Saturday, 19 January 2013 13:34

Written by Dave Molinari

Coach Dan Bylsma met with reporters outside the Penguins' locker room about two hours before the start of their regular-season opener against Philadelphia.

Among his insights and observations:

*** Center Joe Vitale and defensemen Robert Bortuzzo and Ben Lovejoy will be healthy scratches today. Dustin Jeffrey will center the fourth line and Simon Despres and Deryk Engelland will make up the third defense pairing.

*** The goalies will split the weekend workload. Marc-Andre Fleury will play against the Flyers and Tomas Vokoun will get the start when the Penguins visit the New York Rangers Sunday evening.

*** The Penguins had a "pretty exciting and quick week" of preparations for the opener and season that will follow, but that "the guys are pretty excited" to get started.

*** Kicking off the season in Philadelpiha is "absolutely" a good way to get going, that there is "no better way to start" for his team.

*** He expects execution to be somewhat sloppy at times in the early days of the season, and that he will have to adjust his coaching to keep things more simple than he would under normal circumstances. "If you're expecting it to be perfect, if you're expecting to be able to make plays, there's probably going to be some frustration," he said.