Penguins/NHL
GAME DAY BUZZ
The Penguins look to bounce back tonight against a very interesting opponent in the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens are the one team behind the Boston Bruins that evaluators feel could pose matchup problems for the Penguins in the playoffs.
The Canadiens fit the criteria in having a goaltender in Carey Price who can steal a series and one of the NHL’s best defensemen in PK Subban who could drive Sidney Crosby nuts in a seven game series.
Coming off a 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, when the Penguins lose they usually lose bad and are a good bet to have a strong bounce back game tonight.
“Think everybody’s happy we got a game pretty quick after playing the other night,” defenseman Brooks Orpik said. “Think you’ll see a lot better from everybody tonight. “Every team in this league can beat everybody. There’s a tremendous amount of parity since they put the salary cap in. You see Buffalo, they can beat anyone. Florida can beat anyone, no matter where they are in the standings,” Orpik said.
Michel Therrien returning to Pittsburgh is always a good storyline and it’s still clear that Brooks Orpik is no fan of Therrien’s and never will be. It was widely known during Therrien’s tenure in Pittsburgh that Orpik hated playing for Therrien and Orpik will probably always remember Therrien playing him on left wing during the 2007-2008 season.
Orpik had the best soundbyte this morning when he was asked by Joe Starkey what the first thing comes to mind when he hears the name “Michel Therrien”. It took Orpik over 10 seconds to come up with something. His response:
“Ummmm…..ahh….wow……..ahh…..man……..ahh….stuff i can say on the radio?…..ummmm……..A guy who’s really passionate of what he does,” Orpik said.
“I might not always agree with the way he does things. But, at end of the day, take step back and realize his number one goal is to win hockey games. He’s very detailed, orientated when it comes to systems. He definitely holds you accountable.”
Orpik said if there’s one thing he learned from Therrien that has benefited him is that he made him a better practice player.
“I became a much better practice player under him, which was something I thought……probably thought I was a good practice player, but he taught me I wasn’t a good practice player,” Orpik said. “So I definitely improved there and that’s paid off for me in the long run.
PENGUINS LINEUP
Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Chuck Kobasew
Jussi Jokinen – Evgeni Malkin – James Neal
Tanner Glass – Brandon Sutter – Taylor Pyatt
Craig Adams – Zach Sill – Deryk Engelland
DEFENSEMEN
Brooks Orpik – Paul Martin
Rob Scuderi – Kris Letang
Olli Maatta – Matt Niskanen
Marc Andre Fleury in goal
TIDBITS: Chuck Kobasew will again see some time with Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz. He has no goals in his last 24 games……Jason Megna will tonight……Craig Adams will play in his 256th consecutive game tonight. The team record is Ron Schock with 313…..Marc Andre Fleury is 5-1-1 with a 2.48 GAA and .916 save percentage in his last seven games vs Montreal. Fleury is 9-5 in 15 career starts. Therrien had positive things to say about Fleury today. “He could have been named to the Olympic team with the way that he’s performed this year,” Therrien said. ….
