This is not as easy as the Penguins made it look last night.

It could not be.

If it were, they would finish the season 81-1, and that is not going to happen.

No way. Hard to imagine them doing any better than 80-1-1. Maybe even 79-3, if they go into a prolonged slump at some point.

That does not seem like an imminent threat, however, because the Penguins' 5-1 victory against St. Louis at Mellon Arena was their sixth in a row and pushed their record to a league-best 8-1.

"It looks easy, but we worked really hard," defenseman Kris Letang said. "We worked smart. It's not only about working hard. It's about being smart on the ice, being in good position."

And being in the other team's zone as much as possible. Last night, the Penguins spent enough time in the general vicinity of Blues goalies Chris Mason and Ty Conklin to launch 43 shots at them.

This is just the third time in franchise history the Penguins have won eight games in October, and they will have five opportunities to get a ninth.

There was a dark side to No. 8, however. The Penguins played the final period-plus without defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who is believed to have injured -- and possibly broken -- a hand or wrist.

Coach Dan Bylsma did not specify the nature of Gonchar's injury or offer any insight on how long he might be out, but said he expects Martin Skoula to make his Penguins debut when Florida visits Mellon Arena Friday.

If Gonchar can not play for an extended period, it would be the first major adversity the Penguins have experienced this season.

"We'd lose our best defenseman," Letang said. "He's the guy who runs the power play, plays on the [penalty-killing], plays the big minutes."

Bylsma, though, said being without Gonchar would not necessarily be a lethal setback.

"Our team game, our game and our execution and how we play is not predicated on one player," he said. "Sergei Gonchar's a very good player, but I think tonight you see the execution by guys like Jay McKee to add to how we play, how fast we can play, the [defense] joining the rush.

"We'll see what happens with [Gonchar]. If we do miss him, I think we'll still play a similar style and a similar way. I don't think you can replace what he's done for us and does for us on the power play, but, luckily, we have other guys -- Letang, [Alex] Goligoski -- who can play that power-play position if that's the case."

While the Penguins got some outstanding individual efforts against the Blues -- Evgeni Malkin tied his personal-best with 12 shots on goal -- their offense was diversified as it has been so often this season.

Thirteen players had at least one point, but Letang and Matt Cooke were the only ones with two.

"It's a team approach," Cooke said. "It's a team game. Every guy is just as important as everyone else. Our ability to spread it out like that makes is so hard for other teams to play against us."

It certainly was for St. Louis during the opening period, when the Penguins had a 20-3 edge in shots and took a 2-0 lead on goals by Tyler Kennedy and Malkin.

"It was a little quiet at the beginning," Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said, smiling.

Kennedy beat Mason with a slap shot from above the left dot at 11:19 and Malkin threw a puck past him from just above the right hash during a power play at 12:28.

Although St. Louis began to find its legs during the intermission, it did not show on the scoreboard until the game was out of reach.

Ruslan Fedotenko put the Penguins up by three by scoring from outside the right dot at 7:29 of the second, and Cooke made it 4-0 at 8:05 by steering a Letang shot behind Mason.

"That first 30 minutes was by far the best that we've put together this year," defenseman Mark Eaton said. "That's how we need to play on a consistent basis."

The Blues finally ended the Penguins' run of goals when Paul Kariya tipped an Erik Johnson shot past Fleury during a power play at 12:54, but Goligoski got that one back at 9:44 of the third.

If this is what a Stanley Cup hangover looks like, expect the Penguins to order another round for the house.

"We heard so much about that," Fleury said. "It's a good feeling to be able to do different than what people thought. But it's still surprising, how well the team is playing now."

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.