Penguins bounce back to beat Buffalo 8-3

Yeah, I was so pissed about last night's game, and continued injury fest that for the first time in 2 plus seasons I did not recap the game.  Soak your head in camel piss if you don't like it!  Now that this is out of the way, on to tonight's game. This was a big tilt in the Eastern conference, as the Penguins by virtue of losing 4 of their past 5 games, and going 5-5 in their last 10 games were falling in the conference.  Buffalo was only 3 points behind them, and a regulation loss would put the Sabres only one point behind our flightless birds, who had recently dropped to 5th in the conference.  It is not hard to comprehend why this could happen if you look at the injury list up front and on the blue line.  The Penguins are missing Crosby and Staal, 2 of the top 3 centers, along with Park and Jeffrey up front, and on the blue line it is even worse. They are missing top scoring defenseman Kris Letang, and their entire second pairing (9 million dollars in salary), along with Ben Lovejoy, Brian Strait, and Robert Bortuzzo.  So, two of the top 3 centers, and 3 of the top 4 defensemen out, along with solid depth players.  When Carl Sneep was called up today, he became the 5th defenseman from Wilkes Barre to get called up this season, and the third to make his NHL debut this season.  So coming off of a piss poor defensive showing last night, and a fading position in the conference, riddled with injuries, the Penguins needed a big effort tonight.  And they got it!  On the very first shift, Chris Kunitz came out and made two booming checks in the Sabres zone to set the tone for the Penguins tonight, and their battle level stayed at the level all night.  Okay, at 2:17 of the period, Jason Williams gets his first goal of the season, and first as a Penguin on a long ranger slapper from Picard (2) and Craig Fucking Adams (4)!  Penguins lead 1-0.   Marc Andre Fleury then made a huge save on sniper Derek Roy at 3:36 of the period, a possible goal that could have changed the complexion of the game.  Then on a power play, Simon Despres scores the first goal of his career, with a snap shot off a feed from Tyler Kennedy (10), and Jason Williams (1) to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead!  What a play, and a great shot by 47.  At 9:43 Evgeni Malkin chases Ryan Miller with a nasty wrister, his 13th goal of the season, assisted by Chris Kunitz (10), and Brooks Orpik (5). This was Orpik's 100th point of his career. The Penguins go up 3-0 on Buffalo.  At 12:55 Thomas Vanek backs up Brooks Orpik and scores to get the Sabres within 2 goals at 3-1.  Don't worry though, Malkamania scores his 14th goal of the season on a backhand shot from Carl Sneep (1st point of NHL career), and Picard (3), giving the Penguins a 4-1 lead.  Geno then draws a penalty late in the period that would carry over to the second period.  Then 53 seconds into the second period, James Neal scores the second power play goal of the night on a snap shot from Geno (20), and Matt Niskanen (9), Pens up 5-1!  Oddly, the goal was on Ryan Miller who was put back into the net for some reason.  The score remained the same until late in the period when Deryk Engelland scored his 2nd goal of the season when a shot trickled behind Miller, assisted by Arron Asham (9), and Pascal Dupuis (14), giving Duper 300 career points, and the Penguins a 6-1 lead going into the third period!!  The Sabres made it MILDLY interesting about midway through the third period when goals at 8:49 and 10:13 by Luke Adam and Paul Gaustad made it 6-3 Pittsburgh with half a period of hockey left to play.  The momentum that Buffalo had was short lived though, as Evgeni Malkin completed his hat trick on the power play (15), from James Neal (14) and Matt Niskanen (10).  It was the third power play goal of the game for the Penguins.  It was now 7-3 Penguins.  Then, at 13:39 the hedgehog, Chris Kunitz closed out the scoring with his 11th goal of the season, assisted by Malkin (21) and Deryk Engelland (8).  It was Geno's 5th point of the night!  The win improved the Penguins to 18-11-4 and gave them 40 points on the season.  The Penguins had six players with multi-point nights including Jason Williams 1G and 1A, Geno 3G and 2A, Chris Kunitz 1G and 1A, Matt Niskanen 2A, James Neal 1G and 1A (including his league leading 10th PPG), Deryk Engelland 1G and 1A.  Malkin's five point night moved him into a tie for 3rd place in scoring in the NHL with Jason Spezza, and behind Phil Kessel by one point, and Claude Giroux who is out with a concussion.  Geno now leads the league in points per game (1.384) with 36 points in 26 games!  Lately, 71 looks like the one man wrecking crew who carried the Penguins during the extended absence of Crosby in 2007-08 and the beast who won the Conn Smythe in the 2009 playoffs.  If he can sustain that level of play, the Penguins should be in great shape!  Malkin's hat trick tonight was the 7th of his career, and his first since 11/3/10 v Atlanta, and the first for the Penguins since Kunitz laid 3 on the Lightning on 1/5/10, Crosby's last game of the past season.  Malkin also passed Ron Schock for 10th all time for the Penguins in assists.  There were many other milestones tonight as well including:
Fleury's 200th win, making him the 4th youngest to do so in the expansion era;
Despres' first NHL goal;
Sneep's first NHL point;
Dupuis' 300th point;
Orpik's 100th point;

Simon Despres is getting better by the game, and tonight logged more than 20 minutes of ice time.  Deryk Engelland and Matt Niskanen remain the Penguins' two most reliable healthy defenseman, each playing solid tonight in their own end, and contributing 2 points each.  Let's hope that Staal, Martin, and Michalek can get healthy in time for Tuesday's game with Chicago!  Great time at the barn tonight.