Penguins' Trevor Daley exits Game 4 with lower-body injury (Video)
The Pittsburgh Penguins lost Game 4 of their conference final series 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and may have lost Trevor Daley for an extended period of time.
While retrieving a puck in the Penguins’ zone midway through the second period, Daley injured his left leg along the boards in a collision with Lightning forward Ryan Callahan.
Head coach Mike Sullivan had no update after the game, but Daley was spotted on crutches after the game.
Trevor Daley left the arena on crutches. His left foot looked to be in a cast.
— Jonathan Bombulie (@BombulieTrib) May 21, 2016
“He obviously has a lower-body injury. We'll have more updates tomorrow, but he's an important player on our team,” Sullivan said. “So when we lose him for the rest of this game, he's a hard guy to replace. 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 -- 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 effect of losing Daley saw Kris Letang play 31:38, his highest non-overtime game ice time total since Game 2 of their second-round series versus the Washington Capitals. Daley, himself, his second on the Penguins behind Letang in ice time, averaging 22:08 per game this postseason.
Any kind of absence for Daley — even just Game 5 — is a big loss for Pittsburgh, who has seen their blue line become a huge part of their turnaround since Sullivan’s arrival. This could open the door for a return by Olli Maatta, who was scratched for Friday night's game.
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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
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