Nick Bjugstad, Bryan Rust practice with the Penguins
DALLAS – Injured Penguins forwards Nick Bjugstad and Bryan Rust will be “game-time” decisions for Saturday’s meeting with the Dallas Stars, according to coach Mike Sullivan.
Both players have been traveling with the team during its three-game road trip and participated in practice at the American Airlines Center on Friday.
“They obviously felt good in practice,” Sullivan said. “They had a strong practice. Their status, they’ll be game-time decisions. But it certainly looked encouraging watching them practice today.”
Bjugstad has missed nine games due to an undisclosed ailment. Rust has yet to play in the regular season after being struck in the left hand with a puck during the presason finale Sept. 28.
Forward Alex Galchenyuk traveled to Dallas and practiced but was ruled out to play on Saturday.
“Alex will not play tomorrow but he’s obviously getting real close,” Sullivan said. “He’s joined the team in practice. That’s the reason why we’ve brought him out here, to get him around the team, to get him into the team practices. The next step obviously would be the decision to put him back in the game. The first step is to get him back into practice with the team.”
Absent was forward Adam Johnson, who did not play in Wednesday’s 3-2 road loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning due to an undisclosed injury. Sullivan said Johnson remains sidelined.
Bjugstad, Rust and Galchenyuk each remain on injured reserve. After trading defenseman Erik Gudbranson to Anaheim for winger Andreas Martinsen and a draft pick on Friday, then assigning Martinsen to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, the Penguins could activate two players before they’d need to trim anyone else from the 23-man roster.
If a third player returns from injury, the Penguins would need to either place Johnson on injured reserve or send a player down. Forward Joseph Blandisi, who served as a spare forward in practice along with Galchenyuk, would be a potential candidate for an assignment.
The Penguins’ lines and pairs during practice were:
Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Dominik Simon
Bryan Rust – Nick Bjugstad – Patric Hornqvist
Sam Lafferty – Jared McCann – Dominik Kahun
Zach Aston-Reese – Teddy Blueger – Brandon Tanev
John Marino – Kris Letang
Jack Johnson – Justin Schultz
Marcus Pettersson – Erik Gudbranson
Juuso Riikola – Chad Ruhwedel
The first power-play unit included Crosby, Guentzel, Hornqvist, Letang and Schultz while the second power-play unit included Bjugstad, Kahun, McCann, Pettersson, Galchenyuk and Riikola. The latter two alternated between drills.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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