Bonino practices, Demers has hearing, lines shuffled

Penguins center Nick Bonino was a full participant in practice Friday at the team’s practice facility in Cranberry.

Bonino was injured late in regulation during Thursday’s 4-1 home loss to the Stars when he was struck in the face by the right arm of Stars defenseman Jason Demers.

Demers, who was given a major penalty and a game misconduct for the hit, is scheduled to have a disciplinary hearing with the NHL today over the hit.

Bonino spoke with reporters about his health and the hit:

How do you feel?

“Pretty good. Had a good skate. Got a good sweat. Feel good.“

What do you recall from the play?

”You guys can see it probably than I did. I just went in to play the puck and got an elbow in my face. Pretty much it I guess.”

Did you suffer any sort of injury?

“So far the head feels pretty good. Face is sore I think, the jaw a little bit. Been hit in the head before. Hopefully not lasting, lingering stuff.“

Do you feel the hit warrants supplemental discipline?

”I won't comment on that. I think the league takes care of these things. Obviously in today's game, the onus is to stay away from guy's heads. I think the league will take into account the play and [we'll] see what they say.“

Coach Mike Johnston stopped short of assuring Bonino will play Saturday in Nashville:

”I still have to hear from the doctors today how he handled practice He looked pretty good out there for me. But he did take a hit to the [head]. But they determined last night he was good enough to partake in full practice. I assume we'll hear from them today and we'll know further if he's able to play tomorrow.“

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The Penguins switched up their line combinations at practice:

Pascal Dupuis - Sidney Crosby - Patric Hornqvist
Sergei Plotnikov - Evgeni Malkin - Phil Kessel
Chris Kunitz - Nick Bonino - Daniel Sprong
David Perron - Matt Cullen - Bryan Rust

”We need to get more scoring chances out of certain lines and we took a look at different combinations this morning,” said Johnston. “Some of those we may use tomorrow night and some other ones, we may tweak again.”