Pens blast Flyers 8-2; Oh how sweet it is !!!

I'll be honest, if I would have had time today, I would have posted that the Penguins need to be careful tonight in Philly.

Ya know, new coach, new GM, one game winning streak, playing at home, playing against that damn Sidney Crosby, loving to smack around the new Rooskie, lots of reasons to be cautious.

And for sure, the Pens did not play very good hockey in the first period of tonight's game. In what was a frightening flashback to the '05 Pens, Ryan Whitney's giveaway led to the opening goal of the game. They had relatively no offense in that period in addition to that. Crosby's goal on the 2-on-1 and Talbot's shorthanded goal were nearly the only shots on goal for the entire first period.

But boy did that change in the 2nd period. The Pens used their team speed and combined it with the Flyers pylon-like defense to quickly build that lead to 4-1, which sent Nittimaki to the showers. The second period not only included the completion of the 1st hat trick of Sidney Crosby's young career, but also extended Evgeni Malkin's goal scoring streak to 5 games as he begins his NHL career. Malkin's goal, in what is quickly becoming average for this guy, came on a one timer from an extremely difficult angle.

There was another guy who used to play for the Pens who used to make those impossible angle shots, what was his name again ?? :-)

The 3rd period, in all honesty, was not what I expected. I really thought that the Flyers would start throwing the elbows and send their thugs out. That really didn't happen at all. The Pens, not wanting to rub salt in the Flyer wounds, played their top line sparingly. The Pens did score two more goals in the 3rd period, the 1st of the year from both Mark Recchi and Dominic Moore.

And finally, in what Pens fans had to sound like music in their ears, the Flyer fans roundly booed their hometown team upon their exit.

So now, the Pens have played their 9th game, which may or may not be Jordan Staal's final game of the year for the Pens.

I for one will be shocked if he is sent down. As Paul Steigerwald said very well tonight, the Pens are a better team with Staal as the 2nd line center, and are a better team with Talbot (rather than Staal) as their 4th line center.

By the way, anyone else notice on the "CW" feed how many couples were in attendance, with Penguins fan guys and hot Flyer fan girlfriends ??

What's up with that ??