The Pittsburgh Penguins will have to shake off last night’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers quickly, because they will be right back in action tonight when the travel to Tampa, Florida to take on the Lightning.
The Penguins have played on back-to-back nights five times so far this season, and they are 2-1-2 in the second games thus far. Tampa Bay last played on Saturday, when they lost 3-1 to the Islanders in New York.
This is the second of three games between the teams this season. The Penguins won the first game 4-2 in Pittsburgh on December 15.
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LOTTA SAP IN HERE: Tampa Bay Lightning head coach John Cooper thinks that the Penguins are still a dangerous foe, 
despite their recent rash of injuries and illnesses.
“They’ve got so many dangerous weapons on that team,” Cooper said. “I feel for them. It’s a tough stretch, but they seem to be getting points regardless of who is in the lineup for them. They’ve got a really good team there. I guess if there’s a time to try and take advantage, it’s more on a team that’s playing back-to-back and we … haven’t played for a couple of games.”
Cooper’s perception of the Penguins may be skewed because of their recent dominance over the Lightning. Cooper has never beaten the Penguins in five tries since becoming Tampa Bay’s head coach in March of 2013. In total, the Penguins have won ten consecutive games against the Lightning.
The Lightning locker room has injury problems as well, with starting goaltender Ben Bishop and top defensemen Jason Garrison both out of the lineup for the Bolts. Rookie goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy will make his third NHL start. Vasilevskiy, a 6’3”, 204-pound native of Tyumen, Russia, was Tampa Bay’s first-round pick in the 2012 NHL draft. He was taken three spots ahead of Pittsburgh’s Olli Maatta.
In his two previous NHL games, he is 1-1 with a .958 save percentage.
EAT MY ROAD GRIT: The Penguins recalled forward Dominik Uher from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Uher, 21, was the Penguins fifth round pick in the 2011 NHL draft. In his third year in Wilkes-Barre, he has four goals, five assists, 37 penalty minutes, and a plus-6 rating in 29 games.
He can play center and left wing and has played a bottom six role in the AHL. He is a native of Ostrava, Czech Republic. Uher will be the 22nd Czech player to play with the Penguins, and the Penguins will have had a Czech player on their team in each season since drafting Jaromir Jagr in 1990.
Uher played three games for the Wheeling Nailers in the 2012-13 season. Uher will be the fourth former Nailers players and sixth former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins player to make their NHL debut this season.
Uher will wear sweater number 46 with Pittsburgh.
To make room for Uher on the roster, the Penguins placed winger Blake Comeau on injured reserve. Comeau was injured in the third period of Monday’s shootout loss and did not return to the game. Comeau will miss several weeks with an upper-body injury.
ALL PART OF THE EXPERIENCE: The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (17-10-3, 1st AHL East) are off until Friday, when they will travel to Binghamton to take on the Senators.
The Wheeling Nailers (12-12, 3rd ECHL North) are off until Saturday when they will make a trip to Charleston, South Carolina following their Christmas break.
AN ENDURING TRADITION OF THE SEASON: The 2015 IIHF World Junior Championships will begin on December 26. Team USA’s first game will be at 3 p.m against Finland and televised on the NHL network. Finland’s team will feature the Penguins first-round draft pick Kasperi Kapanen. Penn State freshman defenseman Erik Autio was one of the last cuts for Finland.
Photo credit: Pittsburgh Penguins
