Penguins announce 5 players out due to injury.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be resting a significant number of players on Sunday, and that could have major implications for the 3 teams still battling it out for the final playoff spot in the National Hockey League's Eastern Conference.

The Penguins will face one of those teams on Sunday when they travel to Washington D.C. to face off against the Washington Capitals, however the Penguins will do so with 5 players sidelined due to injury. The Penguins have announced the following players will miss today's game:

Ben Kindel (upper-body)
Noel Acciari (upper-body)
Anthony Mantha (lower-body)
Ryan Shea (upper-body)
Connor Clifton (upper-body)

The Penguins announced on Saturday that Connor Dewar is also out week to week, which of course rules him out of today's game as well.

The Penguins missing key pieces of their depth could impact the outcome of this game, which is a must-win game for the Capitals if they wish to maintain any hopes of playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.

That being said this will mark the return of Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin to the lineup after they all missed Saturday's game due to injuries of their own. In fact this has led some fans in Pittsburgh to express their displeasure at the Penguins decision to sit their stars for the final home game of the season in Pittsburgh rather than for today's game in Washington.

This of course is a case of the Penguins resting players as much as possible before the Stanley Cup playoffs, but I can certainly understand why fans who paid good money for tickets to yesterday's game might feel cheated.