The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to wrap their hands around the necks of the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of their 2011 NHL playoff series on Wednesday night.
Penguins Vs. Lightning, Game 4: Pittsburgh Hopes To Grab Stranglehold Without Chris Kunitz
Chris Kunitz is out of the lineup for the Pittsburgh Penguins after his flying elbow at the head of Simon Gagne, who will be in the Bolts lineup. Steve Downie is out for Tampa though, serving his own one-game suspension for crushing the life out of Ben Lovejoy. In terms of the impact on Game 4, those suspensions essentially negate each other, which is obviously what the NHL was going for when they handed down the less-than-sufficent punishments.
The series has been dictated by the scorers so far, with the goaltending and the defense mostly playing secondary roles in the overall plot. Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis have had success for the Bolts, but guys like Gagne and Steven Stamkos will need to step up in order to get Tampa back in the series.
For the Penguins these days, it's all about balance, and that's a difficult potion to dilute if you're Guy Boucher and the Lightning. Guys like Arron Asham and Craig Adams are playing large roles in the scoring, and when that happens, it's tough to beat any team. They can score no matter who is on the ice.
The game will get underway at 7 p.m. ET. In the meantime, get up to speed with our blogs: Raw Charge on the Lightning and Pensburgh on the Pens.
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