Despite squandering four power play chances in the first period and falling behind the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Penguins found a way to win on the West Coast. Something that has been more difficult for Pittsburgh than Eric Lindros taking to the ice and not getting a concussion. The underachieving Ducks (now just 4-7-2 this season) could not overcome the Penguins despite another pathetic performance with the man advantage that makes me wonder exactly what the coaching staff will have to do to wake up a bunch of guys who have plenty of talent but apparently not the desire to play on the ice when the other team is down a man.

The game seesawed back and forth with Anaheim’s Corey Perry (9) scoring early in the first, Pittsburgh’s Mike Rupp (4) scoring early in the second on a snap shot, the Kris Letang (1) finding the net midway through the period and finally Corey Perry (10) scoring again as the second period wound down.

Then in the third it was a fabulous flurry. That’s flurry, not Fleury, even though the Pen’s netminder performed well once again in the game stopping 26-29 shots he face. No, it was a flurry of goals that decided the game and then a save that sealed it.

At 7:55 of the third Alex Gologoski (6) put the Penguins up 3-2. Nineteen seconds later Saku Koivu (2) tied it up again. Fifty-nine seconds after that it was Pascal Dupuis (3) that put the Penguins up for good. With a few minutes remaining however it was Sidney Crosby who stacked his pads and stopped a Niedermayer shot that kept the Penguins on top.

The victory pushed the Penguins to a 7-0-0 road record this season and a 12-3-0 (24 pts) record overall at a time when they are missing key pieces to their lineup; Talbot Gonchar and Malkin. Tyler Kennedy returned to the lineup and tallied 2 assists.

The Penguins now have to travel to Los Angeles to battle the Kings and former Penguins Rob Scuderi on Thursday night.

… Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi who is a prospect. This season Kunitz has 35 points in 62 games this season with 16 of those being goals. He’s a perpetual 20 goal scorer especially on a team like the Penguins. Tangradi has 38 goals and 87 points in the OHL this season. Nothing overly indicative of any real talent as the minors are filled with players putting up impressive numbers against subpar talent.

Shaking it out, you have the Penguins dropping about $4 million in cap room but picking up Kunitz for $3.725 million and getting a little bit of an upgrade. You have the Penguins relieving themselves of a player who has not played up to his potential (but then again have any of them this year except maybe Malkin) for a guy who has managed 81 goals over four seasons which is pretty decent.

I have been saying that one of the Penguins defensemen were going bye-bye this year based solely on the number we were carrying. I even said it would be one of the offensive defensemen. But I really thought it would end up being Gonchar because he had the most value and a year left on his contract (if I am counting 5yrs correctly). I knew Letang was safe and figured it would be Goligoski or Whitney. But for some reason, I don’t know why, this trade just doesn’t make my nipples hard yet. That’s probably because the team as a whole hasn’t done that either.

Lots of people do not seem to like Whitney. There are even a couple in my office who have some unfounded resentment for the man. I think it is probably because he spoiled us by have that one really kick butt season which landed him his $4 dollar deal and people sort of expected him to keep getting better despite still being young and this year playing on a team that under performed. I hope these people that hated him and are joyous to see him leave are happy because I think he is going to be yet another player that in a couple year they are going to wish was still with the Penguins. All I can say is thank God he is in the Wester Conference so he can’t burn us much.

Perhaps with Whitney gone, does this mean that the Penguins are going to work to lock up Gonchar for a few more seasons? I hope so because he is the most underrated defenseman in the league if you ask me and certainly has a few more years left in him.

The Mighty Ducks are not exactly a force in the Western Conference but when you consider that the Penguins were down major parts of their team, last night’s 3-1 win against Anaheim was certainly a bright spot. The Penguins took to the ice without Sidney Crosby, Rob Scuderi, forward Max Talbot, Kris Letang and Pascal Dupuis. They are also still missing Fedotenko and Zigomanis as well as Gonchar and also lost Orpik during the game due to an injury.

Things looked bad early on as the makeshift Penguins struggled to find their groove against the Ducks managing a pathetic 5 total shots in the period against Jean-Sebastien Giguere. But the fifth one was all they needed to take a 1-0 lead with only 21 seconds remaining in the period. It was Matt Cooke (6) who wound out from behind the Ducks goal and fed a puck to the far post that banked in with time running out that put the Penguins up heading into the locker room.

Early in the second it was Cooke (7) again who scored just 0:23 seconds in. He found a rebound from Giguere’s pads and with the Ducks netminder badly out of position he slammed it home for a 2-0 lead. The Ducks would cut the lead in half on a second period goal by Getzlaf (17) but the Pens were defensively sound and allowed only 7 shots in the period while amassing 10 themselves; a number that is impressive considering their recent weak totals.

In the third period Pittsburgh got into penalty trouble but was able to hold off a hard charging Ducks team determined to win. At 15:05 of the final period Hal Gill (1) scored his first goal of the season to make the game 3-1. Gill shot the puck from the circle and it found the back of the net.

Fleury played well, facing only 22 shots in the game to earn the victory.

The win moved the Penguins back into a playoff spot (8th to be exact) and they have won two of their last three and could have easily won the Washington game with a little commitment to defense. I am still not ready to say that the team has come out of its recent long and painful funk but things are certainly looking up. The question will be can they play hard enough to win games while the injury bug continues to decimate their team.