Dan Muse makes surprising roster decision ahead of game versus Flyers

The Penguins defeated the St. Louis Blues in Pittsburgh on Monday night 6-3 and now get set to take on their in-state rivals the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. But before the two Pennsylvania teams get set to battle, Penguins head coach Dan Muse had a lineup decision to announce.

According to Penguins insider Dan Kingerski, the lineup decision that Muse is making is taking Harrison Brunicke out of the lineup in favor of veteran defenseman Matt Dumba. The Penguins recalled former first-round pick Owen Pickering this morning from the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and he will play tonight.

Pickering has been doing quite well in the AHL ever since he did not make the Penguins roster out of training camp. And he gets his opportunity to prove himself and let the Penguins coaching staff and management know that he belongs in the NHL and not be re-assigned to the AHL again.

Pickering and Brunicke played together quite often as a defensive pairing in the preseason. And when Pickering got recalled to the Penguins this morning, it seemed like the two were destined to play together in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

But that unfortunately does not seem to be the case as Pickering and Dumba will be on the Penguins third defensive pairing on Tuesday night. Brunicke will sit for the third time in four games and this seems to hopefully be part of the development plan that he has in place according to Muse.

Brunicke did not necessarily have a great game in the victory over the Blues as he had some bad stick positioning and seemed to be trying to do too much. But watching again is a learning opportunity and hopefully does not get sent back to his junior team.

But now is Pickering's chance to prove that he should be a mainstay in the Penguins lineup and maybe Brunicke draws back in for the Penguins next game Thursday at the Minnesota Wild.