None of this is normal.
Just look at the calendar. Is July.
Penguins shouldn’t be practicing. They should do one-leg box jumps in a home gym in the morning and then catch rainbow trout in a pontoon boat on an Ontario lake with a five-syllable name in the afternoon.
But “normal” evacuated almost all areas of life a long time ago.
Four months to be exact, if you are an NHLer.
The penguins were reminded that Monday during the first practice of their training camp at Cranberry.
Approximately 10 minutes before the session began, the team announced that nine players would be detained indefinitely after learning they had potential exposure to a person who had contact with a person who tested positive for the coronavirus.
Under a new NHL policy, the identities of those players were not disclosed. In total, 11 players did not participate in practice, including three reserve goalkeepers.
The most notable of the absences was striker Patric Hornqvist.
In a statement, the team said the players were kidnapped “as a precaution in an effort to avoid exposure to anyone else within the organization.”
“The decision that was made to quarantine the players as a precaution will simply be part of this process,” coach Mike Sullivan said during a video chat with reporters after practice on Monday. “We have talked a lot about that as a staff and the potential scenarios that could arise and how we would handle them and how we would react to them. It is one of those things that we have to be ready to adjust and adapt. That is what we did there today. ”
Beyond that, the practice was … normal.
I mean, it had a furious rhythm and was intricately detailed. If you didn’t know any better, this could have been a random Tuesday between home games in December.
“It’s great to come back,” said forward Sidney Crosby. “We will all take a few days to get used to this, this kind of new reality for us when it comes to testing and all the social distancing and all that is going to happen here on the track. It is something that we will have to adapt to a bit, but I think once we get used to it, it will become our new normal. ”
“We thought we had great energy, great enthusiasm,” said Sullivan. “The men worked extremely hard. There were parts of the practice where they had to overcome fatigue. They did a very good job. ”
Despite extensive regulations the NHL has established to minimize the risk of players contracting the coronavirus, the simple act of practicing for the first time since the NHL stopped play on March 12 and went into business as a Professional hockey player was warmly welcomed. by penguins.
“It was great,” forward Jason Zucker said. “It feels good to be out there. The first one is always a little hard, a little hard. But once you got back to it, I thought it was great. It felt really good to be there with the guys and in a team environment. ”
With just two weeks of camping before the team plans to fly to Toronto to be part of the Eastern Conference part of the postseason tournament to wrap up the 2019-20 season, the Penguins realize the urgency of maximizing this limited window. of practice.
“Looking at the way the team practiced today with the energy level and the level of enthusiasm we had there is just the statement that we have a group that is excited,” Sullivan said. “Now, it’s about making sure we control what we can every day to give ourselves the best opportunity to take advantage of this.”
If all goes according to plan, the Penguins will open the postseason in a qualifying round game against the Montreal Canadiens at a mostly vacant Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto on August 1.
Despite missing several of their own players and seeing other teams quarantine players across the league, the Penguins profess optimism, the NHL’s plans will come to fruition.
“It will be an important time here in the coming weeks to make sure that we are doing everything we can to avoid problems,” said Crosby. “We are being tested here every other day. Everyone is aware and they make sure that we are socially distanced and all that. We are doing everything possible to avoid it. Hopefully that can be a success and we can make it to the (tournament) in a healthy way. ”
In many ways, that hope is normal for this group.
“I think our guys have it in perspective,” said Sullivan. “They understand it. They understand it. This is a really difficult trophy to win. But we are really excited about the opportunity. ”
Follow penguins throughout the season.
Seth Rorabaugh is a writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Seth by email at [email protected] or by Twitter.
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Penguins / NHL | sports
