Pens Points Friday: Zatkoff Starts, Fedorov Returns

Jeff Zatkoff is going to start for the Pens in Florida tonight. Due to Tomas Vokoun's unexpected blood clot scare, after playing in hundreds of games in various NA leagues, he finally gets his chance to prove his worth to the team. What are the expectations?

The Olli Maatta decision will have to be made soon: Pittsburgh or London, Ont.? Meesh at THW looks at what will go into this decision. From Faceoff Factor, a really neat look into the magic of the Pens' third line + third defensive pairing. If you're a visual learner like me, these shift charts are worth a thousand columns of numbers. Maatta, Bortuzzo, Jeffrey, Sutter and Kobasew are doing good things together.

It looks like it's for real. Sergei Fedorov's coming back. He last played in the KHL in 2012 for Metallurg Magnitogorsk, and never officially retired from hockey. His job as the GM of CSKA Moscow, one of Russia's most prestigious hockey clubs, keeps him busy enough. But with CSKA roster decimated by injuries, at 43 he's giving it another shot. The team announced a two-way deal through the end of the season. We'll see if he gets to suit up tonight in a game against Metallurg, now coached by Iron Mike Keenan.

The Dallas Stars have missed the playoffs for five straight seasons. This past summer, they added $8.2M to their payroll and are within $2M of the cap. Mike Heika with a good article on whether the increased spending and new coach Lindy Ruff can lead the Stars back to the playoffs. Derek Neumeier from THW explores how their depth will be the key to their success this season.

The way it's going, it could happen that at the end of this season the entirety of hockey blogosphere and statosphere (get it?) is proven wrong by Randy Carlyle, Dave Nonis and the Corsi Shmorsi gang. They keep getting outshot, but they keep winning. A lot of people questioned the wisdom of the Jonathan Bernier trade, but it looks that there really isn't much of a goaltending controversy in Toronto. Shut out the Preds last night on top of it. Leafs win 4-0 and go to 4-1-0.

These Calgary Flames don't even know how to tank properly. The compete level is unacceptably high. Definitely not living down to expectations. After Laviolette's firing, Bob Hartley was apparently the next guy in the line of fire. He doesn't seem to mind, but he does want to win some hockey games while he's at it.

Kyle Wellwood retires from hockey. After 9 NHL seasons he was in Switzerland playing for Zug, but decided to hang 'em up as "his heart wasn't in it anymore".

Mike Babcock's problem in life is that all the Canadian Olympic hopefuls are giving a top effort against the Red Wings. We need to look out for Americans then.

The guys look to keep the winning going tonight in Florida. Go Pens.