Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Dave Molinary has the latest on the struggling Pens but Sergei Gonchar, Ruslan Fedotenko have all returned to the lineup for team that lost big against Toronto on the road Saturday.
Updated Player Pos Injury Expected Return
02/13/09 Philippe Boucher D Foot Out indefinitely
01/18/09 Mike Zigomanis C Shoulder IR. Out for the season
Evgeni Malkin C 57 24 57 81
Sidney Crosby C 56 21 51 72
Petr Sykora RW 54 21 19 40
Miroslav Satan RW 57 14 18 32
Jordan Staal C 57 15 16 31
Ruslan Fedotenko LW 40 11 10
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Last time Pittsburgh met the Islanders they had seven players out and it was something like their seventh game in ten days and they had been struggling.
Pittsburgh won 9-2 and this was after their back to back Coliseum comebacks.
Standings scream the Pens circumstances are getting close to desperate five points out of eighth with the team in eighth having a game in hand and a road team that has been terrible recently. I guess Penguin ownership decided it could not go any further with Michel Therrien who was fired Sunday night.
Seems no coaching change is going to help the Pens defense or scoring on the wings, the moves they made in the summer combined with the Hossa trade have take hurt. Miroslav Satan has been slumping and criticized.
I expect we will see a Pittsburgh team desperate to take control early. Pens have the scoring to beat the Islanders badly but are a fragile club.
Two years ago the Islanders broke the Pens winning streak with that incredible goal by Mike Sillinger in the final seconds, does not seem like that long ago.
Speaking of fragile were the mistakes Saturday in their own end one tough day or the beginning of a bad trend? Saturday was a lot more about bad bounces or Islander mistakes than Flyer offense.
I guess Joey MacDonald starts but only Scott Gordon knows, busy week for the Islanders with games Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Fritz, Tambellini, Sim? Who knows.
Edit:
Mark Streit will play against Pittsburgh.