Jocelyn Thibault's teammates got their first look at his new mask at practice Friday.

Fans who paid attention during warm-ups that preceded the Penguins' game against Carolina last night at Mellon Arena had a chance to see it, too.

A couple of hours later, the rest of the crowd of 14,351 got a look at it when Thibault replaced Marc-Andre Fleury at 10:20 of the second period, when Fleury went off for medical attention after losing his mask in a scramble around the net.

But it still isn't clear when fans will get to see Thibault -- or his new mask -- for a full 60 minutes, because he still hasn't been told when he'll make his first start of the season.

Logic suggests that it will be this week, when the Penguins play three games in four nights, but coach Michel Therrien rewarded Fleury's strong early season play by starting him in each of the four games to date.

"He has the hot hand, is playing really well right now and gives us a chance to win," Therrien said before the Carolina game.

Thibault, it should be noted, outplayed Fleury for most of camp and has made an impressive comeback from the hip surgery that shortened his 2005-06 season. Nonetheless, he accepts the modest role he has been given.

"You always want to play, but I came to camp and just wanted to be as good as I could be," he said. "Marc-Andre has played outstanding so far.

"Our schedule is not too hard right now. We're not playing too many games, so I don't mind [Therrien] sticking with Marc-Andre. In the meantime, I work as hard as I can."

Thibault said he has tried to stay sharp by approaching practices almost as if they were games -- "It's not a matter of pacing myself," he said -- and Therrien seems confident that Thibault will respond well when he finally gets a start.

"We'll feel comfortable bringing Jocelyn in, because he had such a great camp," Therrien said. "He has to stay focused. He's not a rookie. He's been around.

"When it's his turn, I'm sure he's going to be ready."

Hooking a winner

Sidney Crosby's dramatic winning goal in the Penguins' 6-5 victory at Madison Square Garden Thursday was set up by a hooking penalty against New York Rangers right winger Jaromir Jagr.

That call came with just 64 seconds left in regulation, and might have been surprising if referees Chris Rooney and Brian Pochmara hadn't assessed eight other hooking minors -- five of them against the Penguins -- to that point of the game.

So while Jagr expressed surprise at the penalty -- "I had the stick in only one hand," he told reporters -- he should have realized much earlier that anything remotely resembling a hook was being whistled.

"That's the way they're calling it now," Crosby said. "We all know that. ... [Hooking], anytime your stick is parallel to the ice, they're going to call it. They have to do that. We, as players have to make sure we're taking care of our sticks, whether it's [not] getting them high or not hooking."

Offensive help

Fleury, who had been scored on just twice in the Penguins' first two games, allowed five in New York, but still came out with his second victory of the season.

Fleury actually played fairly well -- he made 37 saves, and none of the goals he allowed could reasonably be called soft -- but acknowledged that getting so much offensive support was critical to escaping Manhattan with a couple of points.

"I can't rely on that too much," Fleury said. "But it's great that the guys got so many goals."

Slap shot

Left winger Andre Roy was the Penguins' healthy scratch for the second game in a row. ... Right winger Ronald Petrovicky, who is recovering from hip surgery, has begun light skating and worked out on the ice with injured defenseman Eric Cairns and conditioning coach Stephane Dube before the game-day skate.