Ottawa is pulling out all the stops, as apparently Bryan Murray will reunite his uber-line of Dany Heatley-Jason Spezza-Daniel Alfredsson. There's really no point for him not to as Heatley and Spezza have been pretty much non-existent. Their combined stats are: 6 games played, 0 goals (with only 15 shots), 2 assists and a ugly -5. Alfredsson, though still not at 100%, at least played with energy in the only game he was in.
But, as always, it's not about the opposition, it's about the Penguins. If they come out and play with intensity and match Ottawa's desperate last heave, they'll win. And probably by a pretty wide margain. Pittsburgh's combined forward depth is just too strong for the Senators as a team to handle. But if the Pens play a lazy game, this will be headed for a Game 5.
Gary Roberts will probably not be in the lineup, but the Pens are in a great position to let G-Rob take a little break here and (hopefully) be ready to come out in another week or so for the next series which is important because as of right now, looking like it could be the winner of the New Jersey/NYR series.
We hope the team will have the motivation (thanks to the picture of last year's handshake, and general pride) to come out strong and finish their work tonight. We never want to see that depressing picture the Pensblog posted every day during the off-season last year (though it did sum up everyone's feelings so well). Tonight would be the perfect way to exorcise that demon and become the only team to sweep in the first round of this year's playoffs.
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