Post-Morning Skate Report
Pittsburgh's Jordan Staal will make his season debut tonight, Staal said following the morning skate. "It's really exciting. "It's been a longhaul for myself, " Staal said.
"It's kind of funny how it kind of falls on me being ready for this game and I'm very excited and happy about being in the lineup".
Staal said that the game being pushed back did help his prospects of playing tonight.
"I think it did a little bit, " Staal said.
Bylsma said this morning that the decision to let Staal play had nothing to do with the game being the Winter Classic.
"The only things that really -- and it was decided before this morning's skate, was taking draws but that was not going to make or break it. He was going to play in tonight's game, " Bylsma said.
"I guess there's more drama to it because of the Winter Classic, but we approached the decsion as if this was any other game. If this was a game in Buffalo, would he play? And the answer to that is unequivocally yes."
Bylsma said it was hard to see Staal get healthy and then have the setbacks.
"So the difficult part has been to see him get excited about playing and getting healthy and then have some setbacks, " Bylsma said.
What does the return of Staal mean?
The Penguins will look for the return of Staal to be a major boost for their second line which has struggled mightily of late.
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