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Evgeni Malkin recently returned to the Pittsburgh Penguins line-up (Photo by Author)
It’s gotten to the point where it seems strange to hear positive news on the Pittsburgh Penguins injury front.
On Saturday night Evgeni Malkin returned to the team and helped the Penguins defeat the Boston Bruins in a thrilling overtime game.
Then, last night, Sergei Gonchar and Max Talbot made their returns to the line-up as well. A 6-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators likely isn’t the way they planned their returns, but the fact that they were on the ice was good news for a Penguins team that definitely needs it.
Rumour has it that there was some serious talk about the Pens dressing Iceburgh on defense. (Photo by Author)
No, the Pittsburgh Penguins haven’t lost the most man games to injury this year. That honour goes to the Vancouver Canucks. The Carolina Hurricanes have played without their top offensive player (Eric Staal) and number one goaltender (Cam Ward) for a long period of time, so they have it worse than the Penguins. Edmonton and Colorado could consider themselves in similar scenarios as well.
The situation with the Penguins isn’t just the number of injuries, but the kinds of players that are getting injured. The Penguins have played without their leading scorer (Evgeni Malkin) their top defenseman (Sergei Gonchar) and their game seven hero (Maxime Talbot) this year. They’ve also lost Tyler Kennedy and Chris Kunitz, who add a great deal to the Penguins aggressive style of play.
But their biggest losses have been on defense. Before Gonchar’s return last night, the Penguins were able to dress only one defenseman that played in game seven of the Stanley Cup Final. And that man, Mark Eaton, is suffering from back spasms.
Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, Alex Goligoski and Jay McKee are all out of the line-up right now.
The good news is that Letang and Orpik are back practicing with the team. Orpik has been cleared for contact, while Letang has not. Within the next couple of weeks Letang and Orpik will be back and Goligoski, McKee, Kunitz and Kennedy should be on their way as well.
Then we will once again see the team that went 11-3 in October and won the Stanley Cup in June.
Unless someone else gets hit with a two-to-four week injury.
Rick Moldovanyi is a freelance journalist from Toronto. He covers the Pittsburgh Penguins at Penguins Experience and has written for several publications in the Toronto area.
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