Kris Letang out week-to-week as Penguins' blue line takes another hit

Once again, the Pittsburgh Penguins are dealing with an injury to their blue line after Kris Letang suffered a lower-body injury Saturday night in Detroit.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said on Monday that Letang is on injured reserve and considered “week-to-week.” Chad Ruhwedel has been recalled to help out on the back end.

Here’s how the lower-body injury happened, via Steph:

Letang’s absence leaves a huge hole on the Penguins blue line. The 29-year-old plays over 25 minutes a night, which includes significant time on the power play and penalty kill. He’s also been a big source of offense from the back, along with Justin Schultz, with his four goals and 23 points this season.

“He’s a hard guy to replace,” Sullivan said via Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette Saturday night.. “He’s our top defenseman. We’ve done it before. He’s been out before. We’ve got capable people. It won’t be any one guy. It will be by committee. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll see how he is.”

Letang missed two weeks in December with a lower-body injury, and just before he returned the Penguins lost Brian Dumoulin to a broken jaw. So, basically, the team is used to missing bodies in the lineup.

Despite the constant battle to keep their blue line out of the trainer’s room, the Penguins have been one of the more healthy teams in the NHL this season, ranking just outside the bottom five in man games lost this season, per ManGamesLost.com.

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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