Like a lot of folks who celebrate Christmas, Blake Lizotte was gifted with a garish sweater that wasn’t all that cosmetically appealing.
But it was the thought that counted.
And in this case, Lizotte was thought to be healthy enough by Pittsburgh Penguins medical staffers that he was cleared for contact and wore a normal yellow sweater — as opposed to a white non-contact jersey — during his team’s practice Saturday in Cranberry.
Having missed the past nine games because of an undisclosed ailment that landed him on injured reserve, Lizotte inhabited his normal station as the fourth-line center during Saturday’s session.
It remains to be seen if he’ll be granted formal clearance for a road game Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks, but his activity Saturday certain bodes well.
“I feel good,” Lizotte said. “Obviously, no one wants to be injured. But with our training staff and everyone involved with the team getting me ready to go, I feel good. Hopefully, I’ll be ready to go here soon.”
Details as to what part of his anatomy was ailing have been limited publicly. For his part, Lizotte wasn’t quite sure how he was injured.
“To be honest, it’s a mystery for me, too,” Lizotte said. “I just started hurting. I’m not really sure if it was a certain hit. There wasn’t a moment where I was like ‘Oh, something happened.’ It just got more and more sore.”
“It’s kind of a mystery. It just kind of happened.”
Victory did not happen regularly for the Penguins in Lizotte’s absence. After he left the lineup following a 3-2 road shootout loss to the Dallas Stars on Dec. 7, the Penguins have gone 1-5-3.
To be certain, Lizotte’s convalescence has been overlapped by a 10-game respite by forward Evgeni Malkin (also designated to injured reserve with an undisclosed malady), and it’s far more difficult to fill the void left by an ailing superstar such as Malkin.
But Lizotte’s presence has been missed in a variety of ways.
“It starts with just that energy he plays with,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “It’s contagious. Because of the way he plays, a lot of times, he’s creating momentum for our team, whether it’s the way he tracks and strips, just stays on pucks, blocks shots. He does a lot of little things there that go a long way, and they’re greatly appreciated in the locker room.”
On Saturday, Lizotte skated with his typical linemates: Connor Dewar at left wing and Noel Acciari on the right wing.
While some advanced metrics in five-on-five scenarios are in the red for that trio (they have been on the ice for 95 shot attempts for and 101 against), others are decidedly in the black.
Per Natural Stat Trick, the Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari line has been on the ice for five goals for and four against while high-danger chances are in its favor, 18-16.
Perhaps most telling, that line leads the team with 62 defensive-zone faceoffs. The top line of Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust is second with 44.
“We play a simple game,” Acciari said. “We know what (each other is) doing. It makes us easy to read off each other and know where the others are going to be and anticipate things. We take pride in playing against (opponents’) top lines and make them play in the (defensive) zone. We’ve kind of found something there.”
The Penguins would presumably like to find more success on the penalty kill whenever Lizotte returns.
In the 27 games they played with him in the lineup, the Penguins allowed 12 goals on 80 opposing power-play opportunities, equating to a healthy penalty-kill conversion rate of 85%.
Over nine contests sans Lizotte, they’ve been diced up for eight power-play goals on 26 opposing power-play opportunities (69.2%).
Lizotte, who is second on the team with an average of 2:32 of average short-handed ice time per game, is a major component of that special teams unit.
“I think I help out in a lot of that area,” Lizotte said. “There’s been a few bounces on the (penalty kill) that are unlucky. With details and structure within the (penalty kill) specifically is something that I take a lot of pride in. In that area, I can help the team. Also, just bringing energy and jam.”
How the Penguins will jam Lizotte onto the active roster remains to be seen. Through Friday, they were at the NHL limit of 23 players on the active roster. To activate Lizotte, someone will need to be presumably assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
Likely candidates for that potential assignment, such as reserve defenseman Ryan Graves and forward Danton Heinen, would require exposure to waivers — a process that unfolds over 24 hours — before being sent to Northeast Pennsylvania. But with the NHL’s roster freeze still in effect as of midnight Saturday, no such maneuver could be executed until Sunday at the earliest.
Potentially designating an incumbent healthy player as “non-roster” — as was the case with defenseman Matt Dumba as he waited to clear waivers before being assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earlier this month — could be an option in the short term.
Regardless of that roster rigmarole, Lizotte is hopeful the Penguins’ losing ways are for the short term.
“It’s the hardest league in the world,” Lizotte said. “The difference between winning and losing is very little. You can count some games as bounces and some games as we just didn’t have our best. In this league, it’s a game of momentum. … Almost every team goes through stretches that are not good. Unfortunately, ours lasted longer than we probably wanted, for sure.
“We’re only a couple (of points) out of (playoff positioning) after Christmas. If you can take a step in the right direction, starting tomorrow, we’ll be just fine.”
Note: Malkin and defenseman Caleb Jones skated before Saturday’s practice session. Jones is also designated to injured reserve because of a suspected left foot injury he suffered Oct. 23. According to Muse, Saturday marked his first time on the ice since suffering the ailment.
The Penguins’ lines and pairings on Sunday were:
67 Rickard Rakell – 87 Sidney Crosby – 17 Bryan Rust
39 Anthony Mantha – 18 Tommy Novak – 16 Justin Brazeau
41 Ville Koivunen – 81 Ben Kindel – 2 Rutger McGroarty
19 Connor Dewar – 46 Blake Lizotte – 55 Noel Acciari
28 Parker Wotherspoon – 65 Erik Karlsson
77 Brett Kulak – 58 Kris Letang
5 Ryan Shea – 3 Jack St. Ivany
27 Ryan Graves – 75 Connor Clifton
Heinen and forward Kevin Hayes operated as reserves.
The top power-play unit included Crosby, Karlsson, Mantha, Rakell and Rust. The second power-play unit involved Brazeau, Kindel, Koivunen, Letang and Novak with McGroarty mixing in.