Is it time to start wondering (worrying?) about Erik Karlsson’s status for the start of the season?

The Pens’ top defender was not on the ice for a second straight day on Thursday

Erik Karlsson has not been at a team practice yet during this training camp. The defender is dealing with an undisclosed upper body injury that officially listed him as day-to-day.

Karlsson recently took to the ice a couple times before practices for quick skates. But he was off the ice yesterday on what the team called a scheduled day off, and was again not on the ice for a second day in a row today.

In all practices up until today, the Penguins have been using Sebastian Aho as what looked like a placeholder for Karlsson on a pair with Marcus Pettersson. That enabled them to work Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany together for what indications looked like would be the third pair early in the season.

There were changes today, however, that suggest a bit of a shift is taking place in the defensive alignment. St. Ivany was working with Pettersson in what could be more the replacement type of move. Graves formed an “all Ryan” pair with Ryan Shea.

As of now, coach Mike Sullivan is publicly confident about Karlsson’s status. He used the word twice in two sentences while answering a question about the timing of the star blueliner’s recovery.

The clock is starting to tick, the Penguins open the regular season in two weeks from today at home against the New York Rangers. There aren’t any open alarms to be had just yet based on Sullivan’s optimistic sounding response, but Karlsson’s two-day absence from the ice has to at least put in question where he is at in terms of his health and conditioning right now, and where that might project for the start of the season.

Swapping St. Ivany up might be nothing more than taking the opportunity to see him in a bigger role during a training camp practice. Then again, it could also be becoming borne out of the need to prepare different pairings than the team might have wanted to use if this minor but lingering issue persists to keep Karlsson away from the team as the regular season creeps closer.

The spot St. Ivany vacated next to Graves will also be worth keeping an eye on. Shea can be somewhat of a forgotten player in terms of his chances to make the NHL club out of training camp, but it might mean something that he was the first player to get the chance to skate with Graves today. That could be easily rotated as soon as tomorrow to give Aho or John Ludvig a look there for possible bottom pair combinations that the Pens might need to bring out at some point of the season.

There might not be too much to read into if Karlsson is back on the ice soon and trending towards showing why Sullivan is confident he will be ready in time for the start of the season, but as days tick by and Karlsson is distant, the intrigue will only grow from this point on.