The Penguins two-game northeastern swing will end tonight when they take on the Boston Bruins at 7:00 p.m. The Penguins have lost two straight games for the second time this season after dropping both ends of a home-and-home with the Islanders over the weekend. Both the teams are playing their third game in four nights.
The Penguins are 3-1-1 in games following losses so far this season. They do not have a two-game streak without recording a point.
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT: The Boston Bruins are without captain Zdeno Chara, who was placed on long-term injured reserve Sunday. Chara has missed the last 13 games with a knee injury and is expected to be out until mid-December. He was injured while hitting New York Islanders captain John Tavares.
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Joining Chara on the injured list is forward Brad Marchand. Marchand has missed three games with an undisclosed injury
but is questionable to return for tonight’s contest. Forwards Chris Kelly and David Krejci are also expected to be out of the Bruins’ lineup.
On defense for Boston will be two players with local ties: Pittsburgh-native Matt Bartkowski and former Penguins first-round draft pick Joe Morrow.
Tuukka Rask will start in goal for the Bruins. In eight regular season games against the Penguins, he has a 3-5 record and a .907 save percentage.
MAN IN THE BOX: Steve Downie leads all NHL players with 79 penalty minutes this season. Second-place Antoine Roussel of the Dallas Stars has 26 fewer penalty minutes, and has played in two more games.
Downie came unhinged in the third period of Saturday night’s loss against the Islanders. After Isles defenseman Thomas Hickey slashed Downie’s stick out of his hands, Downie retaliated by taking a blatant interference penalty and also earned himself a 10-minute misconduct.
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Brock Nelson scored a goal for New York on the ensuing power play to pad the Islanders’ lead and put the game out of reach.
CHANGE ‘EM UP: The Penguins will try to change up their top two lines after dropping two straight games to the Islanders. Evegeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby will trade linemates; with Crosby in between Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling, and Malkin with Chris Kunitz and Blake Comeau.
“We may look at different combinations for tonight’s game,” head coach Mike Johnston said after morning skate. “When Dupuis was out … heading into the Islanders series, we had to make some changes. We had fairly consistent lines for the first ten or twelve games.”
Johnston is happier with the performance of his third line: “[Brandon] Sutter’s line, with Downie and Beau [Bennett], we thought generated in the series against the Islanders, so we’re looking to probably keep those guys together.”
MINOR MATTERS: The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (11-8-1) lost to Manchester 3-2 on Saturday night. Rookie forwards Conor Sheary and Jean-Sebastien Dea each scored a power-play goal. Jeff Zatkoff made 18 saves in the loss.
ECHL Wheeling (7-6) split two games in Elmira over the weekend. Franky Palazzese allowed six goals on 33 shots on Friday. Zack Torquato, Nick D’Agostino, and Max MacKay scored for the Nailers.
On Saturday, Eric Hartzell stopped all 38 Jackals shots to earn a 2-0 shutout win. Derek Army scored both goals for the Nailers. D’Agostino was called up to Wilkes-Barre this morning.
Photo credit: Getty Images
