Derick Brassard, who missed his fourth consecutive game Saturday, has yet to resume skating after leaving the Oct. 25 win in Calgary with a lower-body injury that coach Mike Sullivan later said had been nagging the forward for a while.
“He’s still working off the ice,” Sullivan said Saturday, hours before the Penguins played host to the Toronto Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena. “But he is making progress.”
Sullivan initially said that Brassard would be “day-to-day” with the injury — and as of Saturday morning that remained the “status quo,” he said. But it now has been a week and a half since Brassard was on the ice with his Penguins teammates.
Brassard did stroll in to the bench area Saturday to watch part of the morning skate.
In that morning skate, the Penguins unveiled yet another new look — at least for this season — when Riley Sheahan was back at center between Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust. Matt Cullen centered another line with Derek Grant and Daniel Sprong.
“We shuffled the bottom six to try to get people going,” Sullivan explained.
Sullivan said the Penguins still are trying to find combinations in those bottom two lines “that we can settle into that we think gives us the balance that we want.”
“We’re trying to find some balance within the group,” Sullivan added. “We think it’s important that we keep four lines going. We’re playing every other night here for quite a while and we want to make sure we spread the burden of responsibility.”
Sheahan is happy to be back at center after mostly playing wing recently.
“I’ve played center my whole career, so I think that’s the spot I’d rather be playing,” he said. “I’m OK playing the wing, but I think [center] is the spot I’m comfortable in. So to be between those two guys, I think it fits pretty well and I’m looking forward to it.”
Murray’s stark splits
Matt Murray started in goal Saturday at PPG Paints Arena. So far this season he struggled at home while mostly sparkling in four road games.
After a 3-2 shootout loss Thursday night to the New York Islanders, Murray is 3-0-1 on the road with a .946 save percentage and a 1.94 goals against average. Meanwhile, in his three home starts before Saturday, Murray had posted a 1-2-0 record at PPG Paints Arena with a .797 save percentage and a 5.90 goals against average.
Sullivan, reluctant to draw conclusions on such a small sample size, suggested his alarming home numbers are more of an indication of the team’s performance than Murray’s.
“I think we as a team have to be better at home than we have been at this particular point in the season. I think that might have something to do with Matt’s numbers, where they’re at as a group in front of him,” Sullivan said.
Meaningful ‘Movember’
Rust and Sheahan appear to be the two Penguins participating in “Movember” this year, though it’s early in the month, so others may have mustered only a little stubble so far.
“Movember” is an initiative in which men grow mustaches in the month of November to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer and other men’s health issues. The NHL has embraced “Movember” as part of its “Hockey Fights Cancer” program.
The cause resonates with Rust, whose father, Steve, overcame prostate cancer.
“It’s something that kind of hits home with me. Family members and friends of the family and [people] like that have gone through prostate cancer and things associated with men’s health,” the versatile forward said. “I think as a group of men in here it’s good to kind of raise that awareness and try to raise some money and get people thinking.”
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: November 3, 2018, 5:29 p.m.
