Seeking balance, Penguins split Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel in practice

The greatest playoff success the Pittsburgh Penguins have enjoyed during their recent championship era came with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel anchoring their own lines.

Coach Mike Sullivan hasn’t forgotten.

As the Penguins began preparations for a first-round playoff series against the New York Islanders with a Monday morning practice in Cranberry, Sullivan opted for a balanced attack up front.

Crosby centered Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust on the top line. Malkin skated between Jared McCann and Patric Hornqvist on the second line. Kessel was on the right side of the third line with Dominik Simon and Nick Bjugstad.

Different lines and D pairs for first 5 on 5 drill

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McCann-Malkin-Hornqvist
Simon-Bjugstad-Kessel
Blueger-Cullen-Wilson

Johnson-Letang
Maatta-Schultz
Pettersson-Gudbranson
Dumoulin-Trotman

— Jonathan Bombulie (@BombulieTrib) April 8, 2019

Though Sullivan could change the look before Wednesday’s series opener on Long Island, it looks like he is intent on trying to recapture the three-line magic that carried the Penguins to the Stanley Cup in 2016.

“Balance is important to have success in the playoffs, and every line has to have a conscience on both sides of the puck,” Sullivan said. “We’re trying to look at our personnel and figure out what combinations we think meet those criteria. There are times when we’ve loaded the top six, and that’s never off the table. Sometimes we may do that within the course of a game depending on how we think our team is playing or what we think the needs are or whatever it may be.

Malkin and Kessel played on a line together for most of this season. When they were on the ice at the same time five on five, the Penguins outscored their opponents 30-27.

When Kessel was on the ice without Malkin, the Penguins outscored their opponents 22-17. When Malkin was on the ice without Kessel, the Penguins were outscored 19-14.

“I think the most important thing is we’ve got a group of players that we have some flexibility (with),” Sullivan said. “We’ve had some stability throughout the course of our lines. We’ve had a lot of tandem stability with at least two (linemates) that have played together a fair amount over the last six or eight weeks. Now we’ll move certain people around based on how we think guys are playing or the team is going that we think gives our team the best chance to win.

“We’ve got to be able to accomplish two things. We’ve got to have some balance. We’ve got to be hard to play against. That’s the recipe for success, I think, in playoff hockey.”

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