Pens 3, Panthers 0; Arena deal by Friday ???

If you notice, this sort of stuff is starting to become a habit.

Pens blank the Cats last night for their first win against them in a long time.

Earlier in the year, it was the Leafs.

Before that, of course it was the Flyers.

Common demoninator; The Pens are starting to beat the teams that they've had big problems with in the last several years.

I'd say that's a good sign.

Have to say though, the Panthers sure put the pressure on for most of the game. If it were not for Fleury's solid game (again), last night's outcome may have been quite different.

In addition, the Panthers played a clean but physical game against Sid as well, holding him to only one assist. Of course, that one assist may have put the game away, on yet another backdoor goal on the power play by Whitney.

And once again, the muckers had a good game, contributing with a goal that was a result of great hustle by Ruutu combined with a nice backhand to the 5 hole of Belfour. Maybe Eddie would have had that in his late 30's.

Big, big game on Thursday, as the Canadiens come to town. The Pens turn around and travel to Montreal on Sunday afternoon. Sandwiched between the two is Alex Ovechkin and the Caps on Saturday afternoon at the Igloo.

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KDKA's Andy Sheehan is now reporting that the new arena deal between the government officials and the Pens could be completed by Thursday, with an announcement possibly by Friday.

Continued great news. Outside of a catastrophic collapse in negotiations, put this one in the books.

Then I'll be interested to see all of those "I told you so" experts. Yeah, right.