(UPDATE: Guentzel underwent shoulder surgery and will miss the next 4-6 months.)
PITTSBURGH -- Another game, another potentially significant injury for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On the same day he was named to the 2020 NHL All-Star team, winger Jake Guentzel had to leave their 5-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Monday night after a scary crash into the boards. It all happened as he finished a beautiful passing play to score his 20th goal of the season.
Just after depositing the puck into an abandoned net, he collided with Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot and went flying face/shoulder first into the boards. He remained on the ice for a few moments before gingerly skating to the locker room. He did not return to the game.
Here is a look at the play.
Guentzel also recorded his 200th career point on that play.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan had no immediate update after the game.
“It was really scary,” said Sullivan when asked about watching the play. “Those are always dangerous when you fall that distance from the boards. There’s no status on him right now. Our doctors are evaluating him. We will probably have more information tomorrow.”
He also added that the contact that resulted in the injury was incidental.
After scoring 40 goals a year ago on the team’s top line next to Sidney Crosby, he has done everything he can to show that performance is no fluke. After Monday’s three-point performance he is currently on a 42-goal, 90-point pace over 82 games this season. He also leads the team in goals and total points and has been a mainstay on the top line no matter who the top center is.
With Crosby sidelined he has been playing next to Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust. It is a trio that has been running wild over the NHL since they have been put together. They teamed up for three goals on Monday (Malkin scoring two of them, including one just 27 seconds into the game) and completely dominated the Senators. In more than 224 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey that trio has outscored teams by an 18-9 margin and controlled more than 56 percent of the total shot attempts, scoring chances, expected goals, and high-danger chances (via Natural Stat Trick).
Senators coach D.J. Smith described the game simply and accurately: “Malkin just kind of ate us up tonight.”
The current injured list
Before Monday, Guentzel had been the one top player in the Penguins’ lineup to avoid injury this season.
They are already without Crosby, Nick Bjugstad, Brian Dumoulin, and Justin Schultz. This is also not a new development for them, either. Along with those four, Malkin, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust, Patric Hornqvist, Jared McCann, and Alex Galchenyuk have all combined to miss 146 man games (and counting) due to injury this season.
Many of them have been out at the same time.
It makes their current place in the standings -- second place in the Metropolitan Division, and the fifth-best points percentage in the NHL -- all the more impressive. They have also been one of the league’s best defensive teams this season.
Game ended with some madness
The Senators did not go away quietly in this one. There was a mini-line brawl that broke out with less than 20 seconds to play following an encounter between Malkin and Brady Tkachuk.
The key thing to watch there is as Malkin leaves the ice, Jean-Gabriel Pageau shoves him. Malkin responded by hitting Pageau up high with his stick. He received a two-minute for high-sticking during that sequence.
Keep in mind he was suspended for a game a year ago for swinging his stick at Philadelphia Flyers forward Michael Raffl. It will be interesting to see if the league does anything with this.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.