Late breaking day-time news:
--Per the Trib's Josh Yohe, Brooks Orpik (summer hernia surgery) will not be in the lineup tonight for the Pittsburgh Penguins when they meet the Vancouver Canucks. Expect the defense to look like this:
Martin-Michalek
Letang-Engelland
Niskanen-Lovejoy
(And note this is the first time the right shooting Kris Letang has played the left side, could bear watching, but hopefully it won't be too noticeable. Right shooting Matt Niskanen is naturally a left-side player, btw.)
--From TSN's Farhan Lalji, here's the lines for what the Canucks will throw at Pittsburgh tonight. The big deal is that Ryan Kesler won't be on the ice, either.
D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Burrows
Sturm - Hodgson - Samuelsson
Higgins - Malhotra - Hansen
Volpatti - Lapierre - Oreskovich
D: Hamhuis - Bieksa
Edler - Salo
Ballard - Tanev
Luongo
Schnieder
Scratches: Alberts, Ebbet, Sulzer
--Bad news for a prospect, Keven Veilleux is going to have to face surgery for a bad knee and will miss six months, basically the whole regular season. Veilleux has had injury concerns before (shoulder surgery forced him to miss all but nine games in his rookie year two seasons back) and is set to be an RFA at seasons end.
"You can't make the club from the tub" as the old saying goes, especially when Pittsburgh only has 50 NHL contracts to hand out year after year. We wish all the best for the big guy and hopefully he can get back stronger and sooner than expected.
It's almost time to drop the puck..