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The Pittsburgh Penguins and young star Ben Kindel dealt with a scary moment on Tuesday.
Kindel had what has been termed a “medical episode” on the team plane after it took off from Utah, and the plane had to return to the ground, according to The Athletic.
The Penguins put out a statement on Tuesday evening letting their fans know that this had happened, but details remain sparse.
Later reporting on Tuesday by The Athletic added a few details.
Ben Kindel Update
At one point, The Athletic’s reporting indicated that Kindel had suffered a seizure — but the publication then issued a correction which read:
“An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported what happened to Ben Kindel on the team plane. He had a medical episode and not necessarily a seizure.”
So there still isn’t a ton of clarity on what happened. It’s likely the Penguins will keep this close to the vest beyond wishing well for Kindel and hoping for him to recover soon.
The Athletic’s Josh Yohe did share this detail in his article on Tuesday night:
“A team source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said that members of the medical staff, front office and coaching staff will remain in Utah with Kindel. Both president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas and assistant general manager Jason Spezza were with the team on its four-game road trip. The team remained in Utah for hours after the incident, but the group was scheduled to depart for Pittsburgh at approximately 5:30 p.m. ET.”
Kindel and the Penguins had lost 5-4 on Monday to the Mammoth. They stayed overnight and initially took off Tuesday morning to leave Utah.
“Kindel took several significant hits during the road trip but appeared to be in good spirits after the Penguins’ 5-4 loss Monday against the Utah Mammoth,” Yohe writes. “He spoke briefly to reporters following the game about nearly scoring the tying goal in the final seconds. During head coach Dan Muse’s postgame meeting with the media, Kindel was in a nearby hallway, chatting casually with Pittsburgh native and Utah center Vincent Trocheck.”
Pittsburgh will obviously be careful to make sure everything is OK with Kindel before proceeding into any return-to-play discussions.
Penguins Schedule
The Penguins were flying home from Utah, and they’ll begin a homestand on Thursday night against the Florida Panthers.
They then host the Nashville Predators on Saturday before an odd gap that brings them a third consecutive home game but not until Thursday, Oct. 29 against the Mammoth.
Pittsburgh then goes on the road to play in Montreal on Halloween night.
Billy Heyen Billy Heyen is a Heavy contributor with focus on the NFL and MLB. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who spent his senior year following Jim Boeheim’s basketball team around the country. His reporting work has also included extensive work for The Sporting News, the Sandusky Register and Rochester’s Democrat & Chronicle. Adventures in sports writing have also led to in-person coverage of the Buffalo Sabres, Cleveland Guardians, U.S. men’s national soccer team and a variety of minor league baseball stories. More about Billy Heyen