PITTSBURGH — There is a possibility that Gary Roberts may find his way back into the Pittsburgh Penguins lineup on Sunday.
Roberts skated with his teammates at practice on Saturday and afterwards Penguins coach Michel Therrien said, "He felt pretty good and we'll make a decision tomorrow. We'll see tomorrow."
Roberts, who turns 42 on Friday, missed the past two games because of a mild case of pneumonia.
Therrien did not have Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora on the ice on Saturday. But both are expected to play in the fifth game against the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL's Eastern Conference final at Mellon Arena.
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- New York Rangers
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Braydon Coburn
- Sidney Crosby
- Hal Gill
- Evgeni Malkin
- Gary Roberts
- Jordan Staal
- Petr Sykora
- Kimmo Timonen
"They should be ready for tomorrow," Therrien said. "They should be there. It's sickness. We believe at this time of year, rest sometimes can be more important than practice."
The Penguins were chased away from Mellon Arena on Saturday because the ancient building, where Pittsburgh has a 15-game win streak dating back to February, was being prepared for a Lynyrd Skynyrd and Hank Williams Jr. double-bill concert Saturday night. So the Penguins practiced at a nearby rink.
They find themselves in the same situation as last round against the New York Rangers, when the Penguins went up 3-0, lost game four and then returned home with a chance to clinch the series. In game five against the Rangers, Pittsburgh required overtime to eliminate their foes.
"We definitely don't want to go back to Philly, that's for sure," said Penguins forward Jordan Staal, who scored both games in the Penguins 4-2 loss in game four. "It isn't fun playing there. It's obviously, we want to get this done right now, and we're focused on just one game right now. One, tomorrow.
"I think right now we feel pretty good about our game, and we just want to have a good start again and we'll go from there."
The Penguins did not start well against the Flyers in the previous match. For the first time all series, Philadelphia was able to establish its relentless forecheck and they limited their turnovers from becoming good scoring chances for the Penguins, which is exactly what transpired in the first three games of the series.
"They came out hard like we expected, but we made some mistakes and they got a lucky bounce on the first goal [a shot that deflected off the stick of Pittsburgh defenceman Hal Gill]," Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said.
But then the Penguins surrendered a couple of power-play goals and the Flyers were off to the races.
The Pittsburgh players said they're not worried about the return of Philadelphia defenceman Kimmo Timonen and the possibility that blueliner Braydon Coburn could be back. Instead, the focus will remain on their game plan.
"We're going to have to use that speed, because I believe speed brings scoring chances," Therrien said. "Good speed, you can play a good checking game. When you use the speed really well, it's tough to contain.
"If we keep using our speed, eventually we're going to have the power play. We're going to draw penalties. Obviously, we haven't gotten a lot of power plays in the last few games, but we're going to keep using that speed to try to generate the power play."
