Bonino misses another game

Veteran center still bothered by injury

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Penguins center Nick Bonino missed this third consecutive game Thursday when he sat out Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final.

Bonino is out with apparent left foot injury. He has not skated with the team since pregame warmups before Game 4 in Nashville.

Bonino originally was hurt in the first period of Game 2 last week, when he went down to block a slap shot from Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban. He hobbled off the ice with help from trainers, but returned for the second and third periods of that game.

Despite being in a walking

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boot and crutches off the ice, Bonino practiced with the Penguins between Games 3 and 4 in Nashville. He took the ice for warmups in Game 4 Monday night, but left midway through and was not in the lineup.

Sullivan later said Bonino did not feel healthy enough at the time to be in the lineup.

Hornqvist plays on

Winger Patric Hornqvist missed the Penguins’ practice Wednesday to take a maintenance day, but was back in action for Game 5.

Hornqvist has missed a number of practices and morning skates in this playoff run, but Sullivan said he’s “doing fine” physically. Or, at least, as well as any other player at this time of year.

“As far as what he brings to our team, I think it’s obvious his north-south game, his straight-ahead game, his willingness to go to the battle areas, his physical play,” Sullivan said. “I think he goes to the net as well as anyone on our team. You know, his contagious personality on our bench, he brings so much to our team. We love his passion. We love his fire. And he’s one of those guys that’s hard to play against.”

Sheary turns 25

Besides Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final, Thursday also was winger Conor Sheary’s 25th birthday.

One of Sheary’s wishes likely was pretty obvious — a Penguins win tonight — but he was cagey with what else would go through his mind if and when he blew out any candles today.

“I wished for a lot of things,” he said. “Hopefully, they come true. If I tell you my wish, that defeats the purpose.”

Don’t mess with routine

It seems inevitable that players on both teams would be weary at this point of the season — after all, many have played more than 100 games since last fall —but no one seems interested in acknowledging that fatigue is an issue.

Indeed, Penguins winger Carl Hagelin took that position to an extreme after the game-day skate Thursday.

“I don’t believe in fatigue,” he said.

It’s no surprise, then, that Hagelin said he hasn’t adjusted his schedule to squeeze in a little more time to rest.

“I try to keep it the same way I’ve been doing it the last five or six years,” Hagelin said.

He’s not alone in that regard. A random sampling turned up not a single teammate who said he has deviated from his in-season routine as the playoffs have progressed.

“You just kind of stick to your thing,” winger Jake Guentzel said.

Hot goalie

When the series began, Predators goalie Pekka Rinne was being discussed as a potential Conn Smythe winner as playoff MVP.

That talk stopped after he has dismal showings in Games 1 and 2, but revved up again in the wake of excellent performances in Games 3 and 4 in Nashville.

How Rinne will play the rest of the way is impossible to predict, but winger Bryan Rust suggested the Penguins aren’t particularly worried about generating only two goals in Nashville.

“Anytime you’re this late in the year, you’re going to be playing against a hot goalie,” he said.

“We have enough scoring, enough depth, in this room to not be too concerned of that.”