PITTSBURGH — If things had fallen a certain way for the Pittsburgh Penguins Xavier Woods Jersey , their regular-season finale Friday night against the Ottawa Senators at PPG Paints Arena would provide a chance to relax, give their key players light minutes.
Ottawa (28-41-11) is buried in the standings and long ago lost its shot at the postseason.
As it is, the Penguins (46-29-6) are still jockeying for playoff position despite a 5-4 overtime win Thursday at Columbus. Pittsburgh could face the Blue Jackets, Philadelphia, New Jersey or Washington in the first round.
The Penguins cannot catch Washington for first place in the Metropolitan Division, but several players have said recently they would like to secure home-ice advantage for at least the first round.
That is understandable considering Pittsburgh is 29-9-2 at home.
“I think we need to win again to get home ice, but it was a good win for us (in Columbus),” said winger Phil Kessel, whose second goal of the game was the winner in overtime against the Blue Jackets.
A win Friday would lock up second place in the division, securing home ice, although the Penguins’ opponent won’t necessarily be clear. Pittsburgh is the only NHL team that doesn’t play Saturday, the league’s final day of the season Antonio Callaway Jersey , so it will only be able to watch things unfold depending on what happens against Ottawa.
It’s expected that Penguins center Derick Brassard will miss his fifth game because of a lower-body injury.
The Senators, who ended a three-game losing streak Wednesday with a 4-2 win at Buffalo, haven’t been concerned about a playoff berth for a long time. In fact, that win helped ensure they won’t finish last overall in the NHL.
At this point, the question for them is where they will end up in the draft lottery, but the focus has been on this final road trip.
“We’re all professional athletes and we all have a lot of pride,” defenseman Mark Borowiecki told the Ottawa Sun. “We’re all wired to compete, and you don’t want to finish last. I take a lot of pride in being an NHL player, and I don’t want to go into the summer saying we’re the worst team in the NHL.”
With a final game Saturday at Boston, Ottawa held its final practice of the season Thursday at PPG Paints Arena.
“We’re going to give our very best in the last two games, knowing full well that those two games are going to be very difficult — not just the fact that they’re on the road, but we’re playing against high-end teams Stephen Hauschka Jersey ,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said.
Boucher said goaltender Craig Anderson will start against Pittsburgh, and winger Bobby Ryan is expected to play after he left Wednesday’s game because of a lower-body issue.
But winger Marion Gaborik had surgery Thursday in Los Angeles to repair a herniated disk, and winger Mark Stone is being shut down after he was not able to recover sufficiently from a high ankle sprain.
It is unclear whether defenseman Erik Karlsson might join the Senators for one or both games. He has played just one game since the March 19 death of his son, and his timetable has been left to him. Andrew Luck feels as sore and tired as he expected four days into training camp.
He’s also pain free – just as the Indianapolis Colts hoped.
Luck passed his first major tests by returning to the practice field, taking all of his normal snaps during the Colts’ first two workouts, connecting with receivers on the run rather than throwing at stationary targets while feeling good physically and mentally.
It’s a good start for the quarterback with the surgically repaired right shoulder.
”Every day there will be new hurdles,” he said Sunday. ”The second day, things seemed to calm down or slow down a lot. The first day I was nervous, I was excited and there was a certain element of the unknown. I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen. It was also very fun to be out there with the guys and focus on getting better at practice and not just surviving practice.”
The angst could be sensed all around the Colts’ new camp site earlier this week in Westfield, Indiana, a northern suburb of Indianapolis.
Fans roared throughout Thursday’s opening workout, even cheering when Luck was throwing to ball boys and quarterbacks. One fan shouted ”stay in that pocket” as Luck went through an individual drill designed to help all four quarterbacks evade oncoming pass rushers.
He was just 4 of 9 with an interception in his first 11-on-11 work since having a partially torn labrum fixed in January 2017.
On Friday, he was 15 of 19 overall.
He resumed throwing Sunday night, his first full practice in pads in nearly 20 months, and was 19 of 22 with two touchdowns in seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 drills.
”There have been four or five throws that have been like, `Oh yeah, that looks 100 percent like normal,”’ coach Frank Reich said before the evening workout. ”Then there have been one or two that we just need to work through and continue to get better.”
Luck did not talk with reporters after those practices or Saturday when he left the field about halfway through Saturday’s practice at Grand Park Sports Campus – as scheduled.
”It’s weird, but this is the plan Frank and I and (general manager) Chris (Ballard) and everybody who helped came up with at the start. I know it’s helped me continue to get better and better and better,” Luck said. ”It is sort of a bit odd to reconcile `OK, I’m out here, but I don’t get to participate.”
But after blaming his slow recovery at least partially on skipping steps in a rush to get back, he’s sticking to the plan this time.
And Reich intends to hold him to that promise even though Luck is under no restrictions on the field.
Luck still must pass a few more milestones such as throwing deep balls and taking hits. The wait may not be too long.
Reich has said he expects Luck to play in the Colts’ preseason opener on Aug. 9 at Seattle Chidobe Awuzie Jersey , though Reich has not yet determined how much Luck will play.
”I’m going into this from the very start that he was full go, fully cleared for everything. We have some planned rest days, but in my mind the amount that he plays is he’s 100 percent in my mind,” Reich said. ”We will plan him playing accordingly based on how much we would want to play our starting quarterback.”
Luck isn’t just starting to shake off the rust.
With each successive practice, he seems to be picking up Reich’s newly installed offense better and continues to look stronger and more confident in the shoulder.
”It’s fun. What can I say? I had jitters like before a game for that first practice, which was a neat feeling. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time. It’s been responding well,” he said. ”No pain. Soreness, tiredness for sure and stresses on my arm that are different. Shoot, there are stresses on everybody’s body at this camp that are different.”
Notes: Reich hopes to have injured offensive tackles Anthony Castonzo and Austin Howard back ”pretty soon.” Neither has practiced yet and only eight of the 15 offensive linemen practiced Saturday. … Offensive lineman Jack Mewhort returned to practice Sunday after getting an extra day off Saturday. … The evening practice was marred by a scuffle that began when right guard Matt Slauson instigated after he thought George Odum took an unnecessary hard shot on rookie running back Nyheim Hines. … Linebacker Anthony Walker left practice early with a groin injury.