Finally!

Since the last time I posted......yeah it was days ago because I have normalized my love affair with hockey, the Penguins have played one horrendous game, a 4-1 loss Tuesday night on home ice, a game which they failed to even show up, and two impressive wins.  Thursday night in New York, the Penguins continued their recent superiority over the Rags with an impressive 3-0 road shutout, and today they hammered the New Jersey Devils 5-1 in a day of firsts for the Pens. Thursday's game featured a stellar  effort   between the  pipes by Tomas Vokoun, a two point night (goal and an assist) for Geno, and the first goal of the season by Simon Despres, on a  nifty semi-breakaway set up Pascal Dupuis.  Despres took the pass like a sniper then turned Lunqvist inside out to give the Pens the back breaker.  More important to me is the fact that he looked pretty comfortable paired up with Kris Letang, giving the Pens their own French Connection.  In addition, despite a couple of shaky moments Robert Bortuzzo played a pretty solid game in his season debut, paired with Deryk Engelland he gives the Penguins a big, rugged third pairing that can take the body on a regular basis.  It was good to see the Penguins rebound against a red hot Rangers team to take a valuable two points on the road.  They followed that up with a game of firsts as noted above.  The 5-1 victory featured Brandon Sutter's first goal as a Penguin, a nice dirty goal scored from the blue paint.  It also featured Robert Bortuzzo's first NHL goal, a nice blast from the point that beat Brodeur.  The victory was also the first one on home ice this season for your flightless birds!  The victory leaves the Penguins temporarily atop the Atlantic Division with ten points and third in the Eastern Conference. Some items of note for me today include the following:

The Penguins defense was solid for the second straight game and all three pairings have been comfortable as a unit.  Orpik/Martin, Letang/Despres, and Engelland/Bortuzzo have been very effective in the last two divisonal scrapes.  That is a good sign, as Matt Niskanen is out for a few weeks, and it is time to see what these young guns can do at the NHL level.  If all are healthy the Penguins will have a good problem when Nisky gets healthy;

Crosby, despite one sloppy play that led to a Devils goal, seemed to have found his game in a big way today.  Crosby was everywhere, adding a goal and two assists;

Sutter played a great two way game today, and hopefully getting his first goal will lead to more offensive production for him;

The Penguins generally played a very sound game defensively, outshooting New Jersey 30-16, and taking the body all night long;

Chris Kunitz despite being ill looked like the Kunitz we all grown to love, playing a rugged game, and also notching a goal and two assists;



James Neal notched his 5th goal, a power play goal Thursday night, and though he was not on the score sheet today, he was a physical presence all over the ice;

Duper picked up 3 points, all assists in the past two games;

Boychuk showed more grit than expected, and flashed some impressive speed.  It will be interesting to see if that can translate into goals at the NHL level;

A big matinee tilt against the hated Capitals tomorrow!