Penguins lose 2 core players in Stadium Series game vs the Flyers.

A very rough night for the Penguins.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Penguins lose 2 core players in Stadium Series game vs the Flyers.
Daniel Lea/CSM/Zuma

If you tuned in to the Stadium Series game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night you witnessed one hell of a hockey game. Not only was it an unbelievable back and forth contest between two teams that have a long history of hatred for one another, but it was played in some truly grueling conditions which really gave the game an overall old school hockey feeling. 

Of course it was probably a lot less fun if you happen to be a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins as not only did your team walk away with an overtime loss in a critical game, but more importantly they suffered some truly catastrophic losses to their main roster as well. The Penguins lost two of their top defensemen when both Brian Dumoulin and Kris Letang suffered injuries in the game, both at the hands of Flyers players. 

In the case of Brian Dumoulin the veteran defenseman was laid out by a thunderous body check from Philadelphia Flyers bruiser Wayne Simmonds who may very well have been playing in his final game as a member of the Flyers organization. Simmonds caught Dumoulin along the boards and leveled him with a massive hit that left Dumoulin down on the ice for several long moments. Initially after crashing to the ice Dumoulin could be seen clutching at his head before he stopped moving entirely. 

Unfortunately for the Penguins it was that very same sequence that would also create the conditions of the Letang injury. The big hit from Simmonds on Dumoulin drew a crowd of players from both sides of the ice and in the melee that ensued between the two teams Letang found himself tangled up with Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere. Gostisbehere took Letang down to the ice during that exchange and it would appear based on Letang's disappearance from the game at that point that this is where he was injured as well. Effectively the Penguins lost two of two of their top blue liners on a single shift. 

The injuries were confirmed by head coach Mike Sullivan following the game with Sullivan acknowledging that Dumoulin is out with a concussion while adding that Letang was being evaluated for an upper body injury. This is obviously very bad news for a team currently chasing a playoff spot and it puts general manager Jim Rutheford in a very tight spot with very little time to asses these injuries before the National Hockey League's trade deadline on Monday.

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