Penguins' Notebook: Players Talk 'Next Man Up' Mentality, Return To Play

The past few days at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, Pa. have been busy for the Pittsburgh Penguins, even without four of their regular players.

Starting Tuesday, the Penguins’ roster – minus Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell, and Arturs Silovs – returned to practice, and they’ve practiced for four consecutive days. In the last few, however, word spread quickly that Crosby was injured during Canada’s quarterfinal matchup against Czechia on Wednesday, and that lower-body injury held him out of Canada’s semifinal game against Finland on Friday.

The past few days at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, Pa. have been busy for the Pittsburgh Penguins, even without four of their regular players.

Obviously, losing Crosby is just about the worst blow that could happen to the Penguins. The severity of Crosby’s injury is not known, and it is unclear at this point if he figures to miss any sustantial amount of time.

But, should that be the case, the Penguins are confident enough that their “next man up” mentality will still be able to help them string together some wins – as has been the case all season long.

“We’ve kind of had it all year, in a sense, where we’ve had a lot of injuries,” defenseman Ryan Graves said. “Geno missed a little bit of time, Tanger’s missed time, Karl’s missed time, Rusty’s missed a little bit of time. That’s, kind of, been our M.O. a little bit.

It happens to most teams. Injuries happen, so it is what it is. But, I mean, we always hope for the best. I hope he can play there, but obviously, hope for him to be healthy as well. But, it is what it is. We’ll make the most of it.”

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2026 Winter Olympics: Nathan MacKinnon Sends Canada To Gold Medal Game Team Canada will play for a Gold Medal on Sunday morning.

Rare string of practices beneficial

Even if, in the grand scheme of things, players didn’t get all that much actual time off, this consecutive string of practices – the Penguins practiced Feb. 17-20, will practice Feb. 22-23 and again on Feb. 25 ahead of return-to-play – is something they believe will benefit them.

After all, it’s not often that they get a training camp-llike schedule of practice time to work on some of the details that they don’t otherwise always have time for.

“Even before the break, we weren’t having a lot of practices. Our practices were morning skates,” Shea said. “And everyone knows those skates. They’re a quick 20 minutes, and then, you’re off. Having all these practices is nice and it’s gonna be much-needed because I think it’s, like, 17 games in March? I mean, with that type of schedule, and you’re not going to be able to practice much in March, and you’re not going to be able to work on whether it’s structure for a team or individual skills.

“So, you get seven or eight practices before we play our next game, and I think they’re huge.”

Head coach Dan Muse stressed that it’s not exactly like a training camp, but it’s an opportunity for them to work on details until their other four players are back from Milan.

“It is unique in that it’s almost like a tune-up in-season where you can take some different things that we want to focus in on,” Muse said. “Some of them are areas that we like about our game and that we just want to make sure we’re coming out of the break and we’re sharp, and other areas, too, between these last couple days and the four practices that will be coming up after the day off, some areas within the game that we want to just fine-tune a little bit.

“I don’t think this time of year that you want to make massive changes, but you can maybe make some little tweaks on some areas that you want to focus in on within our team game.”

This Penguins Forward Has Been A Nice Surprise Penguins forward Conor Dewar has certainly been a solid part of the team’s roster this season.

Is Avery Hayes an option?

Of course, Crosby’s status is still unclear. But, if they do need to call on someone, forward Avery Hayes seems like the obvious choice right now, even if he’s not a center.

In addition to scoring two goals in his NHL debut against the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 5, Hayes has 10 goals and 12 points in his last 10 AHL games. He is on an absolute heater, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Muse and his staff.

And Muse will keep his options open.

“I think we’re always having conversations. I’m having conversations with management, I’m having conversations with [WBS head coach Kirk MacDonald] in Wilkes and getting updates,” Muse said. “I think he’s done a very good job this year, too, of just… One, he positioned himself when that opportunity was there, or a potential opportunity in that Buffalo game, just based on the work that he has done this year – especially as of late – for him to kind of earn that opportunity.

“And then, he’s another guy who took full advantage of it, and you saw the impact he made in that game. Then, there’s obviously been follow-up there from him in terms of his play. So, that’s great by him, and that stuff doesn’t go unnoticed.”

Avery Hayes Can’t Stop Scoring For Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Avery Hayes has been a one-man wrecking crew for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Island getaway for a rookie

I spoke to Shea about Ben Kindel tagging along last-minute with he, Kevin Hayes, Connor Dewar, and a few other guys on their trip to Anguilla, and Shea was thrilled that the rookie was able to come along on the trip.

He mentioned that it was initially Hayes’s idea, but that they were delighted to invite him to a place that he, likely, had never been before. And – evidently – Kindel was excited about the opportunity to hang out with his teammates and have some fun in the Caribbean over the break.

“It’s actually hilarious because, when we asked him, he immediately said ‘yes,'” Shea said.

Penguins’ Players Part Ways To Enjoy Olympic Break As you’ve surely heard by this point, there are four Pittsburgh Penguins who travelled 4,293 miles from the City of Steel to Milan, Italy, to represent their respective countries in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina.

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