Penguins vs Islanders game 57. Islanders look to get physical.

So we meet again, Islanders. Didn't particularly like the end of the last game did you? When Brent Johnson came out and laid down the law against your goalie, now you are on your 5th goalie of the season, and this one isn't named Evgeni. Mikko Koskinen should be in net for the Islanders tonight, another Rookie goaltender that will be starting for them this year, however it is rumored a 6th goalie may start for the Islanders, Al Montoya who was recalled from the AHL today. Kevin Poulin suffered a season ending knee injury during warmups of their previous game.

Both of these teams are absolutely riddled with injuries, there are more holes in these line-ups than a 1lb of Swiss Cheese. The Penguins are skating without eight of their players. Seven of which are out on injury, the other being Matt Cooke, who is serving his 2nd of a 4 game suspension tonight against the Islanders. The most recent and one of the more devastating injuries is one to Dustin Jeffrey who was just coming into his own for this Penguins team. He did not travel to Long Island and is being evaluated by team doctors.

After winning again last night Marc Andre Fleury is 8-2-0 in his last 10 games. He continues to be a force in net after a slow start early on in the first 10 games or so. Fleury has gotten a lot of help from teammates this season in the crease but still stands tall behind his brick wall.



However tonight looks to have Brent Johnson in net against a team that he forwent a shutout on, only to tally a big time K.O and face demolition of DiPietro instead at the end of the game. It probably felt better than any shutout.

With the 14 or so injuries suffered by both teams, the line-ups for the Penguins without Jeffrey may look like this, but could change come game time:

Tyler Kennedy - Jordan Staal - Pascal Dupuis
Mike Rupp - Maxime Talbot - Chris Conner
Brett Sterling - Joe Vitale - Nick Johnson
Ryan Craig - Craig Adams - Eric Tangradi

 The Penguins will be facing one of two possible goalies that they haven't seen before. Historically when this is the case, the Pen's offense doesn't seem to do too well when they haven't faced a goalie before, and that goalie usually ends up playing out of their minds for 60minutes or more. Recently however the Penguins have shutout the Islanders in back to back games, 1-0 and 3-0 respectively.

We're in for another long night in Long Island but hey... Lets go Pens!