{"id":447932,"date":"2026-02-05T23:44:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/447932\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T23:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:44:43","slug":"penguins-lineup-trouble-lizotte-rakell-out-acciari-avery-hayes-up-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/447932\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins Lineup Trouble: Lizotte, Rakell OUT; Acciari? Avery Hayes UP (Updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 Blake Lizotte will not play Thursday when the <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-penguins\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"147\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> visit the Buffalo Sabres at Key Bank Center. <\/p>\n<p>Of course, his reason is a good one. Lizotte\u2019s wife is giving birth to the couple\u2019s first child, and Lizotte is with her. The Penguins made the announcement via X Thursday morning. <\/p>\n<p>This season, Lizotte has become a staple of the Penguins\u2019 lineup, stabilizing the fourth line and penalty killing. He is averaging 13:44 of ice time per game. <\/p>\n<p>Lizotte, 28, has 17 points (6-11-17) in 46 games this season. <\/p>\n<p>Acciari was also absent from the morning skate. He is battling an illness, and coach <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/dan-muse\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"4578\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dan Muse<\/a> said he is a true game-time decision. <\/p>\n<p>The bigger news of the morning skate was the absence of Rickard Rakell. He left the skate shortly after line rushes, not quite 10 minutes into the skate. <\/p>\n<p>Muse said he is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury. In the coming days, more information will be available if this affects his participation with Team Sweden. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/ben-kindel\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"4607\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Kindel<\/a> took his spot on the top power play unit. However, since Rakell participated in line rushes, we won\u2019t know until warmups who may replace Rakell on the Penguins\u2019 top line. <\/p>\n<p>Updated: The Penguins have recalled forward Avery Hayes. He would be in line to make his NHL debut if Acciari is unable to play. In 31 games with the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins this season, Hayes has 23 points (13-10-23). The 23-year-old forward from Westland, Michigan is in his third professional season. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/blake-lizotte\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">blake lizotte<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/noel-acciari\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">noel acciari<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/penguins-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Penguins news<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-penguins\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/rickard-rakell\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Rickard Rakell<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"categories single-categories\">Categorized:<a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/category\/pittsburgh-penguins\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 Blake Lizotte will not play Thursday when the Pittsburgh Penguins visit the Buffalo Sabres at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[8194,5,4,15467,118,99,1469,100,5216,5782],"class_list":{"0":"post-447932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-blake-lizotte","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-noel-acciari","12":"tag-penguins","13":"tag-penguins-news","14":"tag-pittsburgh","15":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","16":"tag-pittsburghpenguins","17":"tag-rickard-rakell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116020685304723930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}