Patric Hornqvist and the eight other Penguins who were held out due to potential exposure to COVID-19 were cleared Monday to return to practice.
Those players did not participate in Monday’s team scrimmage at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. Instead, as the rest of the team got loose before the scrimmage, they marched over to the second practice rink to work out as a group.
“We chose to give them … a couple of days of skating amongst themselves, first and foremost, before they rejoin the group,” coach Mike Sullivan explained. “Part of the reason was today was a scheduled intrasquad game and we didn’t want to put those guys right into a game with the layoff that they’ve had.”
Last Monday, when the Penguins began their postseason training camp, the team announced that nine players would be “voluntarily” held out for an indefinite period after a possible secondary exposure to COVID-19, “in an effort to avoid exposure to anyone else within the organization.” They sat out seven days.
In addition to the veteran power forward Hornqvist, that group included forwards Anthony Angello, Adam Johnson, Samuel Poulin, Sam Miletic and Philip Varone; defensemen Juuso Riikola and Pierre-Olivier Joseph; and goalie Alex D’Orio.
The Penguins continue to regularly test all players for COVID-19 at the practice facility, working with a third-party company to quickly get results. Sullivan praised team doctors and head athletic trainer Christ Stewart and his staff for making that process “as seamless as we could possibly make it for the players.”
“From our standpoint, it’s gone fairly smooth,” he said. “As I said to our players on Day 1 [of camp], we have to expect inconvenience. This is the world we live in right now, and we’re going to embrace whatever comes our way.”
The NHL announced Monday that out of 2,618 tests only two players league-wide tested positive for COVID-19 in the first five days of training camp.
Crosby sits out again
For the second straight day, Sidney Crosby missed practice with an undisclosed ailment.
Crosby left Saturday’s scrimmage midway through the second of two 25-minute periods. He skated off the ice, grabbed his sticks and walked toward the locker room at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. He did not return to the ice.
Sullivan, in accordance with the NHL’s new injury and illness policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, declined to specify why his captain was sidelined.
Murray bounces back
Two days after Matt Murray gave up seven goals to a stacked squad of top players in a team scrimmage, the goalie allowed three as the two sides tied, 3-3, on Monday.
Both Murray and Tristan Jarry were unable to strap on their pads and stop shots during the long isolation period after the NHL season was suspended March 12. Murray went about three months without facing a shot, his longest non-injury layoff since he was a kid. Then, boom, he got dropped back into practice.
Monday, Murray was asked about separating results in practices and scrimmages from the process of trying to quickly regain his form before the playoffs.
“It’s similar to any part of the season or any part of hockey as a goalie,” he said. “You can’t really focus on the results. You’ve got to focus on the process. That’s especially important right now — being patient with yourself but at the same time trying to get on top of things as quick as you can. … It’s a unique situation.”
Sullivan said the scrimmages “might be the most important” for the goalies.
“They’ve got to make reads in game situations,” he said. “That’s hard to simulate in a practice environment. And so we’re just trying to allow them to go through the process here and get those repetitions through those intrasquads.”
The Penguins announced Monday that they had added another scrimmage to their camp schedule. They will now scrimmage Thursday and Saturday, too. They are scheduled to travel to Toronto on Sunday and will wrap up camp there. They begin their qualifying round series against the Montreal Canadiens on Aug. 1.
Doggy dads must adjust
Older Penguins such as Patrick Marleau and Jack Johnson have talked about the sacrifices they will make this summer, leaving their families for a hub city.
Zach Aston-Reese doesn’t have any kids yet. But this winter he became a doggy dad and is sad he must say goodbye to little Carl, an Italian greyhound.
“It’s definitely going to be a little bit tough,” the 25-year-old winger said Sunday. “My parents are going to drive halfway and I’m going to drive halfway. … They’re going to pick him up and take him back to New York for the time being.”
It is unknown who will maintain Carl’s Instagram page in the interim.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: July 20, 2020, 2:43 p.m.