The mumps outbreak that has swept through the NHL this season has continued to decimate the Pittsburgh Penguins as the team sent home three more players that may have contracted the virus.
According to NHL.com, forwards Steve Downie and Brandon Sutter were sent home along with backup goaltender Thomas Greiss in order to be tested for the mumps.
Pittsburgh (22-6-4) will now play with 11 forwards and seven defenseman when it visits the Florida Panthers (14-9-8) Monday night at the BB&T Center in Florida. First-year Penguins coach Mike Johnston said the team will have the seventh defenseman take some shifts at forward Monday.
"We'll put a defenseman up," Johnston said, according to NHL.com. "We'll probably play a defenseman up front a little bit and get five, six, seven minutes of a defenseman playing on that [fourth] line and then sort of maneuver from there. We've got to place some depth in our lineup tonight, so that's what I'm going to do originally heading into the game, for sure."
While Johnston wouldn't confirm who the seventh defenseman will be, he said that it will not be Rob Scuderi or Kris Letang.
Pittsburgh is just the latest team to deal with the mumps as the virus has gone through the NHL for the last month and several teams have missed key players due to it.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Beau Bennett each dealt with the mumps last week while Pittsburgh has also had several top players deal with other injuries and ailments throughout this season.
While Pittsburgh has had to fill in voids throughout this season, the team is still atop the Metropolitan Division with an Eastern Conference-leading 48 points, which puts them two ahead of the second place New York Islanders.
The Penguins are used to making adjustments this season and Johnston said his team has to do so again.
"We talked about it before, that over the last three weeks our team has had to adjust and adapt," he said. "Told them this morning it's just one of those days where we're adjusting and adapting one more time. We'll let them know the lines and [defense] pairs and we'll proceed from there."
Downie, 27, has five goals and 12 assists for 17 points this season while Sutter, 25, is 7-7--14.
Greiss, 28, who is the No. 2 goalie behind Marc-Andre Fleury, is 3-2-2 this season with a 2.52 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage.
The Penguins complete their home-and-home with the Panthers Monday before visiting the Tampa Bay Lightning (20-11-4) on Tuesday and getting three days off to rest up during the NHL's Christmas break.
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