Penguins forward Jeff Carter, goaltender Tristan Jarry placed in NHL's covid-19 protocol

Having already had two players sidelined for a handful of games because of covid-19, the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t need any reminders that the virus is still a considerable impediment.

But they received a fairly blunt aide-memoire Thursday.

Forward Jeff Carter and goaltender Tristan Jarry — easily two of the team’s most important players through all of four contests this season — were placed into the NHL’s protocol for covid-19.

Both players were absent from practice Thursday in Cranberry. Coach Mike Sullivan said Carter tested positive for the virus but did not specify any testing results for Jarry. Sullivan also said each player is asymptomatic.

Per those protocols, players who test positive must be placed in isolation from teammates and staffers for 10 days. Vaccinated players can be released from that isolation if they are asymptomatic and test negative on two consecutive days.

At the start of training camp in September, general manager Ron Hextall suggested all players in the organization were expected to be vaccinated once the regular season opened.

The availability of Carter and Jarry for Saturday’s home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs is uncertain, but it would appear questionable — at best — that they would be able to dress given the time frame of the NHL’s protocols.

Forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Jake Guentzel tested positive during the preseason and missed time on the ice. Aston-Reese, who experienced what were termed “mild” symptoms, was scratched for the first two games of the season, and Guentzel, who was asymptomatic, was sidelined for only the first.

After the Penguins announced Guentzel had tested positive Oct. 3, the team resumed testing players and staff on a daily basis. Previously, testing was more sporadic throughout training camp.

“We did a really good job last (season),” said forward Evan Rodrigues, who filled in for Carter as the team’s default No. 1 center in practice Thursday. “I don’t think we had one (positive covid-19 case). … It just seems like this year, we’re not really catching the breaks. You try to be as diligent as possible. You try to keep yourself safe. But sometimes it’s a freak pass-by when you’re leaving the rink. You don’t really know. It could be when you’re getting gas. You don’t really know where you’re getting it.

“We’ve, obviously, had a few cases. It’s not being nice to us right now.”

During the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, which was played largely before vaccinations became readily available for all populations in the United States by the spring, the NHL had fairly strict rules as far as how much in-person contact players and coaches could have with one another. Many of those rules even extended to personal lives and dictated, to some degree, what social settings players or staffers could partake in. Internally, the Penguins supplemented those rules with several unofficial but direct “suggestions” for players as to what to avoid.

This season, most of those regulations have been relaxed significantly for vaccinated individuals.

On Sunday, a number of Penguins players, including Carter and Jarry, attended the Steelers game against the Seattle Seahawks at Heinz Field. The contest had a listed attendance of 60,821.

After practice Thursday, Sullivan was asked if the team would prefer players avoid public settings or if such a scenario was an acceptable risk in their lives away from the rink.

“It’s a good question,” Sullivan said. “It’s certainly a question that we’ve asked ourselves internally. We’re trying to find the sweet spot where we’re trying to limit our exposure as best we can. But also, people have to live their lives. ‘Where is that sweet spot?’ I guess is the question.”

“I don’t know if I have a valid answer for you. It’s certainly something that we’re throwing around internally. We’re talking to our players about doing our very best to limit our exposure as best we can and just use common sense.”

It’s a dilemma the Penguins have become all too familiar with.

“There’s risk involved, obviously,” said forward Brian Boyle, a cancer survivor who battled chronic myeloid leukemia in 2017. “We try to mitigate it as best we can. It’s not something new, unfortunately. It seems a little bit random, which is not an easy feeling.

“We’re doing what we can, we’re doing everything we can. We’ve got to train, we’ve got to skate, we’ve got to go on the ice and do things. You can’t really wear a mask doing that but every other time, we’re trying to be diligent with that.

“It’s just kind of lingering around. We have to continue to be diligent.”

Note: During Thursday’s practice, goaltending coach Andy Chiodo wore a facemask as a precaution as he is usually in close proximity to Jarry and backup goaltender Casey DeSmith.

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