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.

After the Penguins clinched a playoff birth on Tuesday with their win over Tampa Bay, they could have just looked past the New York Islanders. But with playoff positioning still to be determined they did not. The game last night saw Mathieu Garon in net instead of Fluery and the return of Philippe Boucher to the lineup against the lowly Islanders.

Boucher was obviously overwhelmed in his first shift starting the game and quickly was replaced on the ice after several fumbles and missteps. The Penguins as a team played sloppy as well and took two penalties in the first five minutes which lead to an early 0-1 deficit for Pittsburgh. But Boucher and the Penguins stormed back. Boucher (3) scored off a rebound and, crashing the net late in the first to tie the game and the team never looked back as they rattled off five more unanswered goals from Dupuis (12), Cooke (13), Guerin (21), Crosby (33) and lastly Misterrrrrrrrrrr Kennnnneddyyyyyyyyyyy (15) to end the scoring.

The win keeps the Penguins with an outside chance at home ice advantage in the playoffs however, for that to happen Carolina must lose their final game against New Jersey (a possibility) and Philadelphia must do no better than split their remaining games against the Islanders and Rangers (also possible). But the Penguins must also win Saturday against the Canadiens which would give them, if this scenario plays out, two more points than Carolina, and the either the same or two more points than Philadelphia with the Penguins holding the head to head tie-breaker.

Regardless, the Penguins have the 6th seed locked up and can drop no further. All that is left to be determined is who they will face in round one and where.

Wednesday was a somewhat busy day for the Penguins. Satan cleared waivers and the Penguins got at least one winger who might be playing along side His Sidness soon. One of those wingers the Penguins acquired is Craig Adams who the Penguins claimed off waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks. The 31 year old has just six points in 36 games this season. But the other winger is bad boy Billy Guerin whom the Penguins got from the Islanders for a conditional draft pick.

Guerin has just 36 points including 16 goals this season for the hapless Islanders but is a perpetual 20 goal scorer with an appetite for destruction and taste for physical play making him a prime candidate to be along side Crosby as not only a scoring threat but also an enforcer to keep other teams honest about liberties they might choose to take on Crosby. Sure he is 38, but I remind you he has scored 16 goals for a pathetic Islander team so hopefully he will only get better once in the Black and Gold.

The cure for the Penguins and their recent slump was clear – the New York Islanders. Behind a pair of hat tricks, one from Petr Sykora and one from Pascal Dupuis, the Penguins annihilated the Islanders in front of a capacity crowd one night after hitting post after post against the Devils. The hat tricks were the first of both players career.

It did not take long for Pittsburgh to let New York know that they were looking for a whipping boy to take their recent frustrations out on. Dupuis (4) scored at 6:41 of the first to bring the crowd to its feet and at 13:49 Satan (11) scored on the power play to make it a 2-0 game. The Streit (7) scored late in the period for the Islanders to make the score 2-1 on the power play. But it was a short lived victory as the Penguins stormed in to the New York zone and Petr Sykora (8) found the back of the twine from Malkin (36) and Fedotenko (6) 0:11 later.

But the Penguins were not done. Thirty-nine seconds later Boucher (1) scored his first to make the score 4-1 going into the locker room. Joey MacDonald allowed 4 goals on 19 shots and was chased from the net to start the second in favor of Yann Danis. He fared no better allowing four more Penguin goals in the second on fourteen shots. Malkin (12) scored at even strength just 2:12 in, Petr Sykora (9, 10) scored at 7:53 and 15:42 on two power plays for his first ever hat trick despite lots of two goal games and Dupuis (5) scored his second of the game with just 0:31 left in the period to make the game an 8-1 affair and the Islanders without another option in goal to stop the bleeding.

The third period began and dragged on with the Penguins managing just five shots. But it was clear that Coach Therrien wanted to try to get Dupuis a hat trick and I was constantly yelling “Dupuis!” every time he hit the ice or touched the puck which certainly got a rise out of the crowd as the call apparently echoed around the quickly emptying seats. Some other fans soon got into the act doing a chant of “Du (doo)!” and then “Puis (pwee)!” several times in the final frame. Even though the Penguins looked content to milk the 8-1 lead to a victory and even though Sutton (1) scored at 13:06 to cut that lead to a paltry six, those of us constantly cheering for a second hat trick were not disappointed when Dupuis (6) did indeed find the net again on a feed from Cooke (10) at 16:48 to make the score 9-2.

It was about this time that I started yelling for the team to start working on a hat trick for Tim Wallace too which drew a few chuckles.

Dan Curry performed solidly in net to spell Dany Sabourin stopping 24 of 26 shots on the night including some impressive saves from time to time against an anemic Islanders attack. The win was only the Penguins second in the month (2-3-1) and helped them improve to 16-9-4 (36 pts) heading into the weekend and a match up Saturday against Philadelphia who are ahead of the Penguins in Atlantic and the East.