Perron skates with Malkin, Hornqvist

The Penguins practiced at Consol Energy Center Monday where left winger David Perron skated on a line with center Evgeni Malkin and right winger Patric Hornqvist.

The Penguins had made that change late in Saturday’s 2-1 road loss to the Coyotes. Perron replaced left winger Sergei Plotnikov who was moved to the third line with center Nick Bonino and right winger Beau Bennett.

“I don't even want to talk about lines,” Perron said. “I just want to play hockey. If we're going to do that all year [discuss lines], it's not going to be a fun year. Let's just get to play, have fun and play our game. We did some good things in Dallas [Thursday]. We did some good things in the third in [Arizona]. We can have better details than we did in [Arizona]. Lines don't matter. We just got to play our way.”

Hornqvist also dismissed the significance of the switch.

“It doesn't change that much. I think Perron is a little more skilled but Sergei did a great job. We didn't really click the first few games but it doesn't matter who is there. We've just got to get our working boots on and get going here. We can't play like we did in [Arizona]. It doesn't matter who you play with. We all have to play the same way here.“

The change was made with Plotnikov in mind as well.

“When I moved him up a little bit in the Dallas game, I liked it and decided to go back with that partway through the Arizona game,” said head coach Mike Johnston. “The other thing I did like though is I thought Sergei played more comfortable, more relaxed when he was playing with Bonino and Bennett. I really liked his game in the third period. He had a very good third period.”

The Penguins complete lines and defensive pairings in practice today were:

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Phil Kessel
David Perron - Evgeni Malkin - Patric Hornqvist
Sergei Plotnikov - Nick Bonino - Beau Bennett
Kevin Porter - Matt Cullen - Daniel Sprong
Bobby Farnham

Ian Cole - Kris Letang
Olli Maatta - Ben Lovejoy
Brian Dumoulin - Rob Scuderi
Adam Clendening - Tim Erixon