Crosby suffered a lower-body injury on Saturday night and he will miss tonight’s game vs. the Blue Jackets. With Crosby out, Evegeni Malkin will be leaned on to play big minutes. Scott Wilson is expected make his season debut with Crosby out.
With Sidney Crosby likely unavailable for Tuesday’s game, the Penguins gave recalled Rust from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to serve as an extra forward. Rust has oe goal and three assists in 10 games with WBS this season. Unless someone in addition to Crosby doesn’t play, Rust isn’t expected to be in the lineup.
Letang is battling an undisclosed injury and he is questionable for Saturday’s afternoon game in Los Angeles. Thankfully for the Penguins, they could be getting Olli Maatta back. Monitor Letang’s status as the 4:00 pm ET puck-drop approaches.
Rakell has missed the last three games and it looks like he will mis his fourth consecutive contest tonight vs. Edmonton. Rakell is listed as questionable, which means he might take warmups and then decide if he can play. Consider him a game-time decision.
Rakell suffered an upper-body injury in Wednesday’s game vs. the Panthers and will be held out of the lineup on Friday. The Ducks have a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday, so Rakell is in danger of missing both games.
Rust left Saturday’s game with an undisclosed injury and it will keep him sidelined for a couple of weeks. Beau Bennett is nearing a return and could take Rust’s spot in the lineup on Wednesday.
Rust, 23, has recorded one assist in two games this season for WBS. Rust scored his first NHL goal on Dec. 15, 2014 versus Tampa Bay and finished with two points (1G / 1A) in 14 games with Pittsburgh last season. Rust could make his season debut tonight with Beau Bennett out.
Malkin has missed the last two games, but will be back in today in Philadelphia. The Penguins have been struggling to score goals recently, so Malkin’s return is huge. He has 28 goals and 42 assists (70 points) in 65 games this season.
Malkin will miss his second straight game with an undisclosed injury, but the injury doesn’t appear to be serious because he is hoping to be in the lineup on Sunday vs. the Flyers.
Malkin missed practice the last two days as “maintenance” but it was clearly more serious than that as he was held out of Wednesday’s game and could miss the Penguins back-to-back on the weekend. Monitor Gino’s status heading into the weekend.
Letang suffered a concussion on a scary looking hit from Shane Doan on Saturday. We have learned this season that there is no way to determine how long a player will be out with a concussion and considering this is not Letang’s first, the Penguins will be extra cautious. This is a huge loss for the Pens heading into the playoffs. On Sunday they will play with just five defensemen, with Daniel Winnik serving as an emergency defenseman.
