The Penguins held a full morning skate. Here's everything you need to know...
- Casey DeSmith was the first goalie off, and will get his second straight start between the pipes after a 33-save performance in Pittsburgh's 3-2 overtime win against Nashville on Sunday. Head coach Mike Sullivan said that decision was partly due to his play, and partly to give Tristan Jarry a bit of a rest.
"Casey played really well the other night," Sullivan said. "He's gotten better with every game that he's played here over the last couple of months. We're obviously trying to manage Tristan's workload, and this gives us an opportunity to do that. And so that's part of the reason why we did what we did."
- Winger Brock McGinn will return to the lineup after missing the last 15 games with an upper-body injury. He sustained the injury blocking a shot on March 11 vs. Vegas.
"Those are the things you got to do," he said. "And maybe sometimes that's the consequence, but I'm happy that everything is going smoothly. The trainers did a good job just with my rehab and making sure everything went well."
- Meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin will come out of the lineup as he serves the first of his
four-game suspension
given by the NHL's Department of Player Safety for cross-checking Predators defenseman Mark Borowiecki. Sullivan said that while the Penguins felt the suspension was "a little bit heavy," they certainly respect the league's decision.
"I believe we have a deep enough lineup that we can certainly put line combinations together that can help us have success," Sullivan said. "It's going to provide opportunities for other guys to step up and play more significant roles."
Here is the workflow that the Penguins used...
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Carter-Rakell
Rodrigues-Blueger-McGinn
Heinen-Boyle-Kapanen
Matheson-Letang
Dumoulin-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
(Pettersson-Malkin)
