Coach Dan Muse spent much of yesterday’s Penguins practice reshaping his power play, moving Ben Kindel to the top unit and shuttling Ville Koivunen down to the second unit. Kindel worked on the blue line with Erik Karlsson, while the forwards were Sidney Crosby, Tommy Novak and Rickard Rakell.
Koivunen was up top with Kris Letang on the second unit, with Justin Brazeau, Egor Chinakhov and Evgeni Malkin down low.
Malkin was full-go and will very likely be in the lineup tonight after missing Tuesday’s game with an undisclosed lower body injury.
Muse says Geno is a difference maker.
The Penguins were 0-for-6 on the power play, including a fruitless late 5-on-3 against Vegas on Tuesday. They also gave up two goals on four chances on the penalty kill. Muse says the PK is always going to be problematic if the opponents spend a lot of time in the Pens’ zone.
Sidney Crosby says Ben Kindel fits nicely into the power play, but the unit as a whole has to settle into the zone more and put pucks on net.
In the absence of Bryan Rust, Crosby has had Rickard Rakell and Tommy Novak on the top line with him, and he says it’s worked.
Ben Kindel says he knows his role on the Pens’ power play.
Kindel says the Penguins are doing the right things to score goals, and he expects that they’ll soon start getting goals.
The Penguins and the Bruins face off tonight shortly after 7 PM. Pregame is at six on 92.5 FM U92.
