Penguins Make Adjustments on Defense

The Penguins practiced on Wednesday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex before flying to Boston, where they’ll play the Bruins on Thursday. The coaching staff experimented with some shuffling on defense for both injury and performance reasons.

It started when John Ludvig was placed on injured reserve this morning after being scratched for last night’s game, and Sullivan said the rookie defenseman will be out longer-term with an upper-body injury. Ludvig had played in 18 straight games after recovering from the concussion he sustained in his NHL debut on Oct. 24 versus Dallas. In his absence, P.O Joseph slotted in for the first time since a three-game stint from Dec. 12-16.

Joseph started on a pairing with Chad Ruhwedel before spending some time next to Erik Karlsson, which is where he practiced today. Ryan Graves moved out of the top-four for the first time this season, rotating with Chad Ruhwedel and Ryan Shea. The pairing of Marcus Pettersson and Kris Letang remained intact.

“I think we have a good group of guys, and everybody gets along on a personal level, which is the most important thing,” Karlsson said. “Wherever you get slotted in with or whatever happens during a game, someone goes down or things change, I think that everyone is fairly comfortable with each other. The more time you get together, the easier it gets.”

Karlsson felt like he and Joseph were able to move the puck well together, and Sullivan said P.O had a strong game, especially not having played for a while. It’s been a challenging year for the 24-year-old defenseman, who had taken a big step last season, appearing in 75 games.

He was hoping to build on that coming into this season, but struggled out of the gate. That led to Joseph being a healthy scratch for a stretch, and after finally getting back in, he suffered an injury that kept him out longer-term.

It's no surprise that despite all of that, the cheerful and easygoing Joseph is approaching everything he’s been through as a learning experience, adding, “I just wanted to come back in there and try my best to bring my game to help the team win.”

Graves, who signed a six-year contract in the summer after spending the last two seasons with New Jersey, is also keeping a positive attitude through his first few months with Pittsburgh.

“I've had a lot of ups and downs. I think there's been some good hockey, some bad hockey. It's finding a way to bring a consistent game each night,” Graves said. “I’m fully aware of how it's gone and that there's been some games that have not been how I'd like them to go. But I think there's been some good hockey in there, too.

“Obviously, when you look at things, the negatives are a lot easier to pick out. I think it gets a lot easier to focus on that, and you just try to find ways to focus on the positives.”

For example, Graves feels like he’s getting used to how Pittsburgh plays in the D zone compared to New Jersey. The Devils play what Graves called “a hard shrink, where the first guy’s in and then the second man quick, so it’s a lot different.” New Jersey also gets low on breakouts, making five, six-foot passes, while the Penguins like to push the pace and keep their wingers high.

“There's definitely an adjustment period to that. But I think it's time that that's over with,” Graves said.

Head Coach Mike Sullivan called the big, steady defenseman a guy who’s trying to find his way right now, saying they know he’s a quality player who’s got another level to his game, and they’re going to help Graves get there.

“We're going to work with him and try to see what we can do to keep his game simple. I think that's when he's at his best, when he just defends hard and controls the net front,” Sullivan said. “I think he can use his body a little bit more than he's doing right now. That's something that we've talked to him about. He's got a long reach, I think we can try to help them just understand how to utilize his reach a little bit more, things of that nature, that will help them just on the defensive side. But we're hoping here he can get some traction.”

Regrouping after Washington

After Pittsburgh’s slow start in last night’s matchup with the Capitals, where they went down 4-0 in the first period before battling back to make it 4-3, a couple of the players mentioned wanting to look at the video to have a better idea of what went wrong. Bryan Rust shared his takeaways from their session this morning:

“I just think we got to be a little bit harder and more simple early on. I think we were a little bit careless at times. Especially at the start of games, get the momentum on your side just get pucks in deep, go forecheck hard, play a little bit more of a simple game.”

Rust talks return

Rust returned to the lineup against Washington after missing 10 games with an upper-body injury, and the Penguins were thrilled to have the star winger back in the mix, as he is such a big part of the team. Rust had been playing excellent hockey before getting sidelined, with 10 goals and 20 points in 22 games. Sullivan felt that Rust competed hard in his first game back, which is never easy coming off a long layoff.

“The first period was a little dicey, just trying to kind of find your footing and get that timing back,” Rust said. “But then I think as the game went on, I felt a lot more comfortable.”

As Sullivan said, Rust has been working against Pittsburgh’s schedule as of late, since there haven’t been a lot of team practices for him to get involved with. Having a decent skate this afternoon was good for Rust, who said he continued to work on timing, along with getting comfortable with linemates Evgeni Malkin and Reilly Smith. The Penguins stuck with the same forward trios they used on Tuesday:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell

Smith-Malkin-Rust

O’Connor-Eller-Puustinen

Harkins-Acciari-Carter