Over the course of a four-minute interview session, Kris Letang was asked three different times whether he plans to adapt his workload or style of play when he returns to the ice this season.
Short answer: Nope.
Letang, who missed the Penguins' entire Stanley Cup run last season following surgery to correct a herniated disc in his neck, said he has been cleared for contact when the team opens training camp this Friday.
"We'll just start to go day-by-day," he said, sporting a surgical scar on his neck, Tuesday morning at the team's "Summer Sticks" golf tournament at Allegheny Country Club.
"I got cleared to have contact and skate with the team. We'll see how it goes the first few days, and then we'll increase the workload, I guess."
Letang had surgery the week of April 9 and said the immediate aftermath was the toughest part.
"When I woke up, it was hard," Letang said. "I'm not going to lie. It was tough first two weeks. There's a lot that goes through your mind, but after that when I started getting more confidence, when the guys were playing, I was actually able to work out, do little things. I got my confidence back, and that was it."
Letang was cleared to run and skate around July 5 and now said his overall health is "pretty good."
Eventually, Letang hopes that workload can get back to where it was over the past few seasons. That means playing 25-plus minutes a night, with a sizable role on special teams.
The Penguins developed some depth in that regard toward the end of last season, particularly with the emergence of Justin Schultz as a reliable quarterback on the first power-play unit. But Letang said he still hopes to resume his minutes-eating role once the season gets started.
"That's what I want to do," Letang said. "That's part of my game, the way I play. Obviously that's the goal. Like I said, I have no expectations. I'm going to go like I always did and go from there."
And even though the Penguins may have other ideas as the grind of the NHL season starts to take its toll, Letang also said he hopes to play in all 82 games this season, something he hasn't done since 2011.
"I'm healthy, that's the only thing I know," he said. "I don't know why I would rest. The energy's going to be there, that's for sure."
The biggest concern might be just that Letang uses all that pent-up energy the right way. Coach Mike Sullivan spoke this past weekend about how he wants to Letang to be smarter _ though not necessarily more conservative _ about the way he plays this season.
Letang acknowledged that he doesn't want to put himself in another position to get injured, but that he really only knows one way to play the game.
"Everybody's different, the way they play out there," he said. "There's certain things to avoid, that's for sure. But it's not going to change my game."
