Crosby, Johnson Help Penguins Dominate Flyers In Their Own Barn, 5-1

Make no mistake -- the Pittsburgh Penguins have played some fairly inconsistent and uneven hockey the first few weeks of the regular season.

And they've either been missing or lost some key people along the way too, namely defenseman Brooks Orpik and Zbynek Michalek, along with forward Jordan Staal.

Look up at the Atlantic Division standings today, however, and you'll see the local hockey club somehow at the top of the heap with a 3-3 record, after last night's second straight win, this time over the arch-rival Flyers, 5-1.

Backup goaltender Brent Johnson --starting on back-to-back nights for his first time as a Penguin -- was again strong, stopping 29 of 30 shots in the victory, and allowing only the game-opening power play tally to Flyers' forward Daniel Briere.

Johnson is now 3-0 on the season with an incredible save %-age of .953 and a sub 2.00 goals against average.

Sidney Crosby also stepped out into the limelight for the first time this year last night, scoring two goals in the third period -- on both parts of a 5-on-3 power play, no less, including a slapper from center point -- and added a helper for 3 points on the night against a team he commonly raises his game against almost every single time.

Pittsburgh's power play, by the way, went 2-for-8, and while they still have a ton of work to do to get better, they came through for the second straight game when they were needed the most, this time up 2-1 and with a chance to put a nail in the Flyers' coffin early in the final frame.

And that's exactly what the man-advantage -- and Crosby -- did.

Even if the power play still can improve by leaps and bounds, at least the Penguins are getting a ton of man-advantage chances.  They lead the league in that category.

The Penguins also got a goal from Chris Kunitz on a mini-breakaway in the first period last night, a second period tally from Mark Letestu, and an empty net goal from Matt Cooke.

Speaking of Letestu, more props are in order for him.  He outworked about 3 Flyers in front of the goal for his tally -- including stalwart Philadelphia Blueliner Chris Pronger, who couldn't even stop him illegally by holding his stick on the play.

Letestu continues to be a real impressive player for the Penguins.  He's making a real impact on the ice, and doing it with not just great hockey smarts, but hard work.  He battles for pucks over every square inch of the ice. 

(Hilary Duff's husband, a.k.a., Mike Comrie, could learn a thing or two from him).

And so, the Penguins might finally be gaining a little bit of momentum here.  They'll have another chance to keep that going in their next game, tomorrow night at home against former Penguin Sergei Gonchar and the Ottawa Senators.

As I said before the Philadelphia game, the most interesting thing worth watching will again be who Head Coach Dan Bylsma starts in goal.

Does he go with the hot hand in Johnson, or give Fleury a chance to get his game right?

There's been some skeptism raised in the local media that Bylsma may have made the wrong call by going back to Johnson last night.  In other words, there was less to gain in the short term (wins) and more to lose in the long term by seeing Johnson continue to succeed, dealing further blows to Marc-Andre Fleury's confidence, and potentially creating a goaltending controversy.

Even without the benefit of hindsight, I'm not sure I see it that way. 

Johnson is clearly the man right now, and he deserves to be given a little bit of the ball.  Especially while his teammates continue to play shorthanded and work to get the other aspects of their game straightened out.   He's just oozing confidence in the net.  You can see it in his positioning and the way he's tracking the play.

And I don't think giving Johnson extra starts right now masquerades anyone into thinking that #29 isn't your #1 goaltender.  Penguin Nation knows that if the team is going to go anywhere long term, Fleury has to be their guy.  And I think the team and coaching staff knows that, too.

Fleury will get his chance again.  But it's hard for Blysma to play Fleury just for those intangible reasons right now, don't you think?  In other words, if he believes Johnson gives his team the best chance to win at the present time, wouldn't he be doing a disservice to the other players on the team by not putting him in the lineup? 

I think, yes.  And I think that's why he's riding Johnson right now.

The Penguins should be thankful they have another guy they can put in who gives them that goaltending.

More this week.