Injured Penguins forward Tommy Novak resumes skating

Injured Pittsburgh Penguins forward Tommy Novak skated prior to a practice session in Cranberry on Friday.

It was his first time on the ice since suffering an undisclosed ailment March 9, according to coach Mike Sullivan.

Acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators on March 5, Novak has missed the past four games due to his malady.

Novak has been labeled as “day to day.”

Also joining Novak before practice were defensemen P.O Joseph (undisclosed) and Ryan Shea (suspected left hand or wrist).

Currently designated to injured reserve, Joseph remains sidelined indefinitely while Shea has been termed as “week to week.”

Forward Emil Bemstrom participated in practice after being scratched during Tuesday’s 4-2 home loss to the New York Islanders due to an undisclosed ailment. He remains “day to day” as well.

Notes:

• The Penguins had a significantly different look on their top defensive pairing on Tuesday as right-handed Kris Letang skated on the left side with Conor Timmins, also a right-hander, stationed on the starboard side.

“We’re exploring that possibility or the opportunity to play that pair together,” Sullivan said. “We think Conor Timmins has played extremely well. That was part of the decision-making there. Obviously, if we’re going to juggle defense pairs … we prefer to have the players playing on their strong sides. But sometimes, there are things that trump that. We thought we would explore it in practice today. It’s not etched in stone but we thought we would try that.”

• The team’s lines and pairings during practice:

67 Rickard Rakell – 87 Sidney Crosby – 17 Bryan Rust

19 Conor Dewar – 71 Evgeni Malkin – 53 Philip Tomasino

15 Joona Koppanen – 46 Blake Lizotte – 55 Noel Acciari

43 Danton Heinen – 13 Kevin Hayes – 14 Boko Imama

58 Kris Letang – 20 Conor Timmins

24 Matt Grzelcyk – 65 Erik Karlsson

27 Ryan Graves – 23 Vladislav Kolyachonok

• The top power-play unit included Crosby, Grzelcyk, Hayes, Rakell and Rust. The second unit involved Heinen, Karlsson, Letang, Malkin and Tomasino

• Reserve defensemen Sebastian Aho and forward Matt Nieto were present for practice. Both players are currently on the NHL roster under emergency roster conditions. With those parameters, they have been shuffled between the NHL and American Hockey League rosters in paper transactions repeatedly and were officially summoned to the NHL squad this morning.