When the Penguins take the ice against Arizona tonight, the lineup will not look very much like the team that opened the season two months ago.
Bryan Rust is out “week to week” with an upper body injury, according to coach Mike Sullivan. Also missing tonight will be forwards Rickard Rakell, Matt Nieto, and Noel Acciari. And yesterday, third line center Lars Eller missed practice due to illness.
Sullivan says finding a replacement for Rust hasn’t been easy.
Still, Sullivan says the Penguins expect the players who will plug the holes in the lineup to step up.
Even though the Penguins are in seventh place in the Metro Division, Sullivan says they are focused on the game in front of them, not the teams they have to catch.
General Manager Kyle Dubas met with the media after practice yesterday and said the team has to commit to winning games or they’ll have to change course. But that apparently does not mean changing coaches.
Dubas says Mike Sullivan is the man for the job “now and far to the future”.
The GM says the Penguins have benefited from the fact that most of the other teams in the Metro Division are dealing with the same sort of issues they are.
Dubas says the Penguins will not use injuries as an excuse for their poor play of late.
The Penguins have lost four games in a row. Arizona comes into the game tonight with 28 points to the Penguins’ 25. After playing at home tonight, the Penguins will be in Montreal to face the Canadiens tomorrow night.
Faceoff tonight will be shortly after seven o’clock. The airtime on 92.5 FM U92 is six.
