The Penguins keep beating the Buffalo Sabres…but they keep losing players to injuries. Last night, they knocked off Buffalo again but forward Kasperi Kapanen went down.
Here’s Paul Steigerwald:
Kapanen suffered a lower body injury in the second period and is being evaluated. He joins fellow forwards Evgeni Malkin, Teddy Bleuger, Brandon Tanev, and Jason Zucker on the injury list. Tanev was placed on injured reserve yesterday, mainly so the team could have roster flexibility. It’s retroactive to last Thursday, so he could come off the list in time for tonight if needed. He and Zucker skated with coach Ty Hennes yesterday morning.
Coach Mike Sullivan says that with so many top forwards injured, it was good to see production up and down the lineup, nit just from Sidney Crosby’s line.
Forward Freddie Gaudreau made a spectacular steal and juke at mid-ice, leading to a shorthanded goal by Zach Aston-Reese. Sullivan says Gaudreau has been a spark since he came up last week.
The Penguins have just played a tough stretch of five games in seven days, and last night was the first of four games in six days. Sullivan said the players’ needed the precious day of rest they got on Monday when practice was called off.
Defenseman John Marino says it is important that the Penguins defense add some offense with all of the injured forwards out, but they have to be smart about it.
Zach Aston-Reese says the Penguins players have embraced Sullivan’s defense-first philosophy, and that has led to some great offensive chances.
The Pens and Sabres meet again tonight in the back-to-back series. Airtime is 6:00 and faceoff will be shortly after 7 on 92.5 FM U92 and the U92 Sportschannel.
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