Keys to Victory : Pens can advance with Victory over Habs tonight

For the third time in as many years, the Pittsburgh Penguins can advance to the Eastern Conference Finals with a win over the Montreal Canadiens in the Habs home arena tonight.

Playing behind their recent star power in net via Jaroslav Halak, Montreal’s cinderella story has been well documented and for good reason – they have held some of the game’s finest players and teams in check. Tonight, with an abundance of injuries to their defensive corp, they will have their work cut out for them. Here’s what Pittsburgh must do in order to capitalize :

- The “D” stands for “Depleted” : Montreal’s best defenseman, Andrei Markov suffered an injury in game one; he will not return tonight. Jaroslav Spacek has been battling injury for some time and is listed as a game time decision. Former Penguin and defensive stalwart Hal Gill did not participate in the Habs’ morning skate. Multiple sources have reported that Gill will not play in tonight’s contest. Pittsburgh, for the first time in the series since game one, showed a mental tenacity in game five. The Penguins have recently benched struggling wings Ruslan Fedotenko and Alexei Ponikarovsky and the team has taken on a more cohesive look as a result. The team will have to continue to shine in puck possession and keep up the pressure on the forecheck to exploit the defensive mismatches presented to them.

- Spring flowers Must Bloom : The “Flower”, or Marc Andre-Fleury to those of you outside of the loop in Pittsburgh, must continue to build on his solid play in the two most recent contests. In game four, Fleury allowed a weak goal to give Montreal early momentum, but in the ensuing two hours of ice time, approximately, spanning over games four and five, Fleury only allowed two goals to get past him. In the latter half of this series, Fleury has looked more like the Pittsburgh Penguin that brought the Pens to glory last spring, rather than the inconsistent liability many Pittsburgh fans saw at times throughout the playoffs prior to game four

- Sid “No More Kidding Around” Crosby : Sidney Crosby’s willingness to take on a more defensive role as of late shows both his versatility and selflessness as the Penguins captain. It also shows a lack of killer instinct from Pittsburgh coach Dan Byslma, whose recent lineup changes have flourished everywhere besides Crosby’s line. Sid the Kid will skate with Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz once more, as he did in Bill Guerin’s recent injury-related absence. Kunitz and Dupuis have both shown a willingness to go to the net and make Crosby’s job easier. Sidney Crosby must step out of his recent defense-first mode and return to the favor. It should be noted that Bill Guerin will skate alongside Evgeni Malkin and Max Talbot on the team’s second line tonight.

The Pens and Habs do battle tonight at 7pm EST.