CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins' training camp sessions are slowly starting to look and feel more like a normal, full, regular season practice.
Day 3 of training camp on Wednesday marked the first time the Penguins worked on special teams drills in practice, a significant step in preparing for the playoffs.
The first drills for the top power play unit saw Kris Letang positioned at the point, Jake Guentzel in the slot, Evgeni Malkin on the right wall, and Sidney Crosby near the goal line. With Patric Hornqvist still absent from practice, Jared McCann stepped in and took on a net-front role.
In later drills, Justin Schultz replaced Letang on the top unit and Letang worked with the second unit, which also included Jason Zucker, Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, and Patrick Marleau.
"It takes some time, getting back to quick passes, shooting the puck, all the little things," Schultz said of the power play getting back to work. "We'll get there. We have some time here, and it was nice to be out there with those guys."
The Penguins' power play was up-and-down throughout the regular season, undoubtedly in part due to its key personnel missing time due to injury throughout the season. When it was effective, it could be a difference maker in games. When it was cold, it was ice-cold, like the 0-for-28 skid it had in the fall.
"The power plays are always an evolutionary process," Mike Sullivan told me after Wednesday's practice. "They’ll go through stretches where they’re executing and it’s going really well and there will be stretches where it’s a bit of a struggle. We just have to try to minimize those stretches when they struggle and try to help them through that evolution. But we feel good about the group that we have. We know that they’re capable of being a difference-maker in games, and that’s the expectation that our group has.”
With nearly five months between the Penguins' last game and Game 1 against the Canadiens, this training camp almost feels like the start to a brand new season, more than a continuation of the regular season. So it's not certain what bearing the power play's performance from the regular season has moving forward.
"I think you can look at stuff, what we did to be successful," Schultz said. "But it's a fresh sheet now. It's basically like a new year. Hopefully we can get off to a quick start and the power play stays hot."
This long layoff between March's shutdown and the Aug. 1 start to the qualifying round may prove to be beneficial to the streaky power play, though -- not only for the fresh start, but the opportunity the break presented for really focusing on the power play in film sessions.
Before camp started the Penguins' coaching staff would meet on a video call on WebEx about three times a week. Every Friday, the coaches would meet on WebEx with the players and break into smaller groups, like a group of the power play personnel.
"One of the things we spoke with our power play about a lot is — and this may be a benefit of some of the WebEx meetings that we had with our players — was, it gave us an opportunity, in a different forum, to allow them to put their coach’s hats on a little bit and problem-solve," Sullivan said. "Rather than the coaches giving them suggestions or answers, if you will, on how to improve, get better, they had an opportunity to analyze themselves and solve those problems and have discussions amongst themselves, based on their observations."
Sullivan said that in the meetings, the questions posed to players were, ‘What does the power play look like when we’re at our best, and when we’re firing on all cylinders, and what might be absent in circumstances when we’re not at our best?’
In the film studies, coaches showed players examples of both scenarios on film. They watched video of when the power play was clicking, and they watched video of when it was in one of its many skids.
"I think that was a worthwhile experience for our guys, because it gave them an opportunity to be the problem-solvers and maybe see it from a different perspective," Sullivan said. "And now we have a chance to utilize that learning experience and get on the ice and continue to work at the process."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Dejan wrote in his Day 1 column about how it felt walking into the quiet practice rink with the pristine ice. The start to today's session had a different vibe. Music was blaring at full volume until shortly after 11, and it was a wild playlist. DaBaby's "Rockstar," a couple of songs from Drake, some country songs, some Earth, Wind & Fire. It was all over the place.
"It's definitely different playing with music," Tristan Jarry said after. "It's not something that you're used to. We've been doing it in Phase 2 (voluntary skates), where we had music just to drown out some of the puck noise and keep it a little more fun. I think it just continued on here. It's nice to have something to listen to, it keeps your mind off of it and your focus on the play."
• Reporters are allowed in the building at 10:30 a.m. at the earliest for an 11 a.m. practice. When the doors opened at 10:30 a.m., the entire team was already on the ice and working on some skills drills with Ty Hennes. Formal practice ended around 11:50, nearly everyone stayed on the ice for up to half an hour afterward. It was a long session for most guys.
• The lines and pairings were the same as the first two days:
Jake Guentzel -- Sidney Crosby -- Conor Sheary
Jason Zucker -- Evgeni Malkin -- Bryan Rust
Patrick Marleau -- Jared McCann -- Sam Lafferty/Evan Rodrigues
Zach Aston-Reese -- Teddy Blueger -- Brandon Tanev
Brian Dumoulin -- Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson -- John Marino
Jack Johnson -- Justin Schultz
Kevin Czuczman -- Chad Ruhwedel
• The nine players who missed the first two days of practice -- Patric Hornqvist, Anthony Angello, Adam Johnson, Samuel Poulin, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Philip Varone, Sam Miletic, Juuso Riikola and Alex D’Orio -- were again missing today.
• John Marino said that his face is "good to go" after taking a puck to the cheek in February and undergoing surgery. He's been wearing a half shield in practice and he expects to wear a half shield in games.
• Crosby, McCann, and Letang spent a lot of time after practice working on one-timers. Here's Crosby:
Crosby worked on redirects afterward:
• I asked Marino how much he as a rookie leans on the Penguins' veteran leadership group in a situation like this.
"They've been great," he said. "Throughout the whole year, from the first game through the last game, they've helped out the whole way. There's still a lot to learn, it's a learning experience and still is. The veteran leadership here is unbelievable, clearly, with the guys that we have. Even with some of the younger guys too who have been around a little longer than me. They've all been really helpful."
• Jarry said that during the break he bought a net and played street hockey with his two English Mastiffs, Kitty and Diesel.
"I usually just stickhandle around and they chase me around and try to grab the ball," Jarry explained. "Every once and awhile I shoot at the net and they chase it and bring it back to me."
Jarry said that Kitty "kind of just laid down, played dead" and that Diesel did most of the chasing.
• Emil Larmi and Casey DeSmith skated on the other rink after practice ended, and McCann joined them to take shots. It's quite the trek from the locker rooms over to the second practice rink:
The lonely, long, Black Ace goalie walk over to the other rink. DeSmith and Larmi working over there now. #Pens #DKPS pic.twitter.com/gfkTsTJuDU
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) July 15, 2020
• The finalists for the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year) and Jack Adams Award (coach of the year) were announced on Wednesday. Marino was considered to be a bit of a long shot to be a Calder finalist, especially given his time out due to injury. Sullivan was somewhat surprisingly snubbed in the Jack Adams voting. Dave Molinari has Sullivan's reaction to that here.
• Thursday is a day off for the team. Friday will be a gameday-like simulation with a morning skate and a 7 p.m. intrasquad scrimmage. The scrimmage may be streamed online, the team is expected to provide further information soon. We'll keep you posted on those details.
