Game Day Buzz: Skinner back for Canes; Malkin skates again; Despres scratched for 2nd straight game?

PENGUINS (13-7-0, 26 PTS) @ HURRICANES (9-8-1, 19 PTS)

MALKIN SKATES AGAIN

Things continue to move in the right direction for Evgeni Malkin who skated again this morning at Southpointe. Malkin has been symptom free since Tuesday and has now skated in consecutive days. The Penguins continue to indicate there is no timetable for his return and they are going to be very careful on not establishing one. However, it wouldn’t be surprising if Malkin gets cleared for contact following this weekend, barring a setback.

CANES GETTING HEALTHY

Jeff Skinner, Tim Brent, Tim Gleason and Jamie McBain will all return to the lineup tonight for Carolina.

The return of Skinner is huge for Carolina who has missed the last five games. Skinner is third on the team with 14 points (7G-7A) in 13 games. He will play tonight on the second line with Jordan Staal.

“Jordan is able to hold the puck and gain space. He’s a big power-forward. When he has the opportunity to draw people into him, Skinner is more of a guy that reacts off of people,” Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller said. “He finds his openings and his time and space from it. Because of that, it’s opened it up for Skinner to do his thing and be more creative. Jordan is very excited to have Skinner back tonight. And we are. It makes us a better team with him in the lineup.”

DESPRES TO BE SCRATCHED FOR SECOND STRAIGHT GAME?

Word from the Penguins morning is that Simon Despres, Mark Eaton and Zach Boychuk are expected to be the scratches again tonight. Boychuk was the extra forward while Despres took no reps I’m told with the top-3 pairings, skating as the fourth pairing with Mark Eaton.

This would mark the second straight game that Despres is a healthy scratch as Bortuzzo and Despres continue to rotate in and out of the lineup every couple games since Matt Niskanen and Kris Letang have returned healthy. If Despres does sit again tonight, one interesting thing with him is that some members of the Penguin brass have felt going into the NHL season that it would be good for him to not play every game.

PROJECTED LINEUP

Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – James Neal

Beau Bennett – Dustin Jeffrey – Tyler Kennedy

Matt Cooke – Brandon Sutter – Pascal Dupuis

Tanner Glass – Joe Vitale – Craig Adams

DEFENSEMEN

Brooks Orpik – Paul Martin

Matt Niskanen – Kris Letang

Deryk Engelland – Robert Bortuzzo

Marc Andre Fleury will start in goal