Penguins 2, Canadiens 0

Tonight was a coming out party for the Penguins as a team. They showed that they can win without Sid, which is something they haven't been able to do in the prior two seasons.

Dany Sabourin played a great game, making several key saves and stopping 31 shots for the shut out.

The Pens got some scoring from the fourth line again, as Laraque found Taffe in the first period. There wasn't another goal until Malkin scored the empty netter with just 13 seconds left.

Great win for the Pens.

A few interesting notes:

• Two more forwards left the game during / after the first and didn't return - Colby Armstrong and Adam Hall.
• Because of that, several of the other forwards played big minutes. They included Malkin, Sykora, Talbot and Malone all over the 20 minute mark. That's not unusual for Geno, but it sure is for the other three guys. Even Ruutu played just about 15 minutes.
• We barely saw Orpik and Letang in the third when the team was protecting the lead. Gonchar played over 11 minutes, which was huge.
• One of my big pet peeves - the wonderful people in Montreal somehow gave two of the top three stars to the team that was shut out. Talk about dumb - that's just stupid.
  

I suppose it's now Sabourin's turn to shine. We'll probably see him on Monday against the Caps (as well we should). It will be interesting to see if they call anyone up from the Baby Pens, with both Army and Hall potentially being hurt. They can't lose too many more guys.

Next up: The Caps come to town on Monday night.