Mike Sullivan spoke this afternoon about wanting to ensure that those who play well are "rewarded with further play."

Among the shuffling to the Penguins' lines and pairings was a move that elevated Conor Timmins to the top pairing alongside Kris Letang, shifting Vladislav Kolyachonok down to the third pairing in Timmins' place.

Timmins, 26, is just five games into his time with the Penguins since being acquired from the Maple Leafs on trade deadline day, but things have gone pretty well for him since the move. After recording just eight points (two goals, six assists) in 51 games with Toronto prior to the trade, he's already accumulated four points (one goal, three assists) in his five games with the Penguins. His plus-7 rating leads the team.

Good things have been happening while Timmins is on the ice at five-on-five. In the last five games, with Timmins on the ice, the Penguins control 61.74% of the shot attempts, 59.49% of all unblocked attempts, 54.72% of shots on goal, and 87.5% of all actual goals -- that's good enough for him to lead in every single category.

"I think I've just been playing free," Timmins said. "Just been focusing on defending hard and playing my own game and falling into the system as I go. I think that's just been working for me."

Both Timmins and Letang are right-handed. Generally, Sullivan likes to have balance on a pairing with a left-handed player on the left, and a right-handed player on the right. At least in this practice, it was Letang who skated on his off side, shifting over to the left.

Letang doesn't have extensive or recent experience on his off side, but oftentimes it can be helpful to shift an offensive-minded defenseman to his off side because it can provide different opportunities offensively, with his stick now facing the net. Timmins said that he thinks he and Letang are both "pretty solid puck movers," and having one of them on their off side should give them some "different looks" in the offensive zone.

Though Timmins is still on his natural side, I asked if anything changes on his end knowing that he has a right-handed partner on his left, and he said, "I think it makes it a little tougher on him, so I just have to be cognizant of that and give him good pucks to handle and try and help him out when I can."

Sullivan was non-committal about actually using the pairing on Friday against the Blue Jackets, saying they're just "exploring that possibility." He's not crazy about having two guys of the same handedness together, but they're trying to do what they can to reward Timmins' good play.

"We think Conor Timmins has played extremely well," Sullivan said. "If we're going to juggle defense pairs, you know that we prefer to have the players playing their strong sides. But sometimes there are things that trump that, and so we thought we would explore it in practice today. It's not etched in stone, but we thought we would try it."