Penguins Flying High

See what I did there? It's funny because Penguins can't actually fly.

Other than the Winter Classic, I haven't mentioned the Penguins much the last few months, partly because they hadn't been playing all that well, and partly because there were more exciting things going on, like the NFL and the red-hot Blazers. But the Steelers...well we know what happened to the Steelers, and the Blazers streak ended(although after losing the one, they have since won 3 straight again). But the Pens have a bit of a hot streak going as well. Back on December 7th, Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury left the game in the first period after suffering a high-ankle sprain and many wondered if the Pens, who were already playing below expectations, were in trouble. The Pens however, weren't going to let this get them down, and have since won 10 of 14, including 7 straight. While a big part of that has been their great offensive play, we expect that. With young skaters like Sidney Crosby(last years MVP and this years assist leader), Evgeni Malkin, and Jordan Staal, we know the Penguins can score points. But now we can add goaltending to the list of things the Penguins are kicking ass at, namely because of Ty Conklin, who in just his first year in Pittsburgh, won again last night, beating the Panthers 3-1. With the win, Conklin improved to 8-0 in games he's started this season, and Pittsburgh improved to 42-24-16, just one point behind New Jersey in the Atlantic division. For the season, Conklin has allowed just 1.88 goals per game (compared to Fleury's 2.9 and Dany Sabourin's 2.69) and maintained a .941 save percentage(compared to .902 and .904 for Fleury and Sabourin).