from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

What a weekend. Steven Stamkos is gone for weeks with a blood clot. Patrick Kane hit the 100-point and 40-goal marks. The St. Louis Blues lost another key piece in netminder Jake Allen. Boston continued to flirt with playoff disaster, and the Florida Panthers are back, baby, back in the postseason and looking like the Atlantic Division champs.

For me, though, the news of the weekend was the continued red-hot play of the Penguins. Despite the loss of netminder Marc-Andre Fleury to a concussion (the timetable for return remains unknown), the Pens blasted the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers on back-to-back days by a cumulative 11-2 score. They are 12-1 in their past 13 games and now look like a lock to open the playoffs next week at home, with a five-point bulge on the New York Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division.

Matt Murray, one of the American Hockey League's top netminders, stepped in for Fleury without missing a beat and won both ends of the back-to-backs on the weekend. So, what say you after a weekend of great import around the NHL?

Are Penguins ready for a long run even without their star netminder and star center Evgeni Malkin?

more on the Penguins from the ESPN hockey guys...