He said they do have ballpark dates in mind of when they think Malkin and Kapanen will be available from a full-participation standpoint, which is the next progression from here.
"Obviously, when they get to this stage of the rehab process, every day we get feedback on these guys and where they're at, and we try to make the best decisions accordingly," Sullivan said.
Back on April 12, general manager Ron Hextall said he anticipated Kapanen would be back in about 10-14 days - with today marking Day 8 - and that Malkin should return before the end of the regular season. But regardless of when they actually do rejoin the lineup, just having them around today was a big boost for their teammates.
"Seeing them out there is really good for us," Zach Aston-Reese said. "Geno was flying today, Kappy as well. They're two guys that are just going to add to our offense, and we're excited to get them back soon."
2. Aston-Reese helps design military warmup jerseys
Helping design the military green warmup jerseys for tonight's Military Appreciation Game was a much bigger undertaking than Aston-Reese anticipated.
"Yeah, it was tough," Aston-Reese said. "They sent me all the materials and a sewing machine, and the last couple weeks I've just been hard at work."
At that point, Aston-Reese couldn't keep a straight face any longer.
'I'm just kidding. It was more of a collaboration," he said.
Pro Knitwear, the Penguins' jersey vendor, reached out to Aston-Reese about assisting with the process with since he has an undergraduate degree in graphic design from Northeastern and has contributed to other projects before (like
designing the cover for the Penguins' St. Patrick's Day program
in 2019).
"I just gave them different ideas and things like that, and they sent me some concepts," Aston-Reese said.
From there, Aston-Reese sat down with Penguins director of communications Evan Schall to determine what the final design should be.
They went through a few versions, and ultimately decided to have each jersey represent each of the six branches of military: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard.
Each player got to pick their branch, with the requisite patch on the shoulder along with the motto on the back nameplate. For example, it will say AIM HIGH for the Air Force rather than the player's last name.
"There were some things we couldn't do because of time constraints, but overall, pretty happy with what we did," Aston-Reese said.
3. Pens react to Marleau's NHL record
Patrick Marleau passed Gordie Howe for most NHL games played when the Sharks forward reached No, 1,768 on Monday against Vegas.
The majority of those games have come with the Sharks, as he has appeared in 1,596 games over 21 seasons with the franchise. But Marleau also played 164 games with Toronto, and of course, eight games with Pittsburgh after being acquired at the trade deadline last season.
