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Hobbled Pens open playoffs at home against Lightning

Apr 13, 2011 - 3:21 PM (Sports Network) - The fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins will begin the 2011 postseason on home ice, as they welcome the Tampa Bay Lightning to CONSOL Energy Center for Game 1 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

The biggest question heading into the opening round of the playoffs is the status of Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby, and heading into the series opener it's still unclear whether Sid the Kid will be available at all against Tampa Bay.

Crosby appeared to be on his way to a second Hart Trophy this season before suffering a concussion in early January. The head injury caused Crosby to miss the final 41 games of the regular season, and although Pittsburgh's captain has been skating with the team for several weeks, he has still not been cleared for contact and will sit out Game 1.

Of course, Crosby's presence will be missed should he not be able to play in this series, but at least there is a chance he will return at some point in the postseason. Fellow star forward Evgeni Malkin, on the other hand, is out for the rest of the season following surgery to his right knee in February. Malkin won the Conn Smythe Trophy for Pittsburgh when it claimed the Stanley Cup title two years ago.

The absence of either Crosby or Malkin would seem to spell doom for Pittsburgh's chances at a deep postseason run, but head coach Dan Bylsma and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury helped keep the ship afloat without both players for the final 29 games of the regular season. The Pens went 15-10-4 down the stretch and stayed alive in the race for the Atlantic Division title until the final weekend of the season.

Naturally, Pittsburgh became a different team without Crosby and Malkin in the lineup. The club was forced to grit out five shootout victories during an 8-2-0 stretch to end the season, so this could be a series where overtime plays a big role.

Centerman Jordan Staal is one of several Pittsburgh players who will have to provide scoring in this series for the short-handed Pens.

"It is just a matter of not getting too high or too low," Staal told his team's website. "It is just a matter of getting those four wins as fast as possible. That is what we are focusing on."

Fleury, meanwhile, will try to build off one of his best seasons as an NHLer this spring. After losing six of his first seven games of the season, the former No. 1 overall pick righted the ship and ended with a 36-20-5 record and a career-best 2.32 goals-against average.

At just 26 years of age, Fleury has already won a Stanley Cup title and played in 62 playoff games. Bylsma hopes Fleury's experience will be a source of strength for his club this spring, especially if Crosby remains sidelined.

Like his counterpart in Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay head coach Guy Boucher deserves a huge share of the credit for his team's success this season.

Last June, Boucher, who was fresh off a successful first year as a head coach in the AHL, was chosen to lead the Bolts by first-year GM Steve Yzerman. After the Lightning had missed the postseason in three straight years before Boucher's arrival, the rookie head coach had Tampa in position to win the Southeast Division title for much of the season before a late push by Washington.

Boucher's Bolts improved their win total from 34 in 2009-10 to 46 this season and also jumped from 80 points to 103. It was just the second time in franchise history that Tampa Bay had recorded 100 points in a season. The other time was in 2003-04, when the Lightning won their only Stanley Cup title.

The fifth-seeded Lightning enter the postseason on a hot streak after playing poorly for most of the month of March. Tampa Bay finished the regular season with wins in seven of its last eight contests and that's after going just 2-6-4 from March 2-25.

Tampa Bay's strength is clearly on offense, as the club boasts the likes of Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Simon Gagne up front.

Stamkos led the club with 45 goals and was second to St. Louis with 91 points this season, but the 21-year-old did not inspire confidence with his output down the stretch.

Stamkos, the first overall pick of the 2008 draft, had two goals and five points over his final 12 games of the season, and managed to score just seven times over his last 31 contests. This will be Stamkos' first-ever NHL playoff series.

All told, Tampa Bay had 10 players with 10 or more goals and six of those skaters had at least 17 markers.

Former Penguin forward Ryan Malone could also be a big factor for the Lightning in this series. A Pittsburgh-area native, Malone signed a seven-year deal with Tampa in the summer of 2008. After posting 26 and 21 goals, respectively, in his first two seasons with the Bolts, Malone battled injuries in 2010-11 and recorded 14 goals in 54 games.

While the offensive attack is formidable, Tampa runs into trouble in its own end of the ice. The club finished tied for 21st in the league with 234 goals surrendered this year, although the acquisition of goaltender Dwayne Roloson in a trade with the Islanders back in January has helped mask the Lightning's defensive deficiencies.

Roloson played in 34 games with Tampa and posted an 18-12-4 record, a 2.56 GAA and four shutouts over that stretch. The 41-year-old has played in 33 postseason games as an NHLer, but he hasn't been in the playoffs since leading Edmonton to its surprise run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006.

All told, Pittsburgh and the Bolts split four meetings this season and this playoff series will mark the first-ever postseason matchup between these clubs.

The Penguins had a 25-14-2 record in their first year at CONSOL Energy Center, while Tampa Bay was 21-14-6 as the visiting team this season.

Game 2 of this series is scheduled for Friday night in Pittsburgh.