Say what you want about Detroit, San Jose is the best team in the West and built for a playoff run. And say what you want about the Penguins losing 3-0 to Detroit, they played a good game only to collapse in the end and showed real signs of improvement which they continued to show against a San Jose Sharks squad that came out and wanted to put the Penguins away early.

The first period of last night’s game was all about goal tending as Fleury stopped 15 shots and Brian Boucher for the Sharks stopped 11. The second period saw the Penguins get on the board thanks to Thomas (1) who scored his first goal for the Penguins on a sloppy puck just thrown to the net while shutting down the quick moving sharks. The third period was back and forth with the Sharks finally punching in a goal with more bodies in front of the net than the Penguins could account for. Each team managed 14 shots in the final frame and the Penguins could have won it but missed opportunity after opportunity.

In overtime the Penguins had another power play that they could not convert on and the game progressed to a shootout. Fluery stymied the sharks shooters while Boucher did the same to the first two Penguins to take a shot. But Sidney Crosby went five hole on their third attempt to get the Penguins a badly needed two points.

What the Penguins did last night was put together what was undoubtedly their best performance of the season in beating the Sharks who are easily favored to go deep into the playoffs. The win also gave the Penguins three wins in their last four games and three of five for the month of February playing tough games and tough teams.

This is a team that looks to finally have overcome but has still had some bumps since the All Star Break that have to leave a little doubt in the minds of fans as to whether or not they can recover well enough to make the playoffs. The Penguins now rest in 10th place in the East at 27-24-5 (59 pts) and has a lot of work to do because many of the teams ahead of them have games in hand.

On a final note, superstar defenseman Sergei Gonchar has been cleared to play by team doctors. His return is long in coming and the team appears ready to add him into the lineup and make a push.

The Columbus Blue Jackets came into Pittsburgh hoping to win a game. The Penguins hoped that their comeback against Tampa Bay would not be the end of their good fortune. Thanks to Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins got what they wanted. Fleury stoned the Blue Jackets on 15 first period shots and was again huge in the third stopping 10 of 11 and 33 of 34 overall. He won the Penguins this game.

And it was his goal tending that allowed the Penguins to eventually get a 1-0 lead in the second off of Kris Letang’s 4th of the year. Letang (5) would add another nearly ten minutes later to make the score 3-0. In the end the Penguins wound up with a 4-1 victory and two wins in a row playing a fairly consistent and gritty game. Crosby (21) scored an empty netter at the end to seal the win.

Columbus fell to 24-23-5 on the year and the win, while it helped the Penguins moral did not move them up in the standings. They are still in 10th place behind Carolina who also has 57pts but also a game in hand. They are one point back of the Panthers that have two games in hand.

The real test is this Sunday against a struggling Detroit squad that is only 4-4-2 in their last ten but coming off two wins against St. Louis and Pheonix with a game against the Oilers the night before. The Penguins must play hard and really must win that game to prove that they are ready to make a run here with time and games running out.

I think the answer to that question I asked in the title is a tried and true quote. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

I couldn’t even comment after the Penguins blew a sure win in New Jersey on January 30th because if I did I might have said something I would later regret. The next night, watching the defense and backup netminder Mathieu Garon cost the Penguins a victory I was even more furious. Then watching the team’s absolutely pathetic performance against Montreal on February 3rd I was ready to hurl something large through my nice flat screen television and uttered how my seventeen month old daughter understood the fundamentals of hockey better than the Penguins appeared to.

Then last night, for 40 minutes I watched a Penguins team that seemed to have just completely given up after first falling behind 1-0. Then they fell down 2-0. And finally it was 3-0. Against the Tampa Bay Lightning who are boasting a roster full of Pittsburgh Penguin rejects nonetheless!

But I will tell you what gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, this team might be ready to do something other than stink up the joint. Evgeni Malkin, who after last night’s game makes me believe that he might be more worthy of the Captain’s C than someone else currently wearing it, took the team on his back. He had some help from other players, but the third period was his period just like that third period against Detroit all those games ago was Jordan Staal’s.

This time it was Malkin’s turn to stand up apparently in the locker room and, down 3-0, proclaim to the team that everything was ok because he had the Lightning right where he wanted them.

2:25 into the third Malkin (23) scored to cut the score to 3-1. But it was not until 14:06, with time running down that the rest of the team chipped in as Mark Eaton (2) scored to trim the score to 3-2. Malkin was on the ice for that goal although he did not figure into it. Then it was Sykora (20) on the power play from Malkin that tied the game up at 16:31 to send the game to overtime.

In that frame it was Jordan Staal and Geno that worked hard 4 on 4 to get the puck out of the corner into the net. Malkin (24) had the game winner with 0:16 remaining.

The defense came around too after a terrible first period where they allowed 14 shots to allow only 5 in the second, 3 in the third and just two in the overtime.

The problem is Malkin cannot do this every night. The team needs to respond without being forced to do something by arguably the team’s best player. The team needs to come out and be a professional hockey team, finish checks, putting pucks on net and doing all the little things they are paid to do from the opening drop to the final horn. And I do not honestly know that I have seen that sort of professionalism and determination in this team yet or ever will this season.

Sure they won. But they beat Tampa Bay. A team that is worse than the Pens are right now. Many of the teams ahead of them in the standings have games in hand on Pittsburgh and that just makes the chances of another Stanley Cup Playoff appearance that much more remote with a team that is winning at only a 40% clip since the All-Star Break.

Some people say that things will get better once Gonchar gets on the ice for a game. I say if Gonchar is all this team needs to start winning then that doesn’t say very much about the caliber of this team that one man can turn them into a winner from a looser. They had better start winning before Gonchar’s return to prove they are worth having another shot at the big prize.

I just cannot go without giving recognition to our Pittsburgh Steelers who, even when it looked like hope was fading, found a way to win against the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl!

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know if the team had it in them after they allowed the Cardinals to take the lead in the 4th quarter but Big Ben and Santonio Holmes (with a great grab in the end zone) and the entire offense recovered to bring home a sixth Lombardi Trophy to the Steel City.

Congratulations to the Steelers and the ENTIRE STEELERS NATION!