NBC certainly knows what it's doing.
At least during the regular season. When they won't allow their playoff games to be shown on the big screen outside Mellon Arena, that's a whole different story.
But by putting the Pittsburgh Penguins on three consecutive weeks of Sunday afternoon game-of-the-week telecasts --- starting today as the Penguins visit the Flyers (12:30 PM EST) --- they are looking to capitalize on what are likely to be intense, superstar-laden contests invovling our hometown team.
Pittsburgh will be looking to get back on track today after two days off following a 6-3 loss to the Capitals on Thursday.
Philadelphia beat Carolina yesterday, 4-2, after beating the New York Rangers -- whom the Penguins will visit on Monday in Madison Square Garden, actually -- 2-0 on Thursday night.
The Flyers will surely be ramped up for today's contest. They've won 6 straight home games, and always are ready to play Pittsburgh.
The Penguins need to get back on the winning side of the ledger again, after coming into the Thursday's game against Washington having won 4 of 6.
Right now, the Pens' are again 6 points back of the New Jersey Devils in the Atlantic Division, and with the loss to Washington Thursday, are drifting further back of the Caps in the Eastern Conference standings these days. To be exact, they sit 9 points behind Washington currently.
AND, a team they were once in contention with for the best overall spot in the NHL -- the San Jose Sharks -- now sit a whopping 15 points in front out West.
Today in Philadelphia, the Penguins should have goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury back in the lineup.
Fleury received his specially fitted glove with extra padding for his fractured ring finger several days ago and has been practicing with it. He's still not pain-free, but he's more than ready to play.
The Pens will also probably have LW Pascal Dupuis back in today's lineup.
Dupuis suffered a nasty gash over his left eye after having been driven face first into the dasher boards behind the net by New York Islanders' defenseman Andy Sutton late in the 3rd period in Tuesday's 6-4 Penguins' win.
Duper's eye had been swollen shut for a few days, but there doesn't appear to be any structural damage in or around the eye, and Dupuis also was fortunate enough to not sustain a concussion on the play.
Who Pittsburgh still may not have today is LW Max Talbot.
Talbot is said to be suffering from a lower body (groin or ankle) injury after being purposely tripped by New York netminder Dwayne Roloson in a play in Tuesday's game where Roloson was not penalized, despite the obvious nature of the trip.
If Talbot can't go, the Penguins will probably recall forward Nick Johnson back from Wilkes-Barre.
Pittsburgh sent both Johnson and Dustin Jeffrey back down to the AHL after Thursday's loss to the Capitals so they could play in a game on Friday night.
I'll have a recap of the game tomorrow morning. Let's hope I don't talk too much about Flyers' LW Daniel Carcillo. He's hurt the Penguins this year with his hands in more ways than one and has been in the NHL news lately for other gutless reasons (no matter what he says), after having dropped the gloves against New York Rangers' skilled superstar Marion Gaborik in Thursday's game, prompting Rangers' head coach John Tortarella to call out Carcillo publicly after the contest.
Carcillo was right in saying that he just dropped the gloves because Gaborik was pushing him and willingly dropped the gloves himself.
What he didn't say -- and what was patently obvious to me -- was that he clearly sought out Gaborik in the scrum that was ensuing around the Flyer's net. Gaborik wasn't doing anything and Carcillo had no reason to do that other than to try and goad Gaborik into a fight or otherwise try to take him off the ice.
I suppose we'll see.
One thing is clear. Even though Pens' enforcer Eric Godard isn't seeing a lot of ice time lately, he'll surely be in the lineup again today.
More then.
Let's Go Pens!
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