An eventful practice in Pittsburgh on the eve of the regular season
The Pittsburgh Penguins are missing their best winger only two days away from the regular season. Bryan Rust (injured in an Oct 1 preseason game) was not on the ice today.
Coach Mike Sullivan said Rust was “day-to-day with a lower-body injury right now. He’s trying to manage through it” back on Thursday, but Rust hasn’t seen the ice since then.
Here’s how the lines looked in practice.
Here are the #LetsGoPens lines and D-pairs at practice:
O’Connor-Crosby-Beauvillier
Bunting-Malkin-Rakell
McGroarty-Eller-Puljujarvi/Puustinen
Hayes-Glass-AcciariGrzelcyk-Letang
Pettersson-Karlsson
Graves-St. Ivany
Shea-Brunicke— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 7, 2024
Rust’s absence could be Rutger McGroarty’s gain. If the Pens were fully healthy, there’s a good chance a winger from the first line would bump down to the third and push McGroarty out to Wilkes-Barre. As it stands now, it looks like he will get the opportunity to start the season in the NHL. From there, a spot in the lineup could be bad news for a Jesse Puljujarvi or Cody Glass, if McGroarty plays well enough to stay one of those players might get bumped out when Rust is back from his presumably minor injury.
The other big piece of news is that Harrison Brunicke was sent back to his junior team following NHL practice.
The Penguins have assigned defenseman Harrison Brunicke to the Kamloops Blazers (WHL). pic.twitter.com/ZZjZfhKtbn
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 7, 2024
Sullivan gave comment on this:
Sullivan on Brunicke: “We couldn’t be more encouraged with his camp. He made a huge impression on everybody.”
While a lot went into the decision to re-assign him, they ultimately have to do what’s in the best interests of his development, but he should have a lot of confidence.
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 7, 2024
And thus ends the first serious attempt for an 18-year old to make the Pens’ roster since Daniel Sprong back in 2015 (who would play 18 games and then be sent back to juniors himself).
Brunicke impressed and his development over the past few months has been astounding, but such a young and unseasoned player wasn’t quite ready for the leap into the NHL regular season. Shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, it was telling enough that Brunicke was kept around for one more practice today. The team wanted to squeeze in all the work and instruction they could get out of him and now it’s time to send him back and see how the year goes.
Back in the present day, the focus in Pittsburgh will turn to seeing if Rust can answer the bell and dress for opening night or whether what the team used today will be their lines on opening night on Wednesday against the Rangers.
Update:
Injury notes: Blake Lizotte, Bryan Rust and Alex Nedeljkovic have been placed on Injured Reserve. In addition, forward Matt Nieto has been placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve and forward Vasily Ponomarev has been designated as Injured Non-Roster. https://t.co/nIDCxaMH0B
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 7, 2024
Rust will open the season on injured reserve, through retroactively so and can be activated whenever he is healthy enough to return.
The team also chose the “simple route” from what we outlined yesterday, and opted to achieve salary cap compliance by placing Matt Nieto (expected back in November/December from knee surgery) on long term injured reserve today. That means no paper moves are necessary for Rutger McGroarty and/or Jack St. Ivany, who appear on the team’s official roster to start the season.