Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson out indefinitely due to injury
Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson will be sidelined indefinitely due to an undisclosed injury. Coach Mike Sullivan announced Matheson’s status on Friday and labeled it as “week to week.”
The left-handed defenseman completed Thursday’s 6-1 home loss to the New Jersey Devils at PPG Paints Arena. In fact, he skated the final 28 seconds of the contest.
In 50 games this season, Matheson has 28 points (seven goals, 21 assists) and has averaged 18:15 of ice time per contest. Despite relatively little in the way of action with the power play, Matheson leads the team’s defenseman in goals and shares the team lead in game-winning goals with forward Jake Guentzel (five).
His absence will break up a streak of 40 consecutive games – nearly half the season - in which the Penguins have been able to dress their top-six defensemen. The last contest the Penguins did not have that group intact was a 6-3 road loss to the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 13 when a handful of players and even coach Mike Sullivan were still dealing with issues related to covid-19.
Reserve defenseman Mark Friedman is the leading candidate to replace Matheson in the lineup. Recalled from a conditioning assignment with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League (AHL) on Friday, Friedman joined the team for practice Cranberry the same day and primarily skated on the third pairing with Chad Ruhwedel, Matheson’s typical partner.
The Penguins’ run of health on the blue line for the past three-plus months has come at Friedman’s expense as he has been a healthy scratch for 39 of the past 40 games. The lone contest he played during that stretch came during a 3-2 road loss to the Dallas Stars on Jan. 8 when issues related to covid-19 forced the Penguins to dress an irregular lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
A right-handed shot capable of playing either side of the blue line, Friedman has appeared in 12 NHL games this season while averaging 13:33 of ice time per contest.
Assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Monday, Friedman appeared in two AHL games and had no points, two shots and two penalty minutes.
“He played in both games, he played very well,” Sullivan said. “We thought it was important that he get into some games so that it puts him in a better position to be successful when he gets the tap on the shoulder to play here in Pittsburgh. It’s not an easy challenge for a player when he’s been on the sidelines … and just trying to keep himself ready. Mark works extremely hard in practice and he’s in great shape. But it’s hard to simulate game-real scenarios and game-real intensity. We felt, at this time, it was important for him to at least get into some games to try to keep himself ready.”
Bjorkqvist ready to go
Penguins rookie forward Kasper Bjorkqvist was recalled to the NHL club on Wednesday. It marked his third recall to the NHL roster this season (and the third of his career).
Making his NHL debut last month, Bjorkqvist has played in six games this season and scored one goal while averaging 8:22 of ice time contest.
He appears to be in line to appear in his seventh game when the Penguins host the New York Rangers on Saturday. During Friday’s practice, Bjorkqvist skated on the fourth line in place of veteran Zach Aston-Reese and even worked on the penalty kill.
“In Wilkes-Barre, we pretty much do the same stuff that we do here,” Bjorkqvist said. “I play pretty much a similar role there in terms of the way I play. A lot of (penalty killing), stuff like that. I just try to do the right things here and play the same game that I play down there (with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton). That’s what brought me up here, it’s doing those small things right.”
Notes:
The Penguins’ lines and pairs during practice were:
59 Jake Guentzel - 87 Sidney Crosby - 17 Bryan Rust
43 Danton Heinen - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 42 Kasperi Kapanen
23 Brock McGinn - 77 Jeff Carter - 9 Evan Rodrigues
20 Kasper Bjorkqvist - 11 Brian Boyle - 49 Dominik Simon
8 Brian Dumoulin - 58 Kris Letang
28 Marcus Pettersson - 6 John Marino
52 Mark Friedman - 2 Chad Ruhwedel.
Aston-Reese and forward Teddy Blueger, currently on injured reserve due to a broken jaw, skated as a “fourth” defensive pairing.
The top power-play unit included Crosby, Guentzel, Letang, Malkin and Rust. The second power-play unit involved Carter, Heinen, Kapanen, Pettersson and Rodrigues.
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.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.