PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pens staying with Alex Nedeljkovic in net as they host Detroit Thursday night at 7p. It’s the 10th straight start for the back-up. The Pens and Red Wings are tied a point out of the Wild Card with 84 points.
"Same as it's been the last two weeks,” Nedeljkovic said. “Just a lot of intensity. Lot of emotion. Just good hockey hopefully. We've been playing really good as of late and hopefully we can keep that going."
You might think a lot of pressure for the Pens. It’s as close to a must win against a team you are tied with in the standings with only four games left. Pressure is not the word used in the Pens locker room.
“Fun game,” said defenseman Marcus Pettersson. “I mean, if you asked us a couple of months ago or a month ago, we’d love to be in the position we are in right now.
“This is a fun time to be a part of,” said forward Michael Bunting. “This is fun hockey when games really, really matter. They are easy games to wake up for, I think everyone’s mentality is kind of like a do-or-die situation. We go into every game excited to play, ready to play. I think that’s a big difference.”
“For the last two-three weeks here, we’ve been right in it,” said Pens captain Sidney Crosby. “I think it’s brought out the best in us. We are playing good hockey. I think we believe in our game, we need to continue to do the same thing.”
“The fact that we’ve battle back to get to this point, we don’t want to let it slip away now that we are this close,” said forward Drew O’Connor. “There is still a lot of work to be done, but I think it’s more motivating to win these last few after we gotten ourselves back it in after looking like we were out of it.”
Bunting added it is business as usual Thursday night. They know they are clicking and playing well. It’s about staying to that game, no matter the opponent. Pettersson said they must keep the desperation they’ve had, continue to get to the blue paint and do all the little things they’ve done in the last couple of weeks.
“It’s been pretty big for a while now,” Crosby said. “We need this one, obviously it guess even bigger given the circumstances. I feel like we’ve been playing in games like this for a bit.”
“It’s going to be fun,” Bunting said using that word ‘fun’ again. “It’s going to be loud. I’m hoping it’s like the Tampa game, it was kind of like a playoff atmosphere. I expect that Thursday.
Wings different
Detroit is dealing with some injuries as forwards Andrew Copp (broken cheek bone against Washington) and Michael Rasmussen are out for Thursday’s game, each had 33 points on the season.The team recalled former Pens forward Zach Aston-Reese, now 29-years-old and playing mostly in the AHL. He will likely play on the fourth line and penalty kill. Interesting to see the emotion from ZAR against his old team.
Pens beat the Wings 6-3 on St. Patrick’s Day with Nedeljkovic in net, but Detroit was without Dylan Larkin. He’s been back for a few weeks and has points in four of his last five games
“He means so much to them,” Nedeljkovic said. “He's their top point scorer, he's their top goal scorer. Plays power play, penalty kill, five on five, six on five, whatever. He plays every situation. Such a big part of that team. And you can see the way that they play, they have so much more emotion, they seem to play faster with him on the ice and it's definitely going to be a challenge for us."
Up Next
After Thursday night, the Pens host Boston Saturday night at 8p.