The Penguins were able to hit the ice for a practice today as they prepare for their next game on Wednesday night against the New York Rangers. There were some good developments at practice today on the injury front. Let’s start with the goaltending.

Coach Mike Sullivan: “Matt Murray took full shots this morning when he skated on his own before practice. He will travel with the team on this road trip. He is making progress and we are encouraged by that progress.”

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 13, 2018

So this was the next step that needed to be taken and it was. Matt Murray’s next step will be to practice in full and his presence on the road trip is a good sign that he will find his way back into the lineup by next Tuesday.

The other good news was Bryan Rust returning to practice as a full participant which makes the line depth look way better

Rust has changed into a regular yellow jersey and is doing rushes. #Pens lines:

Guentzel-Crosby-Sheary
Hagelin-Malkin-Hornqvist
Rust-Brassard-Kessel
Jooris/Kuhnhackl-Sheahan-Rowney

Dumoulin-Letang
Oleksiak-Schultz
Maatta-Ruhwedel

-MC

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) March 13, 2018

Bryan Rust has a history of being a good possession player and that is something the third line could use right now because more nights than not they are hemmed in their own zone. Rust’s style of play should also mesh with the other two who can do more of the puck control related things while Rust can bomb up and down the ice retrieving pucks for them. Rust is no slouch in carrying the puck wide himself and can help facilitate some zone entries. The Malkin line has been running hot and there’s no immediate need to break up the Crosby line. Riley Sheahan is more appropriately slotted as the fourth line center. When Dominik Simon gets healthy the fourth line could get another boost as well.

Congratulations to Alexander Ovechkin on goal number 600 in only 990 games. It’s looking more and more like he is the best ever goal scorer in the NHL’s history. His ability to score like he has in the dead puck era is way more impressive than anything from the early to mid-1980’s. The goaltenders and ability to play defense were a complete joke back then. Everything was bloated and inflated. Now it is the opposite. Ovechkin’s consistency has been so remarkable that when he scores 32 goals in a season everybody wonders what the hell is wrong with him. In his 13 years he has only scored less than 40 on four occasions and one of those was when he scored 32 in the lockout shortened 48 game season. The Capitals team success, or lack thereof, does not diminish how great Ovechkin has been.

Thanks for reading!

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