Hornqvist may return Saturday night
Winger has missed three games with concussion
Midway through practice Friday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, Patric Hornqvist, the only Penguins player wearing a white sweater, pulled it off and tugged a black one over his shoulder pads.
He was ready to battle, and he soon would park himself in front of goaltender Tristan Jarry as the Penguins worked on a power play that was not as effective the past three games with Hornqvist out of the lineup because of a concussion.
Hornqvist jostled with defenders just outside the crease and casually dodged onetimers. He whacked at loose pucks near Jarry’s pads.
“It feels great,” Hornqvist later said about being back at practice. “It’s not a good feeling to sit out and watch them battle . ... But today I was back out there and I felt good, so I’m moving in the right direction.”
Assuming everything checks out OK when team doctors take a look at him, Hornqvist could give the Penguins a boost by returning to the lineup Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Hornqvist thinks playing is a possibility. And if he does indeed suit up, he expects to play with the same feistiness and fearlessness that have made him one of the NHL’s best around the net.
“With a concussion, you’re 100 percent or you’re not 100 percent. That’s the thing,” Hornqvist said. “You can’t be like, ‘Should I play the game or should I go into battle?’ You have to be all-in or you’re not in.”
The 31-year-old added: “This game is too fast and it’s too emotional and there’s too much contact to put your health on the line.”
The concussion he sustained a week earlier in Boston was at least his third in the past two years. Two others, which the Penguins also revealed, were in November 2016 and in March 2017. He missed games with “an upper-body injury” in December 2017 after taking a puck to the head.
Concussions were back in the news just a couple of weeks ago when the NHL reached an $18.9 million settlement with more than 100 former players who suffered lingering effects from concussions.
Some of those former players claimed they still suffer from headaches, sensitivity to light, mood swings, sleeping issues and depression.
But Hornqvist is “not at all” concerned about the toll he may be taking.
“It’s always the same way. I feel kind of out of it for a few days and then I come right back at it,” he said. “So I’m not worried about that.”
Hornqvist suffered his latest concussion in the Nov. 23 loss to the Bruins when he took a hard hit from Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller.
“I was just an awkward situation,” he said. “The puck is kind of in a perfect spot for him to take the body, and I have to poke the puck. It’s one of those situations you don’t see very often and you don’t know how to protect yourself. I have to do a better job to protect myself right there.”
Hornqvist remained in Pittsburgh this week while the Penguins traveled to Winnipeg and Colorado. He skated on his own in Pittsburgh with skating and skills development coach Ty Hennes.
Friday was his first team practice since he had the concussion.
“I thought he had a good practice,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “The second half of the practice was full-contact, full participation. We’ll see how he responds, but certainly that was encouraging.”
Hornqvist was playing his best hockey of the season in the two weeks before he got knocked out of the lineup. He had four goals and four assists in four games before playing just 13 minutes against the Bruins.
The Penguins put Dominik Simon in his spot alongside Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel, and those two kept on rolling. Guentzel had a hat trick in a win against Columbus, and Crosby got one two games later in Colorado.
Hornqvist’s presence in front of the net and relentless effort was missed on the power play, though. The Penguins were 1 for 6 in the three games he was out, and they also coughed up a short-handed goal in Winnipeg.
After a slow start in which Hornqvist did not score in his first six games, he now has nine goals and 15 points in 21 games played.
He has become a valuable leader, too, and his positive attitude and vocal leadership helped spark the Penguins out of their November slump.