After a few days off from game action the Penguins will return to the ice tonight in what should be a heated Metropolitan Division contest. Pittsburgh will play host to the Columbus Blue Jackets who have been one of the pleasant surprises of the season. Columbus is currently three points ahead of Pittsburgh in the standings with both teams playing the same amount of games.
Tonight the Penguins will get back an injured center. It isn’t Evgeni Malkin. Matt Cullen will be making his return to the lineup and it will be in an elevated role. There were questions about who would replace the injured Conor Sheary and yesterday at practice that speculation ended. Here are the updated line combos:
Cullen-Crosby-Hornqvist Guentzel-Bonino-Kessel Hagelin-Rowney-Rust Kunitz-Fehr-Wilson
Is placing Cullen on the top line the right move? There’s no harm in trying it, but there certainly aren’t a shortage of options. Pittsburgh could have also tried Guentzel, Kunitz, and Wilson which would have been fine as well.
Here’s an offensive breakdown of those players at 5v5 this season
A few things to point out here. Jake Guentzel’s sample is still small at 12 games. Matt Cullen’s quality of teammate is probably the lowest of the bunch. Chris Kunitz and Scott Wilson are having very good seasons.
My guess is the reason that Mike Sullivan went with Cullen instead of Kunitz or Wilson is because he wants them to continue to play with Eric Fehr. This keeps Eric Fehr at center where he has played better than he has at the wing. With Sheary out this affords the opportunity to make that happen. Fehr is a candidate to be traded so why not put a player in a position to succeed if that is the case? A fully healthy Penguins lineup doesn’t have Fehr in it and 2M is not chump change to have sitting.
Pittsburgh showed off their Stadium Series jerseys yesterday and they are sharp.
Stadium Series ready.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 2, 2017
The Penguins unveil their full uniform for the upcoming outdoor game: https://t.co/jXQGStW9D8 pic.twitter.com/4yDr45qanK
The goalies are coming strong with their gear. Marc-Andre Fleury went the sentimental route with his latest helmet. It looks great.
The writing is on the wall as this being Fleury’s last year as a Penguin and this helmet is a really cool homage to the relationships that he has built with the franchise over the years.
Matt Murray is also coming strong with his gear.
Stadium Series goalie gear 😠pic.twitter.com/JmDG7eSoP2
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 2, 2017
Big game tonight. Should be a testy affair.
Thanks for reading!