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Magnificent Seven? Penguins @ Bell Centre, 7:30PM (RDS, SNE)


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It's the Beasts of the East clashing.

Despite Pittsburgh being behind the Lightning in points, they still lead their Metropolitan division by three points (ahead of the... Islanders? Sure) taking on the Montreal Canadiens and their league leading 29 points. The Penguins, however, have played three less games than the Canadiens (16, tied with Philly, one more than Florida) who along with Tampa, Buffalo and Boston have played the most games in the East (San Jose has for some reason already played 20 games).

While most would suspect Pittsburgh to be an offensive dynamo, it's actually in defence that keeps them where they are. Fleury hasn't been Fleury of old and the additions to their blueline has been positive. The Penguins have allowed 12 less goals than the Habs while scoring five more. The Penguins are also 9-1 in their past 10, with a loss to the Leafs.

There's a few throwbacks to Pittsburgh in the Habs lineup, including former coach Michel Therrien and former Penguins defenceman Sergei Gonchar, who is still so respected in Pittsburgh that fellow Russian Evgeni Malkin made him a sign and rode a tiger to celebrate Gonchar's 800 point milestone.

As for injuries, defenceman Olli Maata might be coming back to the lineup while Kris Letang appeared to have hurt himself in practice. No word if it was serious. Both could likely be in the lineup for the Pens. Pascal Dupuis is injured, which might lead Pittsburgh to take Hornqvist off Crosby's line and put him with Malkin for... some reason. I don't know. Read about it in a Penguins practice.

No changes for the Habs are expected in the lineup:

Montreal Canadiens

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - P.A. Parenteau

Alex Galchenyuk - Tomas Plekanec - Brendan Gallagher

Brandon Prust - Lars Eller - Jiri Sekac

Manny Malhotra - Dale Weise

Andrei Markov - P.K. Subban

Alexei Emelin - Sergei Gonchar

Mike Weaver - Tom Gilbert

Nathan Beaulieu

Carey Price

Pittsburgh Penguins

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Blake Comeau

Beau Bennett - Evgeni Malkin - Patric Hornqvist

Nick Spaling - Brandon Sutter - Steve Downie

Zach Sill - Marcel Goc - Craig Adams

Paul Martin - Kris Letang

Christian Erhoff - Rob Bortozzo

Rob Scuderi - Simon Despres/Olli Maata

Marc Andre Fleury

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Although I am impressed with our 6 game winning streak, tonight's game and the one on Thursday night will be the real tests for our boys. If we can manage to pick up 3 out of 4 points in those two games, I will be convinced that this team is for real!

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my prediction - both teams will end up with a point, the question will be who wins the 2nd point. and I'm gonna go Habs! cuz, you know, I'm a homer.

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Although I am impressed with our 6 game winning streak, tonight's game and the one on Thursday night will be the real tests for our boys. If we can manage to pick up 3 out of 4 points in those two games, I will be convinced that this team is for real!

Bah... you know... what if we win both games but go on a 6 games losing streak right after ? Would we still be for real ?

Therrien said it right. Pitts and St-Louis games will be a good test to see where we are now. Not if we're for real or not. Could not be for real this week and still win the Cup...

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Bah... you know... what if we win both games but go on a 6 games losing streak right after ? Would we still be for real ?

Therrien said it right. Pitts and St-Louis games will be a good test to see where we are now. Not if we're for real or not. Could not be for real this week and still win the Cup...

Yes, I wouldn't put a lot of stock into just one or two games and even worst case scenario, 6 out of 8 aint too bad.

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Red: "Bob, I gotta bad feeling..i mean I gotta bad feeling..i don't think i'm gonna make it outta here, understand what i'm saying?"

Bob: "Everybody gotta die sometime Red.." -Platoon, 1986

lol "what you all know about killing"

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Bah... you know... what if we win both games but go on a 6 games losing streak right after ? Would we still be for real ?

Therrien said it right. Pitts and St-Louis games will be a good test to see where we are now. Not if we're for real or not. Could not be for real this week and still win the Cup...

Obviously that would suck, but if they can pick up 3 out of 4 against the Pens and the Blues, and then go on a 6 game losing streak, I will still think we are a legit contender.

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Obviously that would suck, but if they can pick up 3 out of 4 against the Pens and the Blues, and then go on a 6 game losing streak, I will still think we are a legit contender.

legit contenders don't go on six game losing streaks. losing streaks sure - but 6 games? that would say we are middle of the pack capable of good hockey (oct to mid nov) then back to earth (6 game losing streak)

no thank you.

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Although I am impressed with our 6 game winning streak, tonight's game and the one on Thursday night will be the real tests for our boys. If we can manage to pick up 3 out of 4 points in those two games, I will be convinced that this team is for real!

I think we're a good team, a lot better than last year, but that said, we're still gelling, like a pimple faced teen does for 3 hours before the big date. :cry_smile:

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Damn it is not on TV, oh well.

Bummer. I'm pretty happy with the 60 buck for 60 games RDS feed I get. Works out to be less than the 7 bucks a month I paid for the RDS channel last year.

Cute girl. No baritone.

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