Malkin's Presence Provides a Boost

Here are the 3 biggest takeaways from Friday's practice at PPG Paints Arena.

1. Malkin's presence provides a boost

After the Penguins finished doing line rushes, they all collapsed at the net trying to score on Tristan Jarry. All of the guys were hooting and hollering as they did so, but Evgeni Malkin's voice rose above them all. Afterward, he skated over to the boards and playfully bumped into Kris Letang, then stood there animatedly chatting with his longtime teammate.
"It must feel really good for him, just being around his teammates, being in the room," Letang said. "It's always a good thing. Geno is a vocal guy around us and he makes the atmosphere in the locker room a lot lighter."
Malkin, who has missed the last 18 games with a lower-body injury, participated in the session wearing a white no-contact jersey. It's the second time he's joined his teammates in a non-contact fashion after also doing so in Tuesday's morning skate.
"The fact that he's practicing like he is with the group right now suggests he's that much closer to returning to the lineup, and I think our guys are excited about that," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "When Geno's in our lineup, we're a better hockey team. We all feel strongly about that. And when he's on the ice and joining practice the way he is. I just think it gives our team a whole other level of enthusiasm and a whole other level of confidence that we have the makings of a pretty good team."
Forward Freddy Gaudreau, who has missed the last five games with a lower-body injury, also participated in the session wearing a white no-contact jersey. Forward Brandon Tanev, who has not played since April 3, skated on his own with skills coach Ty Hennes before practice.
"He's making progress," Sullivan said. "To this point, status hasn't changed with anybody. It's just continuing to go through the process here."

2. Blueger showcasing offensive side

Teddy Blueger has at least one point in five of his six games played since returning to the lineup on April 11 after missing 13 contests with an upper-body injury.
He also has goals in three straight, most recently scoring shorthanded in the Penguins' 5-1 win over the Devils on Tuesday. It was his third such tally of the year, which is tied for second in the NHL.
The fact that Blueger managed to not only help kill a penalty, but also found the back of the net while doing so, is a perfect example of how he's been contributing at both ends of the ice.
"I think he's a real cerebral center-ice man," Sullivan said. "He sees the ice well on both sides of the puck. I think his offensive game has really grown in the time that he's played here in the NHL, and we think it's only going to get better. We're real happy with the traction he's made on the offensive side, and I think everybody's well aware of how solid he is defensively."
Sullivan mentioned Blueger's poise with the puck, saying that in addition to showing the ability to score himself, he finds people in good areas of the rink that usually results in scoring opportunities. That's exactly what Blueger did to set up Kasperi Kapanen's goal in the second period.
Blueger held the puck along the wall and hit Kapanen with a perfect no-look pass as he streaked through the neutral zone and scored in his return to the lineup after missing 13 games with a lower-body injury.
After starting that game on the fourth line with Colton Sceviour and Mark Jankowski, Sullivan did have Kapanen take some shifts with Blueger and Aston-Reese. And that's where Kapanen took rushes today at practice.
"Our intent going in was to try to manage his minutes, to move him around the lineup based on putting him in a position to do what he does best while also helping the team," Sullivan said. "I thought he had a real strong game, starting from the first shift. He had a few moments in the game where he had some extended shifts and I tried to give him opportunities to recover from them, but other than that, we thought his conditioning was pretty strong."
Here's the Pens' workflow…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McCann-Carter-Zucker
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Kapanen
Sceviour-Jankowski-Rodrigues
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Ceci
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel

3. Jostling for position

With only nine games remaining in the regular season, the Penguins are making a final push to finish first in the division and earn home-ice advantage.
"That's the biggest point for me, is to be able to start a series in your building and be able to set the tone right from the first two games," Letang said.
The Penguins are 7-3-1 in their last 11, and after last night's win, moved into second in the East with 63 points. The Capitals sit atop the division with 64 points, the Islanders stand third with 63 and the Bruins round out the top-four with 60 points.
Of those teams, the Penguins have two games remaining against Boston and two against Washington, all taking place over the next week. But first, they have to finish out their three-game series against New Jersey Saturday afternoon, and that's all they're focused on right now.
"You just take it one game at a time," John Marino said. "We know what we need to do. We know how tight the race is right now and how important every game is going to be, especially these. Whether it's one or two points, we need everything we can get. We do have some big games coming up, but we have a big game tomorrow we have to take care of first."