Fleury = Chum

See that puck behind Fleury? We've seen a little too much of that lately.

If you stayed up to watch this game you most definitely were kicking yourself, or you just happened to catch it because you were drunk somewhere and it was the only thing on. The only way to sit through this debacle was to be drunk, which unfortunately I was not. I was stone cold sober as I watched Marc-Andre Fleury shit the bed for the third straight game (yes, I'm counting Anaheim even though we won). Fleury once again gave up an extremely weak goal that any mite team goalie could stop because he failed to hug the post for the 37th time this season. Fleury once again got completely beaten on a shot that he clearly saw and should have had the correct angle on but just didn't. It was that goal just 1:41 into the second that ended his night. For the night Fleury allowed 3 goals on 14 shots for a whopping .786 save percentage. He has given up 11 goals in 3 games in the month of November. This is obviously not his month so the Pens should tell the world he has a high ankle sprain and bring him back in the month of January.

There weren't any goal scored so it's not like we can talk about anything positive from this game. What I will talk about is how the Evgeni Malkin injury has clearly proven who is the better player and who the Pens should keep when the decision comes down on whether to keep him or Crosby. When Crosby went down with his injury a couple of years ago, Malkin put the team on his back and became a much more dynamic player. He was showing flashes of Lemieux and Jagr as he would single handily take over games and propelled the team to victory. Crosby on the other hand has wilted under the pressure. He got 2 assists in the first game that Malkin missed but hasn't scored since and is a -2 to boot. Crosby is a great player, don't get me wrong, but if you want to argue over who you should keep, the answer is obviously Malkin.

Next up the Pens limp in to Boston to face off against the Bruins on Tuesday. This is another game on Versus and since DirecTV and Versus are still embroiled in their pissing contest, I won't be able to see it. The Bruins stopped a three game slide with a win over Buffalo yesterday and are tied for second in the Northeast Division.

Notes: Crosby failed to pick up a point for the fourth straight game for the first time in his career...Pittsburgh is 2-14-2 in California since the start of the 1999-2000 season...Kris Letang was injured in the first period and did not return...the Mike Yeo coached power play is now 0 for 21 during the last four games...FYI, John Curry is available to back-up Brent Johnson if we need him to.