GAMEDAY 48: Slewfooting to Boston

PITTSBURGH (30-12-5) VS BOSTON (24-21-6)

TD GARDEN. BOSTON, MA

7:00 PM EST ROOT Sports

Tune in tonight as we wait to see if a team from Pittsburgh actually shows up in Boston. The Penguins fell perfectly into a NHL schedule makers trap game Tuesday night, falling to the Blues 3-0. Yeah losing sucks and all, but since losing to the Penguins on Sunday Boston has found a way to fall BEHIND Toronto in the standings, suddenly that Blues loss becomes even more meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The Bruins are one of those teams that doesn’t have the balls to admit they need to commit to a rebuild, and instead try to pussyfoot around it letting moronic ego’s prevail. Since their last Stanley Cup trip in 2012-13, the Bruins have missed 2 of the following 3 post seasons, and currently find themselves outside of the bubble again. Your team needs a change of direction and your roster has more holes than a Russian prostitute, so you go out and sign David Backes to a 5 year 6 million dollar deal.

For many years Boston has had an identity, the tough to play against Bruins that are physical and make you work for every inch. In many ways, that has hindered their progression, this is a faster NHL than it was even last season, let alone 3-5 years ago. The kids coming up through the pipelines aren’t built thick and rock footed, they are lean and freaking fast. Boston continues to draft the same mold of player that brought them success in years past, and this is the result you get. Since it is Boston and their players never change, Brad Marchand is having a hearing today for a terrible slewfoot in Detroit. The last meeting between these two looked like this:

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS:

Mike Sullivan reported yesterday that Evgeni Malkin is injured with Crosby-ASGitis and will miss this game and the All-Star weekend. Sidney Crosby was reportedly seen giving Malkin the evil eye. Honestly, the two probably had a conversation about who will “get injured” and Sid decided that he has missed enough All-Star games and would actually go to this one. Reports also came out of Wilkes-Barre that Carter Rowney was held out of the baby Pens game last night under orders from the Penguins, so expect to see him called up today. Rowney is a winger, and Guentzel is a natural center, so it is possible that we may see a Guentzel centered line tonight. Matt Murray has started the last 5 in a row, Fleury hasn’t started in weeks. Originally I was going to say Fleury gets the automatic nod tonight, and he still might, but without Malkin in the lineup Sullivan has to put the goalie in net that gives the team the best chance at winning, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see the MMXpress one more time.

WHO TO WATCH:

FOR BOSTON:

Seriously, just played this team 4 days ago, couldn’t care less about them in this game. Maybe watch Ttuukkaa Rraasskk to see if his “Migraine” issues are all better. Watch Marchand since I’m sure he won’t be suspended. Watch David Backes and remember the Bruins pay him almost what the Pens pay Phil Kessel. Watch the Miller-Miller pairing (if Joe Morrow doesn’t play) and see how many times Steigerwald giggles to himself. Whichever element or person you choose to watch for Boston tonight, just make sure you remember that they are below Toronto in the standings.

FOR PITTSBURGH:          PHIL KESSEL

Regardless of how Sullivan lines up the forwards, when Evgeni Malkin isn’t in a game Phil Kessel has to step up. Since reuniting with his HBK buddies Kessel hasn’t scored a goal at 5v5, or at least it seems that way. Tonight the team will count on Phil to live up to his paycheck, and against one of his former teams in their arena he will probably be up to the task.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This is the last game for the Penguins before the All-Star break, and the message on the bench is most likely “don’t get hurt.” I’ve talked a lot of shit about the Bruins, and the Penguins have already beaten them twice this year so it wouldn’t surprise me to see a closer game this time around. It wouldn’t really surprise me to see the Penguins just pack it in and try to coast through this one to be honest. I mean, would you be excited to play against the Bruins knowing you have a 4.5 day vacation afterwards?[protected-iframe id=”d851b30580c13f148dc10a809db25ec3-114320562-112867176″ info=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” class=”twitter-tweet”]