Prior to Thursday's game against the Panthers at PPG Paints Arena, the Penguins activated Chad Ruhwedel and Marcus Pettersson from the COVID-19 list and re-assigned Juuso Riikola and Taylor Fedun to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Riikola might want to do a U-turn on I-80 right about now.
Pettersson was injured in the first period of the game against the Panthers after a collision with forward Owen Tippett:
Pettersson finished his shift, staying on the ice for another 15 seconds after the hit, but went to the locker room shortly after returning to the bench. He remained in the locker room for the start of the second period.
Todd Reirden didn't have an update on Pettersson's status after the game, saying he was still being evaluated. The Penguins don't practice Friday, so we can likely expect an update on Pettersson at Saturday's morning skate in Ottawa.
Kris Letang, Mike Matheson, John Marino, Mark Friedman, and Chad Ruhwedel rotated within their pairings in Pettersson's absence.
"I thought the five guys did an outstanding job," Reirden said of that group handling the challenge. "You talk about someone like what Kris has done since he's come back from COVID protocol. When these guys come back from being out, they're not 100 percent. To be able to play the kind of minutes he's been playing and against the competition, certainly he'll probably be the first to say he'd like to change some of the plays he's made. But we're fortunate to have a leader like that back there, especially in a situation with five defensemen. Major, major credit goes to those five guys for really pulling together against a real talented Florida team."