Penguins McCann Possibly Injured (Again) in Win over Rangers

It didn’t receive a lot of attention, but Jared McCann did not play for the final few minutes of the second period and for most of the third period in the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 win over the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena.

PHN attempted to isolate McCann’s final two shifts in the second period to find an injurious moment. At best, we have an innocuous lunge, after which McCann finished the shift but primarily held his stick in his right hand.

“Jared is being evaluated for an upper-body injury,” head coach Mike Sullivan said postgame on Sunday. “He’s playing really well for us. He’s got good offensive instincts. It’s discouraging to see him go down with an injury. Hopefully, it won’t be too long, and we get some positive news.”

It is a bit of a stretch, but the following video is the best we could find after reviewing the second period. The video sequence begins with McCann lurking outside the scrum. Then he lunged to cover the point. There seems to be a very brief, and slight favor of his left arm. Later, McCann swings around to attack the right point, but he does it one-handed.

McCann occasionally uses his stick one-handed, as shown in the featured photo.

When McCann went for a line change, just before he left the screen, he appeared to tuck his left arm:

We should note this is conjecture and is by no means an official accounting. Any number of innocuous incidents in the period could have been the culprit.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are off on Monday, so McCann’s status is unlikely to be updated before Tuesday. McCann was skating on the Penguins’ second line with Evgeni Malkin in place of the injured LW Jason Zucker, who is out long-term.

Jared McCann has been particularly effective since returning to the lineup last week. McCann has nine points (5g, 4a) in 16 games this season. He has four points (3g, 1a) in his last five games since his return.