Malkin Will Return to the Lineup Tonight in Philadelphia
He has missed the last 23 games with a lower-body injury
By
Michelle Crechiolo
Penguins Team Reporter
"It's exciting," Jeff Carter said. "For the whole team, it's something they've been looking forward to, is getting everybody back healthy and seeing what we got here with a full lineup. That's one guy back. There's a couple more we got to get back, and then we should be looking pretty good."
Malkin suffered the injury back on March 16 against Boston when he collided with Bruins defenseman Jarrod Tinordi, and was given a status of week-to-week.
He skated for the first time on April 7, and joined his teammates in a no-contact fashion on April 20. Malkin then progressed to full contact on April 28, the day the Penguins left for their four-game road trip that started in Washington and will conclude with a back-to-back set against the Flyers.
With Malkin having been sidelined for so long, head coach Mike Sullivan acknowledged that it will likely take some time for the 34-year-old to return to
the level he was playing at
before going down.
"It's hard to simulate game intensity, timing, all of those things in a practice environment," Sullivan said. "The only way you really get that is by playing in an NHL game with NHL intensity. So there'll definitely be an adjustment process from Geno's standpoint, but our expectation is that he plays his game, that he keeps the game simple. And our hope is that with each game that he plays, he's certainly going to get back to his true form that we all love watching."
Sullivan reunited Malkin, who had eight goals and 24 points in 29 games prior to the injury, with Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen during line rushes at today's morning skate ahead of tonight's matchup with the Flyers.
"We had some good chemistry going on when we were both playing, so pretty excited for him to come back," Kapanen said the other day.
It's certainly exciting that the Penguins are getting closer to having a fully healthy complement of forwards for the first time this season, with Sullivan saying he believes that will give them the balance they need to have success when the stakes are high.
That being said, Sullivan and the rest of the Penguins coaching staff will continue to preach the same message regardless of who is in the lineup.
"That's just trying to clarify our team game and our team identity and everybody's contribution to that," Sullivan said. "It takes everybody to win in this league. It's hard to have success when you're just relying on one, two or three players. And our team has shown that over the last few months, it starts with a solid team game, being hard to play against, team defense, and then making good decisions when we have the puck.
"So everybody's got to take ownership for their own respective game, and their contribution to helping this team win."
Here are the rest of the injury updates that Sullivan provided…
- Winger Brandon Tanev, who has missed the last 13 games with an upper-body injury, skated with full contact for the first time but has not been cleared to play yet.
- Forward Evan Rodrigues is still day-to-day with a lower-body injury after taking a shot off the foot and will miss his second straight game.
- Defenseman Mike Matheson is week-to-week after being struck in the face with a puck. Mark Friedman, who has not played since March 4, slotted into his spot during line rushes.
Here is the Penguins' workflow…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Kapanen
McCann-Carter-Gaudreau
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Sceviour
Dumoulin-Letang
Friedman-Ceci
Pettersson-Marino
"We feel like we have the makings of four real solid lines that have an identity to each line and how they how they're going to help us win," Sullivan said. "And now we'll figure out what those combinations will look like based on that."
