Pittsburgh Penguins Hit with 2 Major Injuries at a Critical Point

The news on the injury front over the last two seasons has pushed the Pittsburgh Penguins to the limit many times, and it looks like it won’t be any different this season. 

Almost exactly a year after the Penguins lost Sidney Crosby to a concussion, an issue they are still dealing with, it was announced that two other team stars will be out for multiple weeks as well.

"Jordan Staal has a knee injury, 4-6 weeks at this point it looks like depending on recovery time for him," Bylsma told the Penguins’ website. "James Neal in (Saturday) night’s game late in the game received a shot to the foot, broke his foot. The next few days we’ll see what that timetable looks like, but it’s weeks, not days at this point."

Neal leads the Penguins with 21 goals while Staal is third on the team with 15 goals. Each have stepped into major roles this season and could be an extremely painful loss for the team.

The team already has Crosby on the bench after he had reoccurring concussion-like symptoms after returning for eight games in November. In addition, top defenseman Kris Letang and forwards Arron Asham and Dustin Jeffery are also on the injury list.

While the Penguins proved they can overcome losing multiple players due to injuries, losing 350 man-games last season, it does make their job a little more difficult.

“When you’re losing guys that play key roles or key minutes, it maybe gets frustrating when it happens time and time again,” forward Chris Kunitz said on the team’s website.

However, even with the loss of some of the Penguins’ top men, the roster still includes Evgeni Malkin (team points leader) and Kunitz (third in points) among other strong players.

The team is on a four-game losing streak and sits in the eighth spot in the conference, just a point ahead of ninth, and there’s no doubt the newest injuries come at a critical point in the season.

If the team wants to make it to the playoffs, they need to push past any injuries that sideline players and turn into the team we saw at the end of the regular season last year.  

Even with a weakened team, the Penguins won eight of the last 10 games of the 2010-11 season and tied for the Atlantic Division title.

Tuesday Jan 10, 2012 Update: According to the Penguins' website, Neal will be able to play tonight after an MRI revealed the injury was just a bone bruise.

“The preliminary tests done after the game indicated a fracture in his navicular area, a tough bone in a tough place to heal,” Bylsma said on the website. “So a further test, the MRI, was done (Monday) and showed that what he had was a preexisting condition, possibly having done it when he was a small kid. It showed up as a crack on the X-ray, but the MRI showed it was not a break."