The Montreal Canadiens have played 5,509 regular-season games in the National Hockey League.

Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Penguins defenseman Drake Berehowsky tries to slow down Montreal Canadiens defenseman Sheldon Souray late in the third period, but it was too late. Souray set a Montreal single-game record for points by a defenseman with a goal and five assists in an 8-0 rout at Mellon Arena. Click photo for larger image. More NHL News Smizik: Don't expect Penguins to get better Penguins Report: Penguins probable candidate for contraction if NHL labor problems force extended suspension of play NHL Notebook: Boucher shocks Boucher NHL Roundup: Lindros has fast start as Rangers top Islanders, 3-2 Penguins game photos

For the first 5,508 of them, no Montreal defenseman had more than five points in any game. No one from the Canadiens had earned more than four assists in an away game. And Joe Malone and Brian Savage were the only Montreal players to pile up six points on the road.

Sheldon Souray changed all that yesterday.

Probably changed the way the Penguins look at themselves, too. At least if they had any delusions about being more than innocent onlookers in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Souray scored one goal and set up five others as the Canadiens humiliated the Penguins, 8-0, at Mellon Arena. And, in the process, illustrated again how ghastly things can get when the Penguins (10-25-15-3) allow their game to slip out of sync.

"We played probably the worst hockey I've seen us play in a long time," said left winger Steve McKenna, who served a three-period sentence as team captain.

The 60-minute vivsection unfolded before 15,286 witnesses, not many of whom stormed the box office, demanding tickets for the game Tuesday against Tampa Bay. Most might not have accepted them if they were free and came with $50 bills attached.

"When you get hammered like this, regardless ... but to be at home and have a big crowd ..." coach Eddie Olczyk said.

Olczyk admitted to being at a rare loss for words -- that's like Donald Trump running out of pocket change -- but numbers told the story of this game all too well.

Numbers like Montreal's 4-for-6 conversion rate on the power play. The zero shots the Penguins generated during a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 64 seconds as the middle of the second period approached. The two goals and two assists Montreal rookie Michael Ryder chipped in. The four points center Mike Ribiero contributed.

By the time the game ended, the stat sheet was filled with some of the most scary figures this side of the federal budget.

"I guess there are games like that sometimes," Penguins defenseman Dick Tarnstrom said. "But it's frustrating."

So is losing four in a row at home, as the Penguins have done since their 1-0 victory Dec. 29 against Chicago. Not only because repeated spankings -- the Penguins have been outscored, 23-2, during this stretch at Mellon Arena -- don't do much to spur attendance, but also because the Penguins were a respectable 7-7-3 there until this skid.

	Peter Diana, Post-Gazette LW Steve McKenna was designated as the Penguins' captain for the game yesterday so that his game-worn sweater could be included in a league-sponsored auction designed to raise money for cancer research. Sweaters used by the captains of each of the league's 30 teams this weekend will be sold to the highest bidders. Click photo for larger image.

"Before Christmas, we were playing pretty darned well at home," Olczyk said.

Well, Christmas is history, and so are a fistful of Canadiens records, thanks to Souray's sensational performance. He is enjoying a career year, and yesterday came within five points of matching the most productive season of his career. In less than three hours.

"I don't think I've ever had six points in any game," he said.

That, Souray said, includes a father-son game in which he recorded a hat trick.

Although Souray said, "I don't think about the individual stuff," the Penguins apparently do. And they must have decided to single-handedly try to make the NHL's annual awards ceremony in June an evening the Canadiens never will forget.

Souray's outburst probably clinched his place in the NHL All-Star Game and gave a major boost to his bid for the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman.

Ryder didn't hurt his rookie of the year prospects by accumulating four points, and Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore's bid for another Vezina Trophy benefited from him stopping 25 shots, leaving him 63 for 65 against the Penguins in 2003-04.

Souray picked up his final assist -- the one that tied the record shared by Doug Harvey and Lyle Odelein for most assists in a game by a Montreal defenseman -- at even strength, but got his first four on the power play, where he works the left point.

"They get him the puck, and he gets it to the net," McKenna said. "He makes things happen."

Souray does a lot of his damage with passes -- witness his feed to Ribiero, which helped set up Ryder's go-ahead goal at 17:57 of the opening period -- but it was his shot from the point that caused the Penguins the most trouble.

"The power play was going good," Souray said. "I got the shots on net, and guys were burying [the rebounds]."

Richard Zednik threw a Souray rebound past Penguins goalie Sebastien Caron during a power play at 11:03 of the second, and Ryder did it at even strength at 3:44 of the third.

Although Montreal got its final four goals -- by Ryder, Souray, Chad Kilger and Pierre Dagenais -- while playing five-on-five, its first four came on power plays. To suggest that the Penguins' penalty-killers, 11 for 13 in the previous four games, had a monumental relapse would be an epic understatement.

"The roof fell in on us," Olczyk said.

Dagenais put at exclamation point on the Penguins' implosion 36.9 seconds before time ran out, whipping the eighth puck of the day past Caron from near the left hash.

That goal wasn't necessary -- and was noteworthy mostly because Souray didn't get a point on it -- but the Penguins didn't seem to take it personally. Too much had gone too wrong before then for them to worry about something as trivial as a margin of defeat.

"They didn't run the score up," McKenna said. "We just played that bad."