dozen really good plays that potentially end up either in goals or Grade-A scoring chances for our team. That's the impact that I think E-Rod has on our team."
- Breaking the schneid
The Penguins are hoping to get back in the win column after going 0-1-3 in their last four games prior to the break.
"When you go through stretches like that, we quite honestly don't dwell on it, because we can't control it. It's our job to find ways to have success through the process," Sullivan said. "That's what we tried to do. We're going to continue to do the same thing, and my hope is that we've all had an opportunity to get away from the game a little bit and recharge our batteries, so to speak, and attack this second half of the season with a whole lot of enthusiasm and a whole lot of energy that I think our team is capable of playing with. And when we do, we're at our best."
They had played a lotof hockey in those last two weeks heading in, so Marcus Pettersson agrees that getting a few days to rest and regroup should be huge, both physically and mentally.
"It's a sprint now," he said. "Everybody has had their rest, and just gotta get back at it real quick and not try to ease into it, because that can get away from you. Just back on the horse, and it was a good practice today for us to kind of get back in the pace mindset and the speed of it."