Gameday 80: Penguins @ Red Wings

GAMEDAY_1819_80

Penguins @ Red Wings

Joe Louis Arena Little Caesar’s Arena – Detroit, MI

7:30PM Eastern – AT&TSN

The Penguins take to the road for their final regular season game outside the friendly confines as they go to Detroit with the chance to clinch a playoff berth, the front end of a home-and-home with the Red Wings.

As fate would have it, the Penguins can extend the league’s longest active playoff appearance streak to 13 seasons with a win tonight. The Red Wings’ remarkable run of 25 straight postseason appearances ended in 2016, and they’ll continue their 3rd straight year being left out of the dance. You could say that it’s cold in the D. They can also clinch G not having to drink a gallon of piss. And Peep not having to eat a piece of his own shit.

Go Wings.

The Penguins bested the Carolina Hurricanes in a convincing, important 3-1 win on Sunday afternoon. They did so without Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Zach Aston-Reese, and Chad Ruhwedel, who all remain out. They will be joined tonight in their absence by Brian Dumoulin, who is day-to-day with a lower body injury.

Probably more maintenance than anything else, to be honest. With Letang on the shelf, Dumoulin has been eating a lot of minutes and doing a lot of heavy lifting. With the Penguins where they’re at in the standings, it makes sense to get him some rest.

That being said, it might be a bit troubling that the Penguins don’t seem too concerned with getting home ice. They’re pretty close to being locked in to playing the Isles, with home ice still up in the air. It’s 6 of one and half a foot’s worth of inches of the other. Do you want a rested, healthier/ish Dumo in the lineup with the Penguins making the playoffs and having to travel? Or do you want Dumo in, with home ice, but potentially not getting as much of a chance to recuperate? Pick your poison, but also know that your opinion doesn’t fucking matter because you aren’t the MGMT.

That being said, welcome back to the Zach Trotman Experiment.

Murray in the cage.

Guentzel – Crosby – Rust

McCann – Blueger – Kessel

Simon – Bjugstad – Hornqvist

A. Johnson – Cullen – Wilson

J. Johnson – Schultz

Maatta – Trotman

Pettersson – Gudbranson

Murray

The Wings have been on one. Not a good one, either. They’re tied with Buffalo, 72 points in 79 games, ahead of only New Jersey and Ottawa in the Eastern Conference. That puts them at 4th worst in the league.

They’re led by Dylan Larkin in pretty much everything valuable, he’s got a respectable 70 points on the season (32G, 38A). Larkin comprises 1/3 of their formidable top line, along with Todd Bertuzzi’s psychopath kid and Anthony the mongoloid Mantha.

The rest of the team looks like some dumbass toddler swallowed a bunch of Scrabble pieces and shit them onto a board. Or, as they say in Detroit, Little Caesar’s.

Bertuzzi – Larkin – Mantha

Helm – Athanasiou – Hirose

Kuffner – Ehn – Frk

Puempel – Turgeon – Witkowski

Kronwall – Hronek

DeKeyser – Bowey

McIlrath – Chelios (no not that fucking one)

Howard

Athanasiou is good for a breakaway goal tonight as of course is tradition against the Penguins. And bank on it being shorthanded.

Dominate the DoughJoe.

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Go Pens.

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