Jonathan Bombulie stories, Page 27

As good as a trade-deadline acquisition looks on paper, he still has to fit into his new team’s lineup. That’s a lesson the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets are on opposite sides of coming into their key Metropolitan Division matchup Tuesday night. Ballyhooed pick-ups Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, Adam...

Facing one of the teams the Columbus Blue Jackets are battling with for a playoff spot in a tight Eastern Conference race in one of the biggest games of the year, John Tortorella is starting his backup goalie and telling his players to relax and have fun. Joonas Korpisalo, not...

As the Pittsburgh Penguins have begun to ramp up their play heading down the stretch, picking up points in the standings in five straight games, a serious flaw remains that could easily sink their progress. The Penguins are struggling on the penalty kill. The Penguins have allowed at least one...

There’s a big home-and-home series that could have a massive impact on the Eastern Conference playoff race coming up in the next few days. On Thursday, the hammer hosts the nail. On Saturday, the windshield visits the bug. OK, that’s not what it says on the official NHL schedule. It...

Phil Kessel has been a popular player in Pittsburgh since joining the Penguins in a 2015 trade. On Tuesday night, fans at PPG Paints Arena showed just how much they adore the affable goal-scoring right wing with a remarkable second-period ovation. Kessel is mired in a career-long 16-game goal drought....

Pittsburgh Penguins center Matt Cullen knew the team was planning a pregame celebration to commemorate his 1,500th career NHL game Tuesday night. The scope of it surprised even him. Every Penguins player wore a No. 7 jersey for warm-ups in a tribute to their popular veteran teammate. His wife and...

It would be impossible for Pittsburgh Penguins center Matt Cullen to still be playing at the sport’s highest level past his 42nd birthday without discipline. Discipline in the kitchen and the gym keeps him in the kind of physical condition that players half his age aspire to. Discipline on the...

Given the chance to do it all over again, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang doesn’t know what he could do differently. Letang was injured during the outdoor game in Philadelphia on Feb. 23, coming to the defense of teammate Brian Dumoulin after he was given a concussion by a Wayne...

When Evgeni Malkin woke up on the morning of Feb. 1, he was smarting from a violent check delivered by Tampa Bay’s Dan Girardi the night before. He still needed 15 points to become the 88th player in NHL history to record 1,000 for his career, and between the upper-body...

The Pittsburgh Penguins got a 2017 draft pick under contract Monday, signing winger Jan Drozg to a three-year entry-level deal that goes into effect next season. Drozg, a 6-foot-2, 172-pound fifth-round pick, leads Shawinigan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in scoring with 19 goals and 53 points in...

As a steady rain fell at Lincoln Financial Field on the evening of Feb. 23, it was clear these weren’t the safest conditions the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers had ever played in. As it turned out, though, it wasn’t a rain-splattered visor impeding his vision that caused an injury...

When Phil Kessel pulled a puck out of his skates and flicked it past goalie Matt Murray during a routine drill at Monday’s practice at PPG Paints Arena, a few of his teammates slammed their sticks on the boards in appreciation. They have noticed what anyone who has watched Pittsburgh...

On the list of players who have made the greatest impact on the fortunes of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the history of the franchise, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby undoubtedly hold down the top two spots. Now, that’s where they sit on the team’s all-time goal-scoring list, too. When he...

A weekend road trip brought wild swings of emotion for the Pittsburgh Penguins. On Friday night in Buffalo, frustration. They gave up a tying goal with less than three minutes left in regulation and lost 4-3 in overtime on a knife-twisting goal by old pal Conor Sheary. On Saturday night...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – By every metric publicly available to analyze the performance of a hockey player, newly acquired defenseman Erik Gudbranson was outstanding in his Pittsburgh Penguins debut Friday night. Except for the most important one, of course: the final score. Gudbranson filled the stat sheet in about 20 minutes...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — When the Pittsburgh Penguins assigned Teddy Blueger to Wilkes-Barre on Monday, it wasn’t a reflection of his play. The team needed a roster spot due to injuries on defense and Blueger didn’t require waivers to be sent down. Moments after the transaction was announced, coach Mike Sullivan...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Pittsburgh Penguins winger Dominik Simon has slipped into a slump since the all-star break, recording no goals, three assists and a minus-3 rating in his past 12 games. He has not lost the faith of his coach. Before the Penguins faced the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night,...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – As of Monday afternoon’s NHL trade deadline, Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford was holding out hope that his team could see at least one injured defenseman back in the lineup by this weekend. That won’t happen. Neither Kris Letang nor Brian Dumoulin made the trip as...

If trade-deadline acquisition Erik Gudbranson is going to make a positive contribution to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ injury-depleted blue line, he’ll have to improve on his performance in Vancouver, where he had a league-worst minus-27 rating. While it might be a risky strategy that is bound to backfire at some point,...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Pittsburgh Penguins scored a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night thanks, in part, to a strong effort from the de facto top defense pair of Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz. If you closed one eye and squinted with the other, they looked...