Rust injured during practice; could miss tonight’s game vs. Columbus

The Pittsburgh Penguins are holding down the front while key players, most notably captain Sidney Crosby, are on the sidelines with injuries. 

Tonight, they face the Columbus Blue Jackets and while the Penguins and their fans were thankful for Wednesday’s 8-6 win over the Vancouver Canucks, they now have to deal with some bad news. 

Earlier today during the team’s morning skate, forward Bryan Rust left practice early after tripping and falling into the boards. According to team insider Seth Rorabaugh, he crashed feet first and skated off the ice with a limp.

He did eventually return to practice. 

After the skate however, head coach Mike Sullivan maintained that Rust was fine, but the forward seemed to have a very slight limp as he walked through the dressing room in street clothes. 

We believe he could be a game time decision tonight. We will have to keep an eye on any last-minutes changes. 

As of now, this is what the projected lineup should be against the Blue Jackets: 

Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Kahun-McCann-Hornqvist
Galchenyuk-Lafferty-Simon
Aston-Reese—Blueger-Tanev

Dumoulin-Letang 
Johnson-Marino
Pettersson-Trotman
Riikola-Ruhwedel

Tristan Jarry is expected to start in goal.