Jonathan Bombulie stories, Page 33
Penguins notebook: Patric Hornqvist could play this weekend
Even though winger Patric Hornqvist is recovering from his fourth documented concussion since the start of the 2016-17 season, he and the Pittsburgh Penguins see no need to give him an extra 10 days off. After facing the Arizona Coyotes on Friday and Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, the Penguins...
For Penguins, trading Derek Grant opens door for many others
The Pittsburgh Penguins traded away a center early Thursday morning, but it wasn’t the center who has found himself at the center of trade rumors lately. Derick Brassard continues to operate status quo in his third-line position. Rather, depth player Derek Grant was shipped to the Anaheim Ducks for Joseph...
Loss to Sharks shows how far Penguins have left to climb
The Pittsburgh Penguins have been playing some pretty good hockey since turning their season around at the beginning of December. They’re 14-5-1 in their past 20 games. They deserve no worse than a solid B-plus on their report card. Late Tuesday night, they got an up-close look at what an...
Olli Maatta evolving into penalty killing ace for Penguins
Hal Gill looks like a penalty killer. He was a 6-foot-7, 244-pound battleship who could stand at the faceoff dot and reach the boards with his stick. Ian Cole looks like a penalty killer. With a full beard and a few missing teeth, he’ll stick his face in front of...
Ex-Stanley Cup combatants Penguins, Sharks following similar paths
In the building where they battled for the Stanley Cup three years ago, two of the NHL’s hottest teams will meet when the Pittsburgh Penguins face the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night at SAP Center. The teams have traveled remarkably similar paths this season. On Dec. 1, the Sharks...
A closer look at the Penguins’ penchant for allowing short-handed goals
The next time the Pittsburgh Penguins’ top power-play unit steps on the ice, it will include five players with a total of 1,330 career goals and nine Stanley Cup rings between them. This is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel,...
Penguins’ Jake Guentzel earns NHL honor
Carrying a six-game scoring streak into Tuesday night’s meeting with the San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jake Guentzel was named the NHL’s third star of week Monday. Guentzel had five goals and an assist in three games last week, including a hat trick in a 7-4 Penguins victory over...
Last-place teams giving Penguins fits
Welcome to the 2018-19 Pittsburgh Penguins season, where the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Jeff Carter had a goal and two assists, Anze Kopitar scored twice and Jonathan Quick made 38 saves, leading the Los Angeles Kings to a 5-2 victory over the Penguins late...
Penguins’ Kris Letang makes best case yet for Norris Trophy
The Norris Trophy, given annually to the top defenseman in the NHL, is decided by a vote of hockey writers, not players. But if Pittsburgh Penguins center Derick Brassard had a ballot, he would have filled it out sometime in the late evening hours Dec. 12. He had just watched...
Penguins win in Anaheim without leaning on goalie Matt Murray
While the Pittsburgh Penguins were ripping off eight straight wins through late December and early January, they were aided and abetted by a red-hot goaltender. It was easy to wonder what those results would have looked like if Matt Murray hadn’t been playing out of his mind. Well, there’s a...
Penguins sign goalie Casey DeSmith to 3-year extension
While Matt Murray was sidelined for a month with a lower-body injury earlier this season, Casey DeSmith stepped up and prevented the Pittsburgh Penguins from falling into the abyss. On Friday, he was rewarded for his efforts. DeSmith signed a three-year extension with an average annual salary of $1.25 million,...
Penguins’ Kris Letang voted into NHL All-Star Game
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang will join teammate Sidney Crosby at the NHL All-Star Game after all. The league announced the winners of fan balloting to determine the last man on the rosters for each of the four divisions Friday afternoon. Letang won the vote for the Metropolitan Division, coming...
Penguins’ Patric Hornqvist out with another concussion
Pittsburgh Penguins winger Patric Hornqvist is sidelined with a concussion for the second time this season, coach Mike Sullivan said Thursday. Hornqvist was injured when he took a puck to the face in the first period of Tuesday night’s game against the Florida Panthers. It’s the fourth documented concussion for...
Penguins reaping rewards of trade for Marcus Pettersson
Daniel Sprong is a simple, 21-year-old Dutchman just trying to score a few goals in the cruel world of professional hockey. It’s not his fault the Pittsburgh Penguins got off to a poor start to this season. Marcus Pettersson is a humble, 22-year-old Swede just trying to establish himself as...
Penguins once again need to tighten up with lead
When the Pittsburgh Penguins open a five-game western road trip Friday night in Anaheim, they will be looking to bounce back from a 5-1 victory over the Florida Panthers. It’s a lot like last week, when the Penguins rebounded from a 7-2 win over the New York Rangers to defeat...
Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin makes donation to victims of apartment explosion in his hometown
Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin donated almost $60,000 to victims of a New Year’s Eve apartment explosion in his hometown of Magnitogorsk, Russia, his former team announced Wednesday. According to a statement released by Magnitogorsk Metallurg of the KHL, Malkin gave 4 million rubles to a fund established to collect...
Bryan Rust’s resurgence powers Penguins’ turnaround
Bryan Rust already has a job, one he’s been doing quite well lately, but if the Pittsburgh Penguins needed a mascot to represent how their season’s gone so far, he’d be a prime candidate. When the team was struggling, mired in the depths of the Eastern Conference standings, Rust had...
Penguins place Zach Aston-Reese on injured reserve
Pittsburgh Penguins winger Zach Aston-Reese will miss at least a week and likely more with an injury suffered during a 5-1 win over Florida on Tuesday night. The Penguins put Aston-Reese on injured reserve Wednesday after he was injured in a third-period fight with Colton Sceviour. The IR designation means...
Penguins score 2 short-handed goals, down PanthersVideo
When they essentially gave up three power-play goals in a Sunday loss, the Pittsburgh Penguins penalty killers vowed they’d have a better performance the next time out. They sure made good on that promise Tuesday. Not only did the Penguins successfully kill all four penalties they took, Bryan Rust and...
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan trains power play with positive reinforcement
The Pittsburgh Penguins saw their eight-game winning streak end with a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night, in part, because of an ineffective power play. They went 0 for 3 with the man-advantage, including failing to score on 71 seconds of five-on-three time late in the first...
Derick Brassard helps Penguins’ third line show glimpse of dangerous potential
When discussing a victory over the Atlanta Falcons earlier this season, Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield said he had a strong performance because he woke up that morning feeling dangerous. It became a popular social media meme and was plastered on T-shirts sold around Northeast Ohio. Pittsburgh Penguins center Derick...
Blackhawks run win streak against Penguins to 10 games
During their now-completed eight-game winning streak, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals and Western Conference favorite Winnipeg Jets. They won low-scoring nail-biters and high-scoring shootouts. On Sunday night, they finally ran into the game they couldn’t win. Dylan Strome broke a third-period tie, leading the Chicago...
Penguins recall Chad Ruhwedel from conditioning stint
The Pittsburgh Penguins recalled defenseman Chad Ruhwedel from a five-game conditioning stint with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL on Sunday. It was a successful stay for Ruhwedel, who had one goal, four assists and a plus-8 rating. Having slipped to eighth on the depth chart, Ruhwedel hasn’t played in an NHL...
Chris Kunitz back in town with Blackhawks, part of an elite group of survivors
Chris Kunitz’s trip into Pittsburgh wasn’t just another road game with the Chicago Blackhawks, his fifth team in 15 NHL seasons. It wasn’t even special because it was the 990th of his career. This one was different because he is back with the Penguins, at least as an opponent, where...
Searching for the turning point in Penguins’ topsy-turvy season
During the depths of the team’s early season despair, Pittsburgh Penguins winger Patric Hornqvist had one firm belief he never wavered from. “One shift’s going to turn the season around for us,” he said Nov. 16 while the Penguins were in the midst of losing nine of 10 games. Less...
