Ben Kindel returns to practice a week after vasovagal episode

There was good news from Penguins practice on Tuesday; Ben Kindel took to the ice with his teammates for the first time since suffering a vasovagal episode on the team plane last week.

Kindel was one of several players who have been out of the lineup that got back on the ice with the team. Justin Brazeau (lower body), Egor Chinakhov (lower body), Evgeni Malkin (illness) and Sam Girard (lower body) all took part in the skate, though Girard remained in a white no-contact jersey.

Besides Kindel, all of those players skated with the team at their previous practice on Sunday, though Dan Muse did not give any specific updates there on any individuals.

All of those positive developments aside, there was a new injury announced, forward Elmer Soderblom is officially day-to-day with an undisclosed upper body injury and was not on the ice today. Soderblom joins Bryan Rust, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Ryan Graves as the injured players not yet back with the team for practice situations.

The Penguins have a lull in their schedule and don’t play again until hosting Utah on Thursday night. They can use the first part of this week to rest, which they did yesterday with an off day, and iron out some details in their game via practices today and tomorrow after already playing 12 games in the early part of the schedule.

Here were the lines being used:

Having a full second line of players that presumably could be back in the lineup on Thursday is not immediate good news for Rutger McGroarty and Avery Hayes, who were on the outs as a result. The Pens are sticking with the Hendrix Lapierre and Ville Koivunen combo, probably a good idea based on recent inputs from the two of them together lately.