Faceoff Factor

10:00 at Jobing.com Arena
TV: FSN Pittsburgh, FAN Arizona
Probable Goalies: Fleury (Pit), Bryzgalov (Pho)

Tonight will begin a stretch of four games against less-than-imposing opponents for the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Despite being on one of those gut-wrenching road-trips, this could be an opportunity to put together a nice stretch of wins before playing the Red Wings in just under two weeks.

After losing for the second time in as many games, coach Michel Therrien has changed up his lineup, hoping to give his team a spark.

"We’re having a hard time generating [offense] after Crosby’s line," Therrien said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Shelly Anderson. "That’s the danger of putting Malkin and Crosby together. You want to see how the rest of the crew will be able to generate, and obviously we didn’t generate enough, so we’ve got to change the plan a little bit."

So, tonight, Therrien will utilize his two best players — Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — at center, and will bump Jordan Staal back to the third line, where he spent most of last season.

With center Max Talbot expected to miss tonight’s game with an undisclosed injury, the lineup looks to be as follows:

• Ruslan Fedotenko – Crosby – Pascal Dupuis
• Matt Cooke – Malkin – Petr Sykora
• Tyler Kennedy – Staal – Miroslav Satan
• Paul Bissonnette – Mike Zigomanis – Eric Godard
   
• Brooks Orpik – Rob Scuderi
• Kris Letang – Mark Eaton
• Darryl Sydor – Alex Goligoski
   
• Marc-Andre Fleury
• Dany Sabourin

Hal Gill remains questionable for tonight’s game, though he has been practicing with the team.  If he is ready to play, he presumably would replace Darryl Sydor in the lineup, and defensive pairings would be adjusted.

So, with that being said, let’s look at the three keys to the game for a Penguins victory:

1. Shoot the puck!  It’s no secret the Penguins have dynamic talent — and plenty of it.  But if they don’t shoot, they won’t win.
2. Offense.  Shooting is great, and the Penguins need any/all shots they can take.  But, what would be even better would be a sustained attack, creating scoring chances on a regular basis.  More scoring chances means more quality shots, which means more goals scored.
3. Goaltending.  As long as the offense continues to sputter, the goaltending must continue to dominate.  Phoenix has some talented offensive players, and their 15 goals (second to last in the NHL) are extremely misleading.  This is a team that can cause havoc in a hurry, and Fleury must be on his game from the start.