The Penguins opened Game 1 of the 2018 playoffs with the familiar, powerful voice of Chris Cornell filling PPG Paints Arena on Audioslave’s “Cochise,” just as it had through their back-to-back championship runs. They followed that with a big shot of adrenaline, as...
Finally, the long, 82-game preseason is over and the real games can begin. The Pittsburgh Penguins weren’t going to say anything like that, of course. But, when you’ve raised the Stanley Cup at the end of each of the last two seasons, how can the games before spring...
For the third consecutive year, the Washington Capitals will hang a Metropolitan Division Champions banner from the rafters. The Pittsburgh Penguins hope they, too, will celebrate a three-peat this spring, but one involving a large piece of silver drinkware. That’s...
If you’re a Penguins fan who wasn’t thrilled with Kris Letang’s play in the early going, you’ll have to get in line behind the man himself. Letang showed up to training camp this year with only a week of skating under his belt. Surgeries like the one he had on April...
For their past two, Stanley Cup-winning seasons, the March of the Penguins has been more than an Antarctic documentary. It’s marked a time when the NHL’s flightless birds began to, well, take flight. In 2016, from the Feb. 29 trade deadline through the end of the...
Brian Dumoulin is not an offensive defenseman. The reliable, 26-year-old blueliner averages about 15 points a season and has six goals in his NHL career – four of them this year. Saturday night in Toronto, though, he scored a beauty. With the Maple Leafs up 3-0 late...
The Penguins might’ve been one of the big winners at the NHL trade deadline. But, in three games since bolstering their roster with center Derick Brassard, no winning was happening. The goals were still coming during the three-game skid, which saw the Penguins lose...
Jim Rutherford got his third-line center. And he's just as surprised as anyone that he made it work. "I've been asked by different people are we in on [Derick] Brassard, and the answer's always been no, because we really didn't think we could figure out how to fit him...
The Pittsburgh Penguins are blessed with world-class talents like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang. It’s also something of a curse. The Stanley Cup is not just the goal; it’s the expectation. The Penguins are defending, back-to-back champions,...
What do you call a two-headed monster that’s sprouted a third head? A nightmare for opposing goaltenders. The Penguins and their fanbase have been fortunate to have superstar centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for well over a decade. This year, winger Phil...
The Penguins are almost starting to look like the Penguins again. Pittsburgh has gotten off to a 6-3 start on the new year. And, as you might expect with their high-powered lineup, they’re filling the net while doing it. Their 31 goals are tied for second since Jan....
For the fourth time in a little more than two weeks, the Penguins turned in an inspiring performance over a division rival when they dominated the New York Islanders, 4-0, Friday in Brooklyn. Could this one be a real turning point in Pittsburgh’s underwhelming season?...
After laying another egg Friday night in Raleigh, the Penguins are turning to a spring chicken with the recall of Daniel Sprong. Friday marked the second time in as many pairs of games that Pittsburgh followed an inspired, come-from-behind win over the rival Columbus...
At 6-foot-7 and 255 lbs., defenseman Jamie Oleksiak is big. Almost as big, in fact, as the expectations of the environment he walked into Wednesday when he joined his new team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, for his first practice. Oleksiak, 24, was the No. 14 overall pick...
Like Matt Murray before him, Tristan Jarry is getting his break after an injury to the Penguins’ starting netminder. And he’s taking full advantage. For Murray, that chance came in December 2015, after starter Marc-Andre Fleury suffered a concussion. He played 13...
When the Blackhawks’ Artem Anisimov corralled a behind-the-net pass and tucked it into the corner of the Pittsburgh net to put his team ahead 2-1 Saturday, it didn’t just sap the momentum the Penguins had earned by tying the game 21 seconds earlier. It marked a return...
It’s just a one-game stop at home between road trips, but it might be exactly what the Penguins need. The defending Stanley Cup champions return to PPG Paints Arena Tuesday to face the Arizona Coyotes. After going 1-3-1 on their longest road trip of the season, they...
“I think right now, we’re a flawed hockey team. We’ve got to shore up a lot of areas.” Head coach Mike Sullivan didn’t mince words after his Penguins were on the wrong end of a 7-1 score in Tampa Bay on Saturday. It was their second loss of the humbling variety in...
He practices it. Really, he does. When Sidney Crosby threw that backhand shot toward the front of the net, banking it off of goalie Henrik Lundqvist and in with 55.3 seconds left to tie Tuesday’s game and send it to overtime, not a single one of his teammates was...
There were lights. So many twinkling, multicolored lights, as every one of the 18,652 fans in attendance became part of the pregame show via light-up bracelets. There was a moment for reflection, with a video recapping key moments as the Penguins became the first team...
The Penguins lost a handful of key players from their back-to-back Stanley Cup runs this summer. With less than a week to go before they raise another championship banner, their opening night roster is still a work in progress. But this year’s Penguins have already...
“Enforcer” isn’t exactly an in-demand job description in today’s NHL. A few years back, the small group of players whose primary skill set involved their ability to intimidate and their heavy fists began to exit the league. Some are still carving out hockey careers in...
The 2017 Stanley Cup champions paid a price for their success. Unlike the 2016 Penguins, who managed to bring back nearly the exact same roster to defend their title, this year’s club will have a decidedly different look. Gone are their third- and fourth-line centers,...
The Pittsburgh Penguins did it the hard way. But they’re used to that. They entered the playoffs without Kris Letang, their best defenseman and arguably the most important player to their style of play. They were the NHL’s seventh-most injured team through the regular...
When Evgeni Malkin’s hockey career ends, perhaps he will have a future as a prognosticator. “We’ll use our speed and win the game,” Malkin said prior to Game 5. “It’s a good time to show your best game, because there’s only three games left and we have two, three...
For the Penguins, the plan was simple. Go into Nashville’s loud, hostile territory and get off to a quick start by playing smart, simple hockey. They did that, with a goal from Jake Guentzel – who else? – to quiet those passionate fans, just 2:46 in. “I thought the...
Two days ago, it looked like Patric Hornqvist rejoining the Penguins’ lineup meant that rookie Jake Guentzel might come out. Head coach Mike Sullivan couldn’t be blamed for contemplating that switch. Guentzel, 22, was still leading the league in playoff goals, but he...
This Stanley Cup Final has been billed as a fast, skilled series between two highly entertaining teams – pitting the league’s best top-four on defense, with Nashville’s Ryan Ellis, Roman Josi, P.K. Subban and Mattias Ekholm, against the league’s top offense, with...
They don’t call Ottawa the Pesky Sens anymore, but the Pittsburgh Penguins probably thought of their opponent that way more than once during the Eastern Conference Final. And, fittingly, after winning Game 6 at home to force Game 7 in Pittsburgh, the Senators were...
For the third time in as many series, the Pittsburgh Penguins failed to close out a playoff series the first time they had the chance. Unlike the eggs they laid in Game 4 at Columbus and Game 6 versus Washington, though, it would be hard to accuse the Penguins of not...
