Pittsburgh Penguins (21-17-4) @ Florida Panthers (21-13-8)

7:30 pm/et

TV: ROOT, FS-F

BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise, FL

The Florida Panthers are currently in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Pittsburgh Penguins are not. That feels incredibly weird to type.

The Pens need a win tonight. </obvious>

Season Series: 1-1-0.

Last meeting that counted: November 19, 2011. Panthers won 3-2.

We didn't really have a recap, but we said this:

Vomit.

The next game Sidney Crosby came back.

Know Your Enemy: Litter Box Cats.

What they're saying:

The Penguins visit Sunrise for the second and final time this season. The Pens are without star forward Sidney Crosby, as well as Jordan Staal, Kris Letang and more. They're currently riding a 6 game losing streak, but are always an opponent to be taken seriously. Even without Crosby and Staal, the team still boasts forwards Evgeni Malkin and James Neal, who is having a stellar season following last year's trade from the Dallas Stars. Penguins-Panthers tilts are pretty much always exciting ones, so even without Crosby's star power and his and Staal's offense, this should be an entertaining one and also one that the Cats need to take seriously. The Panthers have only a four point lead on Washington and are only in third place in the Eastern Conference because they're at the front of a weak division. Both the Flyers and Senators have points on the Cats despite being seeded lower in the Conference standings. The Panthers really need to continue to win on this pre-All Star Break home stand to put themselves in a better position in the Conference table.

Favorite Panthers Image, Photoshop, Gif or Video:

This is the Florida Panthers in the playoffs.

Pittsburgh Penguins lines from Empty Netters:

Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey/Joe Vitale - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Eric Tangradi - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

Paul Martin - Zbyenk Michalek
Brooks Orpik - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

Marc-Andre Fleury

Florida Panthers lines from Empty Netters:

Tomas Fleischmann - Stephen Weiss - Kris Versteeg
Mikael Samuelsson - Marcel Goc - Tomas Kopecky
Mike Santorelli - Shawn Matthias - Matt Bradley
Michal Repik - John Madden - Krys Barch

Jason Garrison - Brian Campbell
Dmitry Kulikov - Mike Weaver
Ed Jovanovski - Erik Gudbranson

Jose Theodore

Do It.

Go Pens.