Charles LeClaire – USA TODAY Sports
Tonight’s game between the Pittsburgh Penguins (34-10-0, 68 points) and the Ottawa Senators (23-15-6, 52 points) will be televised locally on ROOT Sports – Pittsburgh. Face off is set for 7:30pm (est) at Scotiabank Place.
With the Penguins recently recalling tough guy Steve MacIntyre from their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre / Scranton, they must be preparing for some retaliation from Ottawa for the last time the Penguins played the Senators back in February when Matt Cooke lacerated defenseman Erik Karlsson‘s Achilles with his skate blade. The entire organization was pretty upset feeling that Cooke had caused the injury intentionally.
Kris Letang is questionable for tonight’s game due to an illness out of the lineup tonight due to food poisoning, which kept him from practicing with the team yesterday while Beau Bennett will not be in tonight’s lineup either due to an upper body injury (he is day-to-day). Evgeni Malkin did not make the trip to Ottawa at all and neither did Marc-Andre Fleury as his wife is about to give birth to their first baby.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Josh Yohe, a win tonight will give Dan Bylsma his 200th career that he earned quicker than any coach in NHL history.
There was only an optional skate held this morning, so the projected line combinations are based on previous morning skates and yesterday’s practice:
FORWARDS: Chris Kunitz-Jussi Jokinen-Jerome Iginla, Brenden Morrow-Pascal Dupuis-Beau Bennett, Matt Cooke-Brandon Sutter-Tyler Kennedy, Tanner Glass-Joe Vitale-Craig Adams; DEFENSEMEN: Brooks Orpik-Mark Eaton, Douglas Murray-Matt Niskanen, Robert Bortuzzo-Deryk Engelland, Simon Despres-Kris Letang.
The starting goalie in net for the Penguins tonight is Tomas Vokoun.
OTTAWA INJURY / LINE INFO
The Senators will be without a few players tonight against the Penguins. They are forwards Mike Hoffman (collarbone injury) and Jason Spezza (back surgery); defenseman Erik Karlsson (achilles laceration).
PROJECTED LINES -
FORWARDS: Milan Michalek – Kyle Turris – Daniel Alfredsson, Cory Conacher – Mika Zibanejad – Jakob Silfverberg, Colin Greening – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Erik Condra, Matt Kassian – Zack Smith – Chris Neil; DEFENSEMEN: Patrick Wiercioch – Sergei Gonchar, Marc Methot – Chris Phillips, Jared Cowan – Eric Gryba.
Craig Anderson is the projected starting net minder for Ottawa tonight.
Stephanie Lewark is an NHL and Pittsburgh Penguins Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow her on Twitter (@steelcitysports), check out her Facebook page, or add her to your Google+ circle.
