Morrow on line with Neal at Penguins' morning skate

PITTSBURGH -- As Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma is wont to do, he did not expound on his plans for the line combinations for Tuesday's game against the Montreal Canadiens, but the just-acquired Brenden Morrow was on the left wing on a line with Dustin Jeffrey and James Neal for the morning skate -- real estate rookie Beau Bennett held in recent weeks.

Bylsma finally acknowledged a nagging injury to Matt Cooke, who has regularly sat out morning skates in recent weeks but has not missed any games. Assuming he is healthy, the addition of Morrow means one player will be left out.

Bennett was occupying the spot Cooke usually holds on the third line. With Jeffrey and Joe Vitale needed as true centers, Tanner Glass playing plenty of minutes on the penalty kill, and Tyler Kennedy's strong play of late, the best guess is that rookie Bennett will be the odd man out.

Here are the projected lines and defensemen pairings for Tuesday night's game between the Penguins and Canadiens at Consol Energy Center:

CANADIENS

Michael Ryder - Tomas Plekanec - Brian Gionta

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallagher

Alex Galchenyuk - Lars Eller - Colby Armstrong

Travis Moen - Jeff Halpern - Gabriel Dumont

Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban

Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin

Jarred Tinordi - Francis Bouillon

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

Scratched: Mike Blunden, Tomas Kaberle

Injured: Ryan White (lower body)

Coach Michel Therrien said Halpern will make his Canadiens debut skating with Moen and Dumont. Blunden played 5:57 after being recalled from Hamilton of the American Hockey League prior to Montreal's most recent game Saturday.

PENGUINS

Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Pascal Dupuis

Brenden Morrow – Dustin Jeffrey – James Neal

Matt Cooke - Brandon Sutter – Tyler Kennedy

Tanner Glass – Joe Vitale – Craig Adams

Brooks Orpik – Paul Martin

Mark Eaton – Matt Niskanen

Simon Despres – Deryk Engelland

Marc-Andre Fleury

Tomas Vokoun

Injured: Evgeni Malkin (shoulder), Kris Letang (lower body)

Scratched: Beau Bennett, Robert Bortuzzo, Douglas Murray