The Penguins didn’t have a good injury update today regarding forward Ben Kindel. After the injury he suffered in the first period of the preseason game on Monday night Kindel has been downgraded from day-to-day to week-to-week.
Kindel only played the first period of the game. TV cameras caught him blocking a weak shot towards the foot late in the period, the forward also drove all the way into the net on two separate occasions as potential chances to twist something or suffer an injury.
The regular season begins for the Penguins in six days in Philadelphia. The team is using what could be a potential fourth line for the start of the year in their game tonight where Filip Hallander will skate with Connor Dewar shifted to center and Elmer Soderblom.
Pittsburgh’s center depth is already being tested before the season starts, along with Kindel center Blake Lizotte was also listed as out with a week-to-week injury.
Most of the top players are likely to take part in the final preseason game on Saturday, it’s possible that center Hendrix Lapierre could be elevated to skate in Kindel’s place – which has been on a line with Andrei Kuzmenko and Bryan Rust. Kuzmenko is away from the team now to go back to Russia in the wake of his father’s death with no known return date and this time that could lead to even further changes from the ideal lineup at the very start of the season.
