Game 37- Boston Bruins @ Penguins

The Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins will pay their first visit of the season to Mellon Arena for a 7:38 battle with the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. The Bruins, amidst low expectations, have been an absolute force all season long, and they've asserted themselves as legitimate Cup contenders come April. The Pens, on the other hand, are 5-7-1 in December and sputtering a bit of late. A win at home against a quality opponent like this could be a big step in righting the ship.

Phil Kessel, Marc Savard, Milan Lucic, Dave Krejci, Mike Ryder, and Blake Wheeler make up the Boston top six, and that group has been, well, deadly, all year long. The emergence of Kessel as one of the NHL's premier goal scorers, and that of Wheeler as a fine top six left wing, have been big factors to this point. Phil Thomas has been a monster in goal, and he'll get the start tonight.

Head Coach Claude Julien is thought to be shaking up his lines tonight, though.

The Pens will be getting back Hal Gill from injury, and that's a huge relief, but there are other players who aren't quite ready to return. Sergei Gonchar, Tyler Kennedy, Mike Zigomanis, and Kris Letang are out, and enforcer Eric Godard is questionable.

For Boston, Patrice Bergeron, Petteri Nokelainen, Marco Sturm, and Andrew Ference are out.

With Gill's return, the Penguins have decided to dress seven defensemen tonight. Alex Goligoski will see time on the fourth line as well as on defense. This is really a shocking move. This move would indicate that Gogo's time with the big club is limited. Since he's on a two-way contract, Goligoski could be sent down at any time.

Penguins-

Dupuis-Crosby-Satan
Fedotenko-Malkin-Sykora
Cooke-Staal-Talbot
Wallace-Jeffrey-Goligoski

Orpik-Scuderi
Eaton-Whitney
Gill-Boucher
Goligoski

Fleury

Bruins-

Axelsson-Savard-Kessel
Wheeler-Krejci-Ryder
Lucic-Yelle-Kobasew
Sobotka-St. Pierre-Thornton

Wideman-Chara
Stuart-Lashoff
Hunwick-Ward

Thomas

GO PENS!