Ever since the Penguins were swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the New York Islanders, it’s been clear they wouldn’t be returning the same team in October. The past two early playoff exits were simply not acceptable to a franchise that’s in perennial...
For the first 35 seconds – the first 2:08, really – things were going the Penguins’ way in Game 4. The Penguins’ top-line pair of Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel, held off the scoresheet throughout this series so far by the Islanders’ suffocating fourth line, were...
Down 0-2 in their first-round playoff series, Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan was asked how he hoped his team would approach Game 3. “A lot of people use the word ‘desperation’ to describe certain situations. I’m not sure I like that word because it implies a...
Sidney Crosby was back in his practice stall Saturday in the Pittsburgh suburb of Cranberry, away from the hostile environs of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Islanders had sent Crosby’s Penguins packing with an 0-2 deficit, the first time they’ve been in that...
On paper, the challenge for the Penguins seemed clear as they entered their first-round playoff series against the New York Islanders. How would the NHL’s sixth highest-scoring team crack a system that, under first-year head coach Barry Trotz, allowed the fewest goals...
Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby have never missed the playoffs since they’ve been on the Penguins’ roster together, and they’re not going to start now. After coming up short in their first attempt to clinch Tuesday in Detroit, the Penguins turned in a dominant, 4-1...
The Philadelphia Flyers’ Jakub Voracek started it all with 19.7 seconds remaining in regulation, outdoors at Lincoln Financial Field on Feb. 23. The Sabres’ Brandon Montour was next, with 2:32 remaining March 2 in Buffalo. Philly did it again in Pittsburgh on March...
If the Penguins’ Stadium Series appearance Saturday in Philadelphia had turned out differently, perhaps GM Jim Rutherford would have taken a different approach to Monday’s NHL trade deadline. As it was, in the course of a few seconds late in the first period of the...
Saturday, the Carolina Hurricanes shut out the Dallas Stars, 3-0, for their eighth win in their past 10 games. When they did the limbo as their postgame “Storm Surge” celebration, however, it was instead the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina’s Metro Division rival, who...
If the NHL trade deadline is approaching, you can rest assured that Penguins GM Jim Rutherford is going for it. "It," of course, means only one thing for the Penguins' franchise, where a season that ends with anything less than hoisting the Stanley Cup is equivalent...
After an 11-3-1 December, the Penguins kept rolling with a 3-1 start in January, including an impressive, 4-0 shutout over the Winnipeg Jets, one of the NHL’s best teams. Then they took off on a 1-3-1 road trip to end the unofficial first half of the season that left...
If their 11-3-1 December is any indication, the NHL should consider itself put on notice – here come the second-half Pittsburgh Penguins. The once-flightless birds enter 2019 on a six-game win streak, capping a month that put them back into contention with a 3-2 New...
The smile on Matt Murray’s face spoke volumes after the Penguins’ 4-3, overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings Saturday night. “Feels good,” said the two-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender who, at age 24, has been struggling through the toughest season of his young...
Penguins GM Jim Rutherford is nothing if not transparent. So, when he went public with his disappointment in his team’s subpar start on the GMJR Show last week – and threatened changes if things didn’t improve – the Penguins could officially consider themselves put on...
It’s been an up and down season for the Penguins. After a perfectly average, 2-1-2 start, Pittsburgh headed to Canada and caught fire, starting with an impressively focused, 3-0 win over the red-hot Toronto Maple Leafs. They then got into an old-fashioned track meet...
Four games into the 2018-19 season, the Penguins are still trying to put it all together. Their 2-1-1 record seems about right for a team that’s turned in one run-and-gun performance (their 7-6 opening night OT win over Washington), two sporadic efforts (Thursday’s...
Maybe it was the springy boards. “You can just tell on the bounces, they’re a lot more lively and springy this year,” said Jake Guentzel, who scored two of the Penguins’ seven goals. “It’s something we’ve been trying to get used to and, obviously, it’s going to take...
A quick look at the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2018-19 opening night roster, side by side with their opening night roster of a year ago, shows that GM Jim Rutherford has accomplished his primary goal. Depth. The most striking upgrade is at third-line center, where Greg...
Nobody paid much attention when, just 10 days after they were eliminated in the Stanley Cup playoffs last May, the Pittsburgh Penguins signed defenseman Juuso Riikola to a one-year, entry-level contract. A week into the preseason, the 24-year-old Finn is making...
The Capitals had burned the Penguins on odd-man rushes early in their second-round series, but Pittsburgh had done a much better job of limiting those chances over the past two games. And now, 5:27 into overtime of Game 6, here was Penguins defenseman Kris Letang...
The Penguins might’ve played their most dominant game of the playoffs Saturday night in Washington, but they return home to Pittsburgh facing elimination. The Penguins blew two one-goal leads, including surrendering a third-period lead for the second time in three...
With the Capitals holding a 2-1 lead in their second-round series, Game 4 was as close to a must-win for the Penguins as a non-elimination game can get. The result, too, couldn’t have been much closer. How close, exactly? That goal from Evgeni Malkin at 17:31 of the...
With five penalties called in the first period alone, the Game 3 officiating crew seemed to be sending the Penguins and Capitals a message – play it clean. By the second period, emotion on both sides began to bubble over, and the officials started to lose control of...
The Penguins had plenty of reasons to feel like nothing went their way in Sunday’s Game 2 at Washington. To name a few: Center Evgeni Malkin, a full participant in practice Saturday, nonetheless had to miss his third straight game with a leg injury, so their depth and...
The Washington Capitals struck fast, with Evgeny Kuznetsov scoring on the first shift of the game. On the first shift of the third period, they did it again. That second goal, a laser from Washington captain Alex Ovechkin, seemed like it might be lights-out for the...
The Penguins gave the Flyers life in Game 5. And, for the better part of two periods, they continued to do the same in Game 6. Playing in front of their home crowd for a chance to tie the series, Philadelphia came out with a dominant start, outshooting the Penguins...
Maybe the Penguins needed more time to decide who really serves up the best Whiz with, or wanted another run up the Rocky Steps. Because, although they said all the right things about wanting to finish off the Flyers on home ice in Game 5, the Penguins played a...
Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin had already gotten the all-important first goal just 4:33 into the contest, draining much of the energy out of the home crowd. But the Flyers weren’t about to roll over. Midway through the opening frame, the home team started to tilt the...
Wells Fargo Center is an intimidating playoff venue for an opposing team. The crowd is loud. The music is loud. The sheer volume of orange in the seats makes it clear you’re facing not only the Flyers, but the entire city of Philadelphia – or, at minimum, 19,955 of...
After embarrassing the Flyers 7-0 in Game 1, the Penguins opened Game 2 with another dominant effort. For the first 18:30 or so, anyway. Then they took the first penalty of the night, a boarding call against Zach Aston-Reese, and things started to unravel. Less than a...
