Penguins/NHL category, Page 301
Podcast: How Tampa Bay is handling Lightning’s 1st-round sweep
It’s the “Misery Loves Company” podcast! Think you are bummed about the Penguins? Imagine how depressed they are in Tampa after the Lightning also got swept in four games of a first-round series. They were the top seed and they tied the NHL wins record. Yet they lost all four...
U mad, bro? Penguins fans salty, sarcastic, sad
Penguins fans are angry, resigned and sarcastic. What else would you expect in this week’s “U mad, bro?” A Twitter follower named @EbbyCalLaLoosh chimed in on a discussion I was having about what the Penguins should plan to do with their roster this offseason. “I’ll go ahead and guess 97%...
Kevin Gorman: Penguins better make changes out of design, not disappointment
The Pittsburgh Penguins should be forewarned there is danger in disappointment, even more in running out of patience. It wasn’t just fans who sounded dangerously close to losing theirs with the disappointing way the Penguins played in a first-round sweep by the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup playoffs....
Salary cap situation makes Penguins roster moves inevitable
Given their performance in a first-round sweep by the New York Islanders and his track record as an active general manager, there is zero chance Jim Rutherford wants to go into next season with the same roster the Pittsburgh Penguins used at the end of this year. Factoring in the...
5 areas Penguins need to improve to be contenders again
Sitting in his locker stall moments after his team was swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin said it was difficult for him to talk about how the team needed to improve to regain its championship form. He...
Tim Benz, Mark Madden discuss what’s next for Penguins after Islanders sweep
Tim Benz and Mark Madden wrap up the Penguins’ season after the Islanders completed a first-round sweep with a 3-1 win Tuesday night. The guys discuss which players might be on the trading block, how much the coaching staff is to blame, how much certain players are to blame and...
The other side: From Islanders, no trash talk necessary after sweeping Penguins
Some of the quotes coming out the Penguins locker room were illuminating. The same could be said about comments in the Islanders room. New York finished off a sweep of the Penguins last night. And trash talk was minimal because when you beat a team that easily, is it necessary?...
Islanders’ structure, discipline helped exploit Penguins’ flaws
The Penguins season is over a lot earlier than we expected. And there are many reasons why. So let’s take a look at all of them in our final Peguins Sided.co podcast of the 2018-19 season. Tribune-Review beat writer Jonathan Bombulie joins me to discuss how the Islanders managed to...
Tim Benz: In wake of sweep, Penguins say they must be more like Islanders
Watching the Islanders sweep the Penguins in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals was like watching the Steelers defense at the end of the Dick LeBeau era. They kept trying to do the same things they’ve always done, even though those things stopped working long before they were willing to admit. This...
Bruised by present, Penguins’ Matt Cullen not thinking about the future
The game had been over for no more than 15 minutes, and the Pittsburgh Penguins locker room was full of players with bruised feelings, unfulfilled expectations and heads hung in despair. But Matt Cullen still was asked to answer the toughest question of all: What’s next? Cullen, who will be...
Kevin Gorman: Islanders’ sweep provides painful ending for PenguinsVideo
It was a sorry scene, seeing the Pittsburgh Penguins skate off their home ice Tuesday night after being swept by the New York Islanders in this Stanley Cup playoffs first-round series. Don’t blame the Penguins for being in a state of disbelief after being swept into a perfect storm. Only...
For Penguins, offseason roster changes all but guaranteed after first-round sweepVideo
A sullen group of Pittsburgh Penguins players sat in their stalls in a losing locker room Tuesday night knowing full well they just finished the last game this team would play together a group. Being swept in the first round of the playoffs inevitably leads to personnel changes. Even if...
Penguins can’t find answers as Islanders complete sweepVideo
For four full games plus an overtime, the Pittsburgh Penguins tried to find answers to the tough questions the New York Islanders were asking them in the first round of the playoffs. They tried to figure out how to deal with a ferocious forecheck that rarely took a shift off....
Playoffs by period: Penguins couldn’t solve Islanders’ strategy or avoid a sweep
THIRD PERIOD: Islanders 3, Penguins 1 The strategy for the New York Islanders is simple: Sit back and wait for the opponent to make mistakes. The Penguins were all too happy to comply. That made their Stanley Cup playoffs first-round series a bad matchup for the Penguins, despite the two...
NHL’s top scorers, including Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, going nowhere fast in playoffs
For decades, it generally has been an accepted part of hockey lore: The playoffs are where high-flying offenses go to die. Over the past three seasons, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals have done their part to change that attitude, winning the Stanley Cup on the backs of their generational...
Jared McCann promoted as Penguins shake up top line again
When the Pittsburgh Penguins open the fourth game of their first-round series against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, they will apparently be using their third different top-line combination. Jared McCann was bumped up to the first line with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel as the team took morning...
Penguins move Jake Guentzel to top power-play unit for Game 4Video
Jake Guentzel talked about Game 4 being a chance for the Pittsburgh Penguins to do “something special,” and that starts with moving the winger to the top special-teams unit. Looking for a way to spark the Penguins with a man advantage in the Stanley Cup playoffs, coach Mike Sullivan switched...
First call: Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin called out for fight with Hurricanes’ Andrei Svechnikov
In Monday’s “First Call,” Alex Ovechkin’s knockout in a fight. A preview of the Pirates series in Detroit. Gerrit Cole is heating up for Houston. Ovi K.O. Alexander Ovechkin didn’t score for the Capitals on Tuesday night. No one from Washington did. The Capitals were blanked by the Hurricanes, 5-0,...
How long can Penguins stay alive vs. Islanders?
The Penguins are facing playoff elimination in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals Tuesday night against the Islanders. Puck-drop is 7:30 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena. Penguins Radio network host Brian Metzer isn’t sounding too optimistic about the club staying alive in our weekly Sided.co hockey podcast. He’ll tell...
Tim Benz: How Penguins could climb out of 3-0 hole vs. Islanders
So how do they do it? The truth is, it almost assuredly won’t happen. But … If the Penguins are to come back from a 3-0 hole against the New York Islanders in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, how will it happen? The usual empty explanations were thrown around the...
Muted Penguins offense facing now-or-never Game 4 with Islanders
In explaining the Pittsburgh Penguins impotent offensive production, it’s easy to point to the New York Islanders and the Penguins’ obvious troubles in solving their first-round opponent’s commitment to defense. But in reality, the Penguins’ struggles with scoring goals extend well back beyond the start of the postseason. Though winning...
Penguins’ Sidney Crosby: ‘I’d love to be a part of a team that comes back from (down 3-0)’
Sidney Crosby has made an indelible permanent mark on the NHL. He’s carved out a place in the hockey history books. So, the way he sees it, why not embrace an opportunity to make more history? The Pittsburgh Penguins captain recognizes the dire situation and the long odds the Penguins...
Down 3-0, Penguins try to take their minds off hockey
Mike Sullivan’s viewing of choice was Game of Thrones. For Justin Schultz, Masters post-tournament coverage. The routine-oriented Matt Murray and Sidney Crosby planned on spending time with family. The Pittsburgh Penguins’ season is on the line Tuesday. But Monday, players and coaches mostly were electing to keep from dwelling too...
With Penguins’ season on the line, Mike Sullivan cancels practice
What possibly was the Pittsburgh Penguins’ final practice of the season became not a practice at all Monday. Though the team gathered Monday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, players did not take the ice on the eve of Game 4 of their first-round playoff series they trail...
Tim Benz, Mark Madden discuss how good Islanders are, Penguins’ issues
It’s the day after another Penguins loss, and Tim Benz and Mark Madden discuss the state of the team, how good the Islanders are and what, if anything, can be done to salvage this first-round playoff series for Pittsburgh. Benz and Madden discuss the Penguins’ issues maintaining momentum, the stars...
