Pens 3, Rangers 0

Thursday night, the Penguins ended their one-game "slump" if you could call it that.  A lot of fans have been calling it that, but it doesn't make much sense.  Not that the Pens have been on fire this eyar, but we haven't lost more than two in a row.

This was easily the Penguins' most compelling win of the year from top to bottom.

The most obvious part was the goaltending.  Tomas Vokoun got the start, and he finished with 28 saves and a shutout.  He made shots from star players such as Rick Nash and Marian Gaborik look average.  Vokoun seems to be a positioning expert, taking most shots right in his chest.  This is different from Fleury, who is always flying across the crease to make the save with the pads, blocker, or glove.  

The team defense looked great.  The Rangers had a lot of opportunities on the rush, including some from their top line, that were thwarted when a Penguin stick interrupted the pass.  I've been very impressed by the speed of this defense unit.  Sunday night in Ottawa as well as tonight in New York, they have used their speed to catch up to players, sometimes on breakaways, and not let them even get a shot on goal.  

The offense looked a lot better.  They got three goals, but if it weren't for Rangers' goalie Henrik Lundqvist they would've had a lot more.  The two top lines, centered by Crosby and Malkin respectively, seemed to click.  Those two stars seemed to hit full stride today.

Other notes:

-Congrats to Simon Despres on his first (important) NHL goal.  He has redeemed himself since my last blog in which I criticized him.  His defensive play has strengthened, and he isn't such a bad playmaker at the point.

-The power play looked above average tonight, despite only scoring one goal (a beautiful deflection play by Neal off a shot-pass from Crosby).