All-Stars Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Bobrovsky won't play

Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin will miss the All-Star Game in Columbus, and the NHL had to replace the hometown goalie, too.

Malkin was a late scratch in Wednesday's game against the Chicago Blackhawks. He has been diagnosed with a lower-body injury, and there is no timetable for his return.

Coach Mike Johnston told reporters that Malkin was hurt in Tuesday's game and decided he couldn't go after testing the injury in warmups.

More troublesome for Sunday's game is that Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky won't play. He left Wednesday's game against the Winnipeg Jets after stretching to try to stop a shot that missed the net. He had to be helped off by teammates and wasn't putting weight on his right leg.

He is highly popular in Columbus and just signed a four-year, $29.7 million contract extension. Bobrovsky, who had missed time earlier this season with a broken finger, was expected to be one of the first picks by All-Star teammate Nick Foligno.

He had an MRI on Thursday, but the team didn't have a timetable for his return.

Bobrovsky will be replaced by St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott, who played in the 2012 game.

Elliott leads the NHL with a 1.86 goals-against average and is fourth with a .930 save percentage. He is 13-5-2 and has three shutouts.

The NHL replaced Malkin by promoting Nashville Predators rookie Filip Forsberg to the big game. He originally was only going to participate in Saturday's skills competition.

He leads rookies with 40 points and has the league's third-best plus-minus at +24.

The NHL already had to replace injured goalies Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators) and Jimmy Howard (Detroit Red Wings) with Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Jaroslav Halak (New York Islanders). Jiri Sekac (Montreal Canadiens) has replaced injured Los Angeles Kings rookie Tanner Pearson in the skills competition.

The Red Wings will have no representatives in Columbus.

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