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Thursday, 13 October 2011 12:35

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Lots and lots and lots of news today.

First things first, Sidney Crosby (right, with assistant coach Tony Granato) was cleared for full contact in practice today. He wore a black helmet in practice today and while there weren't any notable moments of physical contact with any teammates, he was otherwise fully engaged in all aspects of practice. Said Crosby, "After I talked to the doctor. Doing light stuff and feeling pretty good and the way I responded over the last few weeks to everything else, it was a good sign. We discussed things and decided to go to the next step here and go full contact."

The Penguins will start backup Brent Johnson in net. Starter Marc-Andre Fleury is sidelined due to an illness. Johnson, a former Capital, started in the Penguins 2-1 shootout loss in Edmonton Sunday. He made 34 saves in the contest. In his career against the Penguins, Johnson is 4-2-0 with a 2.06 goals against average, .921 save percentage and one shutout.

Evgeni Malkin will be a game-time decision due to his "lower-body" ailment. He has not played since Saturday's 5-3 win in Calgary. Regardless of his availability for tonight's game, Malkin will take part in a pre-game ceremonial faceoff to honor victims of KHL's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl tragedy.

The lines for the Penguins were all over the place (PG+):

Steve Sullivan - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Sidney Crosby - Pascal Dupuis
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Craig Adams - Richard Park - Arron Asham
Joe Vitale - Mark Letestu - Steve MacIntyre

The defensive pairings were normal:

Kris Letang - Deryk Engelland
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

For the Capitals, they will start Tomas Vokoun in net. Vokoun was the Capitals' starter in a 6-5 shootout win against the Lightning Monday. He made 23 saves on 28 shots.

With Capitals goaltender Michal Neuvirth sidelined due to a "lower-body" ailment, goaltender Braden Holtby was recalled from Hershey of the AHL.

The Capitals lines in practice today:

Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - Troy Brouwer
Alexander Semin - Marcus Johansson - Mike Knuble
Jason Chimera - Brooks Laich - Joel Ward.
Matt Hendricks - Jeff Halpern - Jay Beagle

Beagle was the last skater off the ice. That would suggest he will be scratched.

Comments (2)

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written by a guest, October 13, 2011 - 01:18 PM

Hopefully those wonky line combos don't mean that they're planning on splitting up the Cooke, Dupuis, Vitale line. Though Crosby wouldn't be awful between those 2 wingers either.

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written by RobotJaxxon, October 13, 2011 - 03:16 PM

I remember thinking a couple years ago that Cooke should have gotten a serious shot on Crosby's wing. Still think it's the case, particularly with the rebuilt, low-penalty, goal-scoring bioniCooke we've got this season. He's not afraid to go to the net, keeps his stick down, hits the net and can finish.

For a similar reason I've never been as thrilled with the Geno-Sid line combination as I feel I should be. They're both amazing puck-possession guys, it would seem to make sense to not overlap their time on the ice. Ahh, it's nice to think about where to put Crosby and Geno lineup again!

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