I don't know that this needs to be spoken, but I'm going to go ahead and spoken it anyway today.

Good morning to you.

Good.

Tuesday morning, I'm Dan Kovach, which of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

This is Daily Shot of Penguins.

It comes your way bright and early every weekday.

If you're into football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Pirates in the same place that you found this.

Penguins versus Devils is heading your way day after tomorrow.

It'll be a Thursday night face off at 7.08 p.m. at PPG paints arena.

Really, for a whole bunch of reasons, hoping not only that Avery Hayes will suit up,

but also that he won't be suiting up with any kind of asterisk.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

At practice yesterday in Cranberry, Hayes was, and I think appropriately, placed on the first

line.

No Sidney Crosby yet, and that won't happen today either, since the team has a full

and official day off.

So there's an obvious and glaring hole in the lineup.

Is that why Hayes is here?

Man, I sure hope not.

Is that why he's on the first line? In practice?

Of course it is. But what I'd love to be able to detect from those running the hockey team,

not just now, but in the days and weeks to come, is that Hayes is here for real, that there's going to be

...