The Pittsburgh Penguins were not weighed down by too much turkey on Thansksgiving as on Friday night they won a hard fought game against the Ottawa Senators 2-1 and on Saturday they breezed past the Calgary Flames 4-1. The Senators, now 9th in the East, have struggled.

Through Saturday the Senators had scored 14 less goals than they have allowed and are 4-6-0 in their last ten. Despite jumping out to a 1-0 lead against the Pens, Evgeni Malkin (8 – PPG) and Alex Goligoski (5) provided all the offense needed in front of Marc-Andre Fleuy’s 43 save performance. Despite 21 shot in the first period, Ottawa just could not find the net.

Calgary has been on of the worst teams in the Western Conference this year. After loosing to the Penguins their record stood at just 9-12-2 but with a goal differential of just -5 on the year they are capable of staying in games. But the Penguins jumped on them early in the second with a goal by Arron Asham (3) and a hat trick by Sidney Crosby (16, 17 & 18) thanks to the empty net to make the game never in doubt. Brent Johnson spelled Fleury who has been red hot lately and made 30 saves as the Penguins shot the puck 43 times.

The win against the Flames was the Penguins sixth in a row and they have points in their last 9 going 8-0-1 in that time. Over their last ten games the Penguins are 8-1-1.

Next up for the 15-8-2 Penguins are the 14-10-1 Rangers on Monday night. Last time these two teams met the Penguins scored two late goals to take a 2-1 lead only to see the Rangers score late to tie the game and then finish the Pens off in overtime.

Twenty-one games into the season Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are pacing the Penguins in scoring. Sidney Crosby is on top with 33 points (14 G & 19 A) and a +4. Evgeni Malkin, who has struggled at times, is second with 20 points (7 G & 13 A) but is a -3. Kris Letang is taking over Sergei Gonchar’s spot on the scoring list at number three with 18 points (3 G & 15 A) and is an impressive +9 as well.

There is one distinct disappoint however beyond Malkin’s spotty play until lately. Zbynek Michalek who was touted as a shut down defenseman is a -5 on the season. It is hard to see him not finishing the season with much better numbers but his performance does bear watching.

Have you seen me?

In 2008-09 Eric Goddard played 71 games for the Penguins. In 2009-10 Goddard played in 45 games during the season. This year Goddard has played in just 6 games. He is a +2. If this trend continues, the Penguins enforcer is on pace to appear in just under 25 games this year. His diminishing role can be attributed to the accession of other players willing to drop the gloves. In particular Deryk Engelland who has proven himself a serviceable sixth defenseman and who has appeared in 19 games. Engelland has shown the ability to take on the opposition’s tough guys and stand up for his teammates. All this points to Goddard’s days with the Penguins pretty much ending unless something catastrophic happens such a injuries.

Carolina plays an up tempo game. Vancouver prefers that style too, but the Penguins newly found commitment to defense shut them down. Last night was another test for that new found respect for focusing on the blueliners.

However, Pittsburgh struggled. However, so did Carolina.

Both teams found the net four times during regulation and overtime and Fleury looked stronger than that record as his defense let him down a couple times. Fleury stopped 30 of 34 shots and kept the Penguins in the game despite a teamwide collapse that let the Hurricanes tie the game with just 0:52 left in regulation. Pens fans no doubt had visions of the game against the New York Rangers dancing in their heads. In that game the Penguins down 0-1 late scored twice to take a 2-1 lead only to give up a late goal in regulation and then lost in overtime.

But not last night. After goals in regulation by Chris Kunitz (6, 7), Tyler (Mr.) Kennedy (4) and Sidney Crosby (14) the Penguins shut the door in overtime despite playing much of it in their own end. Then came the shootout.

In the shootout it was not even a contest. Kris Letang scored on the Penguins first shot. Fleury stones Jeff Skinner. Crosby scored on the Penguins second shot. Then Fleury flipped out his pad and stopped Jussi Jokinen. Game over. Two points.

The win in the shootout moves the Penguins to 11-8-2 on the season and they have won four of their last five and have a point in each of those games.

Pittsburgh produced consistent offense all night tallying 36 shots in regulation and overtime. 10 shots in the first, 12 in the second, 11 in the third and 3 in the five minute overtime show that the Penguins never let off the gas. His Sidness paced the Penguins with four points (1 G and 3 A) while Malkin added three quality assists. Jussi Jokinen had four point for the Hurricanes (2 G and 2 A) and menaced the Penguins all night.

Pittsburgh is now off until Monday night until they face the 8-9-0 Florida Panthers on the road.

Admit it. You Fleury bashers out there were all shaking your heads when just 2:41 into the game last night against Atlanta Brent Sopel (1) tipped in a shot to put Atlanta up 1-0. It is ok, you can admit that your heart sank because you believe so little in the man that lead the Penguins to two Stanley Cup Finals and one Stanley Cup in the past three years. The rest of us know that you have no faith in Marc-Andre Fleury so it is not like it is a big secret or anything.

But even you Fleury haters have to admit that it was the goal tending that prevented it from getting much worse until the Penguins got their game going. Sure it wasn’t until half way through the second period that Evgeni Malkin (5) scored to tie up the game after a legitimate goal for the Penguins had been waved off for goal tender interference, but after that it was all Penguins. Sidney Crosby (12) tipped in a Deryk Engelland shot from the point early in the third to put the Pens up 2-1. Then Evgeni Malkin (6) scored again on the power play to make it 3-1. Malkin took a rebound off the end board and tucked it behind Pavelek who was leaning the other way looking for the puck to come out to his left.

Niclas Bergfors (5) scored for the Thrashers to cut the game to 3 to 2 but the Penguins buckled down, Fleury made the saves and Malkin (7) got the hat trick on the empty netter to ice the game with 1:02 remaining.

It is not often you will ever see Marc-Andre Fleury play in back to back games especially with the usually capable Brent Johnson backing him up. But apparently Johnson’s third period collapse against Boston (partially due to poor defense in front of him but not completely) along with Fleury’s stunning play the previous night against Tampa Bay earned the Penguins number one goal tender a chance to prove that his performance was not a fluke.

And boy did he ever prove it. Fleury made a plethora of nifty saves with every part of his equipment and body stopping 31 of 33 shots. If you thought that the only reason Fleury looked good against Tampa Bay was the limited number of shot he saw, the Atlanta game puts that theory to rest. Two solid performances in a row is a good start on the road to recovery for the star net minder of the Penguins. But he still must do more and prove his consistency is back.

The win moves Pittsburgh to 9-8-1 on the season and they return home on Monday to host the New York Rangers (8-7-1). Whether or not Fleury will start his third game in a row remains to be seen. But so far it looks like he has earned that opportunity.

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.

According to sources the final plans for a statue of Mario Lemieux to grace the front of the new Consol Energy Center are complete. The only thing missing is the statue itself. Someone within the Pens organization last year told me what they thought the statue would be. I have heard a couple rumors about what it will be now. I don’t really care.

Lemieux deserves a statue as the great player he was. Even if he did jerk the fans of Pittsburgh around when the whole concept of a new arena was in doubt.

Whatever the statue ultimately looks like, this is what the statue should look like.

In the center there should be Mario Lemieux, triumphant after scoring his very first NHL goal. Around him, at his feet should be four or five children who are now NHL stars that grew up watching him play, looking up in awe. They should each be wearing Jerseys with their names and numbers on the back but no team logos on the front. One of those kids, and he should stand out from the rest, should be Sidney Crosby.

Do this and you successfully pay tribute to Mario’s great playing career and manage to make a statement about the impact Mario had on the game off the ice and above and beyond scoring goals at will against hapless defensemen. You even tie the old nicely in with the new.

Just my opinion.