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Pascal Dupuis feeling 'much better' after puck to neck, could be in lineup vs. Isles
Pascal Dupuis left the CONSOL Energy Center ice on Thursday night on a stretcher. It made for a scary sight, but the Pittsburgh Penguins forward put the crowd at a bit of ease when he gave the thumbs up.
Moments earlier, Dupuis had been cross-checked in front of Dallas Stars netminder Kari Lehtonen, and as he was falling forward he was hit in the back of the neck by a Kris Letang shot:
Dupuis experienced numbness in his arm, but he was well enough to skate on his own Friday morning.
On Saturday, he took part in the Penguins' morning skate, ahead of their meeting with the New York Islanders, and joined the normal line rushes.
From Sam Kasan of the Penguins:
“I tried to get up and I couldn’t feel my arms and my extremities. I started shaking my gloves and wanted to see if they were really shaking or not,” Dupuis said. “They were kind of moving. I dropped my gloves and (Evgeni Malkin) came around yelling ‘Just lay there! Just stay there!’ I said, ‘OK, Geno.’ I just stayed there.”
Penguins team doctors and athletic trainers came out to attend to Dupuis. As he lay on the ice the feeling began to come back in his arms, but the team took every precaution, removing him from the ice on a stretcher and taking him to the hospital for testing.
“The feeling came back, but I argued with the doctors,” Dupuis said. “It took a little while. Feeling started slowly to come back. It was a weird feeling. It’s obviously never happened to me. I never got numb like this. It’s kind of scary actually.”
Once Dupuis was given the all-clear after the tests, he returned to CONSOL and was able to talk his teammates, including Letang.
Penguins head coach Mike Johnston said Dupuis will be a game-time decision, but given his full participation on Saturday morning, it's likely he'll make a return versus the Islanders..
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
