It’s never easy for an NHL team when one of its best players goes down. Pittsburgh Penguins have dealt with this issue for much of the 2025-26 season, with Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson all missing time.
Despite this adversity, they continued to climb the standings and accumulate the points needed for a legitimate playoff push.
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However, it’s a whole different animal when your best player is about to miss time. And that’s exactly what the Penguins are facing.
On Wednesday it was revealed that Captain Sidney Crosby will miss the next four weeks with a lower body injury which he supported during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina. Although the nature of Crosby’s injury was not specified, the timeline was, putting the Penguins in a difficult situation.
Currently, they are eight points behind the division leader. Carolina Hurricanes with one game in hand and three games against them in March. They have a March schedule that includes 17 games in 31 days, and 14 of those games are against teams currently in a playoff position.
They’ve played teams above them in the standings pretty well this season, but it won’t be as easy without Sid. The players know this, but they are ready to take on the challenges that come with it.
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“Any time someone comes out of the lineup, I think everyone needs to step up their game a little bit,” Bryan Rust said. “Guys will have the opportunity to play positions that they might not have been able to play otherwise. Obviously, yes, he might be a little harder to replace than the others, but I think that just means the rest of us have to step up even more.”
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He added: “Once you get the official word, I think it’s kind of like a moment where we all have to think to ourselves and say, ‘Okay, let’s pick it up here, there’s going to be a lot of hockey going on. We need to win as many games and get as many points as possible.’
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As Rust said, several guys will play different roles without Crosby in the fold, and that’s especially true in the middle. The Penguins recalled winger Avery Hayes – who has six goals and seven points in his last five AHL games, including two hat tricks, since he made his NHL debut and scored two goals in a 5–2 win over the Buffalo Sabers on February 5. – to help make up for some of the lost scoring following Crosby’s exit.
But Rickard Rakell will start as the team’s first-line center, a role he hasn’t played much of in a long time in the NHL until sporadic deployments there this season. Tommy Novak will continue to center Egor Chinakhov and Evgeni Malkin, and Ben Kindel will return to third-line center duties for the time being.
Penguins recall Avery Hayes from AHL
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That said, they are aware they will have to play a bigger role, and that includes Kindel, 18, who has six goals and seven points in his last six games and is already accustomed to the prospect of being elevated to a bigger role on the NHL roster.
“I think collectively, as a group, everyone is going to have to step up and contribute a little more,” Kindel said. “But I’m ready to do whatever I need to do to help the team win, and I’ll always be ready for that no matter the situation.
“None of us are happy to see our leader, our captain and our best player go like this. But, ultimately, there’s nothing we can do about it now, and we’re just going to have to step up, play as a team and try to put up some points here in an important stretch.”
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Kindel believes this team is capable of continuing and making the playoffs without Crosby in the fold, especially since they have dealt with other major injuries for extended periods this season and still managed to continue winning hockey games.
And that resilience, he said, is a testament to the culture in the locker room that starts with 87 but trickles down to the rest of the group as a collective.
“There have been major parts of our group that have been out at different times throughout the year, and I think we’ve stuck with it regardless of the situation,” Kindel said. “And I think that’s just a testament to the culture of our team and the group that we have here.
“Any night, anyone can step up, and that’s been great for our team this year.”
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