Gameday. Game 6. Pens at Jacke

Nationwide Arena. 7 pm. Root. NBCSN. 105.9 The X

Coming off of one of the most complete efforts the Penguins have had since Nam, they pushed CBJ to the brink and to the verge of elimination. This series had an eery feel to the one against the NYI last season in the first round and a Game 6 victory would only cement that comparison. The Penguins are coming off of a 51 shot, 3 goal performance but the story of the game may have been the defensive effort. They held the Blue Jackets to a 46 Corsi, which means the Blue Jackets attempted 5 less shots than the Penguins got on net. We also believe that Dan Bylsma listens to Mark Madden because pretty much every adjustment that the Penguins have made this series, Mark Madden has talked about the day before on the radio. One of the best and most important adjustments that Bylsma has made so far was putting Sid and Geno together for most of Game 5 and despite neither of them getting into the goal column, they were effective for the majority of the game. The storyline of Game 6 will be, will CBJ fight back like they have all series and force a Game 7 or did the Penguins finally flex their muscles and its too much for the Jackets. We will find out around 9:40 EST on Monday, but what we are sure of is the Nationwide Arena crowd wont go down without a fight. Game 5 might have been Marc-Andre Fleury's biggest game of his Penguin career outside of Game 6 and 7 of the 09 Cup Finals and we expect the same kind of effort from him in Game 6 of this series.

Lines:

Kunitz - Crosby - Malkin

Jokinen - Sutter - Neal

Bennett - Goc - Stempniak

Glass - Vitale - Adams

Letang - Martin

Maatta - Niskanen

 Bortuzzo - Scuderi

Fleury

Jenner - Johansen - Skille

Calvert - Dubinsky - Atkinson

Umberger - Anisimov - Comeau

MacKenzie - Letestu - Tropp

Murray - Wisniewski

Tyutin - Johnson

Nikitin - Savard

Bobrovsky

Notes:

• Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are in the longest scoring drought of playoff career, but their Corsi has been good this series. Gotta think one or both score soon.
• Marc-Andre Fleury looks as good as he did in 2008-09 if not better, his save % right now is second best of his playoff career (2007-08 was .933).

Do It.

Go Pens.