Game 26 - Penguins at Crapitals

7:00

ROOT Sports

The Penguins and Capitals face off for the second time this season.  A few big storylines are in play tonight.  It is Sidney Crosby's first game back against the Capitals since the injury.  Dale Hunter is coaching his second game for the Capitals since BBQ Bruce was fired on Monday.  And someone on the Caps is probably going to try to avenge Jay Beagle for not knowing how to fight.

Caps fans are making out with themselves over hiring Dale Hunter and firing BBQ Bruce.  Most Capitals fans were surprised to hear Hunter actually played for the Capitals in the 90s, because most didn't know hockey existed then.  They're already drawing comparisons to the Pens situation with Bylsma in 2009, but think Hunter will be better because he was such a good player, at least according to Texas Ted.

Wayne Gretzky was pretty good at hockey too.  He later went on to coach the Phoenix Coyotes to the bottom of the West, his wife lost a ton gambling on the team or something, and he is now so desperate for attention that he has appeared in Nickelback videos and joined the Twitter Police.

Last time these two teams played, the Caps got two fluky goals and the game went to overtime, where they won on a powerplay goal (Side note:  remember when they said overtime powerplays were unfair?).  The Pens dominated ever facet of the game, and Vokoun, like usual, crapped his pants late on Neal's tying goal.  Tonight, however, the Pens are missing Kris Letang and Zybnek Michalek.  Welcome to the NHL Simon Despres

LINES

PENS

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Pascal Dupuis
Steve Sullivan - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Arron Asham - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Matt Niskanen - Brooks Orpik
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Simon Despres  - Robert Bortuzzo

Marc-Andre Fleury

CRAPS

Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - Troy Brouwer
Cody Eakin - Marcus Johansson - Alexander Semin
Jason Chimera - Brooks Laich - Joel Ward
Matt Hendricks - Jeff Halpern - Mike Knuble

Karl Alzner - John Carlson
John Erksin - Dennis Wideman
Roman Hamrlik - Dmitry Orlov

Knuble on the 4th line hahahahahah

GO PENS