Penguins Notebook: Penguins Mostly Keep Same Line Combos Before Thursday’s Game In Ottawa

The Pittsburgh Penguins held an hour-long practice on Wednesday before flying up to Ottawa for Thursday’s showdown against the Senators.

It will be the biggest game of the season for both teams so far, since they’re fighting to get into the playoffs. The Senators currently hold the last wild-card spot, while the Penguins are in third place in the Metropolitan Division.

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All healthy players were present and accounted for, except for Blake Lizotte, Evgeni Malkin, and Anthony Mantha. Mantha was the big unexpected absence since he played against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night.

Right as practice was about to start, Penguins PR announced that Mantha is dealing with a lower-body injury. He hasn’t missed a game all season, and that streak may continue on Thursday since he traveled with the team to Ottawa. The injury doesn’t appear serious.

Here’s what the lines looked like:

Forward lines

Rakell-Crosby-Rust

Chinakhov-Novak-Hayes

Koivunen-Kindel-Brazeau

Soderblom-Dewar-Acciari

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Defensive pairs

Wotherspoon-Karlsson

Girard-Letang

Shea-Clifton

– It’s still surprising to me that head coach Dan Muse doesn’t want to switch up the bottom two pairs. He seems committed to making the Girard-Letang pair work, even though it’s been too chaotic.

I still maintain that the Penguins’ defensive pairs are better when Karlsson, Letang, and Girard are on their own. That way, the team has one pure puck-mover on each pair. It’s just more balanced that way.

– Despite two losses in a row, the vibes were good at practice. Everyone seemed to be in an upbeat mood, and some of the players were even joking around on the ice. The Penguins got to practice the shootout at the end of the session, and they did a little 3-on-3 drill at one end of the rink. They’ve been doing it all season.