Losing a key forward has force more changes to the Pittsburgh Penguins lineup.

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t letting their playoff hopes die, but their quest for going on a run just got a lot tougher. It was announced that forward Bryan Rust would be out on a week-to-week basis.

Jake Guentzel is already out with his own upper-body injury making offense tough to come by in the Penguins lineup. As they prepare to take on the Vancouver Canucks, the Penguins are going to have yet another altered lineup.

Projected Forward Lines

Reilly Smith – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell

Without Rust and Guentzel, the Penguins are down two of the three prominent faces of their top line. Rickard Rakell played well with Sidney Crosby, but this will be a new test run for Reilly Smith.

Drew O’Connor – Evgeni Malkin – Valtteri Puustinen

Evgeni Malkin still hasn’t scored a goal in February, but his linemates have hit new levels. Valtteri Puustinen is improving with every game, while Drew O’Connor has goals in three straight.

Emil Bemstrom – Lars Eller – Jesse Puljujarvi

With Smith bumped to the first line, Jesse Puljujarvi likely works his way back into the lineup. He’ll return to the third line with Lars Eller and newcomer Emil Bemstrom. It took just one game for Bemstrom to score a goal with his new team.

Jansen Harkins – Noel Acciari – Jeff Carter

With all the lineup shuffling, the Penguins’ fourth line remains untouched once again. There’s no offense coming from this group, but they have defended well in the meantime.

Projected Defensive Pairs

P.O. Joseph – Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson – Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves – Chad Ruhwedel

The Penguins still have no plans of making adjustments to their defensive pairs.

Starting Goalie

Tristan Jarry

Head coach Mike Sullivan stated that Tristan Jarry will get another start for the Penguins. This will be Jarry’s third consecutive start, effectively putting an end to the goalie controversy in Pittsburgh.

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