The Pittsburgh Penguins will try to stop a three-game slide against the Capitals as they face off on NBC Sports’s Rivalry Night at 8:00 p.m. from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT: Looming large in the Penguins three losses to the Capitals this season has been the physical play of Ovechkin. Penguins defenseman Christian Ehrhoff was injured when Ovechkin overpowered him on this attempted check (which was penalized, probably undeservedly).
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In more recent memory, he also connected on this vicious slash on Kris Letang in the game a week ago Tuesday (which, somehow, went unpenalized).
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Letang was able to recover from the injury, but his team never really did, as they spent much of the third period looking for retribution and took four consecutive penalties. Johnston doesn’t seem to be concerned that his team will be focused more on the events of the past than the task at hand tonight.
“We usually don’t go back in games and deal with situations or incidents that happened, we talk about moving ahead,” said Johnston. “Certainly in the Washington series, we’ve got the tape. We had (Monday) to go through it as coaches. We presented some things to the team (Tuesday) morning.
“What are they doing well, and how do we counteract it? What do we have to do as a team? Those are the most important things.”
THE 4077: Ehrhoff finally took a step forward in his recovery from the concussion he suffered against Washington on January 28 and fully practiced on Tuesday for the first time.
“Now we just have to wait for clearance as far as after contact,” Johnston said on Tuesday. “We’ll see his reaction to the practice, to the contact he had (on Tuesday). He could possibly be in (tonight), but I think we’d all like to see him in one more practice.”
“I feel like I’m ready to play again, and obviously, it’s up to the coach to put me in, so we’ll see,” Ehrhoff said after today’s morning skate. “After yesterday, I felt good. I felt good this morning, and confident to be back.”
Ehrhoff said that making his return against the Capitals, the team that he was injured against, wasn’t a goal that he was working towards. He just wanted to get himself back into the lineup quickly, while conforming to the league’s concussion protocol.
“I obviously wanted to be back as soon as I was able to, that turning out to be today is just a coincidence,” he said. “It’s a frustrating injury. You don’t really know what the timetable is, you just go day-by-day.”
SCOREBOARD WATCHING: The Penguins and Capitals are the only Metropolitan Division teams in action this evening. The Penguins will remain in third place with a win or an overtime loss.
The New York Rangers will host the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. The New York Islanders are off until Friday.
MINOR MATTERS: The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (30-18-6, 2nd in AHL East) have a two-game road trip to Connecticut this weekend, with stops in Hartford on Saturday night and Bridgeport on Sunday afternoon.
They’ll be making the trip with a few more bodies in tow than usual, as mounting injuries required three call-ups on Monday. Forwards Nick Drazenovic, Bryan Rust and Bobby Farnham all missed time last weekend, and as a result, the team called up rookie forwards Jean-Sebastien Dea and Josh Archibald along with defenseman Harrison Ruopp from ECHL Wheeling. In eight games with Wheeling, Archibald really got his game going, with six goals and four assists. Dea had two goals, an assist, and was a plus-2.
The Nailers (24-25, 5th in ECHL North) will face another critical weekend series, as they are three points behind the fourth-place Kalamazoo Wings for the final playoff position in the ECHL North. They host Elmira on Friday night and Greenville on Saturday night. Both games start at 7:35 p.m.
Despite signing defenseman Tanner Burton from SPHL Louisiana, it looks as if the Nailers will be shorthanded again on the blue this weekend as well, with defensemen Mike Ratchuck placed on the injured reserve and Tristan Llewellyn requiring hospitalization after a violent hit from Toledo defenseman Cody Lampl last Friday.
#CAWLIDGEHAWKEY: The Robert Morris Colonials (21-6-5, 1st in AHC) will celebrate senior night on Saturday when they host the Niagara Purple Eagles. Senior forwards Jeff Jones (Revelstoke, B.C.), David Rigatti (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Scott Jacklin (Kimberly, B.C.) and Cody Wydo (Southgate, Mi.) will be honored. The Colonials will also receive their trophy for winning the program’s first-ever Atlantic Hockey regular-season title in a special post-game ceremony.
First, the Colonials and Purple Eagles will have to contest the first end of their home-and-home Friday night in Lewiston, New York.
Penn State (16-10-4, 3rd in Big Ten) made a statement with their huge 4-3 overtime win against Minnesota on Saturday, but they will have to keep things rolling if they want to move up a spot and earn a bye in the Big Ten Tournament. They’ll take to the road this weekend for a two-game series at Ohio State. Friday’s game will be televised on the Big Ten Network and Saturday’s on WPMY MyTV Channel 22.
