There’s a dirty little secret about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ current eight-game winning streak that coach Mike Sullivan probably doesn’t want his players to think about.
The team is playing its best hockey of the season during a stretch where it’s had the least amount of practice time.
When the Penguins gathered for a full team practice in Cranberry on Saturday morning, it was just the fourth time they’d done so on a non-game day since Dec. 8.
They practiced Dec. 11 in Chicago, Dec. 28 at home and Dec. 30 in Minnesota, but otherwise have been getting by on morning skates, meetings and video sessions.
Despite those facts, Sullivan said he’s sure he can still convince his players that practice is important.
“Yes,” he said, pausing for emphasis. “Because it is.
“It’s very important. The schedule has not allowed us to practice and we’ve had pretty good success by giving the guys the opportunity to recover in between games, having morning skates and then playing, but we’re also trying to balance the long-term effect of not practicing with the short-term effect of trying to win each game as it comes.
“The few opportunities that we do have to practice here, we’ve got to maximize those opportunities because that’s where you build the foundation and the habits that it takes to have long-term success.”
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Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jonathan at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib.
