The Penguins will be without a couple of their defenseman for quite some time.

Mike Sullivan said on Tuesday that Ryan Shea will be sidelined on a week-to-week basis with an upper-body injury. It's not clear how or when Shea sustained the injury. Sullivan said P.O Joseph remains "status quo," and I confirmed with a team representative afterward that Joseph is week-to-week with an upper-body injury sustained March 1 against the Bruins.

Tommy Novak, who left last game against the Wild after blocking a shot, is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Shea had been skating on the Penguins' top pairing alongside Kris Letang prior to his injury. In his absence in Tuesday's morning skate, Vladislav Kolyachonok was elevated to the top pairing and Ryan Graves got back into the lineup on the third pairing next to Conor Timmins.

The Penguins' middle-six forwards shuffled as a result of Novak's injury, with Connor Dewar and Phil Tomasino elevated to the second line with Evgeni Malkin, and Danton Heinen re-entering the lineup on the third line alongside Kevin Hayes and Emil Bemstrom.

The Penguins on Tuesday morning recalled Matt Nieto and Sebastian Aho on an emergency basis, but emergency recalls can't serve as extras or play while other players are healthy scratches. Novak and Shea were the only new absences from the skate, leaving no room for Nieto and Aho, who skated as an extra defense pairing. Assuming nobody else falls injured or ill before game time, Nieto and Aho cannot play and will have to be sent back down to the AHL or converted to a standard recall (the latter is unlikely, given teams only have four standard recalls until the end of the season after the trade deadline).