Penguins under fire amidst Kris Letang’s recovery

On Thursday morning, defenseman Kris Letang was back practising with the Pittsburgh Penguins in a regular jersey 10 days after suffering a stroke.

Last Monday, Letang suffered the stroke and the team announced a first update on his condition two days later. He briefly skated last Thursday, and then in full gear on Tuesday morning prior to the team’s session. He now appears to be getting closer to a return and fans have been quite vocal about the Penguins are being dangerous with Letang’s health.

Chris Johnston shared some more details on Letang’s condition in last night’s Insider Trading on TSN to explain how the Penguins have come under fire and what fans should know.

“Pretty remarkable scene out of Pittsburgh on Thursday with Kris Letang being in full equipment, being with his teammates on the ice there. And this is a real sign that he is well on the road to recovery, and look, you hear stroke; Obviously, that’s a very scary serious situation. This isn’t a typical recovery from a setback, and the Penguins intend to proceed with extreme caution, but at this point, Kris Letang is considered day-to-day. Obviously, [he] will continue to be monitored as he skates more, gets his conditioning back up. But signs are pointing to him returning much quicker than his first stroke back in 2014. He was out 10 weeks at that point. It’s only been 10 days. He’s back on the ice. We’ll see where it goes next.”

The star blue liner suffered a stroke in 2014. He then missed over two months of action. At the time, testing reveal that he was born with a very small hole in the wall of his heart. Letang has played 543 regular-season games and made 69 playoff appearances since then.

This season, Letang has put up one goal and 12 points in 21 games. He obviously wants to return to rack up more points, but at this points, fans want to make sure the Penguins and Letang are making the best call for his overall health and future.