Defenseman Mark Friedman returns to Penguins' lineup
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Mark Friedman returned to the lineup during Saturday’s 1-0 home win against the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena.
Replacing injured defenseman Mike Matheson on the third pairing, Friedman logged 12 minutes 11 seconds of ice time on 18 shifts and recorded one shot on three attempts.
Friedman and partner Chad Ruhwedel were on the ice for 12 shots attempts for and only one against, per Natural Stat Trick.
“He played really well tonight,” Penguins defenseman John Marino said. “Him and (Ruhwedel) were great together. He’s great to have around the room and even on the bench. He handles it well. It’s got to be tough too, not playing that long. Coming cold like that and handling it the way he did, it’s pretty impressive.”
Friedman’s last NHL game was during a 3-2 road loss to the Dallas Stars on Jan. 8. And he merely served as a seventh defenseman in that contest when issues related to covid-19 forced the Penguins to dress an irregular lineup with only 11 forwards.
His most recent contest as one of the Penguins’ top six defensemen was a 6-3 road loss to the Ottawa Senators.
With the Penguins being fortunate enough to enjoy a remarkably healthy stretch from their defensemen over the past three and a half months, Friedman wound up being a healthy scratch for 39 of the past 40 games.
On Jan. 20, Friedman was sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on a conditioning assignment and played in two games for that team before being recalled Friday.
Teammates have lauded him for remaining prepared without the reward of much playing time.
“He’s been awesome,” Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry said. “He’s been a great teammate, and he comes to practice with a mindset of getting better every day. He works at it, and I think that just shows when he jumps in the lineup like that. It looks like he hasn’t missed a beat. Kudos on him. He played great for us tonight.”
Pettersson promoted to power play
The Penguins made one slight tweak to their second power-play unit Saturday and deployed defenseman Marcus Pettersson in place of Marino. The change resulted in Pettersson logging 31 seconds of time on the man advantage.
The reason for the alteration was binary.
“We’re trying to manage the minutes a little bit better back there,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We know we’ve got a lot of games coming up. And Marcus has shown an ability to be good in that area. We’ve used him there in the past. We thought we would try it. We use John Marino a lot on the penalty kill, we use him a lot five-on-five. … Also … it’s my hope that it will help Marcus’ confidence a little bit, just to get him involved offensively. Hopefully, that will help his overall five-on-five game, as well.”
Reaves high on Crosby
Rangers forward Ryan Reaves had a mostly unappetizing tenure with the Penguins, appearing in 58 games during the 2017-18 season.
Despite such a brief stint with the team, Reaves remains friends with Penguins forward Sidney Crosby.
Speaking with media Friday in New York, Reaves offered high praise of Crosby when asked about their time as teammates.
“Watching him in games before I played with him, he would bank it off the goalie and you would be like, ‘Oh, he’s so lucky. He’s just trying to put it in front of the net,’ ” Reaves said. “But then, I played with him and he does that all practice. Everything he does in games where you think — maybe not lucky because he’s a (once) in a lifetime talent — but just the crazy things you think it’s something he maybe pulled off on a fluke. … He doesn’t pull that off on a fluke.
“He does that all practice. He’s one of the hardest-working players I ever played with. He works on his game. He likes hard practices. He likes to battle. He’s very superstitious, a little too superstitious for me. He’s a great leader. It’s no wonder why that team is always in contention. When you have a guy like that on your team, he can take you places.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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