Two more down.
Or is it three?
It's become close to impossible, after many months of the Penguins piling up injuries, to consistently keep track. But on this Monday night at PPG Paints Arena, Bryan Rust and Justin Schultz were both felled by nasty-looking injuries in the first period of the 1-0 shutout of the Senators in Game 2 of the NHL's Eastern Conference final. And minutes before the puck dropped, they also were forced to scratch Patric Hornqvist, also because of an injury.
Rust appeared to hurt his head, Schultz his right shoulder on hard Ottawa checks. Neither returned.
All Mike Sullivan had to say after the game about all three players was this: "I can't really give you much at this point. I haven't had an opportunity to get to our medical staff. But we'll probably have more information for you moving forward."
The Penguins' next media availability will be Tuesday at 1:15 p.m.
At 4:58 of the first period Rust was felled hard by an open-ice check from Ottawa defenseman Dion Phaneuf, this after he committed hockey's cardinal sin and skated into the middle of the rink with his head down and looking at the puck:
Rust rose slowly and went to the bench under his own power as play continued, though hunched over. On the bench, he put his head down for two minutes before leaving for the locker room.
There were no complaints from the Penguins' side about that Phaneuf hit, though there would be about others later in the game, notably this elbow raised and driven into the head of Jake Guentzel in the second:
Guentzel didn't miss a shift. Phaneuf wasn't penalized.
“You try to do whatever you can for your team to swing momentum," Phaneuf said of his physical play in general. "So when there’s a chance to make a hit, I take pride in the style that I’ve played. If it’s there, I’m going to step up.”
At 9:30 of the first, Schultz was dropped, less than five minutes after Rust, when shoved by the Senators' Mike Hoffman from behind, after which he turned and had his right shoulder absorb the full brunt of the boards:
Schultz took a few seconds to rise, then went immediately down the runway to the locker room. About three minutes later, athletic trainer Chris Stewart emerged from the runway to say something to Jacques Martin, the assistant coach responsible for the defense.
"I was impressed with the way we handled it," Matt Cullen said. "It's not ideal when you lose three guys like that, that are that important. I was impressed with the way the guys handled it. Our resilience paid off tonight."
