Dumoulin out 4-6 weeks, Malkin and Crosby moving up the scoring lists

Brian Dumoulin will miss 4-to-6 weeks after undergoing surgery for a broken jaw. Full details: https://t.co/vA0zHDnOGX pic.twitter.com/j7o2XIFkMW

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 28, 2016

Tough one to take. The Penguins top 4 defensemen entering the season are all hurt (Dumoulin, Kris Letang, Trevor Daley) or sick (Olli Maatta). Thankfully only two more games and Pittsburgh is off until Jan 8th, where it's expected Letang and Daley will return at that point.

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Jake Guentzel has played 10 AHL games between Nov. 18-Dec. 27 and has scored 19 points (11+8) in that time.

— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 28, 2016

Guentzel's been red hot, to say the least. He's now first in the AHL in goals on the season (16) and 2nd in points (32). He shouldn't be long for Wilkes-Barre with this kind of production, however it's likely what soured the Penguins on him isn't his scoring but rather issues with his consistency, play away from the puck and intensity that coach Mike Sullivan stated around the time he was sent down.

Either way, with the Pens NHL struggles for left-wingers scoring goals this season, sooner or later one would think a Guentzel promotion and opportunity to help will be in the cards.

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Evgeni Malkin cracked career point 800, here's the list of names ahead of him. Believe it or not, if Malkin stays on his current pace of scoring this season and plays all the rest of the games, Geno would score 52 more points.

Bill Guerin's career topped out at 856 points, by the way so old Billy G should be safe from Geno for this season.

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Speaking of milestones, Sidney Crosby is closing in on 1000, himself.

Crosby at his current season pace has 62 more points in him this season if he plays all the rest of the games. That would put him at 1,041 points and in 70th place all-time and ahead of his contemporary (who's played 135 more games) Alex Ovechkin.