Well, as I alluded to yesterday, the Penguins (37-21-8, 82 pts, 4th in the East) schedule doesn't get any easier tonight as they face arguably the 3rd hottest team in the East right now. Boston (38-19-4, 83 pts, 2nd in the East) has been on fire since the addition of Tomas Kaberle a week before the trade deadline and have now won 7 in a row. Luckily, BruinsBlog reports that Tuukka Rask is expected to be in net. Rask is no slouch, with a 2.66 GAA and .921 save percentage, but facing Rask is still better than dealing with early Vezina favorite Tim Thomas and his 1.95 GAA and .940 save percentage. The Penguins do catch another small break as Patrice Bergeron will not be in the lineup for Boston due to personal reasons. In their last game, the Bruins beat Tampa Bay 2-1 on Thursday.
The Penguins enter this game coming off of a 2-1 overtime loss to New Jersey last night. One of the keys to this game may be the fact that Kris Letang was ejected 5 minutes into the game last night. Letang will need to be fresh and eat up a lot of minutes for this team since the other 5 defenders played heavy minutes last night. Paul Martin led the team last night with 30 minutes of ice time (and speaking of, Happy Birthday Paul Martin today!). Marc-Andre Fleury will also be back in net tonight after getting last night off.
Everyone likely remembers the first 2 matchups between the Penguins and Bruins, where the Pens blew a 2 goal lead in each game to lose 7-4 and 4-2 respectively. The Penguins came away with a victory in the 3rd matchup, and hope that the 2 goal lead curse is over. With the scoring on this team right now, I'm not sure what the odds are of even getting a 2 goal lead right now.
Lately, the Penguins have attempted to key in on their 4 on 4 play, taking less penalties, and are still trying to find the perfect line combinations with this ever changing lineup. Their 4 on 4 play looked much better last night and they only took one penalty. Unfortunately, that one penalty happened to be while 4 on 4 in overtime. The penalty kill has been playing well still, but is certainly having some difficulty with Brooks Oprik out of the lineup. As for the line combinations, expect to see similar lines to last night, as it appears that the top line is starting to gain some chemistry.
Expected Lines:
Neal - Letestu - Kovalev
Cooke - Staal - Kennedy
Talbot - Jeffrey - Dupuis
Rupp - Adams - Conner
Martin - Michalek
Niskanen - Letang
Engelland - Lovejoy
Fleury
Chris Kunitz is listed as questionable tonight, and though Bylsma has alluded that he could return this weekend, there is no definitive word on if tonight will be the night. Also, tonight is the 10th game of Eric Godard's suspension, giving the Penguins another fresh body for the future, though it no longer looks like they will need it as the team continues getting healthy.
Prediction: 3-2 (SO) win. The Penguins have done a great job of fighting hard to stay in games. They always have a chance the way the defense has been playing and with Fleury in net. Though Boston is hot and Pittsburgh is cold, streaks come to an end eventually, and tonight looks like a good night to see the Pens get a win and the Bruins take a loss. Look for Kris Letang to play a major part in this game after last night's gaff.
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