The Penguins didn’t get good news about Justin Schultz. The Pittsburgh blueliner is going to be missing from actions for a few weeks. Not exactly what the team needs at this point in time.

Coach Sullivan on Justin Schultz's injury: "He's lower-body. He's a little more than week-to-week. I'm reluctant to put a time on it, but it'll be weeks."

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 7, 2017

So this is going to hurt on two fronts. The more important one is going to be at even-strength. Justin Schultz has a skill set that is unique and only one other defenseman on the team is similar. He and Kris Letang are the only two dynamic puck movers on Pittsburgh’s back end. That doesn’t mean guys like Dumoulin and Maatta can’t move the puck, but they aren’t going to be able to create zone exits and entries with their feet. The threat of being able to skate through trouble is what opens up more passing lanes and both Schultz and Letang are very good at helping feed transition.

Pittsburgh’s forwards need this skill in order to fuel their success. We have seen what happens when the back end can’t get the puck to the forwards in stride. It neuters everything. Pittsburgh is built to find success in transition and on offense. Losing Schultz is a blow to both of those things.

Another negative is that I think Schultz has been the better power play quarterback this year for the team. Kris Letang is too passive with his choices and it makes life easier on the penalty killers. Schultz is assertive with his shot attempts and this keeps the penalty killing unit honest. This is what creates chaos around the net which in turn creates opportunity for a guy like Hornqvist down low. The shooting also forces the top PK guy to go up higher to get in shooting lanes. Schultz can dish off to either Kessel or Malkin who will have more space to go east/west because of the aggressiveness of the top PK guy. I think the movement execution has been better with Schultz this year. This is a really easy fix for Letang, but I just haven’t seen it on a consistent basis yet this year from him.

The first game without Schultz will be tonight when the team takes on John Tavares and the New York Islanders.

Thanks for reading!

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