Feisty Hornqvist comes back
PIttsburgh Post-Gazette
As Mike Sullivan and the Penguins have frequently been reminded this season, there are a number of factors to consider when deciding whether you want to ease a player back into the lineup with a minutes restriction or a limited role.
In the case of Patric Hornqvist, you can’t ask the bull to tiptoe into a china shop.
“It’s hard to ease him back in with his [style of play],” the coach said Saturday.
The hard-charging winger returned to the lineup Saturday against the Nashville Predators after the Penguins activated him from injured reserve earlier in the day. It was Hornqvist’s first game since Nov. 30 when he suffered a lowerbody injury.
Sullivan didn’t have to point him in the direction of the other team’s crease.
“He’s as good a player as there is in the league at the net. … He gets a lot of the blue-paint goals and he makes a goalie’s life miserable by taking his sight lines away and limiting his mobility [outside the crease],” Sullivan said. “He’s always around the paint. That dimension of his game is really important for our team.”
Sullivan says something similar every time Hornqvist returns from an extended absence, which has happened a few times during this calendar year.
Hornqvist, who turns 33 on New Year’s Day, was twice sidelined by a concussion in 2018-19 and this season has had two multi-week absences due to injuries. He previously missed seven games in November with a lower-body injury.
He suffered his latest injury in a loss in St. Louis, the same night Brian Dumoulin went down with an injury that will keep him out at least another month.
Less than two weeks ago, Hornqvist resumed skating on an individual basis. He traveled Friday with the Penguins to Nashville. And while he did not play Friday in a 5-2 win over the Predators, he joined his teammates on the ice for the morning skate. After that session, Sullivan said Hornqvist was “close.”
Close enough that he played the next night in a rematch at PPG Paints Arena.
In 20 games before Saturday, Hornqvist recorded six goals with five assists.
To make room on the roster for Hornqvist, the Penguins Saturday reassigned Thomas Di Pauli to WilkesBarre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. The 25year-old forward did not play for the Penguins in this stint in the NHL.
Blandisi odd man out
With Hornqvist back in the lineup, the Penguins had to sit another forward.
Sam Lafferty and Joseph Blandisi appeared to be the leading candidates to be the healthy scratch. The Penguins opted to sit Blandisi, who has two goals and four points in 17 games this season, and moved Lafferty back to center.
Lafferty, a Hollidaysburg, Pa., native, has seen time at center and right wing as a rookie. Sullivan said before the game they actually prefer him on the wing.
“There’s a lot more responsibility associated with playing center, especially defensively,” he said. “And so that’s a learning process. But we do prefer him on the wing for his speed and his ability to take defensemen wide, chase people down. His puck pursuit opportunities, I think, are greater when he’s on the wing.”
Galchenyuk getting gritty?
Alex Galchenyuk’s goal Friday was just his third of the season. But it provided a reason for optimism going forward: He actually skated toward the net.
Galchenyuk was parked in front of Pekka Rinne when Marcus Pettersson’s shot from the point hit the Predators goalie and dropped into the blue paint.
“I was just trying to get in front and give a good screen,” Galchenyuk said after that win in Nashville. “I’m happy that it bounced right onto my stick.”
Sullivan said he hoped that the gritty goal would give Galchenyuk a boost.
“If you want to score goals, going to the net is a good way to do it,” he added.