Pittsburgh Penguins

Kris Letang is out for the year
April 5, 2017, 12:27 PM ET [122 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
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Bad news for the Pittsburgh Penguins and hockey fans in general. One of the best defenseman in the league will not be participating in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year.

Kris Letang will be out 4-6 months.




This is a huge blow to the Penguins chances at repeating.

There's a reason no team in the cap era has gone back to back. You need a lot of luck and a lot of health and it just doesn't happen.

The team doctors and Letang attempted to fix the issue through rehab, but it just wasn't going to correct itself and ultimately needed surgery. Neck surgery is no joke and who knows what the long term ramifications are for the surgery. What I do know is that Kris Letang has been through just about everything in his playing career.

Kris Letang is out. Who's going to replace him?

Is the answer Jesus?

It isn't.

It is a huge hole to fill. He makes countless plays with the puck and can skate forever. Mike Sullivan leaned on him heavily last year in the playoffs and rightfully so. Here is what the Penguins are missing.

source: imgur.com

You aren’t going to replace that with another player. You will have to try your best to accomplish that by committee. The Dumoulin-Schultz pairing is probably the best option the Penguins have right now to do that

source: imgur.com

This is the kind of pairing that is going to help facilitate the puck to the Penguins skilled forwards if there are enough of them left in the lineup. Things get a little more interesting past that and it is probably why the Capitals and/or Bruins will be representing the East this year.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are staying true to their theme this year. They won at home, but the two points gained by victory was equaled by the number of players who left the game injured (2).

Pittsburgh has taken a three point lead in the standings over the Columbus Blue Jackets for home ice in the first round of the playoffs. The Penguins have been excellent at home this year so I don’t want to dismiss the importance of that fact. However, at some point the injuries need to stop before the workload put on the Sidney Crosby line is too much to overcome.

Bryan Rust and Matt Cullen left the contest and did not return. Currently the team is missing almost half of their forwards from the 2015-16 Cup run. Most times that would be because people leave for other teams in the offseason, but the Penguins still employ these players. They are just unable to physically play right now.





This is how you end up with Tom Sestito dressed for playoff games.

Bryan Rust was absent from practice today while Matt Cullen was present.

Olli Maatta returned to practice as well. We'll see how he fits into the equation as time goes on.

These tweets are a few days old, but I think they highlight the situation quite well










Pittsburgh wasn’t the only team missing important players. Columbus was missing one of their best players last night in Zach Werenski. The rookie sensation looked to have suffered a lower body injury after being hit by Alexander Ovechkin. Werenski has had an amazing debut season and he has been one of the main catalysts for Columbus’ success this year. Werenski being able to handle difficult minutes finally allowed Jack Johnson to slide down the lineup where he belongs. In many years Werenski would be a runaway favorite for the Calder Trophy. I personally don’t think he gets enough credit in the shadows of Auston Matthews and Patrick Laine.

Pittsburgh did win the game 4-1, but the score was a little bit misleading. Columbus had a significant advantage in shot attempts and if it wasn’t for Matt Murray the game could have had a different outcome. Murray made 38 saves and he now has a .944 save percentage in his last three starts.

It should come as no surprise that the Columbus Blue Jackets are going to try to hit the Penguins into obvlivion. This isn’t lost on the Penguins Captain.




It is going to take crosschecks to the back of the head to get one over on Sidney Crosby. We shouldn’t rule that out.

Three more games left. Godspeed to the players that have to dress for these games.