VORHEES TOWNSHIP, N.J. — The Pittsburgh Penguins shuffled a few of their lines and defensive pairings during a practice session at Flyers Training Center on Friday in advance of Game 4 of their first-round playoff series with the Philadelphia Flyers.
With the team facing a 0-3 series deficit in the best-of-seven series, the Penguins inserted reserve forwards Elmer Soderblom and defenseman Ilya Solovyov into their line and pairing rushes while incumbent forward Justin Brazeau and defenseman Connor Clifton were relegated to duties as reserves.
Soderblom was a healthy scratch for Game 3 of the series while Solovyov has been a healthy scratch for all three games thus far.
Additionally, forward Egor Chinakhov was reunited with Tommy Novak and Evgeni Malkin during practice. Since Chinakhov arrived via trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets on Dec. 28, he has predominantly skated with Novak and Malkin but that trio has not been teamed together often in recent weeks.
Coach Dan Muse largely declines to comment on lineup decisions and indicated final decision on the lineup for Game 4 would be made Saturday.
The team’s lines and pairings were:
67 Rickard Rakell – 87 Sidney Crosby – 17 Bryan Rust
59 Egor Chinakhov – 18 Tommy Novak – 71 Evgeni Malkin
39 Anthony Mantha – 81 Ben Kindel – 25 Elmer Soderblom
19 Connor Dewar – 46 Blake Lizotte – 55 Noel Acciari
28 Parker Wotherspoon – 65 Erik Karlsson
49 Sam Girard – 58 Kris Letang
5 Ryan Shea – 7 Ilya Solovyov
Brazeau and fellow forward Kevin Hayes, along with Clifton and defensemen Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany, operated as reserves.
The first power-play unit included Crosby, Karlsson, Malkin, Rakell and Rust. The second power-play unit involved Chinakhov, Kindel, Letang, Mantha and Novak.