CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The top line of Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel had a pretty rough game in Tuesday's 5-2 loss to the Maple Leafs, to say the least.
The trio was on the ice for all five Toronto goals against and combined for a minus-13.
It was after that game that I asked Mike Sullivan how he'd assess the impact bumping Rickard Rakell down to the second line and moving Rust up to the top line has had on both lines over the last 8 games that's been the case.
"I think Geno's line has been really good," he said. "I think Sid's line has had its moments. They've had some games where they've been really, really good. I just think as of late, they haven't been at their best for whatever reason. But I think Geno's line has been really good lately."
He didn't rule out a potential change coming, though.
"We know we have options there," Sullivan said. "We talk about them daily. We're going to try and put the best combinations together that give us the best chance to win."
It appears that those talks the coaching staff had prior to Wednesday's practice at the Lemieux Complex finally led to a change being made.
The first drills of the day had defenseman on one end of the ice working with Todd Reirden, while the forwards were at the other end working on wall battles. The forwards were divided into groups of three, and each group worked simultaneously in a corner. It was pretty clear that the groups were divided by line, and they remained consistent throughout the drill.
The configurations had Rakell back up on Crosby's line with Guentzel, while Rust was back on Evgeni Malkin's line opposite Jason Zucker.
The Penguins didn't have any full-on line rushes at all during practice, so we can't be totally sure that those lines will stick when the Penguins play the Wild in Minnesota Thursday night. But it's looking like that will be the case.
“That’s how we practiced today," Rakell told Danny Shirey when he asked about the potential new lines. "I don’t know for sure, it was a short practice. I’ll find out tomorrow, they haven’t said anything, really.”
Sullivan didn't say one way or the other whether those changes will stick for next game, but said that the coaching staff is "looking at all of our options."
"We try to find combinations that can have success, we’ve got options at our disposal," Sullivan said of the forward groups. "We talk about these things daily depending on how the team is playing or certain lines, certain people are playing. Sometimes if you make little tweaks or adjustments here and there, you can -- as a coaching staff -- try to be proactive to see if we can effect some positive change with everybody."
Both Crosby and Guentzel have spoken about there being little that changes for them depending on who is on their right wing. I asked Crosby after Tuesday's game what kind of impact a change like that has, and he said that "it doesn't change anything."
"I think everyone's familiar with playing with each other," Crosby said. "We've played a lot together. We've just got to be better. You know, we've had some good chances tonight. Unfortunately, we gave up a bunch defensively. Hopefully we continue to get chances and do a better job of keeping it open."
Guentzel was asked the same question on Wednesday, and he expressed the same sentiment.
“No, I've just got to play game, get back to using my speed and getting in on the forecheck," he said. "Not much changes from my end.”
The top line worked well together with Rakell in the first four games to start the season before Guentzel's injury on Oct. 20, outscoring opponents 5-1, outshooting opponents 31-28, and recording a sizable difference in high-danger chances at 16-5.
The Penguins are looking to recapture some of that success with the changes they made on Wednesday.
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Everybody was in attendance for practice, no absences.
• One reason there weren't line rushes is because the practice focused a lot on the power play. The top unit remained the same, with Crosby, Guentzel, Rust, Malkin, and Kris Letang. The second unit remained Zucker, Rakell, Jeff Carter, Danton Heinen, and Jeff Petry.
• The power play obviously has struggled this season. The Penguins rank 25th in the league on the man advantage with an 18.2% success rate. They're averaging .63 power play goals per game, the 24th-best rate in the league. That's a lot of goals left on the table.
Penguins players know how tough it's been to come by goals as of late, and their reactions to scoring power play goals in practice on Wednesday were pretty funny. The top unit scored on Casey DeSmith on the first run-through, and Crosby, Guentzel and Rust all celebrated with their arms up in the air for what must have been 15-20 seconds, with Rust pumping his fists and yelling, "We did it!!" Zucker scored a goal down at the other end of the ice and had an extended celebration by himself, while Rust cheered him on from his end of the ice.
• Marc-Andre Fleury missed Minnesota's practice on Wednesday and is being evaluated for an upper-body injury, per Wild coach Dean Evason. It's looking like the Penguins will still face a former goaltender of theirs (albeit only as a prospect) in Wild backup goaltender Filip Gustavsson.
