VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Penguins completed the worst kind of natural hat trick on this Western Canada trip Saturday night, by announcing for a third consecutive game -- right before warmups, no less -- that another player had surprisingly gone down to injury.
This time, it was Carl Hagelin, who's "probably going to be out a minimum of four weeks,' according to Mike Sullivan, to a lower-body injury.
"That’s just one more injury that we’re going to have to find a way to overcome," Sullivan said.
Because the Penguins had only 11 healthy forwards left on the trip, they were forced to dress Cameron Gaunce as a seventh defenseman and rotate Sidney Crosby, Malkin and Nick Bonino through a makeshift two-man fourth line of Oskar Sundqvist and Carter Rowney.
If Cullen isn't certain to be ready for the game Monday in Calgary, expect another summons from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, possibly recent recall Josh Archibald.
"We're fortunate to have the depth that we do in the organization," Sullivan said.