Frenzied stretch of games about to give way to long layoff for Penguins
It might seem as if the Pittsburgh Penguins have recently been playing every other night. That’s not true —they have played even more often than that during January.
The Penguins will play for the 11th time on the 21st day of the month Tuesday night at the Philadelphia Flyers. It will be their 11th game in 20 days, their seventh game in 12 days, their fifth game in eight days and fourth in six days.
Good thing there’s nine consecutive days off following Tuesday.
“I think the break comes at the right time for us,” winger Patric Hornqvist said. “We’ve been playing a lot of games here lately with a lot of travel, so after (Tuesday), it will be nice to get away from it a little bit and reenergize and come back for the stretch run.”
The break is one part league-wide All-Star break, one part league-mandated annual “bye week” for the Penguins. Their next game after Tuesday will be at home against Philadelphia on Jan. 31.
The Penguins have endured a number of injuries to key players this season and are up to more than 200 man-games lost to injury overall.
“Any time you get a week off just to get away from the game, for not only me but for everyone, it’s nice to refocus and obviously heal up,” said defenseman Justin Schultz, who has missed more than a month because of a lower-body injury. “Obviously, a lot of guys are banged up.”
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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