Isles @ Pens morning skate buzz: Malkin participating in skate; Kunitz won’t play

New York Islanders (34-35-10-78 pts) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (45-27-7-97 pts)

Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin is participating in the Penguins morning skate as the team prepares for their final home regular season game at Mellon Arena.

Malkin did not play Tuesday night against Washington and did not participate in Wednesday’s practice.

Malkin is expected to play tonight.

*Sergei Gonchar is also participating in the skate, after not practicing on Wednesday.

Gonchar is paired with Mark Eaton and is expected to play.

*Chris Kunitz who has a shoulder injury, has joined his teammates on the ice for the first time since Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Kunitz spent a good portion of the skate shooting pucks and testing his injured shoulder. He is not wearing a no contact jersey. Kunitz has what is considered a “sore” shoulder after evaluations this week showed no damage to the shoulder.

However, he will not play tonight I’m told.

*About 10-12 alums attended the morning skate and the Penguins are expecting a media frenzy tonight.

The Penguins have urged fans to be in their seats at 7:20 p.m. Over 50 former members of the Penguins organization will be apart of the celebration. The list is headlined by Mario Lemieux, Paul Coffey and Craig Patrick.

Projected Lineup

Fedotenko – Crosby – Dupuis

Ponikarovsky – Malkin – Guerin

Cooke – Staal – Kennedy

Rupp – Adams – Talbot

Defensemen

Eaton – Gonchar

Orpik – Letang

Goligoski – Leopold

*Marc Andre Fleury will start in goal.