SLBD

Pittsburgh hosts the Buffalo Sabres for the first time this season tonight at Mellon Arena at 7p EST  in the last game this week until Saturday afternoon.  The Penguins are coming off of a 2-1 shootout win over west rival Detroit in Sunday’s NBC Game of the Week.

The Pens will have to solve Miller quickly again and avoid a collapse similar to December 29th.

Buffalo has maintained its lead in the Eastern Conference over Pittsburgh for the better part of a month and sits 32-14-7 and 14-9-2 on the road.  However a win tonight could knot it up at 71 points a piece. They have won their last two games and 2 straight.  Buffalo can be seen as the catalyst for the past 6 weeks of up and down play by the Penguins who stumbled on December 29th and lost a 3-0 lead to the Sabres after lighting up Ryan Miller early.  What followed was a losing streak that had many people question the team’s long term ability to win.  The Penguins are still struggling to put together strings of consecutive wins since that collapse.

Tim Connolly (13G 36A) leads a balanced offensive that includes Jason Pominville (14G 23A) Derek Roy (11G 26A), Thomas Vanek (16G 17A) and rookie phenom Tyler Myers (7G 24A).  The Sabres are surprisingly 11th in the NHL with 2.76 goals scored per game and are even better with a 2.30 team GAA.  Their special teams are also very good with a 13th ranked Powerplay at 18.3% and the league’s second best Penalty Kill at 87.2%.  It shouldn’t struggle much against the sputtering 27th ranked pens PP.  Connolly had a 16 game point streak broken in the Sabres last game.  Vanek has 10 points in his last 11 games.

Despite his prior yanking and Patrick Lalime’s two solid performances against the Penguins this year, Ryan Miller is the probable starter for Buffalo.  Miller is rolling into the Olympics as the Team USA #1 with a 2.03 GAA and .935 Sv%.  Miller has stopped 69 of 71 in his last two wins.   Buffalo has no one on the IR.  The Sabres are also well rested.  Their last game was Friday, January 29th against Boston.

Sid and Geno have the team on their backs right now. Time to give them some support.

Pittsburgh will presumably be without the services of Max Talbot who continues to struggle with what is now being called a groin injury.  Mark Letestu and Nick Johnson are up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to cover for Max, Eric Godard and Chris Kunitz who is described to be 1-2 weeks away after abdominal surgery.

Sidney Crosby has 19 points in his last 12 games and Evgeni Malkin is on a seven game point streak.  The worrisome thing is that either Sid or Geno has figured in on the last 17 Penguins goals.  We need to get some support without having one of those two on the ice.  Jordan Staal, while continuing his great defensive play, has gone goalless in 11. Maybe that is why Dan Bylsma moved him to center the 2nd line with Geno on his wing while Letestu was on Sesame Street all day yesterday with Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy.  Jordan also struggled in the FO Circle yesterday winning only 3 of 17 draws.  As a team Pittsburgh won only 33%.

Marc-Andre Fleury got the nod yesterday against Detroit and is listed as a probable starter in a few places but I think that Brent Johnson goes in the pipes for the Pens for the 2nd of back to back games.  The only thing that might make me wrong is the fact that Pittsburgh doesn’t play again until Saturday which would give Flower plenty of rest if he does go tonight.

Brent Johnson is the confirmed starter tonight.  Additionally the Penguins practice today was indeed optional.  Forwards Craig Adams, Mike Rupp, Chris Kunitz, Mark Letestu, Tyler Kennedy and Nick Johnson, defensemen Jay McKee, Alex Goligoski, Martin Skoula and Kris Letang and goaltender Brent Johnson all participated.  The Pens wear the blue death tonight.

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