Jay McKee doesn't pretend that this is simply another game.

The guy just spent three winters working in St. Louis, then had the final year of his contract bought out a few months ago.

It's no surprise, then, that McKee is looking forward to facing the Blues when they visit Mellon Arena at 7:38 p.m. tomorrow.

But not for the reasons one might suspect.

It's not that McKee believes he was treated unfairly by the Blues, or that he has hard feelings toward anyone in that organization.

Fact is, he planned to have dinner with some of his ex-teammates last evening, and if he crosses paths with anyone from management in the next day or so, they're more likely to get a warm handshake than a nasty glare from him.

"[Team president John Davidson] treated me with as much respect as anyone has," McKee said. "I can only thank them for my time and the opportunity they gave me there. The game has a business aspect to it, and I was a part of that there."

St. Louis bought out the last season of the four-year, $16 million contract McKee had signed in 2006 to clear some salary-cap space. He got enough of a settlement that signing a one-year deal worth $800,000 with the Penguins did not represent a major loss of earnings.

Had the Penguins been forced to pay McKee's full market value, they wouldn't have been able to bring him in to help fill the void created by the departures of Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill via free agency.

So far, he has looked like another shrewd addition by general manager Ray Shero, and McKee doesn't have any misgiving about joining the Penguins.

"Obviously, things are going well here," he said. "No complaints at all."

McKee blocked seven shots in a 4-1 victory against Tampa Bay Saturday night to run his league-leading total to 28. That's four more than Ottawa's Anton Volchenkov and Brendan Witt of the New York Islanders, who are tied for second.

When someone joked with him after the Lightning game that he seemed to be having trouble getting out of the way of pucks that night, McKee laughed and labeled it "a good problem to have." He quickly added that, "I think [goalie Marc-Andre Fleury] doesn't mind."

McKee's blocked-shots total Saturday nearly matched the season total of his defense partner, Alex Goligoski, who has 11, but that's understandable. The Penguins have an offensive and defensive presence on each of their three pairings, and Goligoski's the one counted on primarily for passes and points.

"They're completely different hockey players, but they're making a nice pairing right now," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "Each guy is showing [off his] particular assets.

"Jay continues to show he can block shots and penalty-kill, but he's also now defending well in the [defensive] zone. And Alex continues to be a factor with his skating. It's turned out to be a nice pairing."

McKee agreed that "[Goligoski] and I seem to have a good chemistry going," but said they also benefit from the synergy the Penguins appear to possess.

"The guys around us are playing well," McKee said. "Everybody's game in this room has been raised by the guys around them, and I'm included in that."

The guys he left behind have the potential to jell into a pretty fair team, too. The Blues might not be the best-known club, especially in Eastern Conference cities, but they've assembled a group of promising young players such as T.J. Oshie, Erik Johnson, David Backes and Alex Pietrangelo to complement veterans Keith Tkachuk, Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald.

"They have a ton of talent, a lot of offensive power," McKee said. "Some guys aren't exactly clicking on all cylinders, but I think they can be a real sneaky team in the league this year.

"A lot of young players learned a lot with the run we made last year, going from last in the Western Conference to battling to sixth overall on that side. They're a team that has offensive power on every line."

And, for McKee, a few friendly, familiar faces on each unit, too.

"Every time you play against your old team [it's special] and we're only going to see them once this year," he said. "So it will be pretty neat."

Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.