Wednesday Pens Points: Habs Gameday, Vokoun Skates

The Pens are entering a busy stretch, with Habs today and Isles tomorrow. The Pensblog looks at some of the best Pens-Habs games in recent past. Here is the Pens gameday report and the scouting report on Montreal.

After weeks of gloomy health updates on Tomas Vokoun, finally some good news: the Pens veteran backup is ready to resume skating, and here he is on the ice, skating for 30 minutes before the other injured players. Bylsma was careful in putting any estimates and timetables forward, though. Vokie still has a long road ahead.

After Vokoun, Brian Gibbons and Beau Bennett worked out with Mike Kadar, all under the watchful eye of Sidney Crosby observing from the bench. Is he doing eeny meeny miney mo, or something?

The Pens had every reason to be annoyed by their performance on Monday against Florida. Poor defensive play with a healthy and complete defense is very disconcerting, to say the least.

Matt Niskanen is shaping himself up for a major payday with the best season of his career so far.

From Extra Skater, take a look at players' shares of their team's goals. Crosby is at the top with 44.4% of Pens' goals in all situations.

Quite a few fun, high-scoring games last night. The Leafs were outshot by the Avs but won 5-2 anyway behind Kessel and JVR. Their 6th straight win means time to go back planning that parade.

Columbus won their 7th straight game. Ovechkin sat out a game and the free-falling Caps were shut out by Ottawa. Ugh Grabovski. Dallas beat Wild 4-0. The Devils clobbered the Blues, 7-1, but barely anyone was there to see Jagr net his 697th goal. Will we ever see another 700-goal scorer in the NHL?

And lastly, the Ducks FINALLY lost in regulation at home this season, to the Jets of all teams, who are now 4-0 under Paul Maurice.