Record: 34-24-8
Leading scorers: Stephen Weiss (11G, 37A), David Booth (24G, 18A)
Blogs: Litterbox Cats
If you're thinking not much could happen over the span of five days since the last time these two teams met you'd be wrong. We all know the Pens picked up a win over the Caps this past Sunday, but the Panthers rebounded from the Pittsburgh loss with a win of their own. All it cost them was a few hats and two players.
Tomas Vokoun picked up a win in his 500th career game thanks to a hat trick by David Booth in a 5-3 win over the Blues Saturday night. If you looked on the ice following his third goal you would've seen some rubber rats mixed into the collection. That still gets a chuckle out of me...
The Cats may likely have a bad case of the injury bug hitting the locker room as well, both sustained against the Blues. Nathan Horton is out 2-4 weeks with a broken finger, while defenseman Bryan McCabe will miss the next two games with an eye injury (although I'm reading broken nose).
Here's to hoping tonight's game ranks right up there with last week's, or as Whale4Ever accurately labeled it in the open thread "playoff hockey." A win gives Pittsburgh a season-best seven straight and pads their push into the Eastern Conference playoff hunt. A little added motivation may come in knowing that a win puts them two points ahead of Florida (currently tied at 76) and likely into fifth place, depending on Montreal's outcome against the Oilers.