Pens rout New Jersey 6-1

The Pittsburgh Penguins responded to the poor performance against the Calgary Flames but destroying the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center by a score of 6-1. The Penguins introduced new boy Justin Schultz after his trade from the Edmonton Oilers and he made a significant impact in an impressive game.

The Penguins were without Carl Hagelin for this game due to a late hit he received on Saturday's game. He was left out for precautionary reasons relating to concussions. The Penguins have mishandled treatments before, the last thing they need is to repeat those mistake.

The New Jersey Devils were without regular goaltender, Corey Schneider, due to injury. It showed as their replacement, Kinkaid, was far from up to scratch. He was slow a number of times to react and looks unsure of himself in net. At the other end Matt Murray looked confident. At 3-1 the Devils were given extended 5-on-3 time and Murray was able to replicate a brick wall to prevent them scoring at a key point.

The Pittsburgh Penguins controlled the game and this was evidenced on the shot clock with the Penguins having 30 compared to the Devils 18. Pittsburgh took a commanding lead in the first period after just under 10 minutes with goals 38 seconds apart from Evgeni Malkin and Matt Cullen. Malkin's came on the powerplay.

The only real mistake in the Penguins game came mid-way through the second, shortly after Bonino had added his fourth goal of the season to make it 3-0. The Penguins made a bad change and Kyle Palmieri was able to break through on goal and with ease he out-deked Murray to give the Devils hope.

This game really highlighted the improvements that the Penguins have made in their depth scoring, especially from their fourth line. Matt Cullen has had a superb season which has seen him hit 10 goals, the same as Jakub Voracek. The call-ups from Wilkes-Barre have more than done their part. Rust had his first multi-point game and three of the Wilkes-Barre club scored points.

The future of the Penguins has often been soured due to the lack of top prospects but in the likes of Rust, Wilson and Kuhnhackl they have a sound set that can add depth to the team and prolong its life. They have a good future and I can't wait to see what they'll do.