Pens Gameday 5/10/10 - The Battle for Montreal

Let's go with what works...

So here we are back in a familiar place ready to close out another opponent in the playoffs. Close out games haven't not our best friend as of late, but we do know how to close out a series on the road (cf. 2009 playoffs). So where better to play tonight then in Montreal Canada, right?

The Penguins played a great sixty minute game Saturday night, they limited the Habs time and space and held them to only one goal with 27 seconds left. It will take a complete effort tonight to end this series and avoid a game seven Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

A huge story tonight is whether the USS Hal Gill will play. As you know Gill was cut by a Chris Kunitz skate in previous game. Gill, quite frankly, has shut down Crosby this entire series. If he's not able to go it might in fact lead to Sid personally leading us to victory. The latest is he'll be a game time decision. A surprise player for the Canadians tonight is winger Sergei Kostitsyn. Sergei didn't even make the trip to Pittsburgh for game five.

For the Penguins there is one slight lineup change for tonight. Dupuis will play with Crosby and Guerin will play with Geno. These could be big changes for both lines. It gives Sid someone with the speed and toughness around the boards and it gives Geno a huge body in front of the net. I think this move will help tonight.

Here are your projected line ups for tonight's game.

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Talbot-Malkin-Guerin
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Rupp-Letestu-Adams

Orpik-Gonchar

Eaton-Letang

Leopold-Goligoski

Fleury

My three keys for tonight's game.

1.  Weather the Storm - They'll be coming harder then Katrina did to the gulf coast
2. Protect Fleury - Keep the scoring chances down, especially the ones from behind the net
3. Two-Headed Monster (871)- Lead us to victory guys! 

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Guide us to victory boys!

Posted in: Canadiens,game 6,Penguins,pre-game,William Eller