(UPDATED) Penguins Practice: Letang Sick, Carter Out with Lower Body Injury

CRANBERRY  — The Pittsburgh Penguins are carrying the emotional toll of a four-game losing streak after back-to-back losses to the Vancouver Canucks, and Seattle Kraken followed back-to-back losses to the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames last week. Monday, the Penguins returned to the UPMC Lemieux Facility for practice, but without a couple of key players.

Jeff Carter, 37, was absent from practice. Carter played just four minutes against Seattle on Saturday. He was injured in the second period. Coach Mike Sullivan did not have a postgame update on Carter.

Carter was not on the ice Monday.

Nor was top defenseman Kris Letang, who struggled on the western trip, including a minus-3 performance against the Edmonton Oilers last Monday.

UPDATE: Coach Mike Sullivan said Letang was sick. Carter is still being evaluated for a lower-body injury. Teddy Blueger was a full participant in practice. He will remain on LTIR until Nov. 5. Blueger has not played yet this season. He was injured early in training camp before the preseason began.

Penguins News

The Pittsburgh Penguins did a little bit of housekeeping. Drake Caggiula was returned to the WBS Penguins, and third-year pro Drew O’Connor was called up from the WBS Penguins.

O’Connor, 24, has played in 33 NHL games and scored six points (3-3-6).

Practice Tone

Skills coach Ty Hennes ran the first drills in practice: an uptempo stickhandling drill. Associate head coach Todd Rierden began the second drill — rapid-fire puck retrieval and breakouts.

Special teams were affected by Letang’s absence. Jeff Petry was elevated to the top power-play unit. P.O Joseph ran PP2. Sam Poulin was at the net front of PP2.

“I thought the energy was good. I thought we had a good film session this morning,” Sullivan said. “It’s our job as a coaching staff to bring them some answers and try to help them with some of the challenges that were up against in order to get the results that we’re looking for. So I thought we had a productive day.”

Penguins Lines:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust

Zucker-Malkin-Rakell

Heinen-O’Connor-Kapanen

McGinn-Poehling-Archibald

Poulin and Blueger rotated as extras.