Despite not having Sid or Geno available for last night’s home opener, the Penguins still had a pulse.

Joe Vitale helped power the Penguins to a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers last night notching a pair of assists, finishing the evening +1 an winning timely face-offs. He earned second star status for his first multiple point game of his career.

Vitale earned the primary assist on both Dupuis (1) goal that put the Penguins up 1-0 late in the first and Matt Cooke’s (3) team leading third goal of the season mid way through the second to extend the lead to 2-0.

Mark-Andre Fleury has the save of the game when he reached out with his glove to block a wide open net and then scrambled blindly to keep the puck from going over the goal line.

Florida would get goals from Goc (1) and Fleischmann (1) but the Penguins would add a short handed goal from Richard Park (1) an even strength marker from James Neal (2) to put the game away despite a late chance for the Panthers on the power play. The Panthers would pull their goal tender for the duration of the man advantage but depots playing 6 on 4 hockey, they could not cut into the Penguin’s two goal lead.

Fleury stopped 32 of 34 shots to earn his third win of the season and the Penguins improved to 3-0-1 on the season.

Notes:
- Joe Vitale has been proving his worth this year so far. He has been a headache for other teams to contend with in the face-off dot and now he is setting up his teammates to score.

- James Neal has now scored twice in the first four games of this year compared to just 2 goals last season after becoming a Penguin at the trade deadline. Last night he picked up a valuable garbage goal by heading the the front of the net, something he needs to keep doing.

- The penalty kill of the Penguins confined their impressive play shutting down the Panthers on all five opportunities they had in last night’s game.

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.

Three games ago the Capitals were in command of their series against the Montreal Canadiens leading three games to one.  Tonight they are thinking about what tee times they would like to start setting as they lose to the eighth seed in the east four games to three.  Jaroslav Halak shut down Alexander Ovechkin and Washington while shining in net behind a Montreal defense that blocked shot after shot.

Both teams had goals waved off.  For Washington a potential goal that would have tied the game at one was ruled no good after Halak was interfered with.  For Montreal a goal that would have made it 2-0 was called back.  But in the end the long and short of it is that Washington could not find ways to score needing only one win to close out the series and the Capitals folded earning them a new nickname in my book – the Washington Collapsibles.  The team with the best record simply could not finish off an underpowered Montreal squad that limped into the playoffs.

Despite being out shot 42-16 the Canadiens netted the only two goals of the game as Marc-Andre Bergeron (1) and Dominic Moore (2) scored.  The win sets up a second round match up versus the Pittsburgh Penguins and bringing up questions about whether or not Montreal can shut down a Penguins team much deeper than Washington.  Ottawa proved that they could do it sporadically but not over the course of a full series.

Game 1 between the Penguins and Habs will be Friday night and a quick turn around for Montreal while Pittsburgh has been off since last Saturday.  Whether or not Montreal can be giant killers yet again remains to be seen.

I have a serious accusation to make regarding Steelers owner Dan Rooney and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. It has come to my attention that these two have taken advantage of a college girl in a bar bathroom. This charge, unfortunately, cannot be corroborated as the girl in question has declined to press charges and asked that the investigation be dropped. Further there is simply no physical evidence to support the accusation.

However, in light of the fact that both Goodell and Rooney are lynching Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger for basically the same accusations and a situation that has played out exactly the same way I think that we should be fair and treat both of them the same way they are trying to treat Big Ben. Talk from the Steelers front office and the commissioners office is that they will join together to punish Roethlisberger probably with a suspension of some length ranging from two to four games. And all this because Big Ben was out trolling bars for poontang? All this when by all accounts the girl in question was inviting sexual encounters by wearing a “DTF” name tag (meaning “down to f*@k”). All this when by all accounts the girl and Big Ben had exchanged sexual talk prior to both willingly heading off to do what single men and women often do? All this when there is no evidence of any kind that any crime too place?

Of course when I say “by all accounts” I mean all accounts except those that you read on page one of the news papers covering the story and are that are apparently more interested in giving only part of the story.

Thus I am calling for punishment for Goodell and Rooney based on the charges I have made. They cannot be proven but hey, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. These two will hide behind some morality standards that the NFL claims to hold to in punish Big Ben. Well I say that it is immoral to punish a man who has committed no crime. Thus I will invoke the same standard.

I propose the following. Goodell, as the NFL ringleader in charge of this sham, shall have to resign his commissionership for allowing this travesty to occur. He will be demoted to ball boy for the Oakland Raiders for one whole season. At the completion of that season Mr. Goodell will be banned from ever holding any office in the NFL higher than Field Maintenance lackey.

For Dan Rooney I propose that, being the disgracethat he is for going along with this travesty, he should have to sell his majority stake in the Steelers effective immediately. He can remain a minority owner but shall be barred from ever having a majority stake in the team. The second term of his punishment is that he will be sentenced to spend one full season as Willie Colon’s jockstrap. Following that one year he shall be be required to spend three full seasons as a tackling dummy on the practice field and get the snot beat out of his pansy ass every day. If he survives that ordeal he will be required to and take up permanent residence in Ireland where he is now U.S. Ambassador to.

And as a bonus there is punishment that I believe should be levied on all the Ben haters within the sound of my voice who think that Big Ben should be punished because they simply believe that he should aqnd who have always hated him, created lies about him and been just general douche bags. All so-called “Steelers fans” who want Big Ben run out of town on a rail must turn in their ‘Burgher credentials. Further they must all stand in a circle, each wearing an, “I’m with this stupid FUCK next to me!” t-shirt. Because that is exactly what each of these retards are. Then they will all be packed on a train and shipped to Seattle where they can all become Seahawk fans because they deserve to suffer in such an inhumane manner.

If I were Big Ben I’d be fighting this lynching tooth and nail.  But reports are that the Steelers QB will not and that he is going to accept his punishment just to make peace with assholes that don’t respect him otherwise they would never be pursuing such acts against him.  Which you know I think shows that Big Ben has infinitely more class than the bozos in either the front offices of the Steelers or the NFL. Still, that said if I were Big Ben I would be leveling the full force of the player’s union against the league and beat them into submission because they are simply wrong.  Then I would flip the bird to any brain dead idiot that boos me out of ignorance at Steelers games.

It could have been Montreal’s last visit ever to the Igloo last night. Baring an always possible playoff meeting between two Eastern Conference foes, Montreal will have to deal with that potentially last visit being a loss. With last night’s 3-1 victory, thanks to lots of on the ball … uh puck … saves by Fleury, the Penguins have pretty much trounced the Canadians this season by a goal total of 9-2. They have now won four straight against the Habs.

The Penguins took advantage of a Montreal squad that had to come from behind the night before and limited them to just 17 shots on net. Had there been more, the score might have turned out differently as Fleury definitely saved the Penguins bacon with several great plays and a little bit of luck. The Penguins accomplished the low shot total on Fleury by pressing the attack in the Montreal zone for most of the night.

The Penguins received goals from Crosby (12), Guerin (6) and Gonchar (3) to stake out a 3-0 lead heading into the third period that they would not relinquish. Crosby scored on a rare shot from high at the left circle that surprised Carey Price. Guerin bashed a loose puck between Price’s pads in the second and Gonchar took a puck right up the middle and opened up Price for the Penguin’s third goal.

The win was the Penguins 17th in 25 games this season and ties a team record. The club also won 17 of its first 25 in 94-95 and 95-96.

After last night the Penguins held on to first place in the East with 24 pts just ahead of Washington who also has 24 pts but fewer wins also in 25 games. Montreal sank to 12-12-1 and are still struggling with injuries.

The Penguins however must face a back to back test this week on Friday and Saturday. On Friday the Pens have to travel to Long Island for a 2:00 PM scrum with the 9-9-7 Islanders and then return home Saturday to host the 13-10-1 Rangers.

After loosing four games in a row as the Penguins injury situation looked bleak, the Penguins have since been getting more healthy and have gone 5-1 in their last six games.