Penguins Update: Don’t Forget the Kids

In the wake of the Penguins’ recent loss to the Flyers, I was struck by the pronounced difference in the makeup of the teams. While the Pens’ lineup was generously stocked with 30-somethings (nine to be exact), Philly featured a bevy of talented young forwards who are in their early twenties, including NHL scoring leader Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Matt Read, James van Riemsdyk, Wayne Simmonds, and Jakub Voracek. I’m not even counting fresh-faced role players like Zac Rinaldo and Harry Zolnierczyk.

I hate to covet anything Philadelphia, but I couldn’t help but be envious. Thanks to some astute drafting and personnel decisions by general manager Paul Holmgren, the Flyers’ future looks bright. Philly is positioned at roughly the same spot on the development curve that the Penguins were back in 2006-07.

Of course, the Pens aren’t totally bereft of young talent, either. Any team would die to have a core comprised of Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, and Jordan Staal.

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Gameday Poop: Penguins vs Islanders – Igloo History & Giveaway Night

Well it’s the final regular season game at the Igloo tonight and there are 50 some plus players from Pittsburgh hockey lore that will be at the arena for a very special presentation and it’s fan appreciation night so on top of the many giveaways, at the end of the game the Penguin players will be giving fans the jersey’s right off their backs. I’ve listed all of the ex-Pittsburgh Penguins I’ve heard that will be at the game tonight below.

There is also rumor going around that they are planning to play a hockey game in between all the hoopla. The New York Islanders are going to be in town and I have too much to cover so here is everything in rapid fire style, I hope you can keep up.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the “jersey of their back” is not the smelly one the players wore during the game. They go to the locker room after the game and throw on clean jerseys, probably to a few fans dismay.

Wouldn’t this be the ultimate for the final regular season game at the Mellon Arena… 3 more points and Sidney Crosby has 500 for his career, how about he does it tonight with a hat trick. It would give him over 50 goals for the year and over 500 career points in front of many of the greatest Pittsburgh Penguins to skate at Mellon Arena.

Will Evgeni Malkin be playing? He is expected to play yet he’s a game time decision. Haven’t heard a word about Kunitz.

Some of the best laid plans… The Penguins on Monday and Tuesday worked extra long perfecting their powerplay. What didn’t work out so well was that Evgeni Malkin was one of the ones in on all those drills and he called off ill moments before Tuesdays game.

Can the Penguins flip a playoff switch? All you hear about these days is whether the Pens can flip a magic switch and be in playoff mode. If Ruslan Fedotenko could be a prime example, I think they can. He played an incredible game last game and looked playoff ready after going MIA most of the season.  Fedotenko has the teams worst plus minus by far at -15.

Something to consider. Is it possible there is an illness going around the Penguins locker room that’s hindering their play on the ice.

The Penguins want us in our seats early for tonight’s game. They are saying the festivities will be starting at 7:20PM, but I recommend being seated a little after 7PM. My guess is that the actual game will start around 7:45PM.

Goligoski if your reading this… Stop over thinking everything and ...

Shero Don’t Be A Hero

With all of the trades around the NHL right now, most by two “Old School” GM’s Brian Burke & Darryl Sutter, it would be easy for Ray Shero to get caught up in the madness and trade away the Penguins future for another shot at winning the Cup. A little Pittsburgh Penguins history lesson might cure him of that and hopefully he will keep together what could be an incredible Pittsburgh future. These young players should be deemed Untouchable: Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, Letang, Goligoski, Staal

 

In 1991 Craig Patrick made arguably the best trade in Pittsburgh Penguins history getting Ron Francis, defensemen Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings for John Cullen, winger Jeff Parker and defenseman Zarley Zalapski. Whether or not this was what enabled the Penguins to win the cup in 1991 is open for speculation, but most around the league deemed it to be the reason. As a matter of fact Hartford Whaler play by play announcer Chuck Kaiton had heard all the talk about how Eddie Johnson was going to put together a Stanley Cup team “He didn’t tell us it was going to be in Pittsburgh.” Chuck Said. 

At the time of winning the Cup in Pittsburgh the Penguins had on their team what would be an unprecedented 6 players that would finish in the top 15 All Time Scorers in NHL history. Five of them in or before their prime. Ron Francis, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Paul Coffey, Mark Recchi and Brian Trottier. The only team anywhere close to this was the Edmonton Oilers dynasty with Gretzky, Messier and Coffey.