It was quite a jump for Penguins center Evgeni Malkin. After barely testing his sore right foot for two days in a row, he was on the ice Friday at Southpointe in full gear for an hour and participated in all drills with the club at practice.

Afterward, he sounded somewhat hopeful of playing today against Carolina at Mellon Arena.

"I feel great. I'm excited," said Malkin, who has missed two games since taking a shot off the foot from teammate Kris Letang. "I skated the whole practice -- not too fast, but I feel better.

"I have a chance [to play], but not 100 percent. Some chance."

Malkin and coach Dan Bylsma said having a night game with a morning skate today would have worked better for Malkin. As it is, he probably will take the pregame warm-up before deciding whether he can play in the afternoon game

"It was encouraging," Bylsma said of Malkin's practice. "It was the most he's been able to skate, but game time [Saturday], we'll see. Without a morning skate, it will depend on how he reacts [to practicing Friday] and how well he skates in warm-ups."

Malkin, second on the team with 69 points in 62 games, practiced with wingers Alexei Ponikarovsky and Ruslan Fedotenko. Sidney Crosby centered for Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis. Jordan Staal skated with wingers Matt Cooke and Bill Guerin.

The fourth line featured Mike Rupp, Craig Adams and Tyler Kennedy, with Max Talbot and Eric Godard rotating in.

There was a distinct lack of tension in the Penguins' locker room after practice.

That undoubtedly had everything to do with getting through the game Thursday night at Boston without things getting ugly and the 3-0 win against the Bruins one night after turnovers allowed New Jersey to complete a season series sweep of the Penguins with a 5-2 win. Furthermore, there was coming home for a game after going 2-2-1 on the road trip.

"There were a lot of things about [Thursday] night's game where I liked the response of our team," Bylsma said.

A possible bloodbath over Cooke's hit to the head of Boston center Marc Savard in the March 7 game -- which left Savard with a Grade 2 concussion and did not lead to a suspension for Cooke -- was averted, at least in part because Cooke fought Boston's Shawn Thornton early.

"Matt Cooke responded, and our team was ready to play the right way on top of that in a difficult situation with a lot of distractions," Bylsma said. "And with some anxiety about that type of game coming off the game we played against New Jersey, it was a response game from our team. We played a much better game."

Cooke seemed relieved the rematch was over and expressed appreciation for the way his teammates handled things.

"It was a distraction that our team didn't need, and I'm glad that we won the game."

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