The Los Angeles Kings perhaps thought that they might be giant killers for the second night in a row. Before last night’s showdown with the Penguins the Kings had knocked off Eastern Conference leading Boston. But then again, who hasn’t lately?

It was clear from early on when the Penguins handed the Kings several early power play opportunities on which they failed to scored that Los Angeles was just simply over matched. Crosby (28) opened the scoring at 12:33 of the first by taking the puck off the wall and walking in on Kings netminder Jonathan Quick who he beat high to the glove side. Later in the same period Evgeni Malkin (33) scored on the power play to make the game 2-0 at the end of 20 minutes. Tyler Kennedy (13) and Bill Guerin (19) both added goals in the second to make it 4-0 before the Kings Handzus (17) finally found the net on the power play in the third to make it 4-1.

There was not much of a surprise that the Penguins took care of business at home versus Los Angeles considering the Kings are one of the worst teams in the league while Pittsburgh has been one of the hottest lately. Fleury made 24 saves on the night.

The win keeps the Penguins in 5th place in the East and just behind Philadelphia who also won on Friday but also have three full games in hand setting up a Sunday showdown between the two teams at the Igloo. Honestly, if the Penguins want any chance of leapfrogging the Flyers they will have to dip down deep and win another game.

Despite the score of 5-4, Saturday’s game against the Flyers was not as close as that. The Penguins definitely carried the play for the majority of the game and played strong defensively. Two broken sticks and a thoughtless giveaway which lead to a short handed goal are the only reasons the Flyers were even in the game at all.

Fleury faced only 27 shots as the Penguins continued to improve their play as of late playing the same system under Bylsma as they played under Therrien. Again leading me to ask why even have a coaching change.

The Penguins fell down 1-0 in the first as Biron weathered a storm of shots and Lupul (17) scored for the Flyers midway through. But the Penguins stormed out in the second and just 21 seconds in, Sidney Crosby (22) tied the game. The Penguins kept pressure on and added goals from Malkin (27) and Fedotenko (12) to conclude the period up 3-1.

In the third, Richards stole the puck on a cross ice pass while the Penguins were on the power play and looking to extend their lead. Richards went in alone against Fleury and opened him up to scoot the puck through his five hole to cut the lead to one. Philadelphia scored again to tie the game at three and then Fedotenko (13) scored his second of the game to put the Penguins up 4-3.

Philadelphia came back again with a goal from Knuble (21) but then the Penguins got a bizarre goal to make it 5-4. 4-4 the Penguins broke into the Flyers zone and Biron came way out to the circles to take away the puck. Biron then flipped the puck softly behind his back where it was picked up by Pascal Dupuis who fed Crosby who put the puck in the empty net.

It was the second game in a row where the Penguins had to struggle to get a win and the second game in a row they managed two points with a 5-4 victory against teams ahead of them in the standing.

The win moves the Penguins to 29-25-6 (64pts). Ahead of them, Montreal is battling Ottawa this afternoon and is up 2-0 at the end of the first, Carolina has beaten Tampa Bay 4-1, the New York Rangers play Buffalo this evening (so the Pens will gain at least a point on one of them) and Florida also plays later on today.

Perhaps it was the fear of seeing a fan show up with a paper bag over his head for tonight’s game against the Capitals. Perhaps it was the shame that they would be exposed to from the guy in Section F with the sign denoting the Penguins horrific power play as of late. Or maybe they just decided to actually play hard for 60 minutes against a good team.

Whatever the case, the Penguins put together the most impressive performance this writer has seen in a more than a month against divisional foe Philadelphia. From the opening puck drop through the final horn the Penguins dominated play at both ends of the ice. Despite falling down 1-0 on a goal scored from the luckiest of lucky bounces with Fleury behind the net trying to play a puck that jumped over the net and right into the empty crease, there wasn’t even a contest as the Penguins got contributions from nearly their entire lineup. Goals from Kennedy (7), Malkin (17), Staal (14) and Cooke (5) powered the Penguins to a desperately needed 4-2 win on a night where I was at times tempted to switch over to American Idol to see how many people were making fools of themselves this year.

Fleury faced 29 shots and made 27 saves, rarely being seriously tested as the Penguins implemented a vice like trap that stymied the Flyers in front of their home crowd.

Therrien also moved Cooke to the Crosby/Malkin line and provided grit to spare as he hunted down pucks leaving Dupuis return to that line in jeopardy IF Cookie continues to play like he did last night. Cooke has the right temperament to play on the first line but so does Dupuis and Fedotenko (when he returns) so there may be some more juggling to follow on the top line if Cooke falters. But that gives him a lot more motivation to play hard each and every game I think.

However I will temper my joy at watching a fine performance by the Penguins with the knowledge that one game does not a turn around make. Yes I have hope. But I also have a fear that this may be nothing more than a flash in the pan for a struggling team. Tonight against the Capitals will be another test to prove that the team has turned the corner and it is going to take more than one win for me to get overly excited.

The Pens return to the ice tonight in Philly and so far they have shown no signs of turning things around. I keep hoping that this team will do something to make me believe that they know how to play winning hockey. But all I see is a team full of players that pull up instead of going hard into the boards for pucks, a team full of players that have no trust in those on the ice with them and a team full of players that just do not know how to win.

And if this team does not want me to show up at tomorrow night’s game against Washington with a bag over my head to make my disgust known, they better give me a damn good reason to not be ashamed and to believe.