Gameday Poop: Penguins vs Red Wings – Malkin is not playing!

It’s a great week for hockey! The Penguins kick off their own personal rivalry week with a trip to Detroit to face the team they ousted in the Stanley Cup Finals last year. The Penguins actually look forward to traveling to the Joe Lewis Arena now. The Penguins Sidney Crosby, Ruslan Fedotenko, Sergei Gonchar and many others this will be the first time back on the ice that they were on when they first held the fabled Stanley Cup above their heads. The Penguins did play a pre-season game in Detroit at the beginning of the season but many Penguins did not participate.

This week the Penguins play in my opinion their three biggest hated rivals. Today the Detroit Red Wings, Wednesday away versus the Washington Capitals, and Saturday at home against the dreaded goaltenderless Philadelphia Flyers. The Pens have faced the Flyers & Wings both twice in the last two playoffs and the Caps once. This week will definitely show the Pens playoff mettle.

Evgeni Malkin will be missing tonight’s game, they are saying that he re-injured his foot (you know how that goes).  I’m hoping he didn’t injure his shoulder when he tripped into the boards on Saturday.  He skated off awfully slow after that.

The Penguins are facing the Red Wings at a tough time. Though the Wings are barely in possession of the 8th and final playoff spot in the West, they have been ripping apart the NHL with only two regulation losses in their last 13 games. If we kick them when they are down now, maybe we won’t see them in the playoffs! The rest of the Western Conference is rooting for the Pens tonight. We finally have a cheering section!

Does Sidney Crosby know any of Detroit’s coach Mike Babcock’s secrets? You would think that with Crosby playing under him with the Gold Medal winning Canadian team he would have definitely seen first hand some of Babcock’s top coaching strategies. Hopefully he passed them on so the Pens can counter them easily.

This trip could be bittersweet for Max Talbot who scored the two goals in the final game that allowed the Pens to lift the cup. He is listed as a healthy scratch for tonight’s game and he did not play in the September 27th pre-season game at the Joe. The Pens website has their starting lines listed the same as on Saturday.  Hopefully they will change that and throw Max in the lineup as a replacement for Malkin!

Don’t forget to look for that cringed face – sure sign that Mike Babcock is still constipated on the bench tonight. That guy needs an enema.

It sounds like maybe Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood has fallen out of favor with the Wings fans: ” A day in the life of Chris Osgood”

As I said before: “It’s a great week for hockey” Just a warmup for the playoffs.

Gametime is 7PM and can be seen in High Definition at the Joe Lewis Arena or on Versus.

Additional Reading:
Amazing the difference a year makes
How good are the Penguins?

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