Injury Updates: Penguins, Predators, Blues, Oilers

As he approaches the midpoint of his recovery window, Penguins goaltender Matt Murray is close to rejoining the team for practice, writes Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune.  Murray is coming back from a broken hand sustained at the World Cup of Hockey.  Head coach Mike Sullivan provided an update on Murray’s situation:

“Matt’s getting real close to joining the team for practice. Obviously that’s progress from his standpoint, and that’s the next step for him. He’s been skating a lot. He’s been working with our goalie coach, Mike Bales. He’s been skating with some of the guys that have been trying to recover from their injuries.”

Still with the Penguins, right winger Bryan Rust is nearing a return to full health.  He has been skating with the team for the last week and Sullivan noted that he’s close to being a coach’s decision as to when he returns to the lineup.

As for Sidney Crosby, he continues to skate as he recovers from his concussion.  While Sullivan won’t put an estimate on his return to action, he noted that their “hope is that he can make a big step this week”.

Other injury news:

• Nashville defenseman Anthony Bitetto will miss the next four to six weeks with an upper body injury, reports The Tennessean’s Adam Vingan. He suffered the injury against Chicago in a fight with Jordin Tootoo.  Bitetto played in 28 games last season as a reserve defender and, when healthy, should be in a similar role this year.
• Vingan also noted that right winger Miikka Salomaki will be out six to eight weeks with an upper body injury that is believed to be his hand. Salomaki slid to block a Brian Campbell shot but instead the puck caught him in the hand.  Salomaki is likely to be replaced by Cody Bass on their fourth line while he is out of the lineup.
• The Blues are hopeful that center Jaden Schwartz will be able to return to the lineup sometime in the next few game, notes Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He suffered an elbow injury late in training camp and was originally supposed to be out until early November, suggesting that his return appears to be ahead of schedule.  Jori Lehtera, Carl Gunnarsson, and Kyle Brodziak, who were all injured over the weekend, are all listed as day-to-day though Lehtera is likely to miss some games.
• The Edmonton Oilers provided an injury update on several of their injured players on their Twitter account. Forwards Iiro Pakarinen, Matt Hendricks, and Drake Caggiula as well as defenseman Brandon Davidson are all week-to-week while goalie Jonas Gustavsson should return fairly soon.