The Penguins will be back home in the Igloo for tonight's 7:30 matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's a family reunion as there are four former Pens now playing for the Bolts: Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi and Adam Hall. Roberts, however, is on injured reserve for a pulled groin muscle and will not play. This is the first meeting between these two teams this season. Coming off their win last night, the Pens need to be cautious of taking on any team too lightly, even a team with TB's awful record. It's going to be an interesting game.
Tampa Bay has not been playing well this season. At all. They have won 7 games all season and they have one win in December. As much as I hate to see a great player like Ryan Malone lose, there are no friends on the ice. The Bolts’ points leaders, Lecavalier and St. Louis, both have 27 points. Both have 12 goals. Sykie and Satan both have 12 goals also. And they are our third and fourth in scoring. Smith in goal has been winless in his last 11 starts. Barring any bad bounces, a copious amount of penalties, or an absence of our team (like in Saturday’s game), I don’t think we have anything to worry about.
Ryan Whitney is returning tonight! Hallelujah! Perhaps his return will give the Pens some much-needed momentum. Ryan Whitney has been out all season, recovering from surgery to correct a deformity in his left foot. Over three years with the Penguins, he has totaled 137 points. Because of his foot pain, his productivity dropped last season, his points total dropped by 19. He was instrumental in our success in the playoffs last season and Pens fans, myself especially, have been excitedly anticipating his return. Whitters hasn’t been told who he will play with tonight or if he’ll be playing on the top penalty kill line.
Tampa Bay has injuries to Gary Roberts and David Koci. The Pens still have injuries to Mike Zigomanis, the king of the faceoff, Tyler Kennedy, Hall Gill, Sergei Gonchar and presumably Kris Letang who did not return to last night's game after leaving late in the second.
There were a bunch of problems with the projected lines so I’ve taken the liberty of changing the lineup to fix the misprints.
Penguins-
Dupuis-Crosby-Satan
Fedotenko-Malkin-Sykora
Talbot-Staal-Cooke
Wallace-Taffe-Godard
Orpik-Eaton
Scuderi-Goligoski
Boucher-Whitney
Fleury
Lightning-
Prospal-Lecavalier-St. Louis
Malone-Halpern-Szczechura
Pettinger-Stamkos-Recchi
Jokinen-Craig-Hall
Ranger-Meszaros
Eminger-Krajicek
Malik-Heward
Smith
GO PENS!
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