Pens Points Saturday: Captain Fastest Active Player to 700 Points

The beauty of a packed schedule is that it allows a team to put an unsightly game in the rearview mirror quickly. The Pens beat Lightning 3-0 yesterday, giving Marc-Andre Fleury his third shutout of the season on a quick bounceback from the Wednesday dud. Chris Kunitz added another two goals to his job application to team Canada GM Steve Yzerman. Here are all the highlights, here is the HockeyBuzz recap with the shot charts, and here's also the recap from Raw Charge, SBN's Lighntning blog.

Captain Sidney Crosby assisted on all three goals, and second of those assists gave him 700 points in 497 career games, making him the fastest active player and third Penguin in history to achieve that feat. With that assist, his 450th, he also passed Ron Francis for third in Penguins history.

The stupidest rule in sports, the jersey tuck, was zealously enforced on Evgeni Malkin yesterday. The Penguins were not happy after the game, saying that they felt the refs were specifically looking for an opportunity to call an equipment penalty and that Tampa's Killorn also was warned about jersey not being tucked in, but didn't get a subsequent penalty.

Last night against the Canes Jaromir Jagr tied Steve Yzerman for 8th place all-time, with 692 goals. In an interview a few days earlier Jagr had nice things to say about Yzerman, but even nicer about the man who set up most of those goals, his long-time center with the Penguins Ron Francis, whose example he tries to emulate now, when playing with younger players who need confidence and leadership. Just when I decide to no longer care about Jagr, he goes out and says things like these.

They are back on Earth and searching for answers, those Toronto Maple Leafs. I will just say, if they don't think Jake Gardiner is part of their solution, many teams would love to have him. Can someone find out if Robert Bortuzzo is a Randy Carlyle-preferred type of player?

The Leafs lost to the Sabres in Buffalo 3-2, Christian Ehrhoff's OT goal on which the puck went through the space between the blade and boot on Carl Gunnarsson's skate. Considering they were in Jim Corsi's building, it couldn't have been more karmic.

Here are all your scores and recaps from a dozen games on Friday, including the big return of Brent Burns for the Sharks against the Blues and his first career hat-trick.

The Pens, WB/S Penguins and the Wheeling Nailers all won yesterday for an organizational trifecta, and goalie Eric Hartzell recorded a shutout in his second career AHL game with 25 saves to backstop a 1-0 win against the hot Binghamton Senators. On the season, Hartzell is 2-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA, .964 SV% and the one shutout.

The Kings gave up a second and a pair of third-round picks to draft this Russian forward in 2013. Let's meet Valentin Zykov, who is set to play for Russia soon in the World Juniors.

Would you rather spend a night out with Patrick Kane or Tyler Seguin? The latest installment of NHL Would You Rather? is in.

No rest for the weary, as the Pens play the Panthers tonight. Here's your official game preview. I'm guessing Jeff Zatkoff and the whole team would cherish an opportunity to redeem themselves for that October clunker. Let's go Pens.