The Penguins play the Flyers tonight at PPG Paints Arena, but they will again be shorthanded after center Sidney Crosby and defenseman Brian Dumoulin tested positive yesterday for covid-19.
Crosby and Dumoulin join defensemen Chad Ruhwedel and Marcus Pettersson in covid protocol, as defenseman Kris Letang returns from his own bout with the virus. Coach Mike Sullivan says Crosby is mildly symptomatic and Dumoulin is asymptomatic. He said Ruhwedel and Pettersson are also mildly symptomatic, although Ruhwedel has been able to ride an exercise bike.
Sullivan says at least the injured players are veterans who are well aware of the way the Penguins operate on the ice.
The coach says it’s especially hard for Crosby, who played only one game after coming back from wrist surgery before yesterday’s news.
Letang is a survivor of a stroke suffered in 2014 and he has a congenital heart defect that was discovered afterward. So for him, covid-19 was especially dangerous. Letang says that did cross his mind.
Like many in the Penguins organization, Letang is puzzled by the outbreak of covid that has plagued the team, which had no covid cases last season.
Tonight is Hockey Fights Cancer Night across the NHL. The Penguins’ Brian Boyle is a cancer survivor. He fought chronic myeloid leukemia in 2018, returning to play for the New Jersey Devils against the Penguins just twelve days after his diagnosis. It’s almost exactly three years since that night, November 5th of 2018, when he recorded his first career hat trick on that season’s Hockey Fights Cancer Night.
Sullivan says Boyle continues to inspire his teammates with his example in the locker room and on the ice.
At Penguins practice yesterday, Kasperi Kapanen skated on the second line after his earlier demotion to the fourth line. The top line was Jeff Carter centering Jake Guentzel and Danton Heinan. Letang skated with another offensive-oriented defenseman, Mike Matheson, in a dynamic first pairing. P-O Joseph paired with John Marino and Juuso Riikola was matched with Mark Friedman.
Airtime tonight on 92.5 FM U92 is 6:00.
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