If you expected the Penguins to look a whole lot different after failing to advance past the first round of the playoffs for a third consecutive season, you were right. It’s also a safe bet that the 2021-22 roster, as it stands right now, isn’t exactly what you had in...
The Penguins outplayed the New York Islanders for at least four, maybe five games of their six-game series. They dominated Games 5 and 6 by a wide margin. Friday, though, the Penguins were facing reporters’ questions via Zoom after their locker clean-outs and exit...
After an undisciplined Game 4 at Long Island put the Penguins in a 2-2 series deadlock with the New York Islanders, they returned home to PPG Paints Arena Monday facing what could fairly be described as a must-win situation. These playoffs represent perhaps the last,...
After the Penguins’ deflating, 4-3 overtime loss to the Islanders in Game 1, head coach Mike Sullivan said he knew his team had more to give. From the drop of the puck in Game 2, they set about proving him right. “Going into this game, we knew every one of us needed...
If the Penguins are going to get past the New York Islanders, they’re going to need Tristan Jarry to be a whole lot better. Playing in just his second NHL playoff game, the 26-year-old netminder had fans invoking the name of his predecessor Matt Murray as he missed...
If you’re a Penguins fan, it probably feels like your team has faced the New York Islanders far too often in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In reality, though, this is just the sixth meeting between the two clubs. It’s just that four of the previous five have been brutal...
There’s something different about the Pittsburgh Penguins this season – an intangible that’s making a tangible difference in their outcomes. Whether you call it buying into a team concept, commitment to defense or simply professionalism, it’s been a big part of what’s...
Since the Penguins joined the NHL in 1968, no team has been more active on trade deadline day. This year, though, figured to be a little different. With new GM Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke trying to strike a balance between competing for...
The Pittsburgh Penguins won in Boston Thursday for the first time since Nov. 24, 2014, and they did it by out-Bruining the Bruins, allowing just two shots in the first period, getting on the board first and never really letting the home team back into the game. It was...
A little over a week ago, when the Penguins stormed out to a 3-0 lead in four minutes against the Philadelphia Flyers but ended up losing a 4-3 game, head coach Mike Sullivan was asked about his team’s inability to be more consistent – from game to game and inside of...
The future of the Pittsburgh Penguins is now in the hands of one of their biggest rivals from the past – and an exec who opined just a couple of months ago that their championship window had closed. With Tuesday’s hires of Ron Hextall as their new GM and Brian Burke...
Thursday in Boston, the Pittsburgh Penguins turned in a dud. A day after Jim Rutherford, the general manager who brought them two Stanley Cups and was actively working to try to help them try to win more, stunningly announced his resignation for personal reasons, the...
In a 56-game season, each game has a little more urgency. That’s been reflected in the decisions made by the Penguins coaching staff so far, where slow starts have led to quick lineup adjustments. After a debut that saw him on the ice for one goal-against and in the...
One game into the 2020-21 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ reconfigured roster has a little reconfiguring to do. With just a weeklong training camp on which to base new line combinations, defensive pairings and special teams, the Penguins did strike some gold. Their...
When the Penguins were ushered out of the Toronto bubble in four games last August – technically not even making the playoffs as the Montreal Canadiens bounced them in the qualifying round – GM Jim Rutherford spoke candidly of his disappointment with how his team had...
When the Penguins’ season ended Friday, it looked like this. A turnover from normally reliable fourth-liner Brandon Tanev to the stick of Montreal’s Paul Byron, then four white jerseys standing in front of goaltender Tristan Jarry, all of them neglecting to cover the...
For the first time in his career, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby will play a meaningful hockey game on his Aug. 7 birthday. It couldn’t be much more meaningful, as it turns out, as his fifth-seeded club now faces elimination at the hands of the 12th-seeded Montreal...
A best-of-five playoff series is a different situation than a best-of-seven. There’s less margin for error. One loss and the urgency rises quickly; with just one more, a team knows they’re on the brink, staring down the end of their season. So, when the heavily...
The Pittsburgh Penguins had opportunities to win this game. Did they ever. A first period where they came out shooting, racking up a 10-1 shot advantage on the Montreal Canadiens in the first six minutes. Seven power play opportunities, including a minute and a half...
One hundred and thirty-eight days after the NHL hit pause on its season, the puck dropped again Tuesday at 4:13 p.m. EDT. There were no fans in the Scotiabank Arena seats as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers faced off in an exhibition game, the sole...
It’s only been a couple of weeks since Kris Letang scored into an empty net to ice the Penguins’ 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on March 10. That win, led by season MVP Evgeni Malkin and including contributions from depth players like Evan Rodrigues and...
The last time the Pittsburgh Penguins won a hockey game – Feb. 18, when they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in convincing fashion, 5-2 – it lifted them to the top of the Metro Division. Eleven days later, after a lifeless, 5-0 loss at San Jose sealed their first...
The Penguins were prioritizing a top-six winger at the trade deadline even before Jake Guentzel’s shoulder surgery put him on a four-to-six month recovery timeline. Monday, they went out and got the one they’ve been coveting – and they paid for him. Jason Zucker, who...
For the first period Sunday, it looked like the Penguins were going to be beaten by the Bruins on their home ice as they had been twice in Boston this season. Pittsburgh looked woefully unprepared to start the 12:30 p.m. matinee. It was bad enough that Boston led 14-6...
The Penguins have been without captain Sidney Crosby, still arguably the game’s best player, since Nov. 9. Brian Dumoulin, their best defensive defenseman, has been lost since Nov. 30. A week before Christmas, they added Justin Schultz, one of their top offensive...
The Penguins are already without their captain and arguably the game’s best player in Sidney Crosby, out six to eight weeks after core muscle surgery, but that might not be the worst of their problems. Brian Dumoulin, Pittsburgh’s best defensive defenseman, became the...
Last Monday, the Penguins scrapped their way back from a 3-0 deficit in Boston against one of the league’s best, not to mention stingiest, teams. Penguins Dominik Kahun, Nick Bjugstad, Bryan Rust and local product John Marino put four unanswered goals behind Jaroslav...
Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins took on the Colorado Avalanche – owners of a spotless, 5-0 start to their season – without five of their top nine forwards. With only 11 healthy forwards on Pittsburgh’s roster, in fact, including three who started the season in AHL...
Sidney Crosby saw Columbus’ Pierre-Luc Dubois lay a high hit on Jake Guentzel, the 24-year-old who’s been on Crosby’s left wing for most of his three NHL seasons, and the 5’11” Penguins captain skated over to confront the Blue Jackets’ 6’3” forward. “I didn’t really...
Two days before the start of their regular season, the Penguins finalized their 23-man roster Tuesday. Twenty are players who skated for Pittsburgh last year, along with new forwards Alex Galchenyuk (acquired from Arizona in the Phil Kessel trade), Dominik Kahun...
