Sorry for the delayed post. Work beckoned yesterday, unfortunately.
On the bright side, summing up Saturday's dominating 4-1 win at home against the New Jersey Devils can be done pretty easily. In two words, in fact.
Sidney Crosby.
#87 went for the hat trick against the Devils, and added a helper to close within 4 points of teammate Evgeni Malkin in the scoring race, as the Penguins rolled back on the winning track with a convincing performance.
Crosby was at his virtuoso best Saturday night, using his speed all over the ice to pressure defenders and create scoring chances. He's looked increasingly good of late and Saturday may have been his best game of the season.
His first goal, in particular, was vintage Crosby -- racing behind the Devils defense with the puck, only to have it poke checked by Devils' netminder Scott Clemensen. Undettered, Crosby quickly retrieved the puck and spun a strong backhander toward the goal as he was skating away. Clemensen was surprised by the shot, which eluded him to put the Penguins up 1-0 early in the first period.
Dives were involved in Crosby's other two goals -- but the good kind: One my Malkin to get a shot on goal, which went right to Sid on the rebound for an open net, and another by Crosby himself, diving to whack a puck in the empty net to seal the outcome.
In between, Crosby made a perfect dish pass across the crease to set up Petr Sykora for a power play goal.
Crosby now has 9 points in his last 3 games. For that effort, he was the NHL's #1 star of the week.
Looking back further, Crosby has scored 7 times in his last 5 games. He's really ramping it up and is now on a 46-goal pace for the season.
If he was suffering from a lingering hip injury in late October and early November, you're not seeing him so limited now.
The Penguins closed out November with a 9-2-1 record and still sit 5 points back of the division leading New York Rangers. The Penguins, however, continue to have 4 games in hand, and they draw the Rangers next Wednesday on the road in New York.
Crosby wasn't the only Penguin who played well Saturday. The entire team looked solid for 60 minutes. Dany Sabourin, in particular, looked quite strong. And especially encouraging was the fact that, when the Devils scored to make it 3-1 relatively early in the third period, the Penguins dialed up their intensity and made sure there would be no Devil comeback.
Notes:
Ryan Whitney continues to practice with the team, although he's not paricipating in contact drills yet. Those may start in a little under a week. He's still targeting a return approximately 10-14 days from now.
Marc-Andre Fleury is working on drills as well, although he's probably still a little more than a week away, too. Clearly, his injury -- believed to be a groin problem -- wasn't "day-to-day", but was more like "week-to-week".
Janne Pesonen was sent back down to Wilkes-Barre after a decidedly uninspiring 2 games. He didn't get much ice time, but didn't do a whole lot to merit being out there more either. He did spend a lot of time on Malkin's line when he did go over the boards, but really had nothing to show for it. I continue to believe that the Penguins may have been showcasing him in a trade. There's some talk going around that the Penguins are talking with Colorado about acquiring RW Milan Hedjuk.
More later this week ...
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