Luck of the Irish... Sort of:

Happy St. Patrick's Day to One and All.... And the Luck 'O the Irish (or French Canadian) to the Pens tonight against the Thrashers.

Part of that 'Irish' luck has already struck a bit, as Evgeni Malkin skated with the team this morning, and will play tonight after taking a day off because of 'illness'. (undisclosed, of course). So the lines will be the same as the last couple of games, anyway. Along with that luck is the fact that Thrasher's (what is a thrasher, btw? some sort of 6 year old with a fit?) leading scorer Ilya Kovelchuck won't be playing tonight, not that they needed him to paste the Craps with a 5-1 loss last night. Oh well, can't have everything.

The Moose is Loose: After 6 years Johan Hedberg (Mooooooooooose!) will be playing in the Mellon arena. He's been back before, but this will be the first time he's started here since being traded. And if that wasn't 'old home week' enough for you 'Army' Armstrong will be back again with that hand breaking beak of his. (Feds.. keep the hands in the gloves if you whack him again) In honor of the 'Arm-ster' returning I think it's only appropriate to link (won't let me embed) that silly-ass car commercial (Just call me Superstar) It's hard to root for the Ex-Pens you like, but still wish them to be crushed in humiliating defeat.... have to work on that one.

Philippe Boucher started skating with the team this week, and is listed as 'Day-to-day' but still hasn't been taken off of Injured Reserve. But he really, really, really, wants to be back for the Play-offs if the Pens make it in.

I'll get update-itis after the game, so until then have a Pot O' Gold on me:

Update-ish: Evgeni Malkin was a monster on the ice. A 5 point night 2g-3a to help lift the Pens past the Thrashed 6-2. (technically the Pens scored all the goals in the first period and a half, Sorry Scuds) Gonch (1g-3a), Kunitz (1g) Staal (1g) and, of all people Eaton (1g, 2 penalties) rounded out the scoring for the Pens. The FPL turned into the Flower Scoring League when Sarge and Eats broke for a 2 on 1 on Geno's pass and put it past the Moose. Crosby and Le-tank each had 2 assists and Bill Guerin managed to sneak a point in there somewhere. People were shouting MVP! MVP! and then The Tower of Flower Power was caught behind the net with one of the FPL pushed into him, flew across the ice, dove like a maniac and he and Eaton combined to keep the puck out of the net. Then the chant was FLEURY! FLEURY!. I even once heard MOOOOSE!, (it's easy to be magnanimous when you're ahead by 4 goals.) And the Power Play actually had POWER... which is good. I think they've found a configuration that might start working for them. Once again, more tomorrow when the vids are posted... until then, be cool as a Penguin: