Penguins/NHL category, Page 296

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella had no problem pinpointing the one area of the game that gave his team the most trouble in a 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. Shot blocking. The Penguins held a 24-12 advantage in blocked shots in the...

The Pittsburgh Penguins have won eight straight meetings with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Over the past two seasons, goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is 0-2-3 with an .882 save percentage of the Penguins. Columbus coach John Tortorella said he will pay neither of those facts any mind as his team prepares to...

As the NHL’s Feb. 25 trade deadline beckoned, Columbus was half-expected to trade goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and winger Artemi Panarin, each in the final season of his contract. A rebuilding of sorts seemed likely. But there were no obvious suitors for Bobrovsky. The legit Stanley Cup contenders all have legit...

A home-and-home series – like the one the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets are currently in the middle of – is a relatively rare occurrence in the modern NHL. The Penguins, for instance, have only three of them on their schedule this season. For someone like winger Garrett Wilson,...

In the most important stretch of the season, the Penguins are starting to get hot. Thursday night, they won the first of two crucial games against the Blue Jackets, with a return match coming Saturday in Columbus. The Penguins blanked the Blue Jackets, 3-0. And a lot went right along...

By winning two Stanley Cup rings before his 24th birthday, Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray established himself as the type of player who ramps up his game as the stakes get higher. Murray wouldn’t say he’s the kind of guy who particularly likes playing at this time of year, though....

Only two points separated the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets for eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings, so their Metropolitan Division game had Stanley Cup playoff implications. That their meeting Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena was the first of back-to-back games between the division rivals — they...

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...

A Mike Tomlin favorite from Baltimore is hitting free agency. The Bruins helped the Penguins…a little bit. And Bryce Harper is so rich he may think that he can buy the definition of “tampering” out of the Oxford dictionary. We want Weddle? The Ravens released Eric Weddle. The Steelers could...

When it comes to praising the Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin-era Penguins, as a fanbase — and media corps — we can get a little … What’s the word I’m looking for? Gushy? Effusive? Flowery? Fawning? Yeah. Any of those fit. Big picture, given the franchise’s accomplishments over those years, that applause...

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....

Somerset native Bob McElligott is the play-by-play man for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He joins me for the Thursday Sided.co “Hockey Week” podcast. The Penguins and Columbus have enormous back-to-back games coming up. These contests Thursday and Saturday are huge in the Metropolitan Division standings and may go a long...

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’s our weekly Sided.co hockey podcast with Brian Metzer of the Penguins Radio Network. He joins me to talk about a crucial week for the Pens. It features four Eastern Conference games. The first of those contests is Tuesday against the Panthers. It’s definitely the least daunting task of the...

Is Sidney Crosby making a late push to get into the MVP conversation? It was a topic on the KDKA Sports Showdown Sunday. It came up on Mark Madden’s show on 105.9 the X Monday. “The Athletic” mentioned it after Crosby’s four-point performance in Montreal. And it was featured on...

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...