Hard to believe that the Penguins have been as banged up on the blue line as they have considering that they are sitting atop the Atlantic Division. It is almost like the loss of Gonchar, Letang, Goligoski and McKee, each for several weeks and at the same time, did not matter as players like (Dr.) Ben Lovejoy, and Deryk Engelland have filled in nicely and kept the defense sound.

Well, this morning it was announced that Lovejoy and Engelland are heading back to Wilkes-Barre and that means that unless some combination of Letang, Goligoski and McKee are ready to return to the lineup the Penguins would be short handed on defense heading into tonight’s important divisional match up against the Rangers.

Each of the three injured regulars, according to reports, are cleared to play which means the Penguins should for all intents and purposes be back to full strength this evening.

Now, about that struggling power play …

Two days after the Flyers Scott Hartnell was so desperate to know what winning a championship tastes like that he bit Penguins Defenseman Kris Letang in the waning moments of a game in which the Penguins matched the beefed up Flyers rough and tumble style, the Penguins were looking down the barrel of the gun again. Last night the Penguins entered the Great Goonish North to square off against the beefed up, ready to kick your teeth in Toronto Maple Leafs and the result was the same – the Penguins won and the goon squad lost.

The Penguins are proving that they can play teams any way they want to play as they extended their season record to 4-1 while getting scoring Cooke (1), Gonchar (1), Crosby (3,4) and Jordan Staal (2). Staal once again playing on Malkin’s line is giving Coach Bylsma plenty to think about as the young center could have a monster year playing in that coveted role if he remains there all year. Craig Adams once again proved that he could take Staal’s place on the third line by turning in another strong performance.

Despite several fights which did little to spark the Maple Leafs or their fans it was really just an exhibition being put on by the Penguins all night with the Pens superstars dangling with the puck in the offensive zone, Brooks Orpik passing out free candy as if Halloween had already arrived and Marc-Andre Fluery stopping pucks 18 of 20 times to backstop the Pens to victory.

Final score 5 -2 … now the Penguins take a short trip across Canada to prepare to play the Ottawa Senators on Monday night. Toronto remains winless on the young season at 0-4-1 and the fans were obviously restless during last night’s contest as they mock cheered Toskala a couple times for easy saves and rarely cheered loudly even after Toronto players attempted to switch momentum with fights.

The Columbus Blue Jackets came into Pittsburgh hoping to win a game. The Penguins hoped that their comeback against Tampa Bay would not be the end of their good fortune. Thanks to Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins got what they wanted. Fleury stoned the Blue Jackets on 15 first period shots and was again huge in the third stopping 10 of 11 and 33 of 34 overall. He won the Penguins this game.

And it was his goal tending that allowed the Penguins to eventually get a 1-0 lead in the second off of Kris Letang’s 4th of the year. Letang (5) would add another nearly ten minutes later to make the score 3-0. In the end the Penguins wound up with a 4-1 victory and two wins in a row playing a fairly consistent and gritty game. Crosby (21) scored an empty netter at the end to seal the win.

Columbus fell to 24-23-5 on the year and the win, while it helped the Penguins moral did not move them up in the standings. They are still in 10th place behind Carolina who also has 57pts but also a game in hand. They are one point back of the Panthers that have two games in hand.

The real test is this Sunday against a struggling Detroit squad that is only 4-4-2 in their last ten but coming off two wins against St. Louis and Pheonix with a game against the Oilers the night before. The Penguins must play hard and really must win that game to prove that they are ready to make a run here with time and games running out.

The Rangers came into Wednesday’s night contest with a game under their belts and their legs back under them. Although they lost that game the night before, they were taking on a Penguins team who, with the exception of Malkin and Letang had not played in a game in over a week if you can count the All Star game and he Young Stars Game real “games” that is.

Even though Godard blasted Orr into a pulp off the opening draw and bought the crowd to its feet as the two fought, when Zherdev opened the scoring just 2:24 into the game, beating Fleury on the Rangers third shot it looked like it would be another long night for Penguins fans. Few certainly expected the outcome would be a 6-2 Penguins rout powered by five third period goals. But that is exactly what those in attendance witnessed.

At the end of the first period, the Penguins and the Rangers were tied at 1-1 thanks to a goal scored by Sykora (18) just a little more than four minutes after the opening marker. Fleury then held the team in the game during the second period, making several great saves as the defense collapsed around him and the Rangers peppered him with 18 shots. Also, in what seemed like a trend as of late, the Penguins also seemed unable to buy a penalty call through the first forty minutes of play. While the Pens had to kill off penalties called to Dupuis, and Talbot (twice), they could not get a Ranger to the box. But all that changed in the third period.

In that period, Rangers wore out a path to the penalty box and the Penguins found their offensive and defensive strides. They put sixteen pucks on net while only allowing eight and got goals from Staal (15), Letang (2, 3), Sykora (19) and Crosby (18) to simply bury the Rangers for the second time in two home games against them.

The win is certainly something the Penguins need who, since a horrid stretch that most of the players and the fans would like to forget, have gone 4-2-0 in their last six with their losses being an eminently winnable 2-1 loss to Carolina and a game against Washington in which the team just failed to play hard for 60 minutes and lost 6-3.

Its another good step in the right direction, but they need to keep winning to have a shot at the playoff and will need to win against New Jersey on Friday night to keep any momentum they may have.

Ryan Whitney will be in the lineup tonight when the Pittsburgh Penguins face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Whitney returns from foot surgery that has kept him from playing this season and he returns to a defensive group that, when healthy, is probably the deepest and most skilled in the game boasting scoring threats like Gonchar (out), Whitney, Boucher, Goligoski and Letang along with grinders like Gill (out), Orpik, Eaton and Scuderi.

Where exactly Whitney will fit in is still a little bit of a mystery and who will sit to make room for his return is a question.  I would say Eaton would be the odd man out but that might give the Penguins a little too much offense on the blue line so it is possible Letang (who I think has been slumping a little as of late defensively) or Goligoski (how can you sit a man who scored two goals last night?) may be warming pine tonight.  Maybe Boucher?  It is a tough choice and one that Therrien is probably glad to have.