Penguins' Fleury, Talbot Out With High Ankle Sprains
 

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will be sidelined six-to-eight weeks and forward Maxime Talbot will be sidelined two-to-four weeks, each with a high ankle sprain, it was announced Wednesday by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.

Both players were evaluated by team physician Dr. Chip Burke on Wednesday morning.

That is not good news at all, on both fronts. Dany Sabourin has been solid other than last night's pathetic performance, but I am not comfortable with him carrying the load for 8 weeks, especially knowing that Ty Conklin is the backup. Talbot's loss will be very significant - he always gives the team a spark and comes up with big goals at big times. We certainly could have used him last night - maybe he comes up with a big goal when the game was still tied or got the team going when they were clearly flat after the long western road trip. Other guys are going to have to step up, it's that simple. If the Pens are going to make a trade like has been rumored, now would be a good time to pull the trigger.

They absolutely have to make a deal.

IMO, Talbot's injury is bad because he would've been good trade bait.

I wonder which goalies out there are availble for them.

Who on their team or in WBS would they be able to deal to get a decent netminder?

trade bate? not a chance

I don't know if there are any goalies out there who are available, so more than likely the Pens will just go with Sabourin and Conklin and see what happens. If they trade with anyone, it'll be for another forward.

Sabourin has played pretty well (outside of the drubbing by Philly) and Fleury has been real inconsistent, but I'd still be pretty nervous as a Penguins fan with the current goaltending situation for the next couple months.

and to think... we could have had byzgalov

I'd love to have Bryzgalov, though we'd have had to trade for him. I think Phoenix had a worse record than us so would have won the waiver-wire duel. I think he wanted to be a #1 though, so coming in as a backup to MAF would not really be an improvement for him.

Amazing how the Pens can look so good and take so many positives in 3 wins in Western Canada, then look so awful and out of their depth against the Flyers. Pile on two injuries much worse than first thought... dammit.

We're really gonna miss MAF. We've been lucky Sabs has performed so well, but he's probably been playing above himself. He's right at the inexperienced end of backups league-wide, and now is gonna be #1 for 2 months? Ouch. And nobody really thinks Conklin is a good idea.

I don't think Talbot will be traded. He's a fan-favourite, a low draft pick who has shown that energy, persistence and effort can make up for a lack of size and so on. He's tough, and willing to do jobs and perform roles. He's a ripper, and cheap to boot.