Pens Practice Update: Sidney Crosby, Tristan Jarry both OUT for Game 6

The Penguins showed a mixed bag of players on the ice and missing from it for the gameday morning skate on Friday. Sidney Crosby did not take part in practice, and the team has had to move on and adjust their lines accordingly.

The biggest switch was moving Evan Rodrigues from the wing and over to center. Rodrigues has mixed playing both positions, and do varying degrees of success at both in his up and down season. It’s been a while since Rodrigues has been a dedicated center — he hasn’t had a game where he’s taken six+ faceoffs since February 20th, which he frequently did but mostly in October and November when the Penguins were without both Crosby and Evgeni Malkni.

While it is disappointing — though not unexpected to see Crosby missing, the Penguins did showcase some good news in the form of Tristan Jarry ramping up his participation even further.

Rickard Rakell skated on his own early and stayed for the team portion, but wasn’t involved in line rushes. Defenseman Brian Dumoulin remained off the ice.

However, the first goalie off the ice is usually a symbolic indicator of which goalie leaves the ice to prepare for the start, while the backup stays longer to help the team shoot on him a little more. Louis Domingue was that first goalie off the ice, a suggestion (though not a rule) that strongly points to Domingue as the Pens’ starting goalie tonight in Game 6.

No word yet from coach Mike Sullivan on who might or might not play tonight, even though naturally he’s probably just going to call the whole roster a game-time decision, all players who are injured are status quo and day-to-day, etc.

UPDATE: Sullivan has given some news. Crosby and Jarry are both ruled out for tonight, but Sullivan said Crosby skated early this morning with skills coach Ty Hennes and Crosby is “in a good place”.