Takeaway’s & Observations: Price outplays Fleury, Penguins looking like a soft team isn’t going to suddenly go away

MONTREAL 3 – PITTSBURGH 2 The biggest takeaway from the Penguins (15-9-0, 30 pts) 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens (13-9-2, 28 pts) Saturday night: The Penguins needed to score “great goals” to beat Carey Price and that wasn’t the case for Canadiens. Carey Price out played Marc Andre Fleury who gave up three iffy goals in the loss and that was the difference in the game. “In the first period he was the difference,” Dan Bylsma said of Carey Price. “We had good opportunities, good chances and he was strong.” While Price was excellent, this still wasn’t one of those games where the Penguins just ran into a hot goaltender and deserved to win. — Montreal did a lot

TIOPS NHL ALL – Star Selections

There are a few more weeks before the NHL selects the Eastern Conference All-Star team but here are my selections to this point. Starting Lineup WAS Alexander Ovechkin – PIT Sidney Crosby – PIT Evgeni Malkin MON Andrei Markov – BOS Zdeno Chara BOS Tim Thomas Forward Lineup WAS Ovechkin ( 40pts) – PIT Crosby (44pts) – PIT Malkin (49pts) Insiders Take:Doesn’t get any better than this dream line. Crosby gets the two best players in the league as his wingers. Hopefully Ovechkin wouldn’t try to take out Malkin at every opportunity. BUF Vanek (24 goals) – BOS Savard (26 assists) – PHI Carter (21 goals) Insiders Take: Marc Savard is one the game’s best playmakers and Carter/Vanek are two