Pens Isles Gameday. TIME TO CLINCH.

Oh how things can change

On Monday night on Long Island, Nassau County I suppose, our Pittsburgh Penguins have an opportunity to obliterate the "magic number", and finally clinch for good, a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Now, clearly, there are bigger short-term goals, like the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but clinching would give this team a safety blanket heading into the last handful of hockey games before the year ends. Among the reasons clinching the spot tomorrow is of the essence:

a) Goaltending. MT will have a few short weeks to rotate goalies a little bit, and give Flower a bit of a rest before the playoffs, not tremendously, because we still want the top seed, but if MAF can sit one or two more, he will be ready in full force for the playoffs in April.

b) Sid. He should be fine, but he can take it easy maybe in practice, and not stress that ankle.

c) I JUST WANT TO WIN!

Down to business, this game is more than likely to mark the re-return of El Sid, making it that much more important.
May ask why it is so crucial? I'm thinking the top 2 lines for near the duration of the year, starting tomorrow, will be THESE:

Malone-Malkin-Sykora/ "The Steel City Line"/Line 1A
DuBeast/Crosby/Hossa/ "The Ducrossa Line"/Line 1B

Please tell me what you think about "Ducrossa" as a corny name for that line. It's a start, anyways.
Emphasis on the line combination's featuring of Sidney and Marian. Those could both be girls names, but not today.
Sidney and Marian are straight-up men. Monsters, if you will. On this night, we see the true worth of Ray's investment. We know how good Hossa and DuBeast have been. But if the ultimate destination is to be reached, Hossa and Crosby will need to make it rain together, and I expect that they will. Those are two of the best pure players in the game, and Pascal DuBeast has been nasty. Just nasty.

I can see it now...
"Crosby works on Hunter on the left board, feeds DuBeast, over to Hossa, back to Crosby for the redirect.
Scratch my back with a hacksaw! The Penguins lead 7-1 in the third!" (Lange. The game is on Versus and I dislike Steigy)

The Isles just plain suck. They have nothing to play for. They suck, after all. Go for the jugular, gentlemen.

Let's Go Pens.