UPDATE:
Per Newsday's Arthur Staple, Grabovksi woke up yesterday with concussion sypmtons, even though he passed a test Thursday. His shoulder appears to be fine.


The Isles roll into the Steel City tonight, hoping to make it five wins in a row as they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7pm. Jaroslav Halak will make his third straight start between the pipes and the lineup will have a few new wrinkles in it. Mikhail Grabovski is out, indefinitely, with a shoulder injury. Colin McDonald will make his season debut in the lineup and his play, as well as the other forwards in the bottom six, will continue to be placed under the microscope with prospect Anders Lee chomping at the bit in Bridgeport to get back in the big club’s lineup. Here are the projected lines for tonight’s game against the Pens.

Conacher-Tavares-Okposo

Kulemin-Nelson-Strome

Bailey-Nielsen-Clutterbuck

Martin-Cizikas-McDonald


Boychuk-Leddy

Hamonic-Hickey

De Haan-Strait

Halak-Johnson

I am interested to see the play of the second and third lines tonight. Nikolai Kulemin has played well in his current role and I’m looking forward to seeing him with Nelson and Strome. The third line has been great on the fore-check to start the season and I expect Clutterbuck to fit right in with Nielsen and Bailey.

The fourth line has to find some consistency. They have had moments of strong play this season but all too often they are chasing the puck in their own end far too often. Casey Cizikas looks as he is constantly moving his feet but the play of his wingers has to improve. I’m not looking for the fourth line to be an offensive juggernaut; I just don’t want them chasing the puck every time they are on the ice.

Griffin Reinhart made his AHL debut last night and scored his first AHL goal with a blast from the point. The Sound Tigers defeated the Albany Devils 5 to 4 in a shootout and the two teams are back at it today in Albany. I will be at a Bridgeport practice next week and I look forward to talking with some of the kids that are so close to making this roster. As always, for more on all things hockey please follow me on twitter at @DanDanNoodles78.

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