Happy Holidays: Penguins Gobble Up Sabres, Senators, Flames

The Pittsburgh Penguins will lose again this season.

At some point.

They'll probably even allow a power-play goal.

Maybe.

But their train is rolling on the fast track right now and devouring pretty much anything in its path.

Finishing off a 5-game-in-8-day stretch, the Penguins swept through their last three contests with wins against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night (1-0), the Ottawa Senators on Friday afternoon (2-1), and the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon (4-1).

You know, it's a good thing I've been doing this blog for several years or I'd start to think that their strong play was attributable to my absence over the holidays.

In reality, though, it has more to do with strong defensive work, led by none other than goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Ironically, Fleury wasn't supposed to start Wednesday's game, as it was the team's second of two on their annual Dad's trip.  Since Fleury started the first of those two games on Monday at Florida against the Panthers, Head Coach Dan Bylsma's plan was for backup Brent Johnson to start.

But Johnson has been battling a bit of an illness the last several days, and that forced Disco Dan to give #29 the call again.

The Flower has been as hot lately as he was cold to start the season, and he continued that great work Wednesday night in Buffalo when he stopped all 30 shots the Sabres threw at him and, in the process, helped a Pascal Dupuis tally in the first period stand up as the only goal the Penguins would need to win.

Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby made a nice play to assist on Dupuis' goal, and extended his scoring streak to 10 games in doing so.

On Friday afternoon back at home against the Senators, Crosby ran that streak to 11 when he got the 2nd helper on the Penguins' first of two power-play goals in the game.

Evgeni Malkin got that goal in the 2nd period, tying the game at 1 after a first period tally by Ottawa forward Jesse Winchester gave the Sens the early lead.

In truth, the Penguins were fortunate they were only down 1-zip at that point, because Pittsburgh looked like they were excessively lethargic on the ice after their Thanksgiving meals the day before. 

At least they all did except Fleury, who was exceptional in stopping the OTHER 20 pucks Ottawa threw at him in the 1st period ALONE, then slammed the door on the other 23 they tossed his direction in the final two periods.

#29 finished with 43 saves on 44 total Senators shots, and earned the deserving #1 star as a result of it once defenseman Alex Goligoski got the game-winning power play goal in the third period on the back-end of two penalties called on Ottawa forward Chris Kelly on the same sequence.

It's a good thing the Pens got those man-advantage goals because, despite putting up 40 shots of their own against Ottawa goaltender Pascal LeClaire, they failed to get one past him at even strength.

But with that win in the bag, the Penguins continued their momentum by burning out the Calgary Flames on Saturday thanks to Sidney Crosby's 6th career hat trick.

With the 3 tallies, not only did Sid up his scoring streak to 12 games -- a league high this season -- he managed to net his 200th career goal in the process.

His strong work in the game also gave him a sniff of one of the many feats accomplished by his now-former landlord and current Penguins' owner Mario Lemieux that is unlikely to ever be matched.

Crosby scored on the power play, at even strength, and short-handed in the game.   His short-handed goal was an empty net tally, to boot.  What upset him the most, however, was the fact that he had a chance to score another way earlier in the game when he had a penalty shot against Flames' netminder Mikko Kiprusoff, but let the finn swallow him up pretty easily.

Crosby moved in and gave the high leg kick deke that he used so famously to abuse Montreal Canadiens' netminder Carey Price in a shootout several seasons ago, but Kiprusoff had none of it this time. 

Had Crosby moved in with more speed, and made the kick fake a second later, he might have gotten Kiprusoff to bite.  As it was, he was going a bit too slow, and made the move too far out for Kiprsoff to really go for it.

Had Crosby scored on that goal, he would have come close to matching Lemieux's magical game against the New Jersey Devils on New Year's Eve in 1988 when he did something no other player has ever done in the history of this great game:  score 5 goals 5 different ways -- at even strength, on the power play, short-handed, on a penalty shot, and into an empty net.

Of course, Crosby's short-handed tally against Calgary doubled as an empty-net goal, so it wouldn't have been quite up to Lemieux's feat had he even scored on the penalty shot earlier, but it would have been close.

Curiously, for as good in the shootout as he has become, Crosby is now 0-for-3 in his career on penalty shots.   Still, his effort Saturday afternoon was good enough for him to overtake Steven Stamkos as the league's scoring leader.

Sid now has 18 goals and 22 assists for 40 points in 25 games.

Defenseman Kris Letang had a real strong game against the Flames as well, assisting on 3 of the 4 Pens' goals, including the first of the contest -- and only other one by a Penguin not wearing #87 on his back -- by winger Aaron Asham.

Brent Johnson was also solid in the pipes for Pittsburgh, getting the start and only allowing a late goal by Calgary forward Rene Bourque.  He stopped 30 of 31 shots overall.

While the Penguins caught Calgary on the final contest of a 5-game east coast road trip, the Penguins deservedly showed them no mercy, crossing the 40 barrier in shots for the 2nd straight game (they had 43 in all).  If it wasn't for Kiprusoff, the score would have been a lot worse.

With their last 3 victories, the Penguins have raised their record to an impressive 15-8-2, good for 32 points, but still second in the Atlantic Division, two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers.

With six straight wins and a 9-1-1 record in their last 11, Pittsburgh is also now only 4 points off the Washington Capitals for the best record in the NHL.

One thing the Penguins have done well during this latest stretch is beat teams they should beat. 

Take a look at their victims the last month or so and you see the likes of the Carolina Hurricanes, the Senators, the Atlanta Thrashers, the Sabres, the Senators, etc.   Sure, admittedly, not world-beaters, all.  And the Penguins' schedule looks more like that in coming weeks, with games against the Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs, among others.

But this is the National Hockey League folks.  Every team comes to play every night and somewhere along the line, any team can beat you.  Stringing together the stretch of victories the Penguins have lately is a feat no matter who the opponents have been.

Perhaps the best part about the Pens' latest run, though, is that they've been doing it with good defense and even better penalty killing.

After their stellar effort the last three games, when they only gave up two total goals, Pittsburgh is now 5th overall in goals against per game, at 2.44. 

Better still, their PK unit is now the top ranked group in the entire National Hockey League, killing off penalties at a 90.2% clip.  They haven't let up a power play goal in the last 30 plus chances against.

And all this without stalwart Selke Trophy nominee Jordan Staal, who is now skating, but still not gripping a stick with anything other than a strange contraption on his broken hand.  He's still about 3 weeks or so away from returning.

Tonight, the Pens' incredible PK run and their team winning streak are back on the line in New York against the Rangers (7:00 PM EST).

I'm back in the post-holiday groove, so I'll have a recap tomorrow.  Thanks for your patience with me as I fully digested my turkey.

Let's Go Pens!