Penguins Lose Another Defenceman

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without every one of their top 4 defencemen when they take on the Anaheim Ducks tonight.  Alex Goligoski is expected to miss 2-3 weeks with a lower-body injury and will join Sergei Gonchar, Brooks Orpk, and Kris Letang in the pressbox.

Goligoski has had a fantastic start to the season putting up 14 points in his first 20 games with a plus-11 rating.  He had been a fixture on the Penguins number one powerplay unit, but with him out of the lineup the Penguins had Evgeni Malkin and Mark Eaton on the points in Monday’s practice. You can view the rest of the Penguins lineup here.

The good news on the Penguins injury front other than the return of Malkin is that Sergei Gonchar has been cleared for contact drills. He had the cast removed from his broken wrist last week and is expected to be back in the lineup within two weeks.