Off-Day Pens Buzz: On Jagr and Talbot's return; Pens to see Bobrovsky; Malkin reflects on Jagr, linemates

A ton of buzz for tomorrow night's matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers and what a big surprise there.

The drama surrounding the game centers around Jaromir Jagr and Max Talbot when it probably should be about two of the best Eastern Conference teams facing off and the top two points leaders in Claude Giroux (44 pts) and Evgeni Malkin (42 pts) going head to head.

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia each have identical wins (21) and points (46) going into tomorrow night's showdown but the team have been going in different directions of late as the Penguins are riding a four game winning streak, while Philadelphia has lost four of give games.

Jagr returns to Pittsburgh for the first time since the 2008 playoffs and we all know the situation by now after Jagr declined an offer this summer to rejoin the Penguins on a one year, $2 million deal when fans and even some local and national media types felt it was a done deal that Jagr was returning to Pittsburgh. Jagr in his storied career with the Penguins had 439 goals, 640 assists and 1,079 points in 806 career games.

All of that damage was done at the Civic Arena.

"I'm happy for them that they built a new arena, " Jagr said today. It's good for the fans and obviously good for the club."

For a 39 year old, Jagr is having an excellent season with 11 goals and 30 points in 31 games for the Flyers. He ranks 3rd on the team in points. Jagr's coach Peter Laviolette had high praise for Jagr today, following an afternoon practice at Ice Castle.

"His work ethic is excellent, " Laviolette said. "You get to watch him work and see how much he cares. It's not that you doubted it, it's just that you wouldn't know it. You don't get to see that first until you get to work with them on a daily basis."

As expected, Jagr had nothing of significance to say today and was asked some dumb questions such as this one: "Have you thought about how you'll be received by fans who used to be fans of Jaromir Jagr when he played for the Penguins"? Jagr's response was "What kind of question is this..... He came off trying to be sarcastic for much of the session and Jagr has no motivation that he has to prove anything tomorrow night.