Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Boston Bruins

Game Time: 7:00pm/ET
From: TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
Penguins Record: 19-14-4 (7th in Eastern Conference)
Bruins Record: 28-5-4 (1st in Eastern Conference)
Last Meeting: December 30th, 2008 @ Pittsburgh (5-2 Bruins)

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS LINE COMBINATIONS:
Pascal Dupuis - Sidney Crosby - Miroslav Satan
Ruslan Fedotenko - Evgeni Malkin - Petr Sykora
Maxime Talbot - Jordan Staal - Matt Cooke
Mike Wallace - Dustin Jeffrey - Alex Goligoski

Brooks Opik - Rob Scuderi
Hal Gill - Ryan Whitney
Phillipe Boucher - Mark Eaton

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS PROBABLE GOALTENDER:
Dany Sabourin (6-6-2 / 2.55 GAA / .908 SV%)

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS INJURIES:
Sergei Gonchar (left shoulder surgery) - on injured reserve
Tyler Kennedy (sprained knee) - on injured reserve
Mike Zigomanis (upper body) - out indefinitely


BOSTON BRUINS LINE COMBINATIONS:
Milan Lucic - Marc Savard - Phil Kessel
P.J. Axelsson - Stephane Yelle - Chuck Kobasew
Blake Wheeler - David Krejci - Michael Ryder
Shawn Thornton - Vladimir Sobotka - Martin Pierre

Zdeno Chara - Mark Stuart
Dennis Wideman - Matt Lashoff
Matt Hunwick - Shane Hnidy

BOSTON BRUINS PROBABLE GOALTENDER:
Tim Thomas (16-3-3 / 2.04 GAA / .935 SV%)

BOSTON BRUINS INJURIES:
Andrew Ference (right leg surgery) - on injured reserve
Petteri Nokelainen (right arm/hand) - on injured reserve
Marco Sturm (knee) - on injured reserve
Aaron Ward (leg/ankle) - on injured reserve
Patrice Bergeron (concussion) - out indefinitely


PITTSBURGH PENGUINS LEADERS:
GOALS: Malkin (14)
ASSISTS: Malkin (44)
POINTS: Malkin (59)
+/-: Malkin (+20)

BOSTON BRUINS LEADERS:
GOALS: Kessel (23)
ASSISTS: Savard (34)
POINTS: Savard (46)
+/-: Savard (+25)


Kris Letang returns to the Penguins line-up tonight. It will be interesting to see what Michel Therrien does now that the Penguins have eight healthy defensemen. Alex Goligoski spent some time playing wing on Tuesday and it is possible that Letang could do the same, but then another forward would have to be scratched.

The Penguins held a players only meeting after losing to the Bruins, so hopefully there may be some extra fire in some of the players' eyes tonight.

This is another "must-win" game for the Penguins, who have not been performing very well recently. Not only would a win help the team's record, but it would also help them emotionally and mentally. A long losing streak could hurt a team that does not seem to be very strong mentally.

The team needs to start scoring, especially on the power play. Crosby and Malkin have cooled down and no one has stepped up to complement them. The team does not have very much secondary scoring, which is a problem for them.

In a somewhat confusing decision, Dany Sabourin will start tonight. Fleury has not played amazingly in his last few games, but he was not the reason for any recent losses. Sabourin had not been playing his best in his last few games, so it will be interesting to see how he performs tonight.

Prediction: 5-4 Penguins [OT]