Game Preview: Penguins @ Blues

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Game Time: 8:30pm/ET
From: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO
Penguins Record: 5-4-2 (7th in Eastern Conference)
Blues Record: 5-4-0 (9th in Western Conference)

Last Meeting: Dec 19th, 2006 @ Pittsburgh (4-1 STL) [Boxscore] [Video]


PENGUINS LINE-UP CHANGES:

Ruslan Fedetenko (OUT - Undisclosed injury)
Pascal Dupuis (OUT - Undisclosed injury)
Mark Eaton (OUT - Healthy scratch)
Janne Pesonen (IN - Called up from WBS)

The only set forward line thus far is Pesonen playing with Evgeni Malkin & Petr Sykora.

Sidney Crosby will play tonight despite leaving the game against Phoenix with an injury.

Defensive Pairings will be:
Brooks Orpik - Kris Letang
Hal Gill - Rob Scuderi
Darryl Sydor - Alex Goligoski

Hal Gill & Rob Scuderi will be Alternate Captains for November according to PittsburghPenguins.com

PENGUINS PROBABLE GOALTENDER: Marc- Andre Fleury (4-2-2 / 2.17GAA / .933 SV%)
BLUES PROBABLY GOALTENDER: Manny Legace (4-2-0 / 2.941GAA / .902 SV%)

PENGUINS LEADERS:

GOALS: Satan (5)

ASSISTS: Malkin (13)

POINTS: Malkin (16)

+/-: Malkin (+3)


BLUES LEADERS:

GOALS: Keith Tkachuk (8)

ASSISTS: Andy McDonald (11)

POINTS: Paul Kariya  (12)

+/-: Patrik Berglund (+3)

The Penguins have struggled recently and St. Louis has not been kind to them.  The Pens haven't won in St. Louis since 1998, though they've only played there four times since then.

The Pens penalty killing is 8th in the league and their powerplay is ranked 10th.
St. Louis' special teams have been performing very well.
The Blues penalty killing is 6th in the league and their power play is 1st.

It will be interesting to see how Janne Pesonen performs in his first regular season game, especially since he'll be playing on a line with Malkin and Sykora.

This has not been a good road trip for the Pens.  They've only managed one point out of a possible six and their offense has been struggling.
Unfortunately I feel that things will get worse for the Penguins before they get better.  The injuries and line-shifting could hurt the team chemistry in the short term and Crosby still doesn't have solid linemates.  I expect to see him play with Satan tonight, but it's unknown who will line up alongside them.    It's also unknown if Crosby is at 100%.

Prediction: Unfortunately 3-2 Blues