Pens win 4-3 in OT; Malkin NHL Rookie of the Month

You know, if the Pens could ever hit the ice running, so to speak, there wouldn't nearly be so much trepidation later in the game.

The Pens gave up goals early in both the 1st and 2nd periods, got a fortunate carom off of a D-man's skate in the 3rd period, got a fortunate tripping call in OT, and came out of it with a 4-3 win in OT for the Pens' 5th win in a row.

But ya know, good teams win games like this. Penguins teams as recent as last year would have easily lost games like this.

The Pens are 4-0 now on the road, once not so long ago was a near sure loss. And in California ?? Puhleeze.

Oh yeah, that Malkin kid scored two more goals. I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict this kid's got decent NHL potential. He was also selected as NHL Rookie of the Month. I can hear the pundits crying fix now, just as they did when Sid was selected last October.

And as some other of my fellow Pens bloggers noticed last night, Army was moved off of the 1st line down to the 3rd line, as Michel Ouellet was moved to the 1st line with Sid and Geno. I'm not sure about Ouellet up there right now. Although he is indeed a sniper, and for sure will get plenty of feeds from Malkin and Crosby, I just don't know if he's going to be able to keep up their speed.

However, having said that, both of those guys simply make the defense gravitate towards them, almost to the point that they're playing a zone defense. That in itself will allow Ouellet to get to the net. So, maybe this will turn into another great coaching move. One thing's for sure, with those two guys up there, the situation is nowhere close to being a dire one, it's simply a complimentary one.

Also, I think that Army may really enjoy that 3rd line. It may relax him a little bit, and enable him to use the physical aspect of his game more than he has been.

And in addition, I'd like to personally thank Jordan Staal for making my prediction come true. He did come out strong last night, and his goal very early in the 1st period reaffirmed that.

So it's onto San Jose on Saturday night. I don't know how many times the Pens have to be burned with early goals to get the light bulb to come on in their collective heads. One thing's for sure, if they do that vs. the Sharks and Ducks on Monday night, the final outcome probably won't be as rosy.