Capitals @ Penguins Morning Skate Report & a Mark Eaton Update

Upper St. Clair native Dylan Reese is in town and participating in the morning skate. Reese won’t be playing tonight, barring an injury. All 23 players are present on the ice.

Defensemen Matt Niskanen remains off the ice due to an ankle injury. Niskanen has been sidelined since January 25th and has been in a walking boot.

LINES

Kunitz – Crosby – Dupuis

Boychuk – Malkin – Neal

Cooke – Sutter – Kennedy

Glass – Vitale – Adams

Extras: Tangradi, Jeffrey (will be scratches).

DEFENSEMEN

Orpik – Martin

Despres – Letang

Engelland – Bortuzzo

Reese

FLEURY TO START

All signs point to Marc Andre Fleury getting the start in goal. It will mark just the second time this season Fleury will start back to back games. Fleury is 4-2-0 with a 2.44 GAA and .907 sv% on the season.

EATON UPDATE

With Brian Strait getting picked up on waivers and Ben Lovejoy traded in the past two weeks, spots are opening up on the Penguins organizational depth chart. That could open a spot for Mark Eaton but a league source says nothing is imminent with the Penguins, and Eaton “is only exploring NHL opportunities” right now. It appears the Penguins would be a fall back option for him if no NHL offers come and he wants to be an 8th or 9th option on the blueline. The Penguins currently have 47 contracts in regards to the 50 max limit.

Eaton remains on a PTO in Wilkes Barre and hopes to play this weekend.