KANATA, Ont. – Here are the projected lineups for a Saturday night game between the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins at Scotiabank Place:
SENATORS
Colin Greening – Jason Spezza – Milan Michalek
Zack Smith – Kyle Turris – Daniel Alfredsson
Nick Foligno – Jim O’Brien – Chris Neil
Rob Klinkhammer – Kaspars Daugavins – Erik Condra
Filip Kuba – Erik Karlsson
Jared Cowen – Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips – Matt Carkner
Ben Bishop
Craig Anderson
Bobby Butler, Zenon Konopka, Matt Gilroy and Alex Auld are the healthy scratches. Matt Carkner returns to the lineup after sitting the past 12 games.
PENGUINS
Chris Kunitz – Evgeni Malkin – James Neal
Steve Sullivan - Jordan Staal – Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke – Sidney Crosby – Tyler Kennedy
Eric Tangradi – Craig Adams – Aaron Asham
Paul Martin – Kris Letang
Brooks Orpik – Zbynek Michalek
Ben Lovejoy – Deryk Engelland
Brad Thiessen
Marc-Andre Fleury
Matt Niskanen (unspecified) and Joe Vitale (upper-body) are both day-to-day and did not travel with the team. Brent Johnson (unspecified) is also day-to-day. Richard Park and Dustin Jeffrey are the healthy scratches.
Crosby admitted the ability to vault into first place in the Eastern Conference with a win against the Senators on Saturday night is in the back of the Pens’ minds.
“It’s something we’re aware of and we want to get it but I think if we focus on the way we need to play, those things will take care of themselves,” Crosby said. “We’ve got some games here before playoffs and we want to make sure we’re playing the right way.”
The Pittsburgh captain also continues to feel better on the ice, but he still wants to work on his timing.
“I’m just (trying to) get comfortable with the speed and decisions,” he said. “There’s so many aspects that go into a full, complete game. You kind of have to learn on the fly, sometimes. There’s only so much you can do as far as practicing – you have to get into games. I think the speed and the decision making takes a little longer (to get back).”