Marc-Andre Fleury has allowed just seven goals in the past four games. His teammates in front of him seem to have realized the value of playing strong defense in front of him. And the Penguins are jumping on opportunities in the offensive zone.

With a 3-0-1 record since Fleury got a chance to start following the collapse against the Boston Bruins, Carolina gives a chance to see if the Penguins have finally turned the corner this season. Sure the Penguins beat the stacked Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday but fans want to see if it was luck or skill. The Hurricanes are 9-9-0 this season and another legitimate test for the Penguins.

Despite some important improvements to the play of the team lately, there is still one glaring problem. That problem is the power play. Goligoski has recently been replaced by Paul Martin but I think the problems still run deeper than that. Martin has experience commanding the power play from his days in New Jersey. But we are still talking about a unit clicking at just 12.8% on the season. They look unsure about how to play with the man advantage and how many games they could have won if only they would have scored a goal or two on the power play still is haunting.

The Pens are 10-8-2. They could be much better if someone, anyone, would figure out that the PP needs some serious adjustment. I doubt that Martin is the solution that turns it into the unit it should be.

Season ticket holders are in a cat bird seat this year with Pens tickets for the inaugural season of the Consol Energy Center in high demand.  Judging by the prices on TicketExchange season ticket holders looking for help paying off their packages are having no problem whatsoever demanding and getting twice face value for their tickets.

A cursory glance of what has sold in sections around me (201) shows that for games even in the middle of the week ticket holders are getting easily $100 a seat if they ask it.  Our seats in 201 are just a hair short of $50 so that is double full season ticket pack prices.  Of course, list price is nearly $65 a seat so for non full season ticket plan holders so it is not as big of a hit for fans trying desperately to get down to the new arena and see a game.

So if you want to go to a game where there are no tickets left and you really want to go you will have to open up your wallet to do so.  I am sure that there will be a lot of complaints from fans over this being the reality of the situation but if you don’t want to pay the secondary market prices then you can always shell out four grand plus for a set of tickets and do so up front.  Then you can hope that someone will want to buy the tickets to all the games you don’t want to or cannot go to.

This season for ticket holders it will be easy.  It is not that easy in most years though.

When it was announced by the Penguins that season ticket holders would have an oportunity to have their picture taken with Lord Stanley’s Cup the questions began to swirl. How many would take advantage of the oportunity to have a picture with the trophy on Penguins ice? When would be the best time to show up; early or later to beat any potential log jams? Well, yesterday, the first of two days when the cup was available, and when season ticket holders with names in the first half of the alphabet were given tickets for, the answers were unmistakable; nearly every damn one and it did not matter.

Yes, even when we arrived at 11:45 AM (over a full four hours BEFORE our recommended time) the line was out the door of gate one, down the sidewalk to Center Avenue and then around the bend down to Washington Place. Inside the line was wrapped around the concourse from Gate one all the way back to section C5/6 the long way around. Then the line wound down the steps and out to center ice.

The impressive thing? No one seemed to care. Yes, by the time we got out of there at 4:45 (five hours later) there was not bitching or moaning from those around us in line the entire time. People talked, children played and everyone accepted the long march to the single reason why we had all shown up. Even when people who had already had their pictures taken told those standing outside that the wait was five hours the groans were light if existent at all. Everyone seemed to expect this sort of turn out.

Here some pictures from yesterday’s wait in line:

The End of the line when we arrived

Me and Charlotte waiting in line (about 30 minutes after arriving)

Charlotte and mommy taking a stroll

Charlotte gets a ride (about 60 minutes after arriving)

Just inside Gate 1 (We have to walk all the way around)

Waiting once inside

a short break from walking

Soooooo close

Finally! Mommy and Charlotte on the ice

The Grand Prize! Lord Stanley's Cup!

Oh, and just in case you thought that the line might get shorter late in the day?  Well, let’s just say we are damn glad we did not wait until 4:00 pm to show up!

The line at 5PM was still looooooooong!

I just want to thank the entire Penguins organization for this wonderful experience and if you have tickets for today to get your picture with the cup well my suggestion is get there as early as you can!