Not going to lie: The Penguins are a tougher, more tenacious team than I'd thought they'd be.
Further not going to lie: Probably not even a third of their first 31 games have been much fun.
Yeah, that was a tour de force in Winnipeg, the evening that set up the extraordinary month that'd follow. They'd recalled who they were, they'd committed to defending, and they'd suffocated opponent after opponent from there, notably the clampdown at home a week ago against the Stars, another riser in the West. Sprinkle in the occasional individual appreciation such as Evgeni Malkin's shootout crescendo against the Flames in his first game back after the 1,000th and, well, if I'm being honest, that's about all I've got.