CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Given the nature of his injury, Bryan Rust can consider himself fortunate.
It appears that the Penguins' most versatile forward will only miss two games after sustaining a concussion six days ago. Rust was back at practice on Tuesday, and by the end of the 40-minute-long session was skating in a yellow full-contact jersey.
"He had a good, strong practice today," Mike Sullivan reported afterward. "We'll see how he responds to it. I think all signs are looking positive."
Rust wasn't the only positive sign, though, for this week's back-to-back road games tomorrow at the Rangers and Thursday at the Canadiens.
Sullivan reported that Matt Murray took full shots before practice and that he will make the road trip with the team, opening up the possibility that he''ll make one of the two starts in either New York or Montreal. Murray has missed the last seven games after sustaining a concussion Feb. 26 in practice.
Such is the unpredictable nature of brain injuries; there is no set timeline and each is different. Given the heightened awareness of concussions and their long-term effects, players exercise extra precaution in not returning too soon.
"It's just each morning you kind of wake up and hope you're feeling good," Rust said. "You think you can be out there. You're feeling 110-percent body-wise but it just stinks when you know something's wrong."
This is not the first time that he has been concussed. Rust missed Game 3 of last year's Eastern Conference Final after absorbing an open ice hit from then-Senators defenseman Dion Phaneuf. Last Wednesday in Philadelphia, Rust was injured on this hit by Flyers defenseman Robert Hagg:
Hagg was penalized for boarding on the play but received no further discipline from the NHL. After watching the play on tape, Rust says he was OK with the cleanliness of the hit.
"I watched it over and over," he said. "Could be he left his feet a little, but that'll happen during a game. He definitely didn't hit me high. I just got caught in a bad spot. Those things happen."
Rust skated Tuesday on a new third line that had Derick Brassard at center and Phil Kessel on the right side. Rust, who has 10 goals and 23 assists in 57 games this season, can play either wing.
"He's an important player for us, we can utilize him in so many different areas of our game," Sullivan said.
• In addition to Murray, who did not skate with the team, Zach Aston-Reese and Dominik Simon were also absent. Aston-Reese (upper body) has been out since Feb. 26. Simon (lower body) has missed the last two games.
• Brian Dumoulin doesn't score a lot of goals, certainly not of the highlight reel variety like the goal he had negated by a goaltender interference call Saturday in Toronto:
That's definitely one he'd like to have, but he's not going to cry over it either.
"That goal wasn't the first one to kind of bring up that discussion, it's ongoing," he said. "Obviously a lot of gray area. A lot of guys still don't know what a goal is and what's not. When it comes for a review it could go 50/50. But it's not something that you can really focus on or stress too much. It is what it is."
• On the other side of the state on Monday, Marc-Andre Fleury recorded his 400th career win in the Golden Knights' 3-2 win over the Flyers in Philadelphia. Fleury became the 13th goalie in NHL history to reach the milestone, but at least one former teammate thinks he could have had even more.
"Really happy for him. That's an amazing number," Sidney Crosby said. "Shows the consistency he's had over his career. Not many goalies come into the league 18-19 years old. It's a lot of pressure. Just speaks to the consistency he's had. And he's missed a lot of time, too, could probably be higher if he hadn't missed so much time."
• The line combinations and defense pairs used Tuesday:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Conor Sheary
Carl Hagelin - Evgeni Malkin - Patric Hornqvist
Bryan Rust - Derick Brassard - Phil Kessel
Tom Kuhnhackl - Riley Sheahan - Carter Rowney
Extra: Josh Jooris
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Olli Maatta - Chad Ruhwedel
Jamie Oleksiak - Justin Schultz
Extra: Matt Hunwick
