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.

One game does not a trend make, but last night the Penguins looked like they finally understood what they needed to do to win a game and do so convincingly. While it took a while for any scoring to occur, once the Penguins found the net they kept finding it. The team also played solid defensively, for once, in front of Marc-Andre Fleury.

Fleury was only called on to make fifteen saves on sixteen shots but many of those saves were class Fleury where he flopped, threw out a glove or kicked out a leg with reflexes that few goalies in the league posses. In short, two nights after Brent Johnson and the Penguins collapsed in the third period against Boston, giving up five goals and loosing, the Penguins rebounded and got a solid performance in net that kept a feisty Tampa Bay squad at bay.

In the second period it was Pascal Dupuis (5) who opened up the scoring at 8:01 of the second period tipping in a shot from Kris Letang. Twenty-seven seconds later it was Alex Goligoski (4) who upped the score to 2-0 with a wrist shot into a wide open net.

In the third period the Penguins got into early penalty trouble and Steve Stamkos (15) buried a slap shot past Fleury on a 5-on-3 power play. The Penguins had to kill off another two man advantage before they were able to get rolling again. Mad Max Talbot (3), Sidney Crosby (11) and Deryk Engelland (1) all added scores to extend the lead to 5 to 1 where it remained when the final horn sounded.

Pittsburgh’s five goals came on just 20 shots while the game was marked with distinctly better and more sound defensive play than in previous games.

Engelland with his goal bounced back from some previous bad games. He finished a +3 on the evening. On a night where everyone seemed to be in on the act, Evgeni Malkin had no assists and no goals.

To find out if this will be a trend the 8-8-1 Penguins will take to the ice again tonight to take on the Atlanta Thrashers. Atlanta is 7-6-3 on the season.

Again last night Marc-Andre Fleury let in the first shot he faced. But the Penguins roared back to score two short handed goals (on the same Lightning powerplay) and a third goal to rocket ahead to a 3-1 lead. However by the end of the first period the Lightning made it 3-2 and by the time it was all over the Pens lost 4-3.

Fleury was, to be blunt, bad. He seems to be getting worse as the season rolls on an Brent Johnson eats up the minutes in his stead. This leads me to believe that Fleury, who we all know is a great goalie, yes even the Fleury haters know this, simply needs to play more to get into a groove. So let’s play him more.

I also think that it is obvious that the defense seems to be playing differently in front of Fleury than they play in front of Johnson. When Johnson is in net the defense seems much more tight in the defensive zone. They are in position and they are getting to pucks. With Fleury though his different style and skills seem to lead the defensemen to play a little looser in all important areas.

This does not excuse Fleury’s lack luster play. But it puts blame on the entire team where I think it rightfully belongs.

And while we’re at it, let’s talk about the power play shall we?

I am going to bring up again how it is obvious that there is something wrong. And I don’t think it is Sergei Gonchar not being on the blue line either. Yes, last year the Pens power play was better in spurts with Sarge quarterbacking it, but even with him there handling the puck things were still amiss with the man advantage. Well all know it. Don’t deny it.

I still think the problem is Sid and Geno playing together on the same unit. This one constant is becoming more and more obvious as the power play featuring these two superstars (along with a more than highly skilled supporting cast) want to pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass and pass the puck which often leads to turnovers and the puck eventually leaving the zone due to an errant pass.

I know the rationale for putting them on the same unit. I know the theory is that you put your best players together and you get your best power play. But are we perhaps ready to admit that this is not necessarily the case? Are we ready to say that so many skilled players playing together is leading to too much thinking and not enough success?

Sid and Geno have proven to have some chemistry when playing at even strength. But even this has shown to be anything but a sure thing when it comes to generating offense. The power play is an entirely different beast. Last year the trouble was attributed to Sid and Geno fighting to be in the same spot. This year that problem was supposed to be elevated by separating the two. It has not worked however. Could it just be that the chemistry is not there?

While I don’t doubt that if Geno and Sid would hunker down and concentrate on scoring rather than overly thinking about who to pass to next in order to set up the perfect shot the PP it would be very awesome sight to see. However that is not happening. Maybe it is time to try two different units (1 and 1A) with Sid leading one and Geno leading the other. Keeping them both on the ice for nearly two whole minutes isn’t apparently working well enough.

Spare me the complaint about how you decide who is 1 and who is 1A when it comes to the power play. Has there been a problem with Sid being 1 and Geno being 1A (second line) at even strength? No. So let’s at least start looking seriously at the problem. Let’s stop stroking egos for fear of offending someone. These two are making $8.7 million each. If Dan Bylsma wants them to skate around the ice in pink tu tus they had better do so proudly asking only one question. That question is what exact shade of pink Coach Disco would prefer.

Despite on ice officials making a terrible call on Kris Letang, ejecting him from the game for a phantom headshot that never happened, the Penguins beat the New York Islanders 3-2 in OT. The Letang penalty which was called on a clean shoulder to shoulder hit against the Islanders Blake Comeau came with Pittsburgh leading the game 2-0 in the second. The game turned and New York eventually tied the contest at 2-2. The Penguins have announced that they will appeal the penalty.

Pittsburgh played a lackluster game in the first period. In second period it was Mike Rupp (1) who gave the Penguins a lead 4:07 into the period. Tangradi (1) scored his first at 6:57 to extend the lead and the Penguins looked to have figured out that playing hard in front of the opponents net and actually shooting the puck would result in goals. But the Letang penalty derailed the Pens for a while.

Josh Bailey (2) scored during the five minute major which was cut to a three minute man advantage thanks to him jumping on Letang after the phantom penalty. He had to serve two minutes for that before jumping back on the ice to score. Radek Martinek (1) scored less than two minutes later to tie the game.

The game remained that way until overtime. Milan Jurcina of the Islanders took a hooking penalty 52 seconds in and it was Alex Goligoski (3) who ended it with a wrist shot.

Johnson, starting in goal in place of Fleury who struggled in Wednesday’s loss to the Maple Leafs, stopped 22 shots. He looked solid most of the game. He improved his record to 2-0 and is the only Penguins goalie to win a game yet this season. But before the Fleury bashers get on this train, realize that both those wins have come against teams beat up due to injuries. The Islanders were missing key players last night and New Jersey only skated with 15 (instead of 18) players due to salary cap issues.

The Penguins are now 2-3-0 on the season with 4 points. They play today at 6:00 PM against the Philadelphia Flyers who won the inaugural game at the Consol Energy Center 3-2.

Messaged delivered to the Montreal Canadiens – the Pittsburgh Penguins are not the Washington Capitals.  Everything about game 1 last night at the old Igloo was a contrast to how the Canadiens had succeeded to down the “best” team in the NHL.  At least the “best” team based on record anyway.

In their previous series the Canaidens blocked shots, shut down the power play and Jaroslav Halak stoned the Caps to rebound from a deficit of three games to one and win the series.  Last night however the Penguins were methodical in their shot selection, picked the canadiens apart on the power play and chased Halak from the net.  Although it did not start out that way.

PK Subban (1) scored not even five minutes into the game to give Montreal a 1-0 lead and Canadiens fans were over joyed.  But the Penguins took control by picked apart the Habs defense, drawing penalties and converting on the chances they were given on the power play.  Gonchar (1), Staal (2) and Letang (3) each scored with the man advantage in the first and second period to put the Penguins up 3-1.

Michael Cammalleri (6) cut the deficit to one late in the second but Craig Adams (2) extended the score to 4-2 even later in the same period taking a pass from Pascal Dupuis across the front of the net and beating Halak.  Alex Goligoski (2) added yet another power play goal early in the third to make it 5-2 and chase Halak from net in favor of Carey Price.  Price made several saves and the Penguins missed golden opportunities to stretch the lead even further before Brian Gionta (3) scored for Montreal on the power play to make it a 5-3 contest.

Late it was Billy Guerin (3) putting in an empty net goal to end it all at 6-3.

The game was a wake-up call for the Canadiens who basically had their way with a high powered Capitals lineup previously.  But the game should not be taken in and of itself that this series will be a cake walk for the Penguins either.  Montreal did not succeed in shutting down the Pens in game 1 but game 2 will tell whether or not Montreal learns from the experience and adjusts.

Marc-Andre Fleury was able to hold down the fort with several great saves at times against the Canadiens and had any of those found the net this game could have been a lot different.  In fact Montreal out shot the Penguins 31-24 on the night and netted 12 shots in both the second and third periods; way too many.  Pittsburgh will have to hone its defense to prevent that from happening again.  But they may have to do so without Jordan Staal who is as far as I am concerned the premier shut down center in the NHL.  Staal was injured in a collision with Montreal’s PK Subban.  Staal hobbled to the bench and later left the arena on crutches.  As of this morning the injury was still undisclosed as nothing other than a lower body injury.

Notes:

Where was the Penguins power play during the regular season?  Last night was just another dominating perfromance for a unit that couldn’t seem to hit the broad side of the barn during the regular season.  The power play went 4 for 4 in game one against Montreal.

Three of Pittsburgh’s four power play goals were scored by their blue liners.

Jaroslav Halak faced only five shots when the Canadiens were down a man.  He stopped only one.  Marc-Andre Fleury also faced five shots on the penalty kill.  He stopped four.

Jordan Staal logged 8:49 of playing time before being injured with one goal and was a -1.

The Penguins scored six goals.  Each goal was scored by a different player.  Crosby and Malkin had none of them but had two assists and one assist respectively.