Daley set to return tonight for Penguins

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The walking-wounded Penguins could ill afford to lose another key player, so spirits were high when Trevor Daley took to the PNC Arena ice for the morning skate and was pronounced set to play tonight against the Hurricanes.

"Trevor will play, barring any changes," Mike Sullivan said afterward.

Daley sustained an upper-body injury that knocked him out of the 3-0 loss to the Rangers on Wednesday, and his status was uncertain heading into today. But he participated in all drills this morning and was paired with usual partner Brian Dumoulin.

All concerned acknowledged Daley was far from 100 percent, but the urgency of the depleted roster and the sensitive spot in the standings appeared to be decisive.



"It's that time of year," as Sullivan put it, and Daley seemed to echo that:



NEW YORK HANGOVER?

It had been a while since any opponent clamped down on the Penguins quite like the Rangers did, but to a man, no one seemed to be taking it to heart. Rather, they spoke of the unusual defensive posture New York adopted.

"In all my years, I've never seen the Rangers play like that," Patric Hornqvist was telling me. "They were so careful, so guarded with everything they did. And it was pretty obvious why."

The latter was a reference to the Rangers missing defenseman Ryan McDonagh, their captain and mainstay, as well as regular-season standout Rick Nash. Alain Vigneault stressed team defense, and his players bought in passionately. It made for a dreadfully dull evening, but the goal was met.

For their part, the Penguins sounded like they were ready to shrug it off as an anomaly.

"We're not going to let teams dictate what we do," Sullivan said, speaking generally. "Our focus is on what we can control. In that game, we tried to do some things to get going offensively, moving Sidney Crosby around and shaking up the lines. There's a fine line there, though. If you start changing up too much, you can play into their hands."

All lines and pairings this morning were unchanged from the starting sets Wednesday.

The Hurricanes preach discipline under Bill Peters, but they're hardly defense-first.

“They’re a very skilled team," Sullivan said. "They’ve got a lot of speed. They generate some offense from their defense. I think they’re the type of team that’s very opportunistic. They’ve got a strong counterattack game. They’re a pace team. I don’t think that’s changed from the last couple of times we’ve played them. They’ve established a pretty good identity and they’ve played a lot of pretty good hockey.”

The Penguins are 1-1-1 against the Hurricanes this season.

HEY, WHAT'S THAT WHITE STUFF?

They don't get a ton of snow on Tobacco Road, but this was what I captured from the parking lot between PNC Arena and North Carolina State's football stadium after the skate:



SECONDARY ASSISTS

• As expected, Evgeni Malkin did not accompany the Penguins on the two-game trip, which will continue to Sunrise, Fla., after this game.

• Other injury matters: Eric Fehr, out indefinitely with a knee injury, is on the trip and was doing off-ice workouts during the skate. David Warsofsky, out with a concussion, skated again with the team.

• Marc-Andre Fleury will start in goal, Sullivan confirmed. Cam Ward, on a 6-3-3 roll with a 1.72 goals-against average in that span, will start for Carolina, Peters confirmed.

• Justin Faulk, the Hurricanes' best defenseman and key to their power play, left practice Thursday with an undisclosed injury and did not participate in their morning skate, but Peters strongly suggested Faulk could play tonight, anyway. If Faulk doesn't, he'll likely have his minutes taken by the spectacularly named -- especially in North Carolina -- Czech defenseman Michal Jordan.