Blues at Penguins
THE STORY: Sidney Crosby didn’t just ease into his first NHL contest since last January. Crosby, coming back from concussion symptoms, played more than seven minutes in the first period and produced two goals and two assists in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 5-0 victory over New York Islanders on Monday. The visiting St. Louis Blues will now get a crack at containing Crosby and the Penguins on Wednesday. St. Louis will have to contend with a lineup that includes Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal as the top three centers - just the fourth time in the past 104 games that the trio will be in the lineup together. The Blues had earned at least a point in their first six games (4-0-2) since coach Ken Hitchcock took over before dropping a 3-2 decision to Los Angeles on Tuesday night in St. Louis.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS-MW (St. Louis), ROOT (Pittsburgh).
ABOUT THE BLUES (10-8-2): St. Louis had allowed six goals in six games before the loss to the Kings, climbing within a point of eighth place in the Western Conference. The Blues will get forward Chris Stewart back from a three-game suspension for hitting Detroit’s Niklas Kronwall from behind. Jaroslav Halak played in goal against the Kings, so Brian Elliott is likely to get a chance to improve on his already impressive stats (7-1-0, 1.43 goals-against average, .947 save percentage). St. Louis is 0-3-1 in its last four road games.
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (12-6-3): Lost in the celebration of Crosby’s night was the return of defenseman Zbynek Michalek from a broken finger. Michalek, who missed 10 games, had an assist in 19:51 of ice time. Crosby played with Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis while Steve Sullivan and James Neal joined Malkin. Staal centered Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy against the Islanders. Neal still leads the team with 21 points, but was held without a goal on home ice for the first time Monday.
OVERTIME:
1. The Blues defeated Pittsburgh 1-0 in overtime in their last meeting in October of 2010.
2. Crosby now has 21 four-point games in his career. Six of them have come against the Islanders.
3. Alexander Steen has points in four of five games for the Blues and shares the team lead with a plus-11.