GTOPG: It Comes Easily for Some People; Pens Win 6-3

By Finesse

We're not really sure why Tampa is so bad this year when they were one goal away from getting to the Stanley Cup Finals last year, but it could have something to do with it being relatively easy for other teams to get wide open chances against the Bolts' below-average goaltenders.  And in this game, Evgeni Malkin looked like one of those 16-year-olds with a fake birth certificate playing in the Little League World Series.

The Russian Danny Almonte

This game went as it should -- when you play a last place team on a random Sunday afternoon, the priorities are to win and pad the stats, not necessarily in that order.  For just today, mission accomplished.

5 other quick takeaways after the jump...


- Thank God Fleury was healthy during the 2009 playoffs so we didn't have to go with Mathieu Garon.  Really shaky.

- The only reason this wasn't a 6-5 win instead of 6-3 is because the Pens only allowed one power play (obviously, Tampa scored).  Statistically, it doesn't matter if the Pens PK is at 99% -- Tampa is scoring two powerplay goals against us every game.

- No reason to have Geno out there for the last 45 seconds with a three-goal lead and him already having a hat trick.

- Pensblog has great video of the Lecavailer sucker punch on Malkin.

- It's only two wins in a row, but they reinforced something that people were starting to forget during the six game losing streak: even with the injuries, the Pens are a pretty good team.  Stay the course.  Go Pens.