Pittsburgh Penguins / NHL category, Page 309
Tim Benz: Are Penguins’ Mike Sullivan, Jim Rutherford really on same page?
It had to be on purpose, right? Head coach Mike Sullivan and general manager Jim Rutherford standing side-by-side during the Penguins’ season-ending media availability. Sharing the podium. Answering questions in the presence of each other. There must have been intent behind the execution of the 2019 season-ending news conference last...
In Penguins’ quest to be harder to play against, does Phil Kessel help or hurt?
General manager Jim Rutherford and coach Mike Sullivan stood side-by-side at a season-ending news conference and announced, in one voice, that the Pittsburgh Penguins must be harder to play against moving forward. So, what does this mean for Phil Kessel? By the conventional definition of the term, Kessel’s game is...
Penguins’ Kris Letang is story of offensive flair vs. defensive responsibility
As the Pittsburgh Penguins tried to grapple with a quick playoff exit this season, Kris Letang and Mike Sullivan became entrenched on opposite sides of a divide that seemed new, dramatic and important. Sullivan stood at a podium after his team was swept by the New York Islanders and declared...
Mark Madden: Coach Mike Sullivan must steer Penguins in new direction
In 1997, Mario Lemieux retired for the first time. The 1996-97 Penguins had finished second in the Northeast Division at 38-36-8. Eddie Johnston had been dismissed as coach with 20 games remaining and replaced on an interim basis by general manager Craig Patrick. When the 1997-98 season dawned, Kevin Constantine...
Penguins goalie Matt Murray grateful for lessons learned in tumultuous season
Emotions ran the gamut as Pittsburgh Penguins players tried to wrap their heads around a stunning first-round sweep by the New York Islanders this week, but most fell somewhere in between disbelief and disappointment. As he packed up his gear before heading home to Thunder Bay, Ontario, for the summer,...
Tim Benz: Penguins better listen to themselves after ‘self-inflicted’ playoff exit
If the Penguins showed this much pushback against the New York Islanders, maybe they’d still be playing. Locker cleanout day got a little testy at times Thursday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry. The 2019 Penguins team was packing up for the last time in the wake of...
Sidney Crosby: I still believe in this Penguins group — but expect changes, too
The Pittsburgh Penguins captain spoke Thursday about an hour before the coach and general manager did on the day of the final gathering of the 2018-19 edition of the team. Ultimately, as powerful as Sidney Crosby is within the organization, he won’t be making the decisions on where the Penguins...
Effects of concussion not to blame for slump, Penguins’ Patric Hornqvist says
It’s a fairly clear and direct line that can be drawn. Patric Hornqvist has been one of the NHL’s most consistent goal-scorers for a decade, scoring between 21 and 30 goals for eight consecutive full seasons – and he was on pace to end up in the high end of...
Kevin Gorman: After playoff sweep, Mike Sullivan must hold Penguins accountableVideo
Fresh off being swept out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday presented a united front that indicates changes are coming. Not a coaching change, of course. Where Penguins players remain committed to keeping their core together, general manager Jim Rutherford and coach...
Sidney Crosby takes pass on World Championships to rest, heal
At the end of summer, Sidney Crosby will celebrate his 32nd birthday. That is part of the reason the beginning of his summer won’t include a trip to Slovakia for the World Championships next month. It’s a tournament he helped Canada win in 2015, the last time the Penguins were...
GM Jim Rutherford to seek chemistry, hunger, not speed, as he reshapes Penguins roster
After the Pittsburgh Penguins ended a six-year championship drought by winning the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons in 2016-17, the generally accepted theory was that they did so with speed. General manager Jim Rutherford acquired players like Carl Hagelin and Trevor Daley and the Penguins responded with an up-tempo attack...
Penguins’ Kris Letang defiant in saying changing his game ‘is not the answer’
In the wake of getting swept out of the first round of the playoffs, some want the Pittsburgh Penguins to modify their mindset and take a more conservative approach. Kris Letang doesn’t want to hear it, at least when it comes to his game personally. “I don’t think the (answer)...
Somber Olli Maatta looks ahead to uncertain future with Penguins
Two years ago, Olli Maatta’s season ended with a sun-soaked nap on an apartment balcony after the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrated a second straight Stanley Cup with a parade down Grant Street. On Thursday morning, as the Penguins cleaned out their lockers in Cranberry, his season-ending mood was decidedly more somber....
Penguins clear out lockers: Sidney Crosby won’t play at World Championships for Canada
Less than 48 hours after their season ended, the Pittsburgh Penguins returned to their practice facility in Cranberry on Thursday morning to clear out their lockers and address the media for the final time of 2018-19. The Penguins were swept by the New York Islanders in the first round of...
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...
