OTTAWA - With all due respect to Deryk Engelland, Ben Lovejoy and Nate Guenin, the current Pittsburgh Penguins roster is short several household names from the squad that won the Stanley Cup five months ago.

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Sergei Gonchar

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Injuries, particularly on defence, have tested the depth of the club's farm system.

Mark Eaton was the only healthy holdover defenceman from the championship squad available to play in Monday's 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks, with Alex Goligoski (lower body), Brooks Orpik (lower body), Kris Letang (shoulder) and Sergei Gonchar (wrist) all injured. That prompted the recall of three guys named Engelland, Lovejoy and Guenin.

"We needed them," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma told Pittsburgh reporters earlier this week. "We didn't have many options but to throw those guys into the fire against some real good guys."

To make matters worse, defenceman Jay McKee suffered an infected finger in the Anaheim game and will miss two to four weeks.

The only good news on the blue-line is the possible return Thursday of Gonchar, which would save the Penguins from dipping even deeper into their minor-league roster ahead of their game at Ottawa against the Senators. Gonchar has missed 12 games due to a broken wrist.

It may be a no-name Pittsburgh blue-line right now, but the Penguins are still seven points up on Ottawa and have two players in the lineup who have the ability to make up for a lot of defensive shortcomings. Star forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin figure to provide fits for a Senators team still missing its top defensive defenceman, Anton Volchenkov.

Crosby, fresh from running a portion of the Olympic torch relay Wednesday, appears to have rediscovered his touch after experiencing a career-high five-game point scoring drought earlier this month. He has a goal and four assists in his past three games.

Malkin has three assists in two games since missing seven games with a shoulder injury. In his absence, the Penguins had a record of 2-5 and went 0-for-26 on the power play

Max Talbot, who played a significant role in the Penguins' charge toward the Stanley Cup, could also make his season debut Thursday following shoulder surgery in the summer.

Ottawa Citizen