Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby will miss Tuesday night’s game against Philadelphia after being placed on the COVID-19 protocol list.

Coach Mike Sullivan made the announcement Tuesday morning. The Penguins did not hold a morning skate ahead of the game, in line with the league’s COVID-19 guidelines.

The news comes a day after the NHL had a season-low four players in the COVID-19 protocol.

Crosby leads the Penguins with 18 points and is tied for the team lead with seven goals.

Pittsburgh currently sits fifth in the highly competitive East Division, two points behind the Flyers. Philadelphia swept a pair from the Penguins at home to start the season. The cross-state rivals are playing in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Thursday.

Tuesday night’s game will be the first game with fans in attendance at PPG Paints Arena since last March. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf eased coronavirus restrictions on Monday, allowing 15% attendance at indoor venues. The Penguins plan to cap attendance at 2,800 fans.

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PREDATORS: The Nashville Predators placed defenseman Ryan Ellis and forward Luke Kunin on injured reserve with center Ryan Johansen placed on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list.

The Predators, who have won 4 of 5, made the moves after the trio didn’t take part in the morning skate before a game against Carolina.

Ellis will be out up to six weeks with an upper-body injury. The defenseman hadn’t missed any of Nashville’s first 21 games and trails only Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi for scoring with nine points. Ellis played 26 minutes, 8 seconds in the Predators’ 3-1 win over Columbus on Sunday.

Kunin is expected to miss 2 to 4 weeks with a lower-body injury. He has played 17 games and has two goals and three assists.

Johansen becomes the Predators’ third player to land in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol, and first since Mikael Granlund spent the first eight days of the season on the list in quarantine after arriving from Finland before being cleared on Jan. 21. Lucas Sbisa also spent the first two days of the season in the protocol.

The center has only been back four games after an upper-body injury Feb. 4 against Florida. Johansen has only five assists and has yet to score a goal this season.

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OILERS:  Forward Alex Chiasson was suspended for one game by the NHL for cross-checking Toronto Maple Leafs forward Jimmy Vesey.

The incident occurred at the end of Toronto’s 3-0 win at Edmonton on Monday night. Chiasson was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for cross-checking.

Chiasson will forfeit $18,534 in salary.

TUESDAY’S GAMES

PENGUINS 5, FLYERS 2: Kasperi Kapanen scored two goals in Pittsburgh’s win.

The Penguins won in front of their fans for the first time in almost a year. Penguins’ players raised their sticks and saluted the fans in attendance following the win.

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Bryan Rust scored his seventh, and Cody Ceci and Mike Matheson added goals for Pittsburgh, which has won 5 of 7. Tristan Jarry stopped 40 shots.

Joel Farabee scored twice for the Flyers, who had a three-game winning streak halted. Carter Hart made 22 saves for the Flyers.

BLUE JACKETS 4, RED WINGS 1: Joonas Korpisalo made 19 saves and Columbus scored three second-period goals in beating Detroit for the Blue Jackets’ first game in front of home fans in more than a year.

Cam Atkinson had a short-handed goal and an assist, and Riley Nash, Jack Roslovic and Boone Jenner also scored for the Blue Jackets, who snapped a five-game losing streak.

Anthony Mantha got his sixth goal of the season and Jonathan Bernier stopped 23 shots for the Red Wings before being relieved in the third period by Thomas Greiss, who had nine saves and allowed no goals the rest of the way.

Detroit has lost two in a row and 3 of 5.

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RANGERS 3, SABRES 2: Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist, Igor Shesterkin stopped 22 shots and New York beat visiting Buffalo.

Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere also scored for the Rangers, and Adam Fox had two assists. New York won for the fourth time in six games.

Sam Reinhart and Tobias Rieder scored for Buffalo, which has lost four straight (0-3-1) and ni9ne of 11 (2-8-1). Carter Hutton finished with 16 saves and fell to 1-6-1 this year.

ISLANDERS 2, DEVILS 1: Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves and came within 14 seconds of his fourth shutout, and visiting New York beat New Jersey.

Rookie Oliver Wahlstrom, a former Yarmouth resident, and Anders Lee scored for New York, which is 9-2-2 in its last 13.

Varlamov lost his shutout bid with 13.2 seconds to play when Miles Wood scored with the Devils’ net empty. The Islanders were trying for their second straight shutout after Ilya Sorokin blanked Pittsburgh 2-0 on Sunday.

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Aaron Dell made 18 saves in his second start for New Jersey, which has lost 6 of 7.

CANADIENS 3, SENATORS 1: Carey Price made 26 saves and Montreal beat visiting Ottawa to give rookie coach Dominique Ducharme his first NHL victory.

Jeff Petry and Brendan Gallagher each had a goal and an assist. Tyler Toffoli scored into an empty net for Montreal (10-6-5), which snapped a five-game losing streak.

Artem Zub scored for last-place Ottawa (8-16-1), which had won 4 of 5. Joey Daccord stopped 30 shots in his second NHL start for the Senators,.

Ottawa winger Drake Batherson’s six-game goal streak, which tied a franchise record, came to an end.

JETS 5, CANUCKS 2: Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler each had a goal and two assists in Winnipeg’s home win.

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Mason Appleton, Mathieu Perreault and Paul Stastny also scored for Winnipeg. Mark Scheifele tacked on three assists.

Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller scored for Vancouver. Brock Boeser finished with two assists.

HURRICANES 4, PREDATORS 2: Sebastian Aho scored twice to lead visiting Carolina over Nashville.

Vincent Trocheck and Steven Lorentz also scored for the Hurricanes, winners of three straight. James Reimer made 35 saves.

Calle Jarnkrok and Mattias Ekholm had the goals for Nashville, which won its previous two games.

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