These two teams face off again for the second time in less than a week. The Flyers, who walked away victorious in a 3-1 win in Pittsburgh Wednesday night will now have the home-ice advantage in another installment of Pennsylvanian ice hockey supremacy.
I'll take my bets and assume Marc-Andre Fleury will be in net for the Penguins, as the Flyers routed Dany Sabourin blocker-side for three goals as if he were blind in one eye. Of course, this all will come down to Therrien's coin-flip prior to the game. It seems to be his method of doing things.
Crosby is looking to continue his 15 game point streak, as it appears he's the only member of the Penguins squad who knows how to play the puck. Veteran Mark Recchi has been getting the nod in favor of Colby Armstrong as of late, although both appeared in the lineup the other night against the Rangers. Ryan Whitney, however, was again a no-show, taking the night off for the fourth consecutive game in hopes of nursing his injured groin back to health.
Instead, Therrien has opted to put Alain Nasreddine on the blueline with the man advantage and it has yet to really work to the team's advantage. With Whitney out of the lineup, the Pens saw their 14 consecutive games with a powerplay goal come to its untimely end. Having Nas's chip shots in favor of Whitney's lasers doesn't help much either.
In the last matchup between these two, neither team was able to score a powerplay goal in a combined ten attempts. Perhaps tonight will be a different story when the puck drops in Philly at 7pm.
