Evgeni Malkin is fully healed from a separated shoulder and will make his anticipated debut tonight against the New Jersey Devils. The addition of Malkin on the ice is like getting a Sergei Federov in his prime. He is that good. Malkin and Crosby will not be on the same line but expect the pair to see lots of 4 on 4 time together and power play time. With Malkin back in the lineup it will be interesting to see if he can jump Ryan Malone from his lackluster start. I’ve said from the middle of last season that management should trade Malone while he has value before the rest of the league finds out what were finding out; that maybe all Malone might be is an 20 goal scorer. Jordan Staal will start on the 4th line, but he is expected to get some time on Sidney Crosby’s left wing before his nine games are up.

Pens lines for the game
1st Line: Ekman – Crosby – Armstrong
2nd Line: Malone – MalkinRecchi
3rd Line: Ruutu – Moore – Ouellet
4th Line: LeclairStaalThorborn

1st Pairing: Gonchar – Eaton
2nd Pairing: Whitney – Melichar
3rd Pairing: ScuderiLetang
G – Marc Andre Fleury

The Buzzontheburgh’s Quick Hits
The tribune-review reported on Saturday that Mark Cuban has contacted new owner Jim Basillie about becoming a investor/minority owner with the team. Basillie bought the team for 175 million without any investors. That just shows how much money this guy has. Can’t disagree with Sergie Gonchar talking about the MalkinOvechkin comparison ‘from the Trib‘ “My personal feeling is Ovechkin is going to be like Pavel Bure, who’s going to score a lot of goals and shoot the puck a lot,” Gonchar said. “Evgeni, I see him as a Sergei Fedorov who plays well in both ends of the ice and kills penalties. He can do it all. He can score. He can create offense. He’ll be there for you in an every-game situation. So it’s really hard to say who is better.” I would take Fedorov in his prime over Bure in a second.

I’m getting tired of reading msg boards and hearing people talk about how we should trade John LeClair. What do they expect us to get for him, except a bag of pucks. LeClair can still play and will be a valuable role player for this team. Role player hockey fans, not a valuable top 6 forward. He is still very effective down low and should be on the top power play unit because of his size in front of the net. You don’t always put your top 5 forwards on the power play. You put the right players on the top unit who fill a specific role. Check in Thursday morning for post game observations.