Kris Letang and Bryan Rust will be out of the Penguins' lineup on Saturday, Mike Sullivan announced before this afternoon's game against the Blues.
Following yesterday's practice, both players had encouraging words on their progress, and Sullivan had not yet ruled them out for this weekend's two games.
Letang will miss his tenth game since suffering an upper-body injury in the Stadium Series game in Philadelphia. Rust will miss his ninth game since suffering a lower-body injury in Columbus.
Sullivan also added that Olli Maatta, while not yet ready to join the Penguins' team skates, is "progressing really well."
The Blues will have David Perron make his return from injury tonight after being out of the lineup since Jan. 17.
"He's going to play," said Blues coach Craig Berube. "He's going to play in good situations, on the power play. For sure. He's just got to get in there and get going right away."
Berube added that they were going to "play it by ear" as far as how many minutes Perron sees.
Matt Murray will get the start in net. Sullivan acknowledged that Casey DeSmith's shutout performance in Buffalo last game was "really good," but that it did not change the team's thought process as far as who starts moving forward.
Berube would not divulge who he was starting in net between Jordan Binnington or Jake Allen, saying, "I don't know, you'll have to watch warmups."
A St. Louis reporter responded with, "You know, right?"
"I know," Berube laughed. "But I'm the only one that knows."
Alright, then.
TAYLOR'S VIEW
Rust sounded pretty confident on his status yesterday, saying "we'll see" about playing against the Blues. He said he felt strong and wasn't favoring anything. To me it sounded like he thought he'd be in this weekend, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him in tomorrow night against the Flyers. Letang had also said he was feeling good, although didn't go into as much detail.
After the Penguins shut out the Sabres 5-0 in their last game, I'd imagine that the combinations stay intact today.
And as a side note, I don't think the Blues goaltender needs to be a big state secret.
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