Penguins/NHL
FRIDAY’S CAMP REPORT
Much of what the Penguins announced Thursday’s in regards to player news, disregard a lot of that. Among them:
Sidney Crosby participated for the first 50 minutes of the 75 minute on-ice session for Group-A, showing no signs of being limited. Penguins head coach Mike Johnston said he learned about 30 minutes before practice that Crosby would be practicing. “I was kind of surprised,” Johnston said. “I found out about a half-hour before practice that he was going to work his way through some drills. He stayed on basically until the last drill. I was kind of excited by that, to see that he was able to handle the drills.”
Crosby skated very hard.
“I went pretty hard,” Crosby said. “It’s just one of those things where you want to be smart.” If it were the regular season, Crosby would be playing, but wouldn’t commit to playing in one of the Penguins upcoming preseason games vs Detroit, Columbus.
Crosby opened camp on a line with Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz, though, Nick Spaling also took reps on Crosby’s right wing.
Meanwhile, Olli Maatta continues to show great signs in his recovery from shoulder surgery as he’s not likely to miss much time in the regular season, if at all.
It was announced Thursday that Olli Maatta was cleared for limited contact and would wear a red jersey. That wasn’t the case. Maatta was a full participant during Friday’s session.
Pascal Dupuis who is not cleared for contact yet, wearing a red jersey, is getting antsy to start taking some contact, delivering a hard hit on Simon Despres that knocked Despres down, and delivered another one on prospect Oscar Sundqvist during a drill.
