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Friday, 13 January 2012 16:34

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Panthers.

When and where: 7:30 p.m., EST. BankAtlantic Center.

TV: Root Sports, Fox Sports Florida.

Record: 21-13-8, 50 points. The Panthers are in third place in the Eastern Conference and first place in the Southeast Division.

Leading Scorer: Kris Versteeg, 39 points (17 goals, 22 assists).

Last Game: 2-1 home win against the Panthers, Monday. Marcel Goc had a goal and an assist for the Panthers.

Last Game against the Penguins: 3-2 home win, Nov. 19. Pascal Dupuis had two assists for the Penguins.

Panthers Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Stephen Weiss (right). He has four points in two games against the Penguins.

Ex-Penguins on the Panthers: Matt Bradley, RW; Pete Mahovlich, scout; Mikael Samuelsson, RW; Dale Tallon, general manager.

Ex-Panthers on the Penguins: Tom Fitzgerald, assistant to the general manager; Randy Sexton, assistant director of amateur scouting.

Useless Panthers Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Former Penguins goaltender Tom Barrasso is one of three goaltenders who have recorded a postseason shutout against the Panthers. The others are Mike Richter of the Ragners and Patrick Roy of the Avalanche.

Best Panthers Video We Could Find: Mario Lemieux faking a punch against Panthers forward Brian Skrudland:

Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (19-12-2, 2.29 GAA, .912 SV%) for the Penguins and Scott Clemmensen (5-1-3, 2.78 GAA, .904 SV%) for the Panthers.

Injuries: For the Penguins, centers Sidney Crosby (head) Jordan Staal (knee), defensemen Simon Despres (knee) Kris Letang (head) are on injured reserve.  For the Panthers, goaltender Jose Theodore ("lower body") is out. Left wingers Sean Bergenheim ("lower body"), Marco Sturm ("upper body"), Scottie Upshall (hip), goaltender Jakob Markstrom (knee) and right winger Jack Skille ("upper body") are on injured reserve.

Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' primary lines and defensive pairings at practice today were:

Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey/Joe Vitale - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Eric Tangradi - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

Paul Martin - Zbyenk Michalek
Brooks Orpik - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

The Panthers' primary lines and defensive pairings against the Canucks Monday were:

Tomas Fleischmann - Stephen Weiss - Kris Versteeg
Mikael Samuelsson - Marcel Goc - Tomas Kopecky
Mike Santorelli - Shawn Matthias - Matt Bradley
Michal Repik - John Madden - Krys Barch

Jason Garrison - Brian Campbell
Dmitry Kulikov - Mike Weaver
Ed Jovanovski - Erik Gudbranson

Notes:

-"Sid will be our captain until he's retired." - Brooks Oprik.

-“They are a little bit wounded, but that is an animal you have to be aware of.” - Panthers coach

-With a win tonight, Dan Bylsma will break a tie with Michel Therrien for second-most coaching wins in franchise history. Each has 135. Eddie Johnston holds the record with 232.

-Martin has 198 career points.

-Park has 97 career goals.

-Our live blog begins at approximately 7:15 p.m. Please tune in.

(Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images)

Comments (2)

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written by jethro, January 13, 2012 - 05:38 PM

Seth,

You made my head hurt. Despres is listed as both questionable and listed on IR. (Pretty sure Bylsma said he is out 2-4 weeks.)

And Theodore is listed as "out" but is also listed as the probably goaltender. (Pretty sure he is on IR.)

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written by s_rorabaugh, January 13, 2012 - 05:56 PM

jethro, +1 for the heads up. A weird day.

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