When is Sidney Crosby returning?

By Phil Krundle     November 15, 2011

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The Penguins have afforded Sidney Crosby all the time he needs.  There are many documented cases of players around the NHL coming back to soon after concussions. It would be stupid to push Sidney Crosby back onto the ice too soon at a time when the Penguins are tied for the lead in the Eastern Conference and have lost the least amount of games in their first 17 games in the Crosby era.  Patience is the one things that the Penguins organization has shown even though few outside of the organization seem to be aware of the concept.

Marc Savard and Eric Lindros are two prime examples of what happens when organizations or players decide to rush back into the mix before they are ready. Putting the irony aside that Penguins Darius Kapairitis and Matt Cooke are the leading the accused list of people that gave those two concussions, coming back before their brains were ready to absorb a hit was the main problem. Both Lindros and Savard are still experiencing post-concussion syndrome including dizziness, memory loss and depression. 

Many players around the league play before they are ready. Penguins forward Eric Tangradi suffered a concussion in a game on Long Island a month after Crosby’s. Tangradi has ...

Book Review: 100 Things Penguins Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die

By Phil Krundle     October 4, 2011

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When I first learned that fellow PenguinPoop blogger Rick Buker had written a new book about the Pittsburgh Penguins, I must confess that I wondered what he could’ve found to write about. After all, his first book — “Total Penguins” — was 705 pages and covered just about everything you’d ever want to know about the team but was afraid to ask.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that “100 Things Penguins Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die” contains plenty of fresh material. Unlike Rick’s first book, which is a true encyclopedic compilation of season summaries, profiles, and stats, “100 Pens” focuses on the top 100 players, personalities, and events that helped shape Penguins history, ranked in order of significance.

Naturally, a bio on Mario Lemieux tops the list, followed in short order by a feature on Sidney Crosby. Rick writes about each of the glorious Cup runs, along with events such as “the Save” and “the Trade.” I especially like the sidebars generously sprinkled throughout the book that feature stories and anecdotes about some of the team’s lesser known players such as Dennis Owchar, Brian “Spinner” Spencer, and Dunc Wilson.

Included among the to-dos are attending a Pens-Flyers game in Philadelphia (at your own risk), and Rick’s humorous first-hand account of learning how to skate. And, of course, there are lots of new photos of Penguins stars past and present.

Written in an upbeat, entertaining style, “100 Pens” is a remarkably easy read at 296 pages.  Available in paperback, it’s priced at $14.95, so it’s not going to break your piggy bank. I rate it a “two thumbs up” and a must-have for any true Penguins fan.

“100 Things Penguins Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die” is available online through outlets such as Triumphbooks.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com, and at bookstores like Barnes & Noble.

Fleury & Letang Octagon Camp Pictures

By Phil Krundle     September 9, 2011

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A little over a week ago, PenguinPoop’s Art Vandelay’s bachelor party started out on Pittsburgh’s north shore at the Tilted Kilt and somehow ended up in Montreal.  He got to hang with Marc Andre Fleury and Kris Letang up at an Allan Walsh – Octagon Pro Training Camp at Lower Canada College.   Vandelay was invited to the mini training camp for Allan Walsh’s @Walsha clients by Hersh aka Mr. Pond Borenstein from FrozenPond.com.

A bunch of other players were there including Milan Michalek, ex-Penguin Ruslan Fedotenko, Marty Havlat, Jakub Voracek, Ondrej Pavelec, Derick Brassard, Michael Frolik, &  P.M. Bouchard.  Vandelay had a great conversation with Allan Walsh during the scrimmage and is hoping to have him as a guest on Coffey Talk.

Here are a few of the photos sent in by Vandelay who by the way is getting married today: ...

Video: Dan Bylsma Coach of the Year Acceptance Speech

By Phil Krundle     June 23, 2011

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Dan Bylsma won a well deserved Jack Adams award for “Coach of the Year”. Bylsma is the first Penguins coach to win the award. This is the video of his acceptance speech.

We had an idea Bylsma was going to win the award back in March, you can read about it here: Penguins Coach Bylsma Deserves Jack Adams Award Consideration

Pittsburgh Penguins 2011 Free Agent List

By Phil Krundle     April 28, 2011

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Here is a current list of Pittsburgh Penguin players who’s contracts are up and become free agents as of 12:01 pm, July 1st 2011.

Click here if you are looking for all of the Pittsburgh Penguin salary cap numbers: Pittsburgh Penguins 2010 – 2011 Salary Cap Numbers 

*Penguins signed 36 year old winger Steve Sullivan from Nashville for $1.5 mil for 1 year

*Penguins signed 26 year old defenseman Alexandre Picard from Montreal for $.6 mil for 1 year

Unrestricted Free Agents: On July 1st, 2011 any player not under contract who is 27 years or older or who has at least 7 years of experience in the NHL, is a Unrestricted Free agent. Free to go where they want and take whatever pay the get offered.

Salaries listed are in millions.

Here is a list of Unrestricted Free Agents the Penguins have at the end of the Year, their age, their current salary level, and position :   You can click on their name to see their lifetime stats – The players stats while with the Penguins are listed to the right of the player along with their age & salary. If the player doesn’t have stats, they only played for the Penguins farm teams. ...

Gameday Poop: GAME 7 – Pittsburgh Penguins vs TB Lightning

By Phil Krundle     April 27, 2011

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Tonight the Penguins need to hit somebody. I’m not talking the soft checks the Pens have been throwing the last two games. I’m talking the Brooks Orpik type teeth rattling check he threw at Steven Stamkos the first game. For the last two games the Penguins have let Tampa skate in and around the net without consequences. It’s time to let Tampa know how rough a Penguin team can play when they need to.

I’m calling out the softies to hit someone tonight. In six games Lovejoy has registered 0 hits, Michalek has 1. This means that Alexei Kovalev has 3 times as many hits as those two combined. James Neal the so called “power forward” only has 8 hits. To put that into perspective, Eric Tangradi had five hits in the one game he played and he just came off a concussion. Tangradi deserves to be on the ice tonight.

The team leader in hits is Craig Adams. If you go by how many hits per amount of ice time Adams and Asham are far above the rest.

James Neal, while you are trying to hit something tonight, how about trying to hit the net!  Neal leads the team in missed shots. Over twice as many as Letang and Letang shoots all his from the blueline.

Definitive word from Dan Bylsma on whether Eric Tangradi and Derek Engelland will be playing tonight:  ...

Pittsburgh Penguins vs TB Lightning Gameday Poop: Game 6

By Phil Krundle     April 25, 2011

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The Penguins that will be wearing the Penguin uniform on the ice tonight and the coaches that will be standing behind them have played half a season without Crosby. They have worked their asses off to get the tiny crumb of respect that the media has given them. Why are Penguin fans not giving them any respect?

I’m sorry, today’s Gameday Poop is more of a rant than anything else.

I am aware that only about 10% of Pittsburgh Penguin fans are band wagon fans, but why is it that every band wagon fan calls the radio talk shows? I made the mistake of listening to talk radio over the weekend and it was band wagon fan galore. People were saying what does it matter if the Penguins win this series, they won’t win the next one and they don’t stand a chance of winning the cup without Crosby and Malkin anyway.

I did enjoy when one of the radio hosts called out a fan who was saying that exact same thing I just mentioned and it turned out the Bandwagon fan didn’t even watch the game. I reverted back to my old “don’t listen to post game or talk shows” real fast.

If you need reason to believe the Pens can win the cup, you need not look further than the 2003 New Jersey Devils. They didn’t have anyone even near a Crosby or Malkin. The Devils top scorer during that regular season had only 55 points yet

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