One game after they welcomed back Derick Brassard, the Penguins, who are still missing Sidney Crosby, are now down yet another center.
This time, it is Matt Cullen who will be out and he might be out for some time. According to Mike Sullivan, Cullen, the NHL's oldest player is out "longer term" with a lower body injury.
It is unclear how and when the 42-year-old suffered the injury during Saturday night's 6-4 loss in Ottawa. In that game, Cullen scored his second goal of the season in the third period and played 10:45 while blocking one shot.
Cullen was seen walking around the bowels of the Canadian Tire Centre late Saturday without the aid of crutches or a walking boot. He did, however, have a bag of ice wrapped around his lower right leg, above the ankle. In Sullivan-speak, "longer term" refers to an injury which will require weeks, not days or months to recover.
"I think Matt has quietly played just a solid game for us," Sullivan said. "He's a good penalty-killer. He's a good faceoff guy. I use his line in a lot of instances situationally. He tends to take a lot of defensive zone starts (81.1%), so he gets put in difficult positions and he does a good job for us.
"His leadership speaks for itself, and what he brings to our bench and to our locker room. He’s such a quality person in that regard. I think just quietly, he's done everything we've expected him to do when we signed him."
Jim Rutherford brought back Cullen in the summer, signing him to a one-year, $650,000 contract, after he spent last season with the Wild in his native Minnesota.
Whether we've seen the last of Cullen in the NHL isn't known, but it is yet another blow to the Penguins' once-vaunted center ice depth. The Penguins did not announce a roster move but some help from Wilkes-Barre -- Teddy Blueger? -- could be coming.
With Cullen and Crosby out tonight, Riley Sheahan will remain in the lineup and center the third line while Derek Grant, who has zero points in eight games and has already been sent down to Wilkes-Barre once, will center the fourth.
Sheahan was a healthy scratch Saturday for the first time in his Penguins tenure. He has gone 15 games without a goal and nine games without an assist. He told me Monday morning that getting away for a game might be beneficial for him.
"I think just playing a little harder, a little smarter and be a little smarter defensively and positionally," said Sheahan. "It's something we talked about, just making the most of my opportunity."
Cullen's injury also throws another wrench into the Penguins' 16th-ranked penalty-kill unit (80.0 percent) which lost Carl Hagelin to a trade last week. Sullivan has been reluctant to use Brassard on the PK but, as a center, he might have to play some short-handed. Sheahan, Grant and Brassard have each played both left wing and center this season.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE INJURIES
• Penguins: Cullen, center, is out longer term with a lower body injury. Crosby, center, will miss his third straight game with an upper body injury sustained Tuesday vs. the Devils. Justin Schultz, defenseman, is expected to miss four months after fracturing his leg Oct. 13 in Montreal.
• Sabres: Former Penguin Matt Hunwick, defenseman, is on IR with a neck injury. Fellow former Penguin Scott Wilson, forward, is also on IR with an ankle injury. Neither has played this season.
THE SKATE
• After Matt Murray started and lost the past two games, getting yanked from the last one vs. the Senators when he gave up three first-period goals on 10 shots, Casey DeSmith will get another shot in goal.
DeSmith, who is 3-3-2 with a .930 save percentage and 2.25 goals-against average, will make his eighth start and 12th appearance this seasons. He played in 14 games in 2017-18.
In going with DeSmith, Sullivan reiterated that he still believes in Murray but that DeSmith offers the "best chance to win."
• Crosby took part in the morning skate with his teammates, but said he won't play tonight. It will be the third game that the captain misses with an upper body injury after slamming into the boards left shoulder-first last Tuesday in New Jersey.
"Things are going in the right direction, I'm happy with the way I'm feeling," said Crosby, who called himself day-to-day.
Even though he's not playing, he says he still tries to bring a positive attitude to the rink.
"Whether you're playing or not playing, or injured or not, everybody's got to be a part of getting out of (losing streak)," Crosby said. "It's easy to get caught up in it, but the reality is that there's a lot of hockey left in the year."
• As sports guarantees go, it wasn't quite Joe Namath or Mark Messier, but Daniel Sprong sounds awfully confident that the puck is about to go in for him. The 21-year-old has appeared in 13 of the Penguins' first 18 games but has zero goals to show for it.
After being a healthy scratch the previous four games, Sprong returned to the lineup and was a minus-1 in 10:18 of ice time. What he liked though was that he got two shots on net and another which rang off the post. For a player who is supposed to be a sniper, it was a small moral victory.
"Yeah, I'm getting the looks, had three good chances to score there," he told me. "If I start hitting posts, you know you're pretty close. I think they're going to go in soon with the way I was shooting that game. Hopefully, that continues tonight and I get the looks. Got a feeling one's going to go in soon."
• Sullivan said that he has asked and Patric Hornqvist has agreed to start wearing his helmet during warmups. Hornqvist took a puck to the forehead that required stitches moments before the puck dropped on Saturday's game in Ottawa. He had been the only Penguin who doesn't wear a helmet before games.
• Playing 19 shifts over 15:37 on Saturday was admittedly a bit of a struggle for Brassard, who had last played Oct. 25. Unfortunately for him, groin injuries -- at least that's what it's believed to be -- take a while to recover from and are difficult to train through. Now that he's back, he says it's a matter of getting his timing down.
"I didn't feel my greatest but, hopefully, I can get into it a little bit more and get better legs, make better plays," Brassard was telling me Monday. "Was a little hesitant out there in the first period and felt better in the third, but the game was already done."
• Zach Aston-Reese's first goal of the season, and first since Feb. 18, 2018, was so ugly Saturday night, he wasn't even sure he scored it. He initially thought that Bryan Rust tipped it past Craig Anderson. But it's exactly the kind of greasy goal that the Penguins could use more of from their bottom six. That is what Aston-Reese and Co. are going to try and replicate tonight.
"For sure, try to get away from making all the cute and pretty plays and put pucks on net and create some scrums in front," he said.
THE OTHER SIDE
• The Sabres held a full skate Monday at PPG Paints Arena. Phil Housley said the Sabres will use the same lines and pairs that beat the Wild on Saturday.
• The only exception is that Carter Hutton will be in goal for the Sabres. That's not a good thing for the Penguins. Hutton has a .987 career save percentage against the Penguins in four previous games, all of them at PPG Paints Arena. He has recorded shutouts in each of his last two meetings against the Penguins.
• Buffalo enters the game on a five-game winning streak, their longest since March 19-27, 2012. It's also the NHL's longest active win streak.
"We might be surprising some people that we're stringing some wins together, but we have a good belief in this room and a lot of turnover, and I think we're just taking it in stride," said Conor Sheary, who will get the requisite video tribute treatment during the first TV timeout of the first period.
• Sheary, who helped the Penguins to consecutive Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and '17, was dealt to Buffalo last June 27, along with Hunwick for a conditional fourth-round pick. His six goals in 20 games this season for the Sabres would currently rank fifth on the Penguins and is just one fewer than Pittsburgh's bottom six -- combined.
Is he motivated by that?
"Sure, first time seeing the old team," he told me. "We're just focusing on our game and hopefully come out with a win here."
• On his new team, Sheary says he's taken on a little bit of a leadership role. Housley said that the diminutive forward's play has inspired his teammates.
"No. 1, his speed and tenacity on the forecheck, guys really thrive when he's on his game," the Sabres coach said. "On the bench, the guys see it and it's infectious what he brings. He's been an excellent teammate. He comes to work here. And the way he approaches the games and practices, he's a good pro. He's doing the right things. But he just goes about his work."
THE COMBINATIONS
• Here's a look at the lines and pairs, based on what was shown Monday:
Pearson -- Malkin -- Kessel
Guentzel -- Brassard -- Hornqvist
Aston-Reese -- Sheahan -- Rust
Simon -- Grant -- Sprong
Johnson — Letang
Dumoulin -- Ruhwedel
Maatta -- Oleksiak
• The Sabres' lineup for tonight should look like this:
Skinner -- Eichel -- Reinhart
Sheary -- Mittlestadt -- Okposo
Thompson -- Sobotka -- Pominville
Girgensons -- Berglund -- Larsson
McCabe -- Ristolainen
Scandella -- Nelson
Dahlin -- Bogosian
THE SCHEDULE
Faceoff tonight is at 7:15 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins will practice at noon on Tuesday in Cranberry. They'll host the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night at 7:08 p.m.
THE COVERAGE
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