Jonathan Bombulie stories, Page 31
Ill-timed goals put Penguins in hole, Patric Hornqvist says
When the Pittsburgh Penguins were stuck in the depths of a November swoon, winger Patric Hornqvist was always the player in the locker room putting things in perspective. It would only take one shift or one goal to turn it around, he said on numerous occasions. These days, the Penguins...
Penguins fall to Hurricanes, lose ground in playoff raceVideo
When the Pittsburgh Penguins are at their best, they finish scoring chances with ruthless precision. When that part of their game fails, they usually are in pretty big trouble. That was the case Tuesday night as goalie Curtis McElhinney made 23 saves, and Jordan Martinook gave him all the offensive...
Penguins’ Bryan Rust adapting to life without fellow Notre Dame grad Riley Sheahan
Pittsburgh Penguins winger Bryan Rust hasn’t noticed teammates giving him the cold shoulder in the locker room or avoiding sitting next to him on the team bus, but it would be easy to see why they might. Rust’s closest friends have been finding their way off the roster as of...
Penguins hope to avoid Eastern Conference playoff pile-upVideo
Drivers who have designs on winning the Daytona 500 in a couple of weeks will have to do one thing before they think about taking the checkered flag: They’ll have to stay out of the multi-car pile-up that invariably occurs at some point on NASCAR’s biggest tracks. That’s the spot...
Team games played record a taboo topic to Sidney Crosby
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby does literally hundreds of interviews during the course of any given season, politely answering thousands of questions. After Monday’s practice in Cranberry, he finally found a hockey-related topic he refused to discuss. Crosby has played in 913 games in his career. Mario Lemieux holds the...
Potential position switch doesn’t faze newest Penguins
Newly acquired Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jared McCann hasn’t exactly made the smoothest of transitions from the climate of South Florida to his new home in Western Pennsylvania. “I might have to go to the mall and pick up some more pants. I brought a lot of shorts for some reason,”...
Return of Justin Schultz could help Penguins strengthen weak point in their game
A little after 11 a.m. Monday, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz stepped on the ice for his first full contact practice since breaking his leg in October. About a half-hour later, coach Mike Sullivan stopped a drill with a sharp tweet of his whistle and loudly dressed down his team...
Super Bowl wasn’t super boring to Penguins coach Mike Sullivan
Complaints were rampant on social media. Television ratings were not good. The average sports fan was not particularly enamored with the entertainment value of the New England Patriots’ 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in Sunday’s Super Bowl. Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan is apparently not an average sports...
Penguins’ Teddy Blueger showing he belongs in NHL
Nick Bjugstad is a 6-foot-6 blue-chipper with a 24-goal NHL season on his resume. Jared McCann is a former first-round pick with a shot teammates rave about. But the new addition making the biggest impact for the Pittsburgh Penguins these days might be Teddy Blueger, the little Latvian who could,...
Newly acquired Nick Bjugstad laments missed chances in Penguins loss to Toronto
TORONTO – By racing in from the airport and turning in a strong performance in his first home game just hours after being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, forward Nick Bjugstad already made a good first impression on his new team. On Saturday, he just missed a couple...
Sidney Crosby takes blame in Penguins loss to Maple Leafs
TORONTO — Sidney Crosby scored a crackerjack first-period goal on a power-play one-timer Saturday night and was named one of the three stars of the game. He didn’t commit a glaring turnover or take an ill-timed penalty. On the surface, it looked like he turned in the type of standout...
Newest Penguins get crash course before team takes on Toronto
TORONTO – Friday night’s 5-3 Penguins victory over Ottawa gave coach Mike Sullivan a reminder of the biggest reason for any winning hockey team’s success. It’s the talent, effort and execution of the players. He came to that conclusion after watching Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann get off a plane,...
Trade to Florida leaves former Penguins center Derick Brassard with sunny disposition
Former Pittsburgh Penguins center Derick Brassard had no trouble finding the bright side of the trade that sent him to the Florida Panthers on Friday. “Super excited to be here,” he said after taking morning skate in Florida with his new team Saturday. “Waking up and seeing the sun and...
3 takeaways from Penguins’ trade of Derick Brassard to Florida
There are lots of ways to evaluate the trade the Pittsburgh Penguins made with the Florida Panthers on Friday. Framed in one particular fashion, it appears as though general manager Jim Rutherford pulled off another impressive piece of sleight of hand. That framing is this: The Penguins traded away two...
Penguins send Derick Brassard, Riley Sheahan, picks to Florida for Nick Bjugstad, Jared McCann
The Pittsburgh Penguins completed a long-rumored trade of Derick Brassard on Friday, sending the third-line center, Riley Sheahan and three draft picks to the Florida Panthers for forwards Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann. The Penguins will give Florida a second-round pick and two fourth-rounders in June’s draft. Brassard has been...
Justin Schultz nearing finish line on long road back from broken leg
The last time Justin Schultz played in a hockey game, the sock tanlines he had acquired in a summer spent on the golf course had yet to fade. Schultz broke his leg Oct. 14 in Montreal. On Thursday, his road to recovery took another step forward as he joined the...
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan: Derick Brassard will play when he’s healthy
Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan found the suggestion literally laughable, letting out a small chuckle when he was asked about it following Thursday’s practice in Cranberry. Is there any chance the Penguins might keep center Derick Brassard on the sidelines, even if he has recovered from the upper-body injury that...
For Penguins, it takes a village to help Evgeni Malkin return to form
Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin sat out Thursday’s practice in Cranberry for maintenance after a particularly grueling effort the night before. By playing a physically and emotionally engaged style of hockey, recording a pair of assists and fighting fellow superstar Steven Stamkos when tensions boiled over in the third period,...
Penguins’ Derick Brassard out with upper-body injury, team says
When Derick Brassard didn’t take the ice for pregame warm-ups before the Pittsburgh Penguins faced the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night, the team took the unusual step of announcing the reason for his absence – a day-to-day upper-body injury – via Twitter. It’s not hard to understand why the...
Penguins notebook: Derick Brassard out with upper-body injury
When Derick Brassard didn’t take the ice for pregame warm-ups on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team took the unusual step of announcing the reason for his absence — a day-to-day upper-body injury — via Twitter. It’s easy to understand why. According to multiple reports, general manager Jim...
Playing to level of opponent would help, not hinder, Penguins against potent Lightning
After suffering a decisive 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Monday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins lamented their abysmal 1-7-1 record against last-place teams this season. There’s another side to that coin, though, and it’s one they hope will sustain them through some of the tougher dates on their...
Penguins call-up Teddy Blueger ‘deserving of an opportunity,’ coach Mike Sullivan says
As he’s developed into one of the top two-way forwards in the AHL over the past year or so, the thought of making his NHL debut frequently has crossed Teddy Blueger’s mind. Just when he made a concerted effort to stop thinking about it, the call to Pittsburgh came. Blueger...
Penguins rebound from ugly loss, stop 1st-place Lightning
No team in the NHL goes from zero to 60 faster than the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two days after being manhandled by the worst team in their division, the Penguins responded with a convincing victory over the best team in the league Wednesday night. Phil Kessel and Kris Letang had a...
Penguins mull changes to stop flood of short-handed goals against
As the season rolled on and total of shorthanded goals given up by his team continued to rise, Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan resisted the urge to make wholesale changes to his top power play. These are guys, Sullivan would say, who have played key roles in countless victories over...
Penguins’ woes against last-place teams continue with loss to Devils
After limping through a mediocre western road trip heading into their midseason break, the Pittsburgh Penguins had a week away from the rink to get their minds right. Instead, they got pretty much everything wrong Monday night against the New Jersey Devils. Travis Zajac had a goal and three assists,...
