Kapanen Progresses to Full Contact

Here are the 3 biggest takeaways from Wednesday's practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

1. Kapanen progresses to full contact
Winger Kasperi Kapanen took another big step in his recovery from a lower-body injury, as he was a full participant in today's session.
"Today was my first day with the team. I feel good, I feel like myself," he said.
While contact can be hard to come by at this time of year, Kapanen said he doesn't feel like that will be an issue for him.
"To be honest, I think every hockey player's kind of used to the contact," he said. "I don't think that's going to be much of a problem for me."
Whether he and fellow injured forward Evgeni Malkin were skating on their own with skills development coach Ty Hennes or with the taxi squad, Kapanen said there's been some physicality and battle drills in the corner.
"So everything feels good," he said.
Kapanen has missed the last 13 contests after getting hurt on March 24 against Buffalo. From there, he was labeled as week-to-week, and right now, he is nine days into the 10-14 day timetable for a return to play that Penguins general manager Ron Hextall provided at the trade deadline.
While the Penguins will do their best to get Kapanen's timing and conditioning up to speed, one obstacle to that is limited practice time with the condensed schedule. The Penguins play four games over the next six days, but only have one practice because of afternoon start times and a required day off.
"So it's not an ideal environment, and there's not going to be an ideal time when we give Kappy the nod and put him back in the lineup," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "But when that time comes, he's going to have to get some of the conditioning and the timing through the games to a certain extent. And we'll try to manage that as best we can."
While it may be a bit of a challenge, Kapanen is still chomping at the bit to come in and pick up where he left off, as he was playing some of his best hockey before going down.
"I feel like I was playing my game and I was doing the little things," he said. "I'm going to come in with a lot of energy. I've been watching a lot of games now, and you never want to do that. So hopefully, I'll be back soon."
Malkin, who has missed the last 16 games with a lower-body injury, did not practice with the team today. He did skate with the taxi squad beforehand. He and Kapanen joined the team in a non-contact fashion for Tuesday's morning skate.
2. Holding each other accountable
On Tuesday against the Devils, the Penguins became the first team in NHL history to win a game in which they were outscored by five goals in the third period. They entered the frame with a 6-0 lead, and exited it with a 7-6 lead.
After the game, Sullivan said he would need some time to digest what went wrong. And this morning, he gathered his players and spoke with them for about 10 minutes before the whistle blew to start practice.
He shared the coaching staff's thoughts on how they could improve and what they could learn so that type of a circumstance doesn't happen again. And while the specifics of the conversation will stay within the group, the gist of it was that they need to hold each other accountable to playing the game the right way.
"We're looking for a response where we play the game that gives us a chance to win regardless of who our opponent is," Sullivan said. "It has to do with a certain level of competitive spirit and then a discipline to details and a collective effort. And when that takes place, I think we're a real good hockey team."
Sullivan said everything that went wrong last night was more symptomatic of the mindset than anything. So if they get back to that tomorrow night against New Jersey, they'll be just fine.
"That's really the most important aspect, I think, and that was part of some of the discussion we had with the players," he said.
3. Workflow
Here are the lines and D-pairs that the Penguins used…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McCann-Carter-Zucker
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Rodrigues
Sceviour-Jankowski-Lafferty
Kapanen rotated in on the third and fourth line a couple times.
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Ceci
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel