Report: Penguins lose Mike Matheson to injury.

It has been a rough start to the regular season for the Pittsburgh Penguins and although they got a bit of a reprieve on Sunday thanks to a clutch performance in the shootout from both Jake Guentzel and Casey DeSmith, the day still brought some bad news for the Penguins. 

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan informed reporters on Sunday that defenseman Mike Matheson had not in fact been a healthy scratch in Sunday's contest. Instead Sullivan revealed that Matheson was dealing with an upper body injury, and even worse Sullivan told reporters that this would keep Matheson out for a while.

"Mike was not a healthy scratch," said Sullivan as per the Penguins. "He was injured in the last game. Right now, his status is ‘longer-term’ with an upper-body injury. I don’t have a timeframe for you at this point."

Matheson was off to a rocky start with the Penguins after picking up a pair of penalties in his first two games with the team, and this will no doubt do him no favors when it comes to winning over the Penguins fan base. Although Sullivan did not elaborate on what 'longer-term' might look like in terms of a timeframe, the Penguins could potentially look to place Matheson on long term injured reserve should he be out for more than 24 days or 10 games. 

This would in theory free up additional cap space for the Penguins which could prove to be meaningful given that the Penguins have been linked to unsigned restricted free agent Jack Roslovic.