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| Hoping to see the handshake line tonight! |
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What you need to know about tonight's game after the jump.
For the Hershey Bears
The Bears are on the ropes so to speak, needing to win three games in a row to advance to the next round. They know they have to take it one game at a time, but they must keep their cool.
Their already paper thin defensive core took another hit in Game Two when Patrick Wellar took a two handed swing at Paul Thompson after Thompson got tangled up with Bears' goaltender Dany Sabourin in the third period of Game Two. That play resulted in a 7 minute power play and Wellar has since been suspended one game and will miss tonight's Game Three.
The Bears could also be without defenseman Patrick McNeill, who missed practice yesterday with what head coach Mark French labeled a "maintenance day".
The forward lines have been tinkered with as well. Bears beat writer Tim Leone reported in his Tuesday practice update that Graham Mink was moved to the fourth line.
Bears projected lines:
Kane - Potulny - Bourque
Greentree - Eakin - Mitchell
Pope - Carman - Micflikier
King - Carroll - Mink
Schilling - Collins
Brouillette - Kundratek
Marshall - Miskovic
Dany Sabourin in net
For the Penguins
You wouldn't think a team up 2-0 in a best-of-five series would be making any changes to the lineup, but the Penguins will be doing just that. Pittsburgh was eliminated from the NHL Playoffs and reinforcements came into Wilkes-Barre earlier this week.
On defense, it should be Brian Strait and Simon Despres in and Cody Wild and Philip Samuelsson out. Nothing against the two guys being replaced, everyone in a Penguins uniform has been playing well.
Up front, it gets a little tougher to pinpoint who will sit for Eric Tangradi but I can almost guarantee he will be in the lineup. Pittsburgh didn't send Tangradi to the AHL for him to watch. I said earlier that I thought Tangradi would be a good fit with Cal O'Reilly. Penguins beat writer Jonathan Bombulie has a similar solution to the forward lines, and suggested moving Bryan Lerg back to center and putting Tangradi on the wing.
We'll have the lines when the Pens come out for warmups tonight but here's my best guess at what they will look like:
Nick Petersen - Ben Street - Geoff Walker
Eric Tangradi - Cal O'Reilly - Paul Thompson
Colin McDonald - Bryan Lerg - Jason Williams
Brandon DeFazio - Zach Sill - Ryan Craig
Brian Strait - Robert Bortuzzo
Alexandre Picard - Simon Despres
Joey Mormina - Alex Grant
Brad Thiessen should get the start in goal.
2 comments:
Let's see some Tangradi production with some quality minutes.
@bman Yes! That would be nice. Especially if he's paired with O'Reilly who never shoots and always passes. Could be a good spring for Tangradi!
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