Tobin Family Website

The Pittsburgh Penguins kept rolling tonight with another win, beating the surging Florida Panthers by a score of 3-0.  Marc Andre Fleury picked up his fifth career shutout (his third this season), turning aside 32 shots.  The win makes them 6-0-1 in their last seven games (6 wins, no regulation losses and 1 overtime loss), outscoring their opponents 36-17.  Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each had an assist, and Michel Ouellet, Domonic Moore and Ryan Whitney each picked up a goal. 

Tonight’s win propelled the team to 56 points on the season and put them 2-points ahead of the Rangers for 7th place in the East, and a mere 5 points out of 4th place.  This is notable in that they have 4 games in hand against #6, 3 against #5 and 2 against #2.  Having ‘X’ games in hand against a team means that they have played ‘X’ less games than that team.  So, they can gain 2 points for each of the ‘X’ games they win.  In summary, they have the potential to gain 8 points on #6, 6 points on #5 and 4 points on #4 just by playing (and winning) the games they have yet to play to catch up in the schedule.  Confused?  Trust me, they are in a good position right now.   

Sidney Crosby now has 79 points (25 Goals, 54 Assists) and leads the NHL in total points and assists.  He is on track to win the Art Ross Trophy for top point scorer in the league during the regular season.  With 33 games left to play in the season for the Penguins, Crosby is currently on pace to score 138 points (he missed 4 games to injury).

Evgeni Malkin has 53 points (24 Goals, 29 Assists) and leads the NHL in goals and total points for rookies and is 21st in the league in total points for all players.  He is on track to win the Calder Memorial Trophy for Rookie of the Year.  He is currently on pace to score 92 points (he missed 5 games to injury).

I continue to believe that the Pittsburgh Penguins are playing the most entertaining and spirited hockey I have seen since the mid-90’s when I watched John LeClair, Eric Lindros and Mikael Renberg play on the “Legion of Doom” line of the Philadelphia Flyers.  However, today’s hockey is much more fast paced and breathtaking in terms of the on-ice skills being displayed by the likes of Sidney Crosby.

After a short break for the NHL All-Star game, the Penguins were back in action on the road Friday and Saturday nights against the Dallas Stars and Phoenix Coyotes, respectively.  

On Friday night, the Penguins rallied midway through the third period to tie it at 3 on Mark Recchi’s 2nd goal of the night.  It was also Mark Recchi’s 500th career goal, the 38th player to reach that milestone in NHL history.  This forced a 5-minute sudden death overtime and ultimately a shootout in which Pittsburgh tallied the win.  This was a great fast-paced game.  Mark Recchi scored 2 goals and Sidney Crosby picked up 2 assists.

On Saturday, the Penguins traveled over to Phoenix, AZ, to take on Wayne Gretzky’s Coyotes.  This game started out with a quick goal by the Penguins just 24 seonds into the game, but remained close with the score tied at 2-2 halfway through the second period.  Then the Penguins exploded for 5 unanswered goals in the last half of the game to win 7-2.  The Penguins had 7 goals from 7 different players, and Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists for 4 points.  This made him the NHL #1 Star for the night and added a 10-point cushion to his league leading 78 points.  His goal was a highlight reel goal (aren’t most of them?) in which he rocketed a backhand over the near side shoulder of the goalie as Crosby was falling down with his back to the goal.  You will want to look for this one on the highlight reel by clicking HERE.  Mark Recchi also picked up a goal and 3 assists as well, giving him 6 goals and 13 points in just his last 3 games…..an amazing feat by anyone, much less an older star like Recchi! 

With the two wins this weekend, the Penguins have 54 points and have moved into second place in the Atlantic Division behind New Jersey (with 65 points).  It also propelled them into 7th place in the Conference, which is important because only the top 8 teams in each Conference go into the playoffs.  Interestingly, they are only 6 points out of the 4th place in the conference and have as many as 4 games in hand against those ahead of them.  This bodes very well for the Penguins to make a serious bid for the Playoffs this year.  If they do make the playoffs, as I suspect they will, they will be the team that nobody wants to play in the first round.  The next gane is set for Tuesday night (30 Jan) against the Florida Panthers at home.