letang MONDAY’S PRACTICE BUZZ
Kris Letang went through his first full practice today and in Dan Bylsma’s eyes, Letang had that “wow” factor about him today in the way he was skating during drills.
“To see him back out there, today we did a drill……turn up and see Kris Letang coming at you with that speed, I was like ‘wow’, haven’t seen that in a lot of cases with our team,” Bylsma said.
Bylsma also mentioned that Letang “was one of the best if not the best skaters on the ice today.”
Letang said after practice that he and his doctors have never really talked about when he can return to game action.
“We didn’t really talk about that,” Letang said. “I don’t know when. If I’m on the ice today it’s because I want to return.”
Letang skated at a high pace today.
“I felt pretty good,” Letang said. “I’ve been skating on my own and working out at a pretty high pace.”
One thing with Letang’s situation to emerge is that neither he nor team doctors seem concerned about Letang having another stroke.
“First they said I was in .01 percentage of that happening, pretty small, in the first place,” Letang said. “From what we know it could have been something else {related to hole in heart}, and could go away or will never happen again. We never really talked about if it could happen again.”
More Buzz
— Chris Kunitz skated before practice and went through a full practice. He could play Tuesday night vs Dallas. “Good to see all of them on the ice,” Bylsma said of Kunitz, Beau Bennett, James Neal and Kris Letang all on the ice.
— James Neal is targeting a return to the lineup tomorrow vs Dallas, barring no setbacks. Neal is symptom free. “{James Neal} met with doctors this morning and was cleared to return to a full practice,” Bylsma said….”Hopefully he remains symptom free”

— Beau Bennett is not expected to play vs the Stars. The Penguins want to see him have a couple more full contact practices under his belt.