Pens beat Jets 4-1 to celebrate Festivus

A couple weeks ago people were bemoaning the fact that the Penguins were not beating the better teams in the league anymore.  They were only feasting on the weaklings of the league according to those people.  Nevermind, that the team is tied for first in man games lost, and have used 12 defensemen due to injury (the most in the league), staying in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race was not enough for some people.  Well this week, the Pens embarrassed a very good Buffalo team 8-3, beat the league's hottest team, the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2, and beat a Winnipeg team on their ice, who had been 7-1-1 in their past nine home games, 4-1.  Tonight's win putst the Penguins' record at 20-11-4.  Okay, now for game highlights.  At the 13:59 mark of period one, Joe Vitale tips in a rebound for his second goal of the season off of a shot from Alexandre Picard (4).  Pens are up 1-0.  Later in the first, elite middleweight fighter, AA Enforcer engages Tanner Glass after Glass puts a solid check on Malkin.  Not a great fight, but advantage Asham as Glass so NO MAS after a spirited battle.  I love the way Asham battles for his teammates.  In the second period, Burmistrov ties the game for the Jets at the 9:11 mark from Wheeler and Kane.  It looked a nail biter in the third period with two big points on the line.  Well as :22 of the third period, the Real Deal James Neal scores his 20th goal of the season, off a feed from Evgeni Malkin (25) and Chris Kunitz (11).  2-1 Penguins.  Then at 4:14, Jordan Staal who looked healthy for the first time in a long time scores a power play goal (13), from Chris Kunitz (12) and Steve Sullivan (12).   The assist was Steve Sullivan's 700h career point!  Then, 40 seconds later Pascal Dupuis nets his 10th goal of the season from Tyler Kennedy (11) to deliver the knockout punch to complete an outburst of 3 goals in under 5 minutes!  Duper continues to make his case as best dollar for dollar value in the league.  Some thoughts from tonight.  I HATE fans from Canada.  Period.  Second, Jordan Staal looked good physically tonight and got his first point in 8 games.  Hopefully, this gets Staalsy back on track offensively.  With Engelland, one of the Penguins steadiest blueliners out due to suspension, I was worried about the blue line.  I should not have been.  First, Z came back on his 29th birthday, and logged 20 plus minutes, and led the game with 5 blocked shots.  Matt Niskanen continues to play like a top 4 defenseman, and Ben Lovejoy in his second game back logged another strong game.  Add Picard getting an assist on the Pens' first goal, and Despres playing yet another strong game, and you can see the depth of this blue line shine tonight.  I don't see how Paul Martin is not traded at some point between now and the start of next year.  That is not an indictment of Martin, as much as it is acknowledgement that the Penguins depth on the blue line will make the 5M dollar salary of Martin part of the equation necessary to sign Neal long term ( among others), and perhaps add a little scoring depth.  James Neal and Evgeni Malkin extended their scoring streaks to 7 games each tonight. Neal leads the league with 10 power play goals, and Malkin has 16 points in his last 7 games.  Chris Kunitz was the game's number one star with two points and continues to shine as a catalyst for this team.  Kuni does the hard work, with a ferocious forecheck, tremendous puck battles along the wall, and is a nasty disruptive force in front of the net.  Love to watch the guy work!  The Penguins are off until Tuesday, and hopefully those 4 days will get some other bodies healthy and ready to play for the Penguins.