TORONTO -- Evan Rodrigues had skated to the bench buckled over in obvious pain the previous night in Montreal, but he was right back on the ice Friday afternoon for the Penguins' practice at Scotiabank Arena.
Marcus Pettersson had blocked a shot with his hand in the same game, a 6-0 crushing of the Canadiens, but he was right back on the ice, too.
All told, with Mike Sullivan returning to the fold for this practice after complying with Canada's COVID border policies, the collective here was as complete as it's been for this group since Game 6 of the first-round Stanley Cup playoff loss to the Islanders way back in June, with every player and coach participating except Evgeni Malkin, who's back in Cranberry continuing his recovery from knee surgery. And even he's seen as being close to a comeback.
I asked Mike Matheson what it was like to share a rink with so many players and coaches who'd been missing.
"Yeah, seriously," he responded with a smile. "We've had a bit of a thin group. It's nice to have everybody back in there. And I think getting out on the road has been nice, too, at the same time. Kind of bonding a little more than we would've while we're at home, when we're off with our families. I think it's been good timing for us."
The road certainly was nice in the neighboring province, where the Penguins completely outclassed Montreal. The other two games on this trip, Saturday night here against the 12-5-1 Maple Leafs, then Monday night in Winnipeg against the 9-3-4 Jets, figure to be far more challenging.
But any challenge also figures to be far more doable with a full roster.
"This team was built with certain players in mind," Matheson said. "And so, when they're not there, it's not the way the team was built. I think everybody's been doing their best to try to step up and assume those roles, but ... take a guy like Sid. There's no replacing him. That's just the nature of him being the special player he is."
Sidney Crosby?
"So yeah, I think that bringing a lot of guys back is great. There've been a lot of abrupt departures, guys coming back in, then going back out. It's been a little bit challenging in that sense, not knowing who your linemates are, who your defense partners are. I think it'd be nice for us to, hopefully, stay as-is for a little while and get into a groove."
Sullivan expressed much the same. He initially returned for the 6-1 loss to the Capitals last Sunday in Washington, then coached again in the 2-1 loss to the Sabres two days later at PPG Paints Arena, but he hadn't had adequate separation from his COVID diagnosis to meet Canada's requirements until now.
The team had a car service drive him to Buffalo to stay in a hotel Thursday evening, where he watched the Montreal game on a monitor and communicated with his assistant coaches, Todd Reirden and Mike Vellucci, virtually between periods. By Friday, he was cleared to cross the Peace Bridge and arrived here in ample time to conduct practice.
I asked Sullivan, as well, about that sight he'd just seen out on the rink.
"Yeah, it's nice to see some guys, to see some familiar faces out there, and guys who are getting more practice time that I think is so critical to getting back their very best game," he replied. "The more we get these guys repetitions in practice and get them back in the team environment, it'll only help them that much more in the game."
The team, too, obviously.
"We're excited about the group that we have when we have a real healthy group. We believe we have a competitive roster here. We try to compete every night with whatever group we have, but getting these guys ... I can see their respective games getting better with each game that they play."
Faceoff for the game Saturday is 7:10 p.m.
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Hardly a surprise, but all lines, pairings and special teams remain unchanged from Montreal. The combos shown in drills here:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Carter-Kapanen
Simon-Rodrigues-Heinen
Aston-Reese-Blueger-McGinn
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
The three spares again were Brian Boyle, Sam Lafferty and Mark Friedman.
There was no indication as to whether Tristan Jarry or Casey DeSmith might make this start.
• Kasperi Kapanen was summoned to meet with reporters after practice, at the request of the Toronto media. 'It's been a minute,' he said as he approached the podium. 'I spent a fair amount of time here. So ... it's good to be back. It's fun."
Uh-huh. He looked and sounded like he'd rather have had flaming hot needles inserted through his eye sockets.
• I asked Kapanen, in not so many words, why he really can't score aside from that one hat trick, and that didn't exactly brighten the mood:
• Kapanen did laugh once, when asked how that second line of Kapanen, Jeff Carter and Danton Heinen can click when all three are shoot-first types.
"I guess we've just got to shoot," came the quick answer.
• The primary focus of the one-hour session itself was a series of power-play drills with an emphasis on setting up a trigger man out of a triangular formation. Meaning the point man feeds the puck to a forward at the goal line, that forward spits it out instantly to another forward in a shooting position and, ideally, a quality shot ensues.
It’s similar to what's been used in Washington and Boston for years ... with the glaring difference that the Capitals and Bruins are blessed with multiple players fitting the trigger role. These drills featured Carter, Heinen and, really, nobody else who'd be plausible at pulling this off.
Danton did get off a shot this way on a power play in Montreal, for the record.
We'll see.
• Matheson acknowledged to me that his game -- and really, the team's game -- has taken on a much more north-south attitude in the past week.
"We've got a team that's built for speed," he elaborated, "and if we're going east-west, we're going to slow ourselves down. You want to push."
Yes, yes and yes.
• A Toronto reporter asked Sullivan about Sid being Sid, basically, and the answer wasn't his norm: "Sid tries to control everything in his power to try to set himself up for success. There isn't an 'i' that isn't dotted or a 't' that's not crossed. I don't think it is by accident that he's been the best player in the game for a decade-plus."
• Don't watch this video below. It'll be two minutes of one's life that can never be reclaimed:
Hey, at least Phil Bourque was amused.
That's what happens when one's functioning on 2.5 hours of sleep, combined with 2.5 venti triple-shots.
• Talk to everyone tomorrow. Expect an optional morning skate here.
