Pens win 3-1...

The Pens beat the Panthers 3-1 Tuesday night in front of a much-lower-then-capacity crowd in Florida.

The goals were scored by Petr Sykora, Sid the Kid and Big Georges, and all of them came in the second period during a three minute and six second tear. To be honest, we probably should have won 6-1, that's how good our offense has been playing. We've been looking like the Pens of old during our seven game win streak (our longest in almost a decade), and even our defensemen have been getting in on the action.

I actually saw a play today where we had a breakout from our end and who was out there leading the rush, Sid the Kid, Geno Malkin, Ryan Malone? Nope, it was Brooks Orpik. The same Brooks Orpik who hasn't scored a goal in something like 2 seasons. You know you're playing with confidence when a player like him is leading the charge to the net.

Sid's goal was a thing of beauty too. He split two defensemen and then wristed one right past the goalie, a move that, as Bob Errey said, only a handful of people can actually pull off. God bless the fact that two of the maybe four or five people who can currently reside on the Pens team, and don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

And what can I say about Ty Conklin that every major media outlet hasn't already? He's playing some incredible hockey, and would have had his second shutout in a row if it wasn't for a late goal that trickled through his pads. He's won all 8 of his starts this season, and I swear to God, if he's still playing like this and Therrien yanks him to put Fluery in (when he returns), I will go down and beat some sense into that no good Frenchmen.

Three Stars

Third Star - Geno Malkin

Second Star - Ty Conklin

First Star - Sidney Crosby

Notes - The All-Star starters were announced today, and as expected, Sid the Kid led the league in votes. Surprisingly, veteran Niklas Lindstrom crept to within 30,000 votes of Crosby to lead the West All-Stars in votes. This will be Crosby's second All-Star game, and look for fellow Penguins Geno Malkin and at least Sergei Gonchar and possibly Ryan Whitney to make the squad as bench players.