McKenzie: Penguins’ Alex Galchenyuk suffered setback because of allergic reaction to a SPIDER BITE!

The Pittsburgh Penguins have had some awfully weird injuries over the years, but an update about Alex Galchenyuk could be the strangest happening for an organization that has nothing but strange and unfortunate things happen to sideline players.

“This is going from the sublime to the ridiculous,” McKenzie said on NBCSN during the first intermission of Wednesday night’s game. “Galchenyuk was dealing with a soft tissue injury, believed to be a groin injury suffered in training camp. His rehab and recovery from that has been stalled because —get this — [he was] bit by a spider.”

Wut?

“Quite a significant allergic reaction to that spider bite,” McKenzie continued, “and that really put off some of the rehab and recovery he was doing. But he’s now on the road to recovery, they’re hoping another week or two for him.”

McKenzie also said in another 2-3 weeks Nick Bjugstad and Bryan Rust could return to the lineup and that Evgeni Malkin’s status remains the fuzziest. McKenzie noted the initial timeline on Malkin was 4-6 weeks, which we’ve heard before, but that no one really quite knows at this point just how the window could shift based on the healing process.

But still, Galchenyuk’s spider bite will be right up there with James Neal getting hurt in practice swinging a wiffle ball bat or Sidney Crosby’s swollen face due to the mumps or poor Beau Bennett injuring himself while celebrating a goal as some of the strangest things that have haunted this team.