Penguins’ Trevor Daley exits Game 4 with lower-body injury (Video)
The Pittsburgh Penguins lost Game 4 of their conference final series 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and may have lost Trevor Daley for an extended period of time.
While retrieving a puck in the Penguins’ zone midway through the second period, Daley injured his left leg along the boards in a collision with Lightning forward Ryan Callahan.
Head coach Mike Sullivan had no update after the game, but Daley was spotted on crutches after the game.
“He obviously has a lower-body injury. We’ll have more updates tomorrow, but he’s an important player on our team,” Sullivan said. “So when we lose him for the rest of this game, he’s a hard guy to replace. He plays a lot of minutes. He plays in key situations. So when you lose him halfway through the game like we did and you get down to five — it’s hard enough going down to five, but when you lose someone like Trevor that plays important minutes for us, it just makes it that much tougher.”
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The effect of losing Daley saw Kris Letang play 31:38, his highest non-overtime game ice time total since Game 2 of their second-round series versus the Washington Capitals. Daley, himself, his second on the Penguins behind Letang in ice time, averaging 22:08 per game this postseason.
Any kind of absence for Daley — even just Game 5 — is a big loss for Pittsburgh, who has seen their blue line become a huge part of their turnaround since Sullivan’s arrival. This could open the door for a return by Olli Maatta, who was scratched for Friday night’s game.
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
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