Game 72- Atlanta Thrashers @ Penguins

The Atlanta Thrashers are supposed to be an abysmal team, but don't tell them that. The Thrashers come into Mellon Arena for Tuesday night's tilt with the Pens riding a six game winning streak and coming off a convincing 5-1 victory over the Washington Capitals at home on Monday evening.

The Thrash will be without their top player and captain, Ilya Kovalchuk, who has missed the last handful of games with an upper-body injury.

They are a young team with a bit of talent beyond Kovalcuk, though, coming in the form of young defensemen Toby Enstrom and Zach Bogosian and forwards Brian Little, Slava Kozlov, Todd White, and our old buddy Colby Armstrong.

Marc-Andre Fleury will be in the pipes for the Penguins. His counterpart is unannounced for now, but the popular wisdom would be that Johan Hedberg, another former Penguin, will start, as Kari Lehtonen played on Monday.

The Pens have a four point cushion between themselves and the ninth place Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, and are currently sitting in fifth place. Pittsburgh does hold the wins tiebreaker on Florida in the even the Panthers pull even in the coming games.

The Penguins control their own destiny.

Other games to watch on Tuesday:

Philadelphia @ Detroit
Rangers @ Canadiens
Sabres @ Senators
Capitals @ Panthers

Penguins-

Kunitz-Crosby-Guerin
Fedotenko-Malkin-Sykora
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Dupuis-Talbot-Godard

Gonchar-Orpik
Letang-Eaton
Scuderi-Gill

Fleury

Thrashers-

Kozlov-White-Little
Sterling-Peverley-Armstrong
Stuart-Reasoner-Machacek
Boulton-Perrin-Thorburn

Bogosian-Enstrom
Salmela-Exelby
Valabik-Hainsey

Hedberg

GO PENS!