Blame last night’s loss on the rain falling last night as fans funneled into the Igloo for Game 7? Nope. Blame it on the Fleury – Marc-Andre Fleury. The Penguins netminder had a game that all Pens fans and even he would sooner forget.

Sure, the Canadiens capitalized on their first shot after Sid took a terrible boarding penalty. Sure Gonchar looked like he was already making plans about where he would be playing next year. But those are the sorts of stops a goalie the caliber of Fleury is supposed to make. And that was the story of the night on three of the Canadiens first four goals as all were stops Fleury is supposed to make. But he didn’t and the Pens are off to the golf course for the summer awaiting next year and the opening of the Consol Energy Center.

Fans on hand tried their darndest to get the home team fired up but slowly and surely they fell down 4-0 half way through the second before coming to life with a goal by Chris Kunitz. The fans were loud and cheered even when the Pens were down. They cheered their hearts out. But this was not the year for another Stanley Cup.

Too many players just went through the motions after falling behind last night and when they finally got a fire lit under their asses it was too late. Too many players on the team just played like there was another chance to win the series when there was none and it will lead to one interesting off season as several players on this year’s team will almost certainly not return from Fedotenko to Ponikarovksy to most likely Gonchar as well.

Time for Shero to work his magic and get this team set for next year. And he’ll have a little bit longer than last year to do so.

The Penguins had already proven that they could get by without Stanley Cup Final Game 7 MVP Max Talbot as they roared out to a 10-2-0 record to start the season. They even proved that they could win without Sergei Gonchar on the blueline. Then they proved they could win without Mister (Tyler) Kennedy who has provided a lot of offense on the young season. But what about a win without Evgeni Malkin? Yep, they did that too beating the Blue Jackets in Columbus last night.

It was what people in sports call a character win, when a team that is beat up and missing key components still finds a way to muck it out and get the victory. Yeah, Columbus is struggling after a decent start but they still found a way to win even after falling behind first 2-0 and then 3-1. Oh, and I don’t want to overlook the contribution of thousands of Pittsburgh fans that made the trek to Columbus and repeatedly roared to life to drown out the hometown fans either.

After Rick Nash (7, scored twice, Chris Kunitz (2) scored his second goal in two nights (after a long drought) and short handed to cut the Penguins deficit in half. But when Derek Dorsett (1) scored late in the second to make it 3-1 it would have been easy for the Penguins to mail it in and start thinking about a Halloween night showdown against Minnesota.

In the third the Blue Jackets played conservative and Brent Johnson stopped all six shots he faced. Meanwhile the Penguins, especially late, put their noses down and played hard. With the clock winding inside three minutes to play it was Ruslan Fedotenko (3) who found a rebound and buried it.

3-2 Columbus.

Just 39 seconds later it was Alex Goligoski (5) who wristed a shot past Mason.

3-3 and a tie hockey game.

Columbus held Pittsburgh off in the overtime and then the cardiac kids took the game into a shootout. In the end the winning shot was not that glorious or awe inspiring. But it did come off of the stick of Sidney Crosby. In the shootout Crosby wound his way down the ice and flipped a puck at Mason who looked to stop the puck in his chest. But as the play continued, Mason drifted, could not find the puck, it dropped to the ice and momentum carried it between his stick and his pads.

Victory to the Penguins.

At 11-2-0 the Penguins own the best record in the league and kept pace with Colorodo (10-2-2) who also has 22 pts. Their opponent tonight is one of the worst teams in the league as Minnesota (4-9-0, 8 pts)comes to the Igloo. It’s Halloween and hopefully the injury riddled Penguins won’t play too scary and notch a win against a team that is just two for their last five and three of their last seven.

Last night’s game at the Igloo against the St. Louis Blues was brutal. It was a slaughter. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. Whether the St. Louis Blues were flat or the Penguins were just motivated will be much the topic of conversation today and perhaps it was a little bit of both spurred on by the later. Because one thing is clear and that is that the Penguins throttled the Blues from the opening face off.

When the first period ended, even if the Penguins would have played with six skaters and no goalie the worst the sore could have been was 3-2 Blues. That’s because the Blues managed only three shots in the first twenty minutes of play. The Penguins? Well they peppered Mason with 20 shots and had it not been for some fantastic saves they would have scored much more than just two goals. The period was well half over before the Blues even registered a shot on net. Yeah, it was that bad.

Mr. Hockeyburgh 2009, Tyler (Mister) Kennedy, scored his fifth goal of the season at 11:19 from McKee and Cooke to put the Penguins up 1-0. Then Evgeni (MVP) Malkin scored just over a minute later on the power play to push the lead to 2-0.

In the second the bloodbath continued as the Penguins outshot the stunned Blues 15-8 adding a powerplay tally from Ruslan Fedotenko (2) at 7:29 and then a quick strike half a minute later from Kris Letang (2). Paul Kariya, yes he is still playing hockey, gave the Blues their only goal of the game almost five minutes after that for his fourth goal of the season.

Alex Goligoski (2) dashed all hopes of a comeback midway through the third as he moved the lead to four goals and a score of 5-1.

Fleury stopped, once the night was through, 22 of 23 shots.

Defenseman Sergei Gonchar left the game with what is reported to be a broken bone in his hand possibly sidelining him for a month and opening a spot on the active roster for Martin Skoula who has been waiting in the wings for a chance to play.

The win gave the Penguins their eighth victory in nine games (8-1-0, 16pts) and are atop the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference. Their only loss was the shutout suffered at the hands of the Phoenix Coyotes with Johnson in net. Fleury has remained perfect however to help the Penguins to their impressive start. He is 8-0-0 with a .926 Sv% and a 1.96 GAA. The next game is Friday night against the Florida Panthers (2-4-0) and with a game the next night against the New Jersey Devils (4-3-0) it looks likely that Fluery will get a rest and Johnson will have a chance to redeem himself against another sub-par team.

How good John Tavares, the Islander’s 2009 first round pick, will be and how much he will help a team that has struggled in recent years despite trying to build a formidable team will not be known for some time. But there is no denying that the kid has talent and his hungry to prove himself as an NHL talent. With a goal and an assist in his debut, he will have to be watched.

But even with that performance it was Sidney Crosby and the Penguins that won on Saturday night, a day after the Penguins opened their season with a win against the Rangers and on a night that was the Islanders season opener. His Sidness opened the scoring at 8:50 of the first taking a bank pass off the board from Fedotenko and the other side of the ice to get behind the defense. Crosby cut into the offensive zone, behind the defense and opened up Islander goal tender Roloson for the 1-0 lead. The first period was a sloppy period for the Penguins however as they started taking too many uncharacteristic and down right bad penalties. After Brenden Witt put a clean open ice hit on Ruslan Fedotenko McKee and Malkin both got sent to the box and McKee’s penalty for instigating, a penalty the NHL has said they would enforce this year, was extremely painful as it gave the Islanders a 5-3 on which they scored to tie the game at 1-1.

In the second Tavares (1) scored to make the game 2-1. But in the third at 7:19 of the frame Mark Eaton (1) scored to not the score at 2. Less than half a minute later however, the Islanders Trent Hunter (1) put the home team back on top. It wasn’t until less than four minutes remained at 16:11 that Fedotenko (1) scored and the Penguins played hard down the stretch to force overtime.

After a scoreless 5:00 of OT the shootout sealed the deal for the Penguins with both of the first two lslander shooters missing high glove side on Fleury (something I have regularly pointed out in the past seemed to be his weakness) and both Letang and Crosby beating Roloson on the first two shots the Pens would take.

Fleury was spectacular again stopping 25 of 28 shots and making big saves by kicking out the pads and flashing leather when needed to stop what appeared to be primo scoring chances by the Isles. With a 2-0 mark to open the season the Penguins are off until Wednesday when they return home to host the Pheonix Coyotes.

Something happened between July 1st and today to make Ruslan Fedotenko give up his demands for a multi-year deal and return to the Penguins on a one year contract. What exactly happened will only be a matter of conjecture but I have a feeling it has something to do with the inevitable salary cap pinch all teams are feeling for the coming year. This is made more likely by the stinging fact that while Ruslan made $2.25 million last season he will only make $1.8 million under the terms of the new contract.

A pay cut was certainly not warranted based on his production in 08-09 so the only reason is that the market has dried up fast as teams have inched closer and closer to the cap since free agency began. In 65 games Feds racked up 16 goals and 23 assists missing some time with a broken hand suffered during a fight. Fedotenko’s return will keep one of the most dangerous and feared lines in all of hockey together for one more season.

I am glad to have Feds back but I hope that he doesn’t feel as though he got screwed over by accepting less money and doesn’t play up to his potential.

The Penguins also signed Defenseman Nate Guenin, a Pittsburgh native, to a one year contract as well today. Guenin has been with the Flyers since 2006 but appeared in just 12 games.

With the draft done the Penguins now have to concentrate on two days of intense negotiations with three free agents they would love to resign. Now, as much as I like each of these players and the roles they filled this year, none of them are that important that the Penguins should give up the sod farm to sign them. However there is no disputing that each of them fits well into the Penguins system and have played well with the team Chemistry.

First up is Rob Scuderi. It appears that Scuderi will not be signed to a contract by the July 1st deadline and will test free agency to see what teams will offer him. A deal with the Penguins would probably be $2 million a year (at most $2.5) for two or three years. Someone will probably offer him $4 million because that is what happens to free agents who are coming off a Stanley Cup victory especially ones that played the way Scuderi did. The problem is that teams have to consider that the salary cap only went up $100,000 next year and believe it or not will probably not increase much the next year after that and may even go down depending on the economy. These realizations may keeps teams at bay from offering such huge contracts to a defenseman that while he is a good shut down guy is not irreplaceable.

Scud will likely see who offers him the big money. If it is a perennial looser he may forgo it to come back. He may also decide to come back if the offers from other teams are not much more than $2.5 million or even $3.

Well, what about Ruslan Fedotenko? It is amazing how playing along side of someone like Evgeni Malkin can make teams that last year wouldn’t touch Fedotenko with a 50 foot pole all of a sudden have an interest in him. Ruslan was a good forward playing for a bad Islanders team however and people got to see what he was really capable of this year. Rumors are that the Penguins offer to Feds was not where either he or his agent wanted it to be and it is doubtful that the Penguins will budge much on their offer. Fedotenko will also likely test the free agent market to see what he is offered.

Then there is Billy Guerin. Guerin’s hefty salary this year means that in all likelihood to return he would have to take a million dollar pay cut to stay with the team and would probably only be offered a one year deal on top of that. Guerin’s gritty but old. He has another year or two left on his aging frame and someone is bound to offer him comparable money to what he was making this past season. The question is does Billy want the money or does he want to win?

Well, we will have to see.

Now here is the real problem for each of these players. If they decide to play the game of testing the free agent market they could loose out. The Penguins are not going to sit around and wait. They will be tendering offers to other free agents when the market opens up and there are players out there to be had in the Penguins price range. The question is whether or not the Penguins see them as a better fit for less money than any of these three.

The double edged sword can cut either way so be careful guys.