Letang misses Penguins game against San Jose with illness, Pickering and Ponomarev make debuts

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Penguins defenseman Kris Letang missed Saturday night’s game against San Jose with an illness.

Letang missed his second consecutive game because of an illness, as he did not play in Pittsburgh’s 6-2 loss at Columbus on Friday. Letang has two goals and four assists in 18 games.

Defenseman Owen Pickering, Pittsburgh’s first-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut on Saturday.

Forward Vasily Ponomarev also played his first game with the Penguins on Saturday. Ponomarev was one of the pieces acquired by Pittsburgh in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes for Jake Guentzel on March 7. A second-round pick in 2020, Ponomarev has two points in two NHL games.

The Penguins are 6-10-3 and have been outscored 16-5 during their current three-game losing streak. They traded veteran forward Lars Eller to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday following an ugly 7-1 home defeat against Dallas, in which Pittsburgh allowed six first-period goals.

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