Alexander Alexeyev

The Penguins hit the ice for practice without Sidney Crosby, who's still nursing that lower-body tweak from the Olympics, leaving the locker room buzzing about his timeline. Coaches mix up the lines with recent recalls like Alexeyev anchoring the blue line while Graves heads down for conditioning, all part of Dubas' chess game to stay playoff-bound.

The Penguins shuffle their depth chart again, assigning towering defenseman Alexander Alexeyev back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton amid a brutal injury wave that has Mike Sullivan scraping for bodies. Alexeyev, the former Capitals first-rounder who signed a cheap one-year deal last summer, has bounced between Pittsburgh and the AHL all season with solid shutdown minutes down below.