Penguins/NHL
Pittsburgh — The Pittsburgh Penguins returned to the ice this morning at Mellon Arena after having an off-day on Easter Sunday.
Following the teams win Saturday afternoon against the Atlanta Thrashers, the team went out on the town Saturday night for Marc Andre Fleury’s girlfriends birthday.
All of the Penguins (except Sidney Crosby), incluidng their wives and girlfriends, spent most of the night in the VIP section at Club Diesel on the South Side.
Word is Evgeni Malkin was having himself a good time and was the life of the party. Club Diesel is a common hang out for a number of players.
Meanwhile, as the Penguins went back to work today, a good sign for Pittsburgh is that Malkin participated fully in today’s practice. Malkin returned to action on Saturday against the Atlanta Thrashers.
He had a goal and an assist to lead the Penguins to a 4-3 overtime victory.
*Winger Chris Kunitz did not practice and remains sidelined. He is not expected to play Tuesday night.
In Kunitz absence, Ruslan Fedotenko and Pascal Dupuis skated with Sidney Crosby on the top line.
*Malkin centered Alexei Ponikarovsky and Bill Guerin, while Jordan Staal centered Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy.
There are strong indications that the Penguins intend to keep the third line of Cooke-Staal-Kennedy together heading into the playoffs.
The 4th line consisted of Michael Rupp – Craig Adams and Max Talbot.
The D-Pairs remained the same with Orpik-Letang, Gonchar-Eaton, Leopold-Goligoski. Jay McKee was a floater, rotating in.
