The Pens practiced Wednesday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena. Here is the scoop on what you need to know.

*Defenseman Brian Dumoulin missed practice with a maintenance day.

*Defenseman Kris Letang (upper-body) participated in full-contact practice. "It was a step in the right direction," he said. "I'm still getting back into shape, but I feel pretty good."

There is no timeframe for his return, but Letang will have a lot of input on when he feels ready.

"He had a good day on the ice today, we'll see where it goes from there," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "We're encouraged with his progress. We're hoping to get him back soon."

*Goalie Matt Murray (hand) isn't sure when he'll play his first game of the season. Murray, who was in a backup role for Tuesday's 3-2 against Florida, is taking things day-by-day.

"I think he's getting close (to playing)," Sullivan said. "Having the ability to backup and seeing the game up close with the speed even though he's on the bench will help with his timing and inch that much closer to being ready to play."

Murray, who has a cast on his healed broken right thumb, will likely continuing wearing the cast for a few months.

"It's pretty comfortable and I've gotten pretty used to it over the past couple of weeks," Murray said. "The bone doesn't fully heal for a long time, but it's healed enough where I can do everything normally and not worry about it. I'll just wear this cast while I play."

*The Pens used the following workflow…

Wilson-Crosby-Hornqvist

Kunitz-Malkin-Kessel

Hagelin-Bonino-Rust

Kuhnhackl/Sestito-Cullen-Fehr

Cole-Letang

Maatta-Daley

Warsofsky-Schultz