Penguins/NHL category, Page 286

As general manager Jim Rutherford prepares to perform offseason roster surgery designed to bring the Pittsburgh Penguins back to championship-caliber prominence, he has at least one thing going for him. He’s in the middle of a pretty decent run at the trade table. Defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Erik Gudbranson and...

In this week’s “Madden Monday,” Mark Madden of 105.9 the X joins me to look at what the Penguins may do this offseason. Are trades of Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel possible? We debate the future of head coach Mike Sullivan and whether he can get...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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)...

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....

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...

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...

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%...

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....

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...

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 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...

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?...

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...

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...