As we all know, the Penguins are on a bit of a break. They don't get back to game action until Thursday evening down in Hot-Lanta...that is Atlanta for any non-hipsters out there!

The Atlanta game will feature the return of Marc Andre Fleury, who has missed the last 13 games. Fleury has been working hard in practice trying to get his conditioning back to where it should be. From what I have seen and heard about the Flower, he is looking very good and feeling great. Let's hope that there are no lingering effects of his "undisclosed lower body injury that was thought to be a groin."

Several other Penguins are also working themselves back to health, with Ryan Whitney being the closest to returning. There was some speculation over the last week or so that he may have been suiting up for Thursday night's tilt in Atlanta, though it is more likely that he will shoot for Saturday's game at home against the Maple Leafs. Whitney's goal is to play in at least one game before the two day Christmas break.

Mike Zigomanis and Hal Gill are still nursing their injuries, with Gill looking like the one who will return sooner. From what I have heard and seen, Zigomanis is making progress, but is still bothered by what is thought to be a shoulder or arm injury. As I mentioned last week, I saw him in the locker room and he seemed like he was in high spirits as he laughed, joked and bumped around with teammates.

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The Penguins took a surprise trip to Children's Hospital yesterday afternoon and brought $6,000 dollars worth of toys with them. The toys were passed out to dozens of children throughout the hospital. Among the players to participate was Hal Gill who wanted to make the day special for the kids.

“We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time at home with our families over the holidays,” said Penguins defenseman Hal Gill, who came up with the idea. “We realized that there are a lot of kids out there who aren’t going to be able to spend Christmas at home because of illness and we wanted to make sure their holiday was special.”

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All Star Voting Update...some excepts from a press release that came out today...

Sidney Crosby is threatening to break Jaromir Jagr’s all-time record for the most votes received in one year of NHL All-Star fan balloting.

As of 7 a.m. today, Crosby and Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin were running 1-2 among Eastern Conference forwards in the XM NHL® All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports that will select the starting lineups for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game Jan. 25 in Montreal. With a little more than two weeks remaining until voting ends Jan. 2, Crosby had received a League-high 793,995 votes – with Malkin in hot pursuit with 715,663.

That put both within striking distance of the record 1,020,736 votes cast for Jagr in 2000.

While Penguins were the front-runners up front, Montreal Canadiens continued to dominate the voting on the blue line and in goal. But the races are tightening.

As they have since balloting began, Montreal’s Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek maintained their lead in the balloting to select the starting defensemen for the Eastern Conference.

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Tony Ferrante, friend of the blog and author of the Confluence over at Kukla's Korner, conducted a round table of Penguins and NHL bloggers from all over and Tony was nice enough to ask me to participate. Please check out the 10 different bloggers opinions on 10 different Penguins related questions. Thanks again for having me Tony!

Penguins Round Table