PHILADELPHIA -- The Penguins won't have their lineup intact when they face Philadelphia tonight at 7:08 at Wells Fargo Center.
Perhaps they never will, because injuries are part of the game.
Especially, it seems, when those games involve the Penguins.
Nonetheless, they will get a high-impact contributor back when Evgeni Malkin, who has missed the past 23 games because of an unspecified lower-body injury, gets back in uniform against the Flyers.
Malkin worked between Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen at the Penguins' game-day skate, and Mike Sullivan subsequently confirmed that he will play tonight.
He sputtered through the early weeks of the season, but was playing well before being injured, including an eight-game scoring streak in the first half of March.
Malkin's teammates, predictably, are happy that he's able to resume playing.
"It's exciting for me to have another tool out there," Jeff Carter said. "For the whole team, it's something that they've been kind of looking forward to, getting everybody back healthy and seeing what we've got here with a full lineup."
The Penguins don't actually have one of those at the moment. Brandon Tanev was a full participant in the skate and even got some work as a penalty-killer, but hasn't been cleared to play, while Mike Matheson (week-to-week) and Evan Rodrigues (day-to-day) sat out the skate.
Still, the Penguins' medical quarters are a lot less crowded than they have been at other times this season.
"We're as close to healthy (up front) as we've been since Day 1 of training camp," Sullivan said. "We're still not there yet, but we're inching closer. ... We're excited about the group that's assembled here. We think we have the makings of a pretty good hockey team."
Obviously, Malkin can be a big part of that, although the Penguins must guard against straying from the diligent team game they've been playing simply because they have a difference-maker back in the lineup.
"We're going to preach the same message that we've been preaching to this group here for quite some time now," Sullivan said. "That's just trying to clarify our team game, and our team identity, and everybody's contribution to that. It takes everybody to win in this league. It's hard to have success when you're just relying on one, two or three players."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Casey DeSmith will start in goal.
• With Matheson unavailable, former Flyer Mark Friedman is scheduled to play alongside Cody Ceci. He is right-handed, but has expressed a preference for playing the left side, which he will do with Ceci.
• Carter, on returning to Philadelphia, where he began his NHL career: "I've been gone for 10 years ... it's just another game for me now."
• Here are today's personnel combinations that were used at the game-day skate:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Jared McCann-Jeff Carter-Freddy Gaudreau
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Colton Sceviour
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Mark Friedman-Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
