Penguins vs Senators Gameday 71

With just 11 games left in the regular season the Penguins (4-3-3 in last 10) will take on the Senators (6-4-0 in last 10) for the fourth time this year, the Penguins lead this series 2-1. This will be the first game these two teams have met since the Alexei Kovalev trade, a trade which is working out handsomely for Dan Bylsma. "He’s fit in tremendously." the newly extended headcoach said of Kovalev, "The first meeting I had with him, he said, ‘Tell me what you’d like me to do. Tell me what my role is. Tell me what I’m doing well and what I’m not. I just want to help this team win. I can be a leader on this team.” He’s done all of that." That he has. It didn't take long for Kovy' to come into his own again in a Penguins sweater scoring his first goal of the 10-11 season as a Pen against the Maple Leafs. It is his only point this year but his production has still been there. He has set up many opportunities that just have not been capitalized on yet, or simply didn't get past the goaltender.

Kris Letang offers words of advice to Kovalev during his first game back as a Penguin at RBC Center on Feb, 25th 2011.

Injury wise the Penguins are starting to come out of the rut they were in prior to the trading deadline. Almost all the forwards with the exception of Arron Asham, Eric Tangradi, Nick Johnson, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Mike Comrie are back, however on Defense the team is without the services of Matt Niskanen (Flu) and Brooks Oprik (Finger). Crosby has been on the ice the past couple of days and is beginning his rehab process. Comrie, and Asham have been doing workouts and skates for some time now. Comrie most likely will not return to action after missing almost the entire season, trying to fit his puzzle piece into the picture isn't such an easy task to do anymore with the players on this team who have been producing. Especially when Max Talbot is getting dangerously closer to healthy scratch status.

Goaltending has been the backbone of this team throughout the injury crisis, and Fleury has recorded his third straight 30 win season with the Penguins. Fleury won't be in net tonight, but instead we will see Big Brent Johnson and his menacing image in between the pipes.Fleury has been the talk of not only HART trophy contention but goaltender of the year contention as well, many will argue against this but it's hard to refute that the Penguins are still just within three points of the Flyers because of the brick wall Fleury puts up in net.

Lineups tonight are a little up in the air due to the defensive injuries this team has suffered recently, no line ups were posted from practice. The possible line-ups should look something like this, but expect the defensive pairings to most likely be different:

James Neal - Mark Letestu - Alex Kovalev
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Dustin Jeffrey - Pascal Dupuis
Mike Rupp - Maxime Talbot - Craig Adams

Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Corey Potter - Kris Letang
Ben Lovejoy - Deryk Engelland

Big Brent Johnson will be between the Pipes for the Penguins.

Let's go Pens!