Price outlasts Fleury, Pens lose.

Main Storylines:

- The Pens are coming off of an ugly 5-2 loss to New Jersey, in which Fleury got pulled after allowing 3 goals on 12 shots.  They are now only 1 pt ahead of NJ and 2 pts behind Philly in the crazy Atlantic race behind NYR.

- Tyler Kennedy is not with the team as he gets his leg checked out in Pittsburgh and Colin McDonald will take his place in the lineup.  Jason Williams was also called up today and Arron Asham was placed on the IR.  Williams will take Park’s place in the lineup.  I do not know why, nor do I like it.

- The first line has been flat out awful defensively, led by Chris Kunitz sporting a -7 since the all-star break.  They all skipped the optional practice yesterday, so hopefully that keeps their legs fresh for tonight.  According to the Pens Radio Network, the line is a combined -21 since the all-star break.

Result:

Habs 3  Pens 2 (SO)

Goals:  Dupuis (12) (SH) from Vitale

            Neal (28) from Malkin, Martin  

The Good:

- James Neal scored his 28^th goal of the season, a new career high for him.  He is still on pace for over 40 goals, which I’m pretty sure beats every pre-season prediction that came out.

- The first line did a much better job of back checking tonight, finally getting through a game without a minus for the first time in over a week. 

- The Pens crushed it in faceoffs, which is a rarity for road games usually.  Malkin went 11 for 14 to lead the way and the Pens went 31 for 45 overall.

- Malkin's shootout goal was just flat out disgusting.  A beautiful spin-o-rama move.  Youtube it.

Pascal Dupuis – Dupuis played his best game in months, looking like he was fired out of a canon on his very first shift.  He had a great forecheck going, and was a one man wrecking crew in the offensive zone at times.  He was rewarded with a shorthanded goal off of his skate from Vitale, his first in months.  Dupuis really elevated his game tonight.

Marc-Andre Fleury – Gotta take away from this a little because of the awful 2^nd goal he let up on a long shot off the post, off his back, and in.  However, Fleury did keep the team in it throughout the game when the defense didn’t feel like helping him.  He stopped quite a few odd man rushes, including a few ridiculous saves along the way (like on Erik Cole).  The goal was ugly, but the Pens wouldn’t have been anywhere in this game without Fleury.

So much defensive help in the picture.

 Matt Cooke – Cooke led the team with 6 shots, and also led with 4 hits.  He did a fantastic job for the team on the penalty kill, and also spent over 2 minutes on the powerplay as he saw an abnormally high 17+ minutes on the ice.  He had a very strong game all-around.

The Bad:

- The powerplay was bad tonight.  They had a few chances, but went 0 for 3 and gave up way more short-handed chances than they had with the extra man.  Montreal even had a 3 on 1 at one point, but Fleury bailed the team out. 

- James Neal needs to stop taking stupid penalties.  It’s almost like someone on that line is required to do so every game.  Both of his penalties were unnecessary and at very bad times (after the Habs went up 1-0, and then with 4 mins left in the game).

Paul Martin – Martin’s defensive coverage was lacking, and he made up for it by turning the puck over numerous times in overtime.  I don’t have much to say here.  He just simply needs to be better.

Zbynek Michalek – Michalek was pretty much incapable of handling the puck in the defensive zone tonight.  He had 3 big giveaways, all right in front of Fleury, yet somehow Fleury made one on one stops on all 3.  Michalek gets paid to be defensively sound, nothing else.  If he’s not doing that, there’s a major issue for the team.

Michalek...not going for the block, just laying around after a turnover.

The Ugly:

- The 2^nd goal that Fleury allowed was flat out hideous.  The Pens had just tied the game, had momentum, and Fleury expected a dump in from the red line.  He cheated to move out, Eller shot the puck from the red line, it went off the post, off of Fleury’s back, and in.  Vintage bad goal Fleury.

Thoughts:

- Playoff Race:  The Devils passed the Pens for 5^th in the Atlantic.  The Pens now sit in 6^th, tied with the Devils, 2 points behind the Flyers, and 3 points ahead of Toronto.  All 3 of those teams have one less game played than the Pens though.

- While I hate PK Subban just like everyone else, I was totally okay with him and Malkin going at it at the end of overtime.  I did, however, take issue with the fact that Darche decided to play 3^rd man in and nailed Malkin while he was engaged with Subban.  That was BS as far as I see it.

- A big part of me hates shootouts deciding a game since it feels very forced.  However, watching 8 rounds like tonight is absurd and quite a rush.  Still a weird way to end a game though.

- I’ll have a trade deadline post up later this week since it’s a light week.  I shall save the rest of my thoughts until then.  Based on Twitter, the Pens should trade Paul Martin for Jarome Iginla.  Good luck with that.

Spend some of your $5 mil on longer sticks if you aren't gonna be in position.

Pens Record: 30-19-5, 65 pts, 4^th in the Atlantic, 6^th in the East

Next Game:  2/11 vs Win, 2pm