Brian Dumoulin's injury opens opportunities for the Penguins' other defensemen

Jim Rutherford has had better Thanksgiving weekends than what he experienced over the past four days.

Canadian Thanksgiving comes to mind. On Oct. 14, the Penguins general manager’s team was three games into a five-game winning streak and was getting contributions from every portion of the lineup.

But as the calendar switches to December, the Penguins are dealing with the holiday blues, especially after dropping identical 5-2 road losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday and the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

The impact of those pun-friendly defeats could be dwarfed by the losses in personnel they suffered over the weekend.

A day after forward Bryan Rust, one of the team’s leading scorers, was sidelined indefinitely after sliding feet-first into the the boards of Columbus’ Nationwide Arena during the morning skate, the Penguins lost sturdy defenseman Brian Dumoulin on the first shift of Saturday’s game in St. Louis’ Arena.

The team announced Sunday that Dumoulin will be sidelined for a minimum of eight weeks after he had surgery to repair lacerated tendons in his left ankle. Dumoulin was injured less than a minute into the contest. Retrieving a puck behind his own net, Dumoulin tumbled to the ice after Blues forward Zach Sanford fell onto the back of his legs.

Dumoulin and Rust have joined a group that already includes fellow defenseman Justin Schultz, who remains sidelined indefinitely because of an undisclosed malady, as well as forwards Nick Bjugstad and Sidney Crosby, each recovering from surgeries for core muscle injuries.”

“The injuries are piling up,” said Rutherford, who did not have updates on Rust or Schultz. “There’s more and more, obviously, already with key guys already out. And Brian (Dumoulin), he really anchors our defense, so it’s a key loss for us.”

Dumoulin’s loss will deprive the Penguins of their best defensive player by almost any measure.

In 22 game this season, Dumoulin has seven points (one goal, six assists). Additionally, he averages the second-most time on ice on the team at 21 minutes, 4 seconds. He is the team’s leader with 2:04 of short-handed ice time per game and routinely draws assignments against the opposition’s top lines along with partner Kris Letang during even-strength situations.

The absences of Dumoulin and Schultz likely will lead to more regular ice time for reserve defensemen Juuso Riikola, Chad Ruhwedel and Zach Trotman.

Ruhwedel was scratched for the first 21 games of the season and for 23 of a possible 27 through two months. Riikola has been used for nearly as many games as a fourth-line forward (four) as he has as a defenseman (seven). And Trotman opened the season on long-term injured reserve. He has played more AHL contests (eight) than NHL games (four) in 2019-20.

Rutherford is hesitant to offer an in-depth assessment in that trio in light of their scant NHL action over the past two months.

“It’s a hard read because they have played limited (games),” Rutherford said. “But based on the time they’ve played and the fact that they don’t play regular, they’ve done a good job for us.”

Riikola appears to be the main candidate for a more regular work — on the blue line it is important to note — because he shoots from the same side of that line as Dumoulin.

“It’s hard to replace a guy like a Brian Dumoulin,” Rutherford said. “With Dumoulin out, it of course gives Riikola a chance, being a left-handed shot … this will give him an opportunity.”

With the right-shooting Schultz sidelined for the past six games, Trotman and Ruhwedel, each right-handed shots, have been alternating in and out of the lineup on a pairing with left-handed Marcus Pettersson.

Rutherford professes faith in in their abilities

“Kris Letang was out (eight games because of an undisclosed injury in November),” Rutherford said. “And what Schultz does (is valuable). But at the same time, these other guys have NHL experience. They’ve done well.”

Note: The Penguins had a scheduled day off on Sunday.

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