Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson 'week to week' because of injury
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson will be sidelined on a “week-to-week” basis because of an undisclosed injury.
Coach Mike Sullivan announced Pettersson’s status after practice Monday in Cranberry.
Pettersson was injured during a 3-2 overtime road loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. He did not record a shift beyond the 16:11 mark of the first period.
Arguably the Penguins’ most reliable defensive presence, at least on the blue line, Pettersson has appeared in all 32 of the team’s games this season and has scored 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) while logging 21 minutes, 47 seconds of ice time per contest, including a team-best 2:49 in short-handed situations.
The left-handed defenseman has not missed a game since April 11, 2023. He has played in 115 consecutive games.
Pettersson is typically deployed on the second defensive pairing next to right-hander Erik Karlsson in five-on-five scenarios. During Monday’s practice session, left-hander Matt Grzelcyk filled that role.
“He’s a tough guy to replace on our group of (defensemen),” Sullivan said. “He’s a stabilizing defenseman no matter what pair we put him with. He just has a real conscientious game on both sides of the puck. He helps us. It’s going to provide opportunities for others to step in and fill roles. I do think we have capable guys to step in and help us. Guys will get an opportunity here. We’ll see how it goes but we’ll try to put defense pairs together that we think will give us the balance that we think we need. We’ll try to put people in certain roles that set them up for success.”
Notes:
• The Penguins’ lines and pairings on Monday were:
67 Rickard Rakell - 87 Sidney Crosby - 17 Bryan Rust
8 Michael Bunting - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 53 Philip Tomasino
10 Drew O’Connor - 19 Cody Glass - 72 Anthony Beauvillier
83 Matt Nieto - 46 Blake Lizotte - 55 Noel Acciari
38 Owen Pickering - 58 Kris Letang
24 Matt Grzelcyk - 65 Erik Karlsson
27 Ryan Graves - 5 Ryan Shea
Reserve forwards Jesse Puljujarvi and Kevin Hayes skated as a fourth defensive pairing.
• The first power-play unit included Bunting, Crosby, Grzelcyk, Letang and Rakell. The second power-play unit involved Glass, Karlsson, Malkin, Rust and Tomasino.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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