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Nasreddine, who has been sidelined since taking a puck to the foot in a game at Syracuse on April 19, was out of a cast and back on skates Tuesday morning at the Wachovia Arena.
He didn’t wear pads, but Nasreddine spent a few minutes skating alongside his teammates and testing out the foot.
“I had an X-ray this morning and it was good. Now it’s just a matter of getting back in game shape and dealing with the foot,” Nasreddine said after practice. “I was in a cast for three weeks, so I think it was normal that it felt funny this morning. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow. Right now it’s day by day, one day at a time.”
Nasreddine hasn’t targeted a specific game for his return, but he is optimistic that he will play at some point against Hershey in the East Division finals, which open Thursday night at the Wachovia Arena.
“Chances are pretty good. I’d say really good,” Nasreddine predicted.
WAR OF WORDS
After the last meeting of the regular season between the Penguins and Bears, rookie winger Daniel Carcillo referred to Hershey agitator Louis Robitaille as a “useless” player that he “beat up” in a second-period fight.
Robitaille answered Tuesday.
“We know that Carcillo and Dennis Bonvie, they are like yak-it guys, they’re showboats,” Robitaille told the Harrisburg Patriot-News. “Daniel Carcillo? Who is he? He’s a nobody.
“We don’t have to worry about him. He’s a great player, but I don’t think he’ll be a factor if we let him just yap-yap. We’ll just have to be smart.”
NOT POPULAR
Robitaille, who first drew the ire of the Penguins when he drove defenseman Chris Kelleher’s head into the glass in the first meeting of the season between the teams, doesn’t expect to be cheered at the Wachovia Arena this week.
“It’s our biggest rivalry of the year,” Robitaille told the newspaper. “We really hate them. They hate us. Their fans hate us. Their fans boo me, they boo us, every time we’re stepping on the ice. It’s going to be fun. That’s why we’ve been wishing all year to face them.”
TRANSACTION
Center Kurtis McLean was sent down to the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers to play in that club’s win-or-go-home Game 5 against the Toledo Storm on Tuesday night. The Penguins will likely recall McLean sometime later this week.
