CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Kris Letang was a full participant in the Penguins' practice in Cranberry on Sunday morning for the first time since he sustained a lower-body injury on Nov. 4.
Letang skated alongside his regular defense partner Brian Dumoulin throughout practice and worked with the top power play unit, good signs that he is close to making a return.
Letang had been skating on his own for a little over a week for an hour a day before this.
"I'm feeling good," Letang said after practice. "It's fun to be back on the ice with all of the guys, I was getting lonely out there. It's fun to be part of practice, get some motion and get back into the rhythm."
Mike Sullivan said on Sunday that Letang will likely be a game-time decision on Monday. They first have to see see how he responds overnight to today's practice, but Sullivan said "his practice today was very encouraging."
It goes without saying that adding Letang back into this lineup would be huge.
"He's a guy that we've missed so far these last few games," Dumoulin said. "He'll come right in and not miss a step, we've seen it before. It's good to have him back."
"What can I say about what he brings to the team?" Sullivan said. "He's an elite defenseman, he plays in all the key situations for us. When he's in our lineup, we're a better hockey team."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• The Penguins used these lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Alex Galchenyuk - Jared McCann - Brandon Tanev
Dominik Kahun - Dominik Simon - Patric Hornqvist
Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Sam Lafferty
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Jack Johnson - John Marino
Marcus Pettersson - Zach Trotman
Juuso Riikola - Chad Ruhwedel
• The Penguins' top power play unit was Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Patric Hornqvist, and Bryan Rust.
• The second power play unit was Juuso Riikola, Marcus Pettersson, Dominik Kahun, Alex Galchenyuk, and Jared McCann.
• Malkin, McCann, Simon, Blueger, and Lafferty spent some extended time toward the end of practice working on faceoffs with Sullivan and Mark Recchi.
"It's an area where we think we have to get better at," Sullivan said. "We're capable of getting better at it. We're trying to help as best we can, and with the strategies we're trying to utilize in the faceoff circle. (Recchi) has a certain level of experience there as well, and he can share his experience. We're looking at other faceoff men in the league and our video guys have pulled some of the strategies of some of the guys that are really good at it, and try to better understand it so we can help these guys improve in that aspect of the game. It's one of the subtleties of the game, but in my mind anything that happens 60 to 75 times in a game is important."
