A day after being injured in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 6-3 loss to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena Saturday, the Penguins appear to be holding their breath regarding the status of top defenseman Kris Letang.
Letang finished the game, taking his final shift with less than three minutes remaining, but suffered an injury earlier in the game.
Coach Mike Sullivan offered a concerning update on Letang, who spent Sunday being evaluated for an injury without a firm conclusion.
“He got injured in the game (Saturday), and he was evaluated through the course of the day (Sunday),” Sullivan said Sunday night. “Right now, I’m not prepared to give you a status or an estimate from a time standpoint yet because he’s continuing to be evaluated by our team doctors. So I’ll have more information, probably (Monday).”
The Penguins are not practicing on Monday, so the earliest we’ll find out is Tuesday morning in Detroit when they hold their morning skate.
Sunday, 26-year-old right-handed defenseman Nate Clurman made his NHL debut in place of Letang. The Penguins pairings were necessarily jostled by the coaches, as Matt Grzelcyk played on the top pair with Erik Karlsson. P.O Joseph moved to the right–his offside–with Ryan Graves on the left, and Ryan Shea played with Clurman.
The offensively gifted Karlsson led the Penguins in blocked shots and was pressed into penalty-killing duty.
