Geno lucky today, Pens win big!

Pens 8  Sabres 3

Goals:  Williams (1) from Picard, Adams

            Despres (1) (PP) from Kennedy, Williams

            Malkin (13) from Kunitz, Orpik

            Malkin (14) from Sneep, Picard

            Neal (18) (PP) from Malkin, Niskanen

            Engelland (2) from Asham, Dupuis

            Malkin (15) (PP) from Neal, Niskanen

            Kunitz (11) from Malkin, Engelland

Recap: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/recap?gid=2011121716

Top 3:   

1)  Evgeni Malkin.  With his 7^th career hat trick, Geno iced this spot easily.  Malkin has played at the all-world level we have expected out of him over the past couple of weeks, and showed his best tonight.  Buffalo couldn’t contain him, even when he was double teamed, and Malkin put up 5 points as he makes a move on the scoring race.   I’m sure it was a great feeling for him as Buffalo was the team that ended his season early last year.  As I write this, he has moved up to 3^rd in scoring in the NHL.

Geno would not be denied tonight.

2)  Chris Kunitz.  Kunitz set the tone on the first shift of the game, throwing 3 hard body checks as the Penguins came out showing they were ready to play.  His physical play caused turnovers, allowing the Pens to dominate early and roar out to a dominant victory over the Sabres.  He also added an assist and a late goal to get in on the scoresheet action. 

3)  Deryk Engelland.  Engelland played great both in the defensive end and taking over for Kris Letang in pushing the puck forward.  He came up with a goal and an assist, and led the rush a few times for the Pens.  Despite my concerns about his skating ability, he is acquiring a knack for knowing when to step up on the far side of the ice to help the forwards out and create room on the rush.

Bottom 3: 

1)  Brooks Orpik.  Despite being the most experienced defenseman in the lineup, Orpik put together another bad game, though no one will remember it with the win.  He was a -1 and was at fault on 2 of the Sabres goals when he didn’t stick tightly to his coverage.  He hasn’t been a big force in front of the net lately, but at least it didn’t matter on a night like this one.  He did get his 100^th career point at least!

2)  Matt Cooke.  Cooke played a perfectly fine game, but he gets on here for 2 turnovers in the offensive zone.  That’s really all I have.  Hard to complain about many players tonight.

3)  Eric Tangradi.  Tangradi makes the list for his lack of impact.  Every time I see him in the lineup, I hope that I’m going to get a physical game from him and a lot of hard work in front of the net.  Maybe it’s just time to drop my expectations for him.  He didn’t do anything wrong necessarily, but I see higher potential in him than he’s showing.

Injury Report:

- Brian Strait (elbow) is getting close to returning and has been skating with the team

- Ben Lovejoy (wrist) is out 2-4 more weeks

- Dustin Jeffrey is on the IR as he rehabs his knee

- Kris Letang is on the IR with a concussion

- Zbynek Michalek remained out with a concussion as he felt headaches earlier in the day

- Richard Park is out 4-6 weeks with a broken foot

- Sidney Crosby is out indefinitely with concussion like symptoms and was placed on the IR

- Robert Bortuzzo is out indefinitely with concussion like symptoms and was placed on the IR

- Jordan Staal sat out his 2^nd straight game with a lower body injury

- Paul Martin sat out the game with a lower body injury (believed to be right leg)

- Craig Adams left the game in the 2^nd period with an undisclosed injury

  

Random Notes:

- Carl Sneep made his NHL debut

- Brooks Orpik’s assist on Malkin’s goal was his 100^th point

- Ryan Miller was pulled after allowing 3 goals on 7 shots half way through the 1^st period

- Carl Sneep recorded his first point (an assist) in the NHL on Malkin’s 2^nd goal

- Miller was put back in at the start of the 2^nd period, and allowed a goal in the first minute

- Pascal Dupuis earned his 300^th point in the NHL on Engelland’s goal

- Miller was pulled AGAIN going to the 3^rd period

- Fleury won his 200^th NHL game tonight

Welcome to the goalie carousel, Ryan Miller.

 Random Thoughts:

- Ryan Miller must absolutely hate Pittsburgh more than anywhere else

- If MacIntyre can’t get in the lineup over half the AHL team, I don’t understand why we have him

- I’m just not impressed by anything that Eric Tangradi has shown at the NHL level so far, he’s pretty invisible

Takeaways:

1)  Shoot, shoot, shoot.  One thing the Pens did very successfully in this game, much to Ryan Miller’s dismay, was shoot the puck a lot.  Earlier in the season, the Pens had been getting shot totals in the upper 30’s or 40’s on some nights in smothering opposing goalies.  The Pens didn’t have a crazy high shot total tonight, but their shots attempted was up there as the Sabres blocked roughly 20 shots.  Add that to a Ryan Miller off-night as he let in a couple soft goals, and the Pens cruised to an easy win.

2)  Youngsters Can Play.  Personally, I figured with Picard, Despres, and Sneep composing half of the defense, then Pens would be out of luck on their own zone and struggle to move the puck up.  Little did I know that they would hold their own very well, with Despres getting his first NHL goal, Picard adding a couple assists, and Sneep getting his first NHL point in his first NHL game.  The young defensemen did a fantastic job of staying composed under pressure and moving the puck up for the forwards to go to work.

Despres look NHL ready.

 3)  Powerplay FTW.  The powerplay had 3 goals and all of them were at the perfect times to put the Sabres back in their place.  The first powerplay goal gave the Pens a 2-0 lead, the 2^nd one came 53 seconds into the 2^nd period after the Sabres had put Ryan Miller back in, and the 3^rd one was midway through the 3^rd after the Sabres had scored 2 quick ones to scare everyone a little bit.  Not only was it great that the Pens had 3 powerplay goals, but their timing couldn’t have been better.

Pens Record: 18-11-4, 40 pts.

Goals For: 107

Goals Against: 88

PP %:  20% (27 for 135)

PK %:  87% (104 for 119)

Next Game:  12/20 vs. Chi, 7:30pm  LET’S GO PENS!!!