PENGUINS (8-4-0) vs. BRUINS (7-3-0) 8 PM at Consol Energy Center
The Pittsburgh Penguins will welcome the Boston Bruins to town as they faceoff against one another for the first time since Boston’s four game sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals.
No matter what happens in this game it does nothing to erase the Penguins shortcomings in May from last year. There is no such thing as revenge in the regular season to make amends for a playoff series loss.
What can be gained from this game is two more points in the standings so that the Penguins can earn the most advantageous matchup in the first round of the playoffs this year.
The Penguins should focus on the game at hand and let bygones be bygones from last year.
Both teams should not care about last year anymore; I don’t think either team does. You can only control the present.
That said this is still an incredibly fun matchup. This game pits two teams who are currently in a good spot in the standings. The Bruins are technically in 4th place but they have only played 10 games so far compared to the 12 and 13 games the teams in front of them have played. The Penguins are currently atop the underwhelming Metropolitan Division. The Penguins and Bruins are both quality teams and they should provide some quality hockey this evening.
****
One of the more interesting story lines entering this game is Jarome Iginla facing off against the Penguins for the first time since leaving via free agency.
So far this season Iginla has 2 goals and 8 assists in 10 games. Surprisingly he only has one assist on the power play so far this year.
With the luxury of hindsight both the Penguins and Iginla probably would not have gone through with the trade that brought Iginla to Pittsburgh last year.
The Penguins were not better off for acquiring his services. Pittsburgh did not need a top 6 right winger and never really had a spot for Iginla. The Penguins were better off sticking with Beau Bennett than spending the assets it took to acquire Iginla.
Iginla would have been better off just accepting his trade to Boston.
The Iginla "era" in Pittsburgh is water under the bridge. Iginla is still one of the best ambassadors in the game of hockey and there is no ill will towards him. Both team and player have moved on and it appears to be for the better.
****
Injuries
Louis Eriksson still out from a concussion from the head shot he received from John Scott.
Dan Bylsma provided injury updates on the following players:
Kobasew suffered a lower-body injury midway through the first period of Monday's game against Carolina, he will be out 3-4 weeks.
There is still no timetable on Scuderi's recovery from a broken ankle. Scuderi had surgery today.
Brandon Sutter had a maintenance day today and did not practice
Beau Bennett skated at length this morning by himself and looks to be maybe returning to practice later this week. He has ramped up his intensity. No definitive date on that.
And James Neal remains week-to-week with where he’s at.
Scoring Leaders
Power Play
The Pittsburgh penguins have fallen all the way to 19th overall on the power play at 18.6%. Its been a sharp fall from the best overall power play from earlier in the season.
Boston is not much better their power play is only 15.6% and they are ranked 22nd overall. This is nothing new as the Bruins have had a power play ranked in the bottom half of the league for the past few seasons.
I have always thought that the Bruins would be better off using Zdeno Chara as a net front presence rather than a power play QB. Chara doesn’t necessarily distribute the puck at a high level and he doesn’t utilize his awesome shot nearly enough from the point. A guy like David Krejci or Patrice Bergeron would be better suited to QB the power play from up top.
Boston ranks dead last in power play opportunities with 33. The Penguins rank 15th with 43.
Penalty Kill
The Penguins penalty kill remains in the bottom third of the league. They are ranked 25th at 77.1%.
The Bruins are not much better. They are ranked 24th in the league at 77.4%.
Special team play by both the Penguins and Bruins will have to improve as the year goes on if they want to do some damage come playoff time.
Fenclose%
The Penguins are 4th overall at 57.0%
The Bruins are 7th overall at 53.9%.
Line Combos
The Penguins did not do even strength line rushes at the morning skate. They did run through their power play units though. If the Penguins do release their lines for tonight I will update that here.
1st PP
Crosby-Malkin-Kunitz
Martin-Letang
2nd PP
Jokinen-Sutter-Jeffrey
Maatta-Niskanen
Yes that is Dustin Jeffrey on the 2nd power play unit. Bylsma has confimed that Jeffrey will be reinserted into the lineup tonight for the first time in a long time.
If he doesn't play tonight with a chip on his shoulder then I don't know when he will.
Marc Andre Fleury will be starting in goal tonight.
Bruins Line Combos
Lucic-Krejci-Iginla
Smith-Bergeron-Marchand
Soderberg-Kelly-Caron
Paille-Campbell-Thornton
Chara-Boychuck
Seidenberg-Hamilton
Krug-McQuaid-Bartkowski
****
Eric Hartzell has been reassigned from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL to Wheeling of the ECHL
****
Mark Madden interviewed Sidney Crosby yesterday. You can find the audio of that interview
here
The replay of Sidney Crosby’s interview with Bob Costas will run again tonight after the games on NBCSN.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»