James Neal has a concussion

Neal has a concussion and will miss the 3-game road trip, per coach Bylsma #Pens

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 8, 2013

Kind of expected given how dazed Neal looked after the hit on Friday night, but still sad to see the confirmation.

The Penguins leave today for a swing through Carolina and the two Floridian teams, so they won't see Neal until practice on Sunday (or more likely Monday, since a Sunday practice after a trip is a prime target to be cancelled).

Now, just as we've watched Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin rehab from concussions, Neal follows the path. Rest until symptoms have cleared up, then he'll inch back with off-ice workouts and proceed on the ice, should he progress without any issues. Then he can rejoin the team for practices and if all is well, eventually make his way back. As we've seen, this can take a couple weeks or many months. Hopefully Neal is feeling better soon.

It wasn't all bad news, Letang (lower body) skated a normal practice, proclaimed himself in pretty good shape and seems a good bet to be back in the lineup sooner than later, probably as soon as next game tomorrow night.

Sans Neal, the offensive lines today saw Chris Kunitz shift up to LW with Evgeni Malkin and Jarome Iginla, which seems to make sense and hopefully help Malkin pull out of his mini-slump. The second line had Brenden Morrow and Pascal Dupuis with Jussi Jokinen and a familiar third line of Matt Cooke - Brandon Sutter and Tyler Kennedy. Newly recalled Beau Bennett joined Craig Adams and a host of others on the 4th line.