The Penguins were allowing an average of 2.18 goals per game before right winger Pascal Dupuis had a season-ending knee injury Dec. 23 in Ottawa. Beginning with a 5-0 loss against the Senators that night, however, they have been giving up an average of 3.23 goals a game. "He's a responsible two-way forward," defenseman Matt Niskanen said. "For [the first] line, I think he helped a lot in that regard. "A lot of times you'd see him be a defensively responsible high forward who picked guys up on the backcheck. He was really good at that. There might be some correlation between the numbers."