Attending Letang's father's funeral 'very important' for Penguins

Marcus Pettersson said that nobody "blinked for one second" when they were presented with the opportunity. 

It was Sunday night, and the Penguins had just wrapped up a 3-game, 9-day road trip that began with the Winter Classic in Boston and included stops out west in Vegas and Arizona. Instead of going straight home to Pittsburgh after Sunday's 4-1 win over the Coyotes, the Penguins' plane took a detour: Montreal.

It was a decision spearheaded by Sidney Crosby and the rest of the Penguins' leadership group. The team wanted to be there for Kris Letang following the death of his father Claude Fouquet, who passed away on Dec. 31 at age 77, while Letang and the team were in Boston for the Winter Classic. Letang and his family attended the Penguins' practice on Jan. 1 where 10-year-old Alex took part in the family skate afterward, and then Letang and his family left for Montreal. The funeral was to take place Monday afternoon.

The team flew across the continent through the night, landing in Montreal at 4 a.m. so they could be in attendance.

"It was huge for us and for him," Pettersson said of the decision. "To go there and show support, it really brings us together. It's a tough time for him and his family to go through. Just to know that he's not alone, his family is not alone. ... He knows that we're fully behind him."

Letang was greatly appreciative of the gesture, giving his teammates a sincere "thank you" in-person and then sending his teammates a text afterward telling them that their presence meant a lot not only to him, but to his family as well.

After all, those 20-something additional members in attendance on Monday were Letang's family as well.

"It shows there's bigger things than hockey," Bryan Rust said. "Family is No. 1, and we all consider him family. He's a guy who has been around here for a long time, there's a lot of us who have been with him for a long time. To show our support for him in a very difficult time was important."

Mike Sullivan said that there were a number of logistical challenges to the decision -- getting their passports to them, for instance, given that this was originally a U.S.-only trip and so the passports were left at home. 

"What I can tell you is that we're grateful that Fenway Sports Group was 100% supportive of anything that the players wanted to do," Sullivan said. "We were able to work out some of the challenges. There were a fair amount of them. But we all felt strongly that it was important to support Tanger through such a difficult time."

Letang won't be with the Penguins for Tuesday night's game against the Canucks -- he remains in Montreal with his family. While he's away, his extended family in Pittsburgh will look to take the emotions from the events over these few days and try to turn them into a win for Letang.

"It was an emotional last couple of days," Joseph said. "I think we're just going to channel this energy. It shows how tight these guys are in this room. It shows the passion that we have to battle for each other is getting bigger and bigger every day. It was good to see, we just have to bring it tonight."

MORE FROM THE SKATE

• It was an optional morning skate. Participants were Casey DeSmith, Dustin Tokarski, Rickard Rakell, Mark Friedman, Brock McGinn, Chad Ruhwedel, Danton Heinen, Teddy Blueger, Drew O'Connor, Ty Smith, Jake Guentzel Pettersson, Joseph and Rust.

• Tristan Jarry (lower-body), Jeff Petry (wrist) and Josh Archibald (lower-body) all skated with Ty Hennes before the skate, didn't stay for the optional skate and remain sidelined tonight. It was the first time Jarry was on the ice since for a session since his injury on Jan. 2 in the Winter Classic. Jarry was already on the ice when I got there, but I did watch about 25 minutes or so of his session. None of the drills he did during that period involved him pushing off the post at all, and just involved him moving from side-to-side in the crease. Sullivan said afterward that Jarry is considered "day-to-day," but cautioned that he wouldn't consider his return "imminent." He added that Petry and Archibald are making progress. 

• Ryan Poehling (upper-body) did not skate this morning and remains out tonight. Sullivan said he is working through a rehab process off the ice. 

• DeSmith will start in net. Canucks head coach Bruce Boudeau said after the Canucks skate that he thinks "DeSmith is maybe a notch below Tristan Jarry but he's a viable NHL goalie."

• Rust on the message to the power play in order to get back on track: "I think we just have to get back to doing things that we were doing when we were successful. Getting more than just one guy to the net, getting two, three guys to the net. I think we need to try to get as many pucks possible through to the net too."

• Tonight is the Penguins' annual #HockeyTalks game, an initiative that aims to fight the stigma associated with mental health. Players will wear green tape on their sticks during warmups for awareness, and the Penguins Foundation will have an auction that runs through Jan. 17 and benefits different mental health initiatives.

• Blueger cut his hair pretty short shortly before the Winter Classic. He told me he didn't mean to cut it that short, but the first person he went to messed it up and he had to go to a second person to clean it up. We were talking about the reactions from fans on Twitter, who were devastated over the news, and Blueger said he didn't realize the long hair was so popular and asked if I had any hair growth tips. I'll tell you what I told him: Take some rosemary leaves, simmer them in water until you get a sort of dark-looking tea. Take the leaves out, put the water in a bottle, and put the water on your scalp and rub it in. You can do it a couple of times a day.