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Monday, 22 November 2010 14:14

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

There was a whole grab bag of news from the Penguins morning skate today.

-First, Marc-Andre Fleury (5-6-1, 2.95 GAA, .883 SV%) will start in net for the Penguins (PG+). He has a career record of 4-6-1 with a 3.51 goals against average and .884 save percentage against the Panthers.

-Brent Johnson (above, with Fleury) was scheduled to start but is dealing with an illness.

-The Penguins re-tooled their lines a bit. Basically, Maxime Talbot and Arron Asham were flip-flopped while Evgeni Malkin was moved back to right wing on the second line. He is expected to share center duties with Talbot:

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Maxime Talbot - Evgeni Malkin
Chris Conner - Mark Letestu - Tyler Kennedy
Mike Rupp - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

For the Panthers, forwards Rostislav Olesz (finger) and Steven Reinprecht (groin) are expected to miss tonight's game. Forward Stephen Weiss (ankle) is expected to play.

EN Says: We're a bit confused by the decision to demote Asham to the fourth line. In an ideal world, Asham is a fourth-liner. But we dont' think it's a coincidence Malkin has scored in five of the seven games in which Asham has been one of his primary linemates.

Is Asham the long-term answer on the second line? No. But in the short term, he has been one of the most proven commodities this season in that role.

(Photo: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)

Comments (9)

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written by eman41, November 22, 2010 - 01:32 PM

I thought Asham looked really good with Malkin. What's the dealio?

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written by southernBURGH, November 22, 2010 - 02:45 PM

**s moves like this that make me question BYLSMA more & more everyday... talk about taking a step backwards...& how stubborn he seems to be in regards to fixing the Powerless powerplay...

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written by mshaffer, November 22, 2010 - 02:48 PM

I'm baffled as to why HCDB won't keep Malkin at center. He seems to always perform better when he's centering a line. Then again, it's not like the lines won't change in the middle of the game anyhow.

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written by Stillson14, November 22, 2010 - 02:58 PM

Gotta believe that moving Malkin back to the wing is to get him ready for Staal's return. Staal's probably still a few weeks away, but it looks like the coaching staff wants to see if Geno can keep up his recent center play on the wing now that he's rolling a bit.

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written by chestergunnn, November 22, 2010 - 03:06 PM

I would rather see Asham on the 4th line than Crosby. Seeing Crosby line up with Rupp and Goddard is like wasting Sid's minutes for 30 seconds of grinding.

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written by theSkeptic, November 22, 2010 - 03:36 PM

longtime reader, first time poster...

This insanity with Malkin has to stop. He is among the top 15 players in the world! Yet Bylsma keeps jerkin him while keeping far lesser talents in the middle. The Cooke/Malkin/Asham line has shown more natural chemistry than any other combination this season. Those guys just seem to click. Cooke and Asham may not be ideal top line players, but they are clearly among the top 4 wings on this time. That line should stay together at least until Staal returns. At that point I would play Staal with Cooke and Kennedy til he gets into the swing of things while and then maybe bump Talbot up to Malkin's unit, but even then on the wing. Malkin is so much more effective when he comes back to the D zone, helps dig the puck out and then gets his feet moving up ice, often with the puck. This is almost as insane as when Eddie O kept trying to force Ryan Malone into the middle! Malkin is a center. Period.

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written by NC Dave, November 22, 2010 - 03:50 PM

Can someone please take the Michel Therrien bingo ball and line shuffler away from Bylsma.

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written by eman41, November 22, 2010 - 03:52 PM

Seeing Crosby line up with Rupp and Goddard is like wasting Sid's minutes for 30 seconds of grinding.

He skates with them as a double shift. That's how you get him on the ice for 25 minutes a game.

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written by belial1134, November 22, 2010 - 04:17 PM

I don't understand why they always mess with Malkin either. They like to put him on the point at the Power Play and that isn't his strength either. He's been playing great back at center with Cooke/Asham (and the team has been winning), so naturally let's move Asham to the 4th line and Malkin over to wing.

I thought HCDB didn't like messing with his lines with they are winning (barring injuries - but that's not really the case tonight).

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