Pens vs Leafs again... Gameday 65. Another Shootout at the ACC coral?

In what was a strange turn of events scheduling wise, the Penguins just got done participating in a 6-5 scoring slugfest against this Leaf's club, the two teams will face off against each other again in Toronto tonight at 7pm. Good news for the Pen's in this game is the return of Paul Martin and Tyler Kennedy who will be rejoining their teammates for this redux in Toronto.

It goes without saying but I have to say it anyway, and hate that I said it goes without saying only to say it, Fleury didn't have his best game on Saturday, but he didn't have his worst game on Saturday either, however improvement is a must. 5 goals against with 3-4 other opportunities that could of easily swung the game another direction is not the way the Penguins can afford to have things go.

Penalty Killing has become an issue of late with the Penguins as well, however with new pieces coming in, and pieces going down to injury it is little surprise that as the defense finally started to take it's licks that the numbers would be impacted. Shootouts are one thing the Penguins cannot afford to get into right now while it's offensive productivity is still up in the air. Especially against a Maple Leafs team that is scratching and clawing it's way to a playoff spot, and is looking for revenge after having lost two back-to-back games.

Pittsburgh however feels like it's settling into a good corp of players now with additions to the offense in Neal and Kovalev as well as the swap from Goligoski to Niskanen. Niskanen may not be as fast as Goligoski or have the speed of Goose, he has the added physicality that Goose was lacking and it's shown in the previous match ups he's been a part of. Kovalev has already scored another goal as a Penguin, and is standing at 348 career points as a Pen. Neal is looking to get his first goal as a 'guin tonight against a team he has averaged a point in each of the four games he's been involved in against Toronto. Honorable mention to Zybenek Michalek and his 99 assists, here's hoping for 100 tonight.

Possible lines for tonight's match up:
                   Offense

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

                  Defense    

Paul Martin - Zybenek Michalek

Deryk Engelland - Kris Letang
Ben Lovejoy - Matt Niskanen

 

Between the pipes for the Penguins? Marc Andre Fleury

 

Lets go Pens!