SoCal Black 'N Gold: Merry Christmas, à la Russian style

What more could we ask for during the holidays other than a huge Penguins win? Wednesday's game against the Ottawa Senators couldn't have gone better. Last time the Pens and Sens met, it ended in a 6-2 win for Ottawa. Not this time! This game was full of energy as the Pens took away any momentum the Senators were able to create. The Penguins got another puck for their board with this 8-2 victory. What's great is they had 5 goals alone in the 2nd period!

Here is the rundown of the goals scored:

Malkin

Volchenkov. meh. Right off the faceoff. It happens.

Guerin

Fedotenko, from a beautifully orchestrated tic-tac-toe play that was totally created by Staalsy. "It was all Staal" Hellll yeah it was! wooo!

Kunitz

Guerin

Beautiful goal. I love it!

Malkin

Geno was fired up! Yeah!

Gonchar, with the sneak shot in there! One second you think the puck is in the corner and the next it's in the net! =)

Malkin, hat trick! So sweet from Crosby. The puck went from Malks to Sid and then back to Malks for the goal wooo!

Kelly. blah. Whatever, you already lost the game.

Just some notes:

Craig Adams' hit on Alfredsson... all I could think was how much Craig Adams is a beast!

Malkin and Guerin were total beasts as well; the whole game they were just driving to the net.

After getting pulled during the game versus the devils earlier in the week, MAF comes back and has a great game against the senators.

Geno smiling =)

Guerin was close to a hatty too, several times that night... hearing "let's go Guerin" chants from the crowd was so, so special. I love our fans and our team <3

I wanted Billy G to get a hatty too.. more than anyone! Speaking of, Billy's toothy grin = adorable

Cheers every time Guerin even touches the puck = makes me so happy

Billy Guerin was the Mickey D's player of the game and rightfully so =) Loveeee him

"Thunder Bay, Ontario, it's almost like going to Sibera" hahahahaha

Think it was Steigy who said that in regards to the Pens going home for the holidays

Here are all of the wonderful highlights from this game

I think part of the reason we were so successful is because HCDB changed up the lines.

It seemed to work. I really like the change. Our second line had a huge night. Kunitz wasn't getting too many points on Crosby's line as of late (with exception to the time he spent injured, of course), but then you pair him with Malkin and suddenly he's got four points in one game, racking up a goal and several assists. I've always liked Guerin with Crosby, but he really has seemed to have lit the spark with Malkin. As I said before, Guerin almost had a hatty too and had several chances for a third goal. It's amazing that he didn't get a hat trick.

Amazing Malkin quote before this game:

"I know my play is not good. I'm going to try next game. I'm working today, tomorrow. I know it's a tough situation, but it will be ok."

It's more than ok, Geno. Thank you.

Both Gonchar and Malkin scored against the Senators and they'll have a chance to score some big goals for the Motherland in Vancouver as they were selected to play for Team Russia in the 2010 Olympics. You can read more about Russia's lineup here.

And finally, a most precious video about Christmastime and giving. Max has some unreal quotes. He's a funny guy, but that's nothing we didn't know already.