Penguins on a roll with fifth win in a row

Editor’s Note: Now, all our premium tools for Fantasy, DFS and Betting are included in one subscription at one low price. Customers can subscribe to NBC Sports EDGE+ monthly ($9.99) or save 20% on an annual subscription ($95.88). And don’t forget to use promo code SAVE10 to get 10% off. Click here to learn more!

It was sad to learn of the passing of former Islander great Clark Gillies on Friday as he passed away from cancer at the young age of 67.

Gillies was the heart and soul of those Islander teams that won four straight Stanley Cups from 1980-83, the last team in the four major North American sports to win four in a row.

Seventeen players played on all four teams and that just doesn’t come close to happening anymore.

Gillies was drafted fourth overall in 1974, the third year of the Islanders existence and never failed to make the playoffs in his 12 years with the Islanders. He had 304 goals with New York and finished his career with a couple of seasons in Buffalo but it was the Islanders where he compiled his Hall of Fame career, including six 30-plus goal seasons.

Condolences go out to the family on the passing of Clark Gillies.

There were five games in the NHL on Sunday.

PITTSBURGH 3 WINNIPEG 2 (Shootout)

Sidney Crosby scored the only goal in the shootout as the Pittsburgh Penguins prevailed over the Winnipeg Jets 3-2.

It was the fifth win in a row for the Penguins (and 16^th win in their last 18 games) who are just one point in arrears of the Metropolitan Division leading New York Rangers with one game in hand. Plenty of pundits had the Penguins not making the post-season this year, especially with Crosby and Evgeni Malkin out of action to start the season, but nothing could be further from the truth at this stage of the season.

Blake Wheeler opened the scoring with the only goal of the opening stanza. After going the first 21 games without a goal, Wheeler has two goals in his last three games. He was injured on Dec. 10 and missed six weeks, returning on…