NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Ryan Poehling has been dealing with a nagging upper-body injury for the better part of the last three months now.
Poehling first left a game with an injury way back on Dec. 20, but he told me afterward that he wasn't injured in that game -- it had been something that had been nagging him all month, starting around the Penguins' Dec. 1 game in Vegas.
Poehling has been in and out of the lineup several times since then. He missed three games near the end of December, then returned for one game before being sidelined again for three weeks. He returned on Jan. 22, then played seven games before being shut down again after the game on Feb. 11, the last time he played.
Poehling had been skating on his own for some time now, and rejoined the Penguins' morning skate here in Nashville in a regular jersey ahead of the Penguins' 8:08 p.m. Eastern game against the Predators. Poehling didn't take line rushes yet, but Mike Sullivan confirmed afterward that Poehling was a full participant and has been cleared for contact.
I spoke with Poehling after the skate, and he told me that he's feeling "great" after skating the past few days, and admitted that it's been pretty difficult battling through his upper-body injury for such a long stretch of the season so far.
"It's tough," he said. "Mentally, you have to stay into it and know that you're going to get better and focus on that. Focus on your health, and the hockey will come after that. That's what I'm realizing, that you can't take that for granted."
Poehling is hoping that this is the last time this season he'll have to miss some time to deal with his nagging injury. He and the team have kept the specifics regarding the nature of his injury quiet, so there's no telling what exactly he has been dealing with. Sometimes players will play though an injury during the season and focus on ways to mitigate the pain involved, and then have to take some time off to address the injury in the summer, whether it be from a surgery or rehab process. I asked Poehling if that's something that might be in the cards for him this summer.
"I don't know," he said. "I really don't know. I'm just hoping that we've got it figured out, and I hope we're moving in the right direction."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Brock McGinn and Mark Friedman were put on waivers after the skate. I have more on that and the salary cap ramifications here. Being on waivers doesn't prevent a player from playing in a game.
• Friedman and Ryan Poehling were both cleared for contact and were full participants in the skate. Friedman skated on an extra defense pairing, while Poehling didn't take line rushes at all.
• Full lines and pairings from the skate. No changes from last game:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Danton Heinen
Drew O'Connor - Teddy Blueger - Josh Archibald
(Ryan Poehling participated but is not taking rushes)
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph - Jan Rutta
Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel
• Tristan Jarry will start for the Penguins, Juuse Saros will start for Nashville.
• The top power play unit was Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Rickard Rakell
• The second power play unit was Jeff Petry, Jeff Carter, Bryan Rust, Jason Zucker and Danton Heinen
• There was a funny moment during the power play work when Zucker scored a pretty sick goal for the second unit, then skated around celebrating for a good 10 seconds. He had his arms raised over his head yelling, "PP1! PP1!"
• Fun atmosphere around the arena today with the dads trip underway. I spoke with a couple of players about it, I'll have more on that tomorrow.
• The Penguins got two goals out of their fourth line in Sunday's win over the Blues, with both Drew O'Connor and Teddy Blueger chipping in. Is it the start of more secondary scoring from that line?
"I think the important thing is that we've been getting a lot of chances, we just haven't been able to score," Josh Archibald told me after the skate. "I think just going forward, getting that confidence, being able to score a couple of goals, being able to chip in and help out, it's a big confidence boost for us. It just means that we're going in the right direction."
