Hot Rangers Melt Slumping Penguins 3-1

When the Penguins and New York Rangers clashed at CONSOL Energy Center on Friday night, it was a definitive case of two teams headed in opposite directions. While the streaking Rangers (8-1 in their last nine) had scaled to the top of the overall standings, the skidding Pens (7-7 since Nov. 29) were struggling to keep pace in the race for Atlantic Division supremacy.

Thanks to a quirk in the schedule that provided a full week off, the Penguins entered the contest as fresh as proverbial daisies. However, the extra rest did little to improve the team’s sagging on-ice fortunes. After jumping to an early lead, the Pens unraveled over the final 40 minutes and fell to their third-straight loss, 3-1.

Determined to make a statement against an upper-echelon foe, the Penguins played arguably their finest opening period in nearly three weeks. Pascal Dupuis set the tone two minutes in when he tested Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist following a takeaway by Jordan Staal.

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Penguins Defenseman Paul Martin’s Numbers Don’t Make the Point

The Pittsburgh Penguins  powerplay ranks 23rd in the league.  The Nashville Predators are the only other team in the league that currently holds a playoff spot with a worse powerplay.  This has been a problem all season and is in no way a reflection of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin being out for the last two months.  The Powerplay was horrible while they were playing also.

When Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero signed Paul Martin to a five year $25 million dollar deal on July 1st last year he went out of his way to point out that Martin in no way was being brought in to replace Gonchar’s 50 to 60 points a season.  The Penguins had shown that they were having a bigger problem giving up goals than they were scoring goals and Martin, a defensive defenseman, was brought in to shore up some defensive holes.

If you could have told Ray Shero back then that the Penguins coaching staff would ...

Pittsburgh Penguins sign defenseman Kris Letang to a 4 year deal

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced that defenseman Kris Letang was signed for four more years and seriously it’s about time Ray Shero started shoring up the Penguins defense for the future or for next year which ever comes first. The Sergei Gonchar vs Ray Shero signing has taken center stage and because of that there hasn’t been much talk about how the Pens could lose not just their core defense, but also their main prospects next year. All 8 of the players that have seen time on defense in a Pittsburgh Penguins uniform are unrestricted free agents next year.

With the signing of Letang, the Pens now have  3 defensemen signed for next year, Orpik, Goligoski and Letang. It has been reported that Kris Letang got $3.5 million a year by ESPN.   Rob Scuderi got a contract last year with LA for $13.6 million for four years and he was an average defenseman, which they are finding out about now with his no goals 10 assists.  Though Letang is less experienced than Scuderi, I would take him for $14 mil for four years ahead of Scuderi any day of the week ...

I Know Nothing – Pittsburgh Penguins – Elvis Edition

Hello again fellow Poopers!  Welcome back to the second edition of “I KNOW NOTHING!”. More musings and abusings regarding the greatest sport in the world! 

POOP FOR THOUGHT – Last night I had a dream that Elvis came back to earth for one more concert. Fox Sports Pittsburgh for some odd reason had the broadcasting rights. Unfortunately they decided to show Henry Kissinger reading the white pages on TV and put Hall of famer Elvis’ concert on the radio! Feel free to make a parallel between FSP and our beloved Mike Lange! 

OLD SCHOOL! I came across some interesting facts about the Pittsburgh Pirates…WAIT! Before you hit delete on this post! I am talking about the NHL Pittsburgh Pirates of 1925-1930. The Pirates whose colors were black and gold, opened their inaugural season at the now defunct Duquesne Gardens. Check out some of the amazing items of note below! 

• The Pirates beat Montreal goaltender Georges Vezina 1-0 in what would be his last NHL game ever. He died of tuberculosis 4 months later. 
• The first ever NHL game played in Pittsburgh took place on Dec.2, 1925. 8,200 fans paid $1.00 to watch the Pirates lose to the New York Americans 2-1. The Pirates and Americans later combined for 141 shots on goal in a single game in a 3-1 NY win, an NHL record that still stands today. 
• Pirates coach and occasional player Odie Cleghorn was the pioneer of changing lines on the fly. Odie Cleghorn also was the first coach to roll 3 lines. Until this point coaches left players on the ice until they were exhausted. 
• In 1931 The Pirates moved to Philadelphia while a deal for a permanent arena was being hashed out in Pittsburgh. The team was renamed the Quakers and donned orange and black uniforms (colors later adopted by the Flyers franchise). In 1980 The Boston Bruins filed a complaint with the NHL, but the Pittsburgh’s request to change to black and gold was upheld because an earlier NHL franchise in the city, the Pittsburgh Pirates wore in the 1920′s! 

PLEASE HELP!  Does anyone know of a good stain remover for hockey jerseys? I have a superstition about washing mine only if the Pens lose while I’m wearing that certain Jersey. The last time my jersey was so stained (wing sauce, gravy, jagr, beer, etc.) when I washed it the whole house smelled like soup!              ...

2009 Pittsburgh Penguins Free Agents

Here is a current list of Pitttsburgh Penguin players who’s contracts are up and become free agents as of 12:01 pm, July 1st 2009.

Here is the 2010 list:  2010 Pittsburgh Penguins Free Agents

You can click on their name to see their lifetime stats.

Click here if you are looking for up to date salary cap numbers and upcoming free agents: 
Pittsburgh Penguins 2009 – 2010 Salary Cap Numbers

Unrestricted Free Agents:  On July 1st, 2009 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.

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: ...

TOUGH DECISIONS – the STANLEY CUP Pittsburgh Penguin Offseason…

The Parade is over and the memories will linger on forever yet the team management gets no rest.
The Secondary Awards Banquet is tomorrow… the Entry Draft next week… and Free Agency about a week later so there is no time to rest for Ray Shero and his management team.
What should they do?  Let’s first lay a few assumptions out there… that the Salary Cap remains at $56.7 million and our current Salary Cap Hit is $46.835 million.

The Pens have (10) players… Satan, Sykora, Fedotenko, Guerin, Zigomanis, Adams, Gill, Boucher, Scuderi, and Garon as UFA’s that were on the final roster. Plus, a few other UFA’s – Pesonen, Taffe, and Minard who were at WB/S.  They also have (4) RFA’s – Goligoski, Lovejoy, Bissonnette, and Curry. That’s (14) players and contracts where decisions need to be made.
That’s why we are here – to help Shero make his decisions!  You do know that this is where he comes for advice, right.

Let’s start with who not to keep. In others words no contract offered.  I have selected (5) players:

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