Tuesday, December 29, 2009

[UPDATE] Pre-Game Notes (Pittsburgh VS Buffalo) - Eaton to Play!

[UPDATE]
EATON WILL PLAY TONIGHT according to the Penguins webpage.

LINE COMBINATIONS (from the morning skate)
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Rupp-Malkin-Guerin
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Talbot-Adams-Godard/Fedotenko

MARK EATON
Eaton feels that his knee is strong enough to return to the lineup tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, but it hasn't yet been set in stone.

"I'll make myself available," he said.

"(Monday) was another step in battle level," head coach Dan Bylsma said. "Competitions one-on-one, he did some battling in the corner. ... It looked like he was 100 percent in practice, so we’ll see how he responds."


"It's about testing it out and making sure it can deal with the physical play and the skating," he said. "I've tested it out a lot the last three days and it's held up well. It feels good. I feel like I'm ready to go. I feel like I'm ready to get back into the full swing and play a full schedule. If it's up to me, I'd say I'm ready for back-to-backs. But a lot of times it's not up to me."
MAINTENANCE DAY
Yesterday, both Kunitz and Goligoski did not participate in practice and HC Bylsma reported that it was just the typical maintenance day and he expects them to be in the lineup tonight.

LINE COMBINATIONS (projected)
Fedotenko-Crosby-Dupuis
Kunitz-Malkin-Guerin
Cooke-Staal-Rupp
Talbot-Adams-Godard

Gonchar-Orpik
Skoula [Eaton?]-Letang
McKee-Goligoski

Fleury

PENS BATTLE THE WEATHER
The team hit a little snag on their way to Buffalo yesterday. Their bus was only a few blocks from the hotel and it got stuck in the snow-covered streets. The coaching and support staff actually got out and pushed from the rear of the bus to get the wheels moving again and the Penguins webpage posted pics to prove it (what a great bunch of guys!)!!












Buffalo Injury / Line Info

  • Derek Roy (F), upper body injury - day-to-day (expected to be out of the lineup tonight)
  • Patrick Kaleta (F), leg injury suffered during Sunday's game - day-to-day
  • Nathan Gerbe (F), strained groin - out of the lineup since December 11th

2 comments:

CrackerLilo said...

Ick. Dupuis is fast enough to keep up with Crosby, but I do not care for the way Bylsma jiggered with the lines at *all*. But he's the coach and I'm the (still pretty new) fan, so we'll see what we see.

Stephanie said...

@CrackerLilo -- you may be pretty new to the game of hockey, but as long as I've watched the Pens, I've HATED when he puts Dupuis on the same line as Crosby (he's not a top line guy), but there are those who think that a player like Dupuis is needed on the line to help Crosby out -- I still think it sucks (Dupuis may be fast, but he can't stop unless he falls!) and there's more than just Dupuis - better players - that can help Crosby out!!

We're all entitled to our opinions (but we both pretty much feel the same way!)!!

: )