The Penguins welcomed back two familiar faces at practice today. Both Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang made their return to practicing with teammates today.
Letang and Fleury each have been dealing with issues that stem from being hit in the head.
Kris Letang missed Pittsburgh's contest against Winnipeg and Fleury has been out since December 14th.
Here are Mike Sullivan's official updates on each player
Coach Sullivan on Fleury: "There is no timetable yet on him. He took shots today. It's progress."
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 29, 2015
Fleury was skating back in Pittsburgh while the Penguins were out West on their latest road trip. Taking shots is a good sign that he is on a positive path back to game action. Fortunately for the Penguins they really didn't see too much of a drop off in play at the goaltender position in his absence. From October 1 thru December 14th the Penguins had an EVSV% of .938. Since Fleury's injury it has been .934.
Coach Sullivan: "Letang had a pretty good practice today... We'll see how he is tomorrow morning. We will make decisions from there."
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 29, 2015
Kris Letang joined up with Olli Maatta in practice to form Pittsburgh's top pair. This is a good sign he is close to returning to game action.
The Letang-Maatta pairing has been solid during the small sample they have been together this year.
So far, Letang-Maatta has the 3rd highest CF% among all NHL D pairings with at least 70 minutes. Not bad.
— m g (@kikkerlaika) December 29, 2015
That Corsi For percentage is an impressive 63.7%. This is much better than how each player has played away from one another
The original plan was for both of these players to skate together but Mike Johnston broke away from that idea immediately before the season started. The Letang-Cole pairing was a mess that lasted for quite a stretch of time. Letang and Cole combined for a CF% of 45.9 during their 251:43 together.
Kris Letang and Olli Maatta are a decent pairing and the only reason to break them up would be if you wanted to try Brian Dumoulin up with Letang. That does not appear to be something that will likely happen as the Dumoulin-Lovejoy pairing has been inseparable this year.
The Penguins are back at it tomorrow with a home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Thanks for reading!