Penguins Practice: Rakell Back, O’Connor Dropped, & Why Frank Vatrano Always Scores

ANAHEIM, Calif — The Pittsburgh Penguins and perhaps Rickard Rakell got some good news since Sunday.

Rakell left the team sometime after the loss on Saturday to the Washington Capitals to return to Pittsburgh and tend to a family matter. Rakell was not with the team on Monday when they beat the LA Kings 5-1 at Crypto.com Arena. However, he was at practice Wednesday at the Honda Center as the Penguins got an hour-long, albeit delayed, workout before facing the Anaheim Ducks Thursday.

Rakell is on pace for his first 40-goal season. He has 23 goals and 17 assists in 48 games. He assumed his regular spot beside Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust on the top line.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now respects players’ privacy and did not seek further clarification.

The Penguins had a full complement of players on the ice. Coach Mike Sullivan further reinforced his message of holding onto pucks and playing in the low zone, at one point barking at Anthony Beauvillier, “For gosh sakes, hold onto the puck!”

Well, perhaps we cleaned up that quote a little bit.

The team worked on a couple of plays to involve the defensemen while playing with the puck deep in the offensive zone, which they’ve done very well over the last few games, especially against the LA Kings.

The lines were similar to those before Rakell’s absence, but Sullivan has dropped Drew O’Connor down a slot, and it seems Matt Nieto will return to being a healthy scratch.

Penguins Lines

Rickard Rakell-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting-Evgeni Malkin-Cody Glass

Anthony Beauvillier-Kevin Hayes-Philip Tomasino

Drew O’Connor-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari

Defense

Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang

Matt Grzelcyk-Erik Karlsson

Owen Pickering-P.O Joseph

Frank Vatrano

Perhaps it was the warm California sunshine, but Pittsburgh Hockey Now was in a good mood Wednesday. Even after the Ducks delayed their practice, thus pushing the Penguins to practice back to after 1 p.m. PST, we couldn’t resist having a little fun with a notorious Penguins killer, Frank Vatrano.

No matter the team he plays for, Vatrano seems to always light the lamp against the Penguins. In 21 career games, he has 10 goals and four assists.

He has 11 goals in 29 career games against the Tampa Bay Lightning but has played eight more games against Tampa Bay. But come on, how has he continued to light up the Penguins?

“I just love that building,” an amused Vatrano said.