The Pittsburgh Penguins will kick of their road trip a forward short as both Jake Guentzel and Teddy Blueger are ruled out.
As the Pittsburgh Penguins begin their first long road trip of the season, they will play their first game without two important forwards.
Teddy Blueger is yet to play a game this season, but the Penguins will be without Jake Guentzel for the contest in Columbus.
Head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed that both would miss tonight against the Blue Jackets following the Penguins morning skate.
Guentzel left the game against the Los Angeles Kings early after taking multiple shots to the head; a shoulder from Brendan Lemieux, then a puck from Kris Letang.
Sullivan said in the days following Guentzel’s early exit that he was being evaluated for an upper-body injury, but wouldn’t give much more detail.
Blueger has been missing since training camp for his own mostly undisclosed upper-body injury.
The Penguins will have to play an awkward game in Columbus; with both Guentzel and Blueger unable to go they are down to 11 forwards and do not have the cap space to call someone up from the AHL.
If the team was to make a call up, they would have to drop a player on LTIR or a trade would have to happen, but that seems unrealistic in such a short time frame.
With those two out, Chad Ruhwedel is set to make his season debut.
With the options they have in front of them, the Penguins are either going to deploy 11 forwards and seven defenders, or move a defenseman up to a forward position.
"We would consider all of the options on the table" Sullivan said following the morning skate.
The defenseman in a forward position option is something the Pens have tried before; former Penguins blue liner Juuso Riikola played a couple of games at forward toward the end of his tenure in North America.
The likely scenario is the Penguins fly a forward short in Columbus; but if they did decide to move up a defender, the best option might be Ruhwedel on the fourth line.
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