Pens lose Letang for all of playoffs

Kris Letang’s goal in Game 6 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final clinched a fourth championship for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The talented but starcrossed defenceman will have a far different view as the Penguins try to defend their title when the playoffs start next week.

The three-time All-Star will undergo surgery to repair a herniated disk in his neck and is out four to six months, rendering him a spectator as Pittsburgh tries to become the first team in nearly 20 years to win back-to-back Cups.

“Right now it’s pretty hard to swallow,” Letang said Wednesday.

Letang last played on Feb. 21, but was working his way toward a return before the post-season begins before symptoms returned last week. He underwent a second MRI, with team doctors recommending he have surgery to repair the problem.

“It was not expected,” Letang said. “Like I said, I was going through rehab. It was going really well. It’s just in the last week that it blew up on me.”

The 29-year-old is one of the league’s elite defencemen, a blend of speed and skill that make him valuable on both ends of the ice.

Yet he’s also struggled staying healthy with a variety of injuries, from a stroke in 2014 to a concussion in 2015 that forced him to sit out during a first-round loss to the New York Rangers. His play was interrupted twice earlier this season with lower-body issues that coach Mike Sullivan insisted had nothing to do with the neck injury.