Amid the hunt for its first Stanley Cup in seven years, Pittsburgh received some troublesome news Sunday.
Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley will miss the remainder of the playoffs with a broken ankle, the team announced.
Daley suffered the injury in the second period of Pittsburgh's 4-3 loss in Game 4 at Tampa Bay on Friday when he slammed into the wall after racing Lightning forward Ryan Callahan for a puck. He was on crutches and had a wrap on his foot when he exited the arena.
"He's an important player on our team. So when we lose him for the rest of this game, he's a hard guy to replace," coach Mike Sullivan said Friday. "He plays a lot of minutes. He plays in key situations. So when you lose him halfway through the game like we did and you get down to five [defensemen], it's hard enough going down to five, but when you lose someone like Trevor that plays important minutes for us, it just makes it that much tougher."
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The Penguins acquired Daley in a December trade with the Stars for Rob Scuderi. The 32-year-old helped the Penguins' turnaround after a slow start to the regular season. Daley's acquisition was part of an in-season re-tooling Penguins GM Jim Rutherford spoke to Sporting News about in April.
Sullivan announced another major lineup change Sunday, saying veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury will start Game 5 on Sunday in place of Matt Murray. Fleury surrendered his spot to Murray when he suffered a concussion during the regular season and hasn’t started since March 31.
“Lots of things went into the decision,” Sullivan said, via USA Today.
Fleury posted a 2.29 GAA and .921 save percentage during the regular season. Meanwhile, Murray has logged a .923 save percentage in the postseason.