Sidney Crosby Ruled Out Again as Injury-Hit Penguins Brace for Stars Test

Penguins PR reported Saturday that Crosby will miss the game against the Stars with a lower-body issue, while Malkin remains out day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

That flips this from a routine matinee into a bench-management story fast.

This is the real pressure point for Muse. When both top centers are out, Pittsburgh loses its first power-play quarterback up front, its best matchup driver down low, and a huge chunk of its puck-possession game.

Crosby entered the day listed as day-to-day and sitting on 64 points. Malkin had 15 goals and 52 points in 50 games before this latest absence lingered into the Dallas matchup.

That matters because Pittsburgh is still sitting second in the Metropolitan Division at 36-20-16. These aren't empty late-season minutes for a club trying to hold ground.

The challenge against Dallas is clean enough to see. Without Crosby and Malkin, Pittsburgh has less support through the middle, fewer controlled exits, and a lot less margin once the Stars start leaning on the cycle.

Ville Koivunen was already one of the names pushed into a bigger look when Malkin missed time earlier this week. That kind of promotion stops being a nice story and becomes a hard assignment against a deep Dallas group.

This is where Muse earns his pay. He has to shorten the bench at the right times, keep special teams from cracking, and get enough structure that Pittsburgh can drag this game into the third.

And the bigger read goes beyond one afternoon. Every time Crosby or Malkin miss action this late in the season, it sharpens the front-office conversation around center depth and how much insulation this roster still lacks around its veteran core.

For Saturday, the mission is simple but not easy: keep the game tight, win enough draws by committee, and avoid chasing Dallas. Without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, that's the only road.