Letang & Niskanen Skate Tuesday

Credit: Reggies House

Pittsburgh Penguins defensemen Kris Letang and Matt Niskanen are both progressing well.

Skating Monday and Tuesday, the two banged up lower-body partners were ruled game-time decisions for Wednesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

Head Coach Dan Bylsma had this to say regarding Kris Letang’s status:

“Kris Letang had a full day today.  We had some contact drills, we had some D-zone, so it was a pretty stressful day on a lower-body injury and he did pretty well.”

And on Matt Niskanen, he said:

“I think Matt Niskanen is 17 days into his 2-4 week (timeframe) and had two full practices with the team.  He’s doing and progressing well.  Hopefully that means he returns to play here soon.”

Niskanen’s injury occurred during the game against the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 27th, while Letang’s was harder to identify.  He cleared things up Tuesday by claiming it had happened during the contest with Washington on Super Bowl Sunday.

Both of the defenseman have been important players for the defense and key figures on offense as well.  Letang and Niskanen each spend time on the power-play, while they both skate together representing the Pens top defensive pairing.

On the year, Letang has logged nine points (3G, 6A) in 10 games and Niskanen has registered three points (1G, 2A) in five.

Stay tuned to see if there a go for tomorrow’s matchup in Pittsburgh against the Senators at 7 p.m.