Pascal Dupuis isn't ready to say precisely why he sat out the Penguins' past two games.

He is adamant, though, that his undisclosed injury won't prevent him from playing when Edmonton visits Mellon Arena tonight.

"I'm not healthy, 100 percent, yet," he said after practice yesterday. "[But] it's something that I can obviously play with."

Dupuis, who has worked alongside Sidney Crosby on the No. 1 line for most of this season, was on left wing with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora yesterday. Changing linemates won't necessarily have an impact on how he goes about his work.

"The only difference is, [Malkin] likes to shoot a little more," Dupuis said. "They're both unbelievable players."

Winger Ruslan Fedotenko, who missed the Penguins' 6-3 victory Saturday in St. Louis because of an unspecified injury that caused him to leave the morning skate early, practiced yesterday but is not expected to be in uniform tonight.

He declined to discuss not only the nature of his injury -- standard practice for the Penguins since the league gave clubs permission to keep such information secret -- but also any possible date for his return, per instructions from management.

Playing tonight has "not been ruled out," Fedotenko said. "It's a day-to-day decision.

"I'm not supposed to talk about that at all. I don't want to be rude, but no information is supposed to go out."

The Penguins haven't faced the Oilers more than once in a season since 1999-2000, but that lack of familiarity won't be an issue for them tonight.

Mostly because coach Michel Therrien plans to focus on what his players should do, not the finer points of Edmonton's game.

"We'll concentrate on us," he said. "We'll let our team know how [the Oilers] play, but obviously, it's more about us than about them."

Winger Matt Cooke, who spent most of the past nine seasons in Vancouver, is far more familiar with Edmonton than most of his teammates and noted that the Oilers are not passive in their approach.

"They forecheck hard, and that's kind of what they thrive on," he said. "Pressure, pressure, pressure. If you can catch them going the wrong way, you can create some opportunities, but you have to be willing to pay the price."

New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, widely regarded as one of the finest goaltenders in NHL history, will have surgery this morning to repair damage to the tendon that connects his left biceps to his elbow and is scheduled to spend the next three to four months recuperating.

Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said the injury is "pretty unfortunate" for Brodeur, but agreed that he has stayed surprisingly healthy during his time with the Devils. "He's been pretty fortunate throughout his career," Fleury said. "He's always been healthy. [A major injury] can happen to anybody."

The game tonight will start a half-hour earlier than usual to accommodate Canadian television. ... Before the game -- and until the middle of the first period -- the Penguins will conduct their annual food drive to benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Fans donating cash or a non-perishable food item will be eligible to win autographed memorabilia. Team officials said the previous 15 drives have collected more than 22,500 pounds of food and $18,200.