Kris Letang out 'a couple weeks' with lower-body injury
The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without one of their most important players for the near future.
The team announced Thursday that Kris Letang has a lower-body injury and will miss “a couple weeks.”
It’s unclear when or how Letang suffered the issue. He led Penguins players with 26:23 of ice-time in a Wednesday 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins.
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Pensburgh pointed out how losing Letang – a former Norris Trophy finalist and the team’s ice-time leader – will affect the Penguins as they try to add onto their seven-game winning streak. Letang also ranks fourth on the team with 19 points in 25 games played.
Letang leads the Penguins with 26:04 played per game this season. Considering only one other player on the team (Trevor Daley; 20:57) is even above the 20 minute mark, this will be a major loss that players like Daley, Brian Dumoulin and Olli Maatta will all probably have to skate more minutes and perform well in them and perhaps and opportunity for more minutes for Ian Cole and the resurgent Justin Schultz as well.
Pittsburgh is down to 6 healthy defensemen and probably will have to make a recall from the minors soon. This could be a wonderful chance for top prospect Derrick Pouliot to get an extended look at a place in the NHL lineup.
Earlier this season, Letang missed five games with an upper-body injury and during that stretch the team went 4-1-0. In 2015-16, the Penguins were 2-8-1 without Letang in the lineup.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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