Penguins Begin Preparations To Face Senators

The post-season picture is crystalizing for the Pittsburgh Penguins as they prepare to face the Ottawa Senators in game 1 of their Eastern Confernce Quarterfinal playoff series beginning on Wednesday at Mellon Arena (7:00 PM EST).

While I'll have a detailed preview of the matchup between these clubs posted tomorrow, there's little doubt that the Penguins will be favored by most pundits to win the series, despite their inconsistencies this season.

What did you expect? The Penguins are the defending Stanley Cup Champions, and everyone wants to knock them off the pedestal, including former Bird Jarkko Ruutu.

"They're the Stanley Cup Champions. People want to take their heads off," Ruutu said eloquently yesterday.

More diplomatically, singer Hilary Duff's husband --- that's Ottawa forward Mike Fisher for those who don't know -- said, "We know what we have to do to beat them, and we know it's not going to be easy."

Meanwhile, Ottawa General Manager Bryan Murray also started driving the underdog message home yesterday when he began the mental warefare that is so common in the playoffs by making plain that Pittsburgh is the favorite and has everything to lose compared to his team:

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Playoffs/Ottawa/2010/04/12/13561186-qmi.html

I'm as anxious to see how the Boys of Winter start the playoffs as anyone. Will they be the inconsistent team they've been all season, or will they draw well on the experience they've gained the last two post-seasons and reach another level quickly and consistently?

Detractors will point to the fact that they haven't won back-to-back contests in 16 games, and are only about 10 games over .500 since a solid October and early November to start the season.

Supporters will point out that their record this year in March and April -- 11-6-3 -- isn't nearly as much of a spring swoon as most observers think and, in fact, is not unlike the 11-5-1 record they posted in the same months 2 years ago on their way to the Stanley Cup Final.

Time will tell what we see from the Penguins, but there's no doubt that their Captain, Sidney Crosby will once again be center stage for them.

While Crosby has 13 points in 9 career post-season games against the Senators, he actually hasn't had a lot of success against Ottawa during the regular season in his career. He's posted only 2 goals in 17 games, and a big part of that is probably due to the fact that the Senators like to match up their top defensive pairing of Chris Philips and Anton Volchenkov against him.

Because Sid is likely to see a lot of those guys in this series, he's going to have challenge to try and overcome again.

Personally, after looking to improve his weaknesses this year and then crafting himself into one of the better face-off guys in the league and a Rocket Richard winner, I'll take my chances with #87's ability to get over that hump in this series.

Regardless, that will be one of the key matchups to watch.

The good news for Pittsburgh is that they anticipate being at full-strength for game 1 on Wednesday.

Winger Alexei Ponikarovsky will return from his 2-game suspension, and his other compatriarts on the sides -- both Chris Kunitz and Matt Cooke -- will probably get back in the lineup, too. Defenseman Brooks Orpik is expected to join them on the ice, as he seems to be fine after suffering a cut on the inside of his leg in last Saturday's loss to the Atlanta Thrashers.

All 4 of those guys missed Sunday's OT win over the Islanders.

Again, look for my detailed preview here tomorrow.


NOTES:

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced today that they have signed backup goaltender Brent Johnson to a 2-year contract extension that will pay him $600K per season in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012.

I like having Johnson back in the fold. He's a solid backup and gives Pittsburgh more reliable insurance behind #29 since it appears that the organization's previous candidate to be Marc-Andre Fleury's backup in the future -- John Curry -- has fallen out of favor with management after a terrible one-game look this year and an otherwise below average season at Wilkes-Barre.

There's little doubt in my mind that Curry's play this year -- and the fact that Brad Theissen is still probably too young to be a backup who's one injury away from starting -- was the driving force to bring Johnson back for two additional seasons.