Pens plan trap

 penguins.nhl.com:

KEYS TO VICTORY
Trap: The Penguins employed a 1-2-2 neutral zone trap against Philadelphia and the new strategem proved successful. The Penguins smothered the Flyers highly-ranked offense and frustrated them.

Pittsburgh will likely stick with that plan against the offensively talented Capitals. But Pittsburgh shouldn't expect to have instant success. Philadelphia wasn't prepared for the Penguins' trap. Washington will be ready for it.

I don't know, Caps are not very successful vs. trapping teams.

The Penguins recalled rough and tough forward Paul Bissonnette. Ok, Bradley, don't dance with him again, let Erskine Brashear do that...

Cooke-Crosby-Malkin
Minard-Staal-Sykora
Kennedy-Talbot-Satan
Bissonnette-Jeffrey-Godard

Orpik-Whitney
Letang-Scuderi
Goligoski-Gill

Fleury

Corey Masisak:

Caps coach Bruce Boudreau was in a cranky mood this morning -- probably the most unhappy he's been in any non-post game situation we've seen him in. He said there will be changes to the lineup tonight, but did not want to elaborate.

Alex Ovechkin tried to downplay his rivalry with Evgeni Malkin saying that it was a media-driven thing.

"As long as it is fair, but when it is vicious that's another story," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien said. "I thought Ovechkin -- he is one of the best players in the league -- and there was some vicious hits on Geno [Malkin]. Certainly you don't want to see any players get hurt. Anytime there is vicious hits, there might be consequences but the players have to stick up for themselves and stick up for their teams.

"Obviously, Malkin is a very important player just as Ovechkin is for them.I'm not quite sure what happened between those two, but this is something that is pretty unique that you don't see much of regarding two star players like this. They are important players for the NHL and you certainly don't want to see any injuries."

As for Therrien's thoughts on Alexander Semin's comments about Sidney Crosby: "I'm not going to comment on Semin's comments. As far as I am concerned that was ridiculous."

Are you ready for syncopated bongo drums beat, Crosby? :-)

Semin's gonna play bongos on Sid tonight.

Update from Capitals Isider:

"I wasn't happy with it," Crosby said of Semin's comments. "But there are things that are said all the time. You don't like to hear that stuff, and personally, I didn't like it. But you move on."

When I asked Crosby if he might try to send a message to Semin tonight, he smiled and added, "Not so much. I finish my hits all the time. There's always motivation in these games. There's always a little extra in the air, and that will be the case again tonight."

Ovechkin told Slava Malamud of Sports-Express that he has not talked to his former buddy since the NHL Award Show in June.

Asked whether there had, in fact, been a falling out with Malkin, Ovechkin said: "It's just the media." Asked if he would be okay playing with Malkin for Russia in Vancouver, possibly on the same line, Ovechkin said, "Yeah. No problem. Why is there going to be a problem?"