PITTSBURGH -- Penguins forward Kris Beech had an emergency appendectomy in Los Angeles and is expected to be sidelined two-to-three weeks.

He most likely will remain hospitalized for several days before returning to Pittsburgh.

Beech awoke in his hotel room about 7 a.m. Sunday with abdominal pain and was taken to a hospital. There was no indication anything happened during Beech's three minutes of playing time in a 3-2 overtime loss Saturday night to the Kings that may have led to the problem.

Beech spent two days in a hospital last month with a bruised lung while playing for his AHL team.

The depleted Penguins have lost seven in a row and are winless in eight games going into Tuesday night's game at Phoenix, the last of a five-game road trip.

Beech was one of nine injured Penguins not available for Sunday night's 5-0 loss to Anaheim. Also missing were: forwards Martin Straka (hamstring), Shean Donovan (foot) and Aleksey Morozov (broken wrist) and defensemen Dick Tarnstrom (foot), Michal Rozsival (shoulder), Hans Jonsson (leg), Janne Laukkanen (hip) and Josef Melichar (shoulder).