Happy St. Patty's Day in Pittsburgh! Grab a beer before you proceed.
The Penguins (39-21-6, 86 pts) face off against the Montreal Canadiens (37-24-7, 81 pts) in the only afternoon matchup of the day. The Penguins are coming off a 3-1 win over Buffalo in which Zbynek Michalek and James Neal both scored their first goals as Penguins. Montreal meanwhile is coming off of a tough 4-1 loss to St. Louis, where they saw former goalie Jaroslav Halak shut the offense down completely. Both Pittsburgh and Buffalo have pretty much solidified their entry in the playoffs this year, so it's a fight for seeding at this point. Pittsburgh wants to keep pace with 1st place Philadelphia, who is 4 points ahead. Meanwhile, Montreal is starting to creep up on Tampa Bay for 5th in the East, now only 3 points behind the Lightning.
The starting goalies for today will be Marc-Andre Fleury for the Penguins and Carey Price for the Canadiens. Winner gets to strike a pose. After some early season "controversy" over these goalies showing off after wins, they joked it out at the All-Star game and can proceed playfully. The latest controversy surrounding the Canadiens has been surrounding the Zdeno Chara hit on Max Pacioretty. Pacioretty is out for the season with a severe concussion and fractured vertebrae after Chara put him into the turnbuckle at full speed.
On the injury front for the Penguins, Orpik, Asham, and Comrie continue to skate with strength coach Mike Kadar before practices, but are all 3 are still games away from returning. Kunitz returned to the lineup in the Buffalo game and looked very strong, throwing 2 big hits on his first shift. Lines are expected to be the same as they were for the Buffalo game, though they changed frequently throughout the game. Expect them to start as:
Neal-Letestu-Kovalev
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Kunitz-Jeffrey-Dupuis
Rupp-Adams-Talbot
Letang-Niskanen
Martin-Michalek
Engelland-Lovejoy
Fleury
Prediction: Pens pull off yet another tight game. I wouldn't be surprised to see OT in this one (but is anyone ever with a Pens game lately?), 3-2 Pens!
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