CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Brian Dumoulin stepped onto the ice for Wednesday's practice at the Lemieux Complex with his legs wobbling, donning a red no-contact jersey and a new helmet with a half-cage covering his face.
Dumoulin wasn't hurt, though.
He was just "Equipment Boy."
The Penguins have done shootout drills with varying punishments for losing for years. "Mustache Boy" is the most common of those consequences and dates back to the Dan Bylsma era, with the loser of the shootout drill having to keep a mustache for a full month. "Mustache Boy" has made a return a couple of times in recent years, but players have also gotten creative with some other types of consequences for losing a shootout drill.
"Equipment Boy" is one of those consequences.
Penguins players held the shootout drill on Nov. 30 after the end of a practice. There was a goaltender at either end of the ice, and players took turns with breakaways. If a player scored then he was safe and could move to the sidelines. If he failed to score, he had to get back in line and try again the next round. The last player standing was the loser.
It came down to Dumoulin and Sidney Crosby that day, and it felt like a high-stakes event. Players on the sidelines had some dramatic reactions to some of the closer calls:
It came down to Crosby and Dumoulin, Dumoulin lost. Funny reactions from teammates after some of the closer calls pic.twitter.com/e7Dl6bNmAO
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) November 30, 2022
Eventually, Crosby scored and Dumoulin failed to score on his next shot. Dumoulin was the loser.
Some players wanted to keep Dumoulin's consequence a secret when the locker room opened to reporters afterward, but Casey DeSmith spilled the beans when I asked him.
"The person who loses has to wear gear for practice that we choose, so they're probably going to look pretty funny," DeSmith told me, adding that the consequence would happen sometime in December.
Wednesday was that day.
Some of the gear came from his teammates. Bryan Rust brought in the helmet, and Sidney Crosby supplied a much-too-small wooden stick from his own supply. Other pieces -- like the old pair of Cooper pants, an old pair of gloves and the red practice jersey -- were found back in the equipment rooms at the rink.
"It was a scramble of guys bringing in stuff and (equipment manager Jon Taglianetti) finding some stuff too," Marcus Pettersson explained.
Dumoulin was a real trooper and kept the gear on for the entirety of the practice. Even though the stick was clearly made for someone much shorter than 6-foot-4 Dumoulin, he managed to score a couple of goals with it in drills, leading to exaggerated celebrations and applause from his teammates.
"That was my stick he was using, so it was a little short," Crosby said with a grin. "But he practiced pretty good, so we might all have to go to wooden sticks."
Dumoulin's effort at practice probably won't lead to any overhauls on what the rest of the team wears for these sessions, but players welcomed the unique way to add some laughs to the practice.
"That was funny," Jake Guentzel laughed. "He's like the perfect guy, it seems like."
"It brought a laugh for sure," Pettersson added. "He did pretty well considering what gear he had to use, he scored a couple of goals. It was great fun."
"It was fun," Crosby said. "He looked great, in a certain way, I guess. That's something to lighten the mood. That could have easily been me, I was in the finals with him. But he wore it well, it was fun to see him out there. ... I think it's important. You know, we've got a long season, and you've got to come out and work. But obviously, you want to have fun, too. So coming off of a big win, we understand the importance of (the game) tomorrow but you've got to have fun."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Josh Archibald (lower-body) and Ryan Poehling (upper-body) both missed practice, as did Jeff Petry (wrist/arm). Poehling took his last shift midway through the third period in Tuesday's game and after rewatching it in its entirety, it's not clear how or what he may have injured. He sat on the bench for another two minutes before heading to the locker room. Associate coach Todd Reirden, who handled media availability Wednesday to give Mike Sullivan a little break from doing so, said that both Archibald and Poehling continue to be evaluated and are day-to-day.
• The Penguins used these lines and pairings in practice:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Danton Heinen - Tedd Blueger - Drew O'Connor
Marcus Pettersson - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - Jan Rutta
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel/Mark Friedman
• The power play groups remained the same. The top unit was Kris Letang, Crosby, Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell. The second unit was P.O Joseph, Jason Zucker, Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kapanen and Rust with Danton Heinen rotating in.
• The Penguins' power play has now scored in nine consecutive games. That's quite the turnaround from their first 23 games of the season, in which the Penguins only scored on the man advantage in nine games total. What led to the resurgence?
"I think that we've got a really talented group of two power play groups," explained Reirden, who coaches the power play. "That's been something that's allowed us to change things around a little bit when things weren't going well. Sometimes just adjusting the personnel, one person here, one person there can add a little bit, I think that attributed to some of our success. But really, we really got back to basics in terms of some things that we thought have allowed us to have success in the past. ... It's having people at the front of the net to provide a more difficult play for the goaltender to read and save, but also the aspect that our players are putting more pucks in play than we were earlier. So that, in addition to the fact of just execution level and some adjustments in personnel has allowed us to be a difference-maker in some of the more recent games."
• Reirden, who manages the defense as well, spoke highly of Letang's influence on Joseph this season.
"(Letang) had some really good leaders when he was young and first getting into the league," Reirden said. "I think he's taken some of the best attributes from some of those leaders and really taken it to heart that he could help make a difference in P.O, not just on the ice but off the ice, he obviously has him staying at his home with him. We can't say enough about those types of things. Just the care factor the way that P.O is training now, choices that he's making in terms of the rest he's getting, how he's preparing for every game, how long he's at the rink, it's really remarkable to see. He certainly is fortunate to have someone like Kris to be able to be a role model for him. It's a pretty special relationship between those two and it's been fun to watch it grow."
• Tristan Jarry was wearing his Winter Classic pads again, they're black with a cream-colored diamond pattern. He had on the mask, too, which looks pretty similar to his usual mask but has the "P" logo on the top. DeSmith wore his Winter Classic mask as he has been and also debuted his pads for the event, which definitely have a vintage influence:
TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS
• Alex Letang was hanging out in the locker room after practice then joined his dad for their own little skate afterward. Marcus Pettersson tied Alex's skates for him before he went out on the ice.
