Penguins/NHL category, Page 303
Teddy Blueger emerges, Justin Schultz shines for Penguins
Penguins Radio Network host Brian Metzer joins me for his weekly hockey podcast. We recap Monday’s 5-2 win over the Rangers. I brag about my wonderous predictive powers regarding the rise of Teddy Blueger. We also celebrate Justin Schultz finally getting into the goal column again. Plus, we plow into...
Penguins turn tables with shorthanded scoring spree
NEW YORK – As the Pittsburgh Penguins gave up shorthanded goal after shorthanded goal throughout much of this season, the players who regularly kill penalties for the team must have been watching closely from the bench. These days, the Penguins are the ones scoring the back-breaking shorthanded goals, not allowing...
Teddy Blueger scores twice in Penguins’ win over Rangers
NEW YORK — On his way up the hockey ladder, the scouting report on Teddy Blueger was always the same. Great defensive centerman. Offensive game leaves something to be desired. Twenty-three games into his NHL career, Blueger is doing his part to tear that scouting report to bits. Blueger scored...
Mark Madden: Penguins’ Kris Letang should be Norris finalist lock
The Penguins haven’t been cheated when it comes to individual awards. That especially goes for the awards you can’t get cheated out of, like the Art Ross Trophy. That goes to the NHL scoring champion. The Penguins have 15. That’s not to say the Penguins never have been cheated. Like...
Penguins’ Sidney Crosby sets sights on 100-point mark
NEW YORK – Over the past four seasons, Sidney Crosby has been one of the most consistent scorers in hockey. He recorded between 84 and 89 points each year. It’s a trend Crosby is happy to break this season. Crosby is fifth in the league with 93 points. With six...
Penguins give Matt Murray another start in net
NEW YORK – Given the circumstances, Monday night’s matchup with the New York Rangers might have been a good game for Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan to give starting goalie Matt Murray some time off. Murray played on the first three legs of the team’s four-city road trip and had...
Penguins’ Kris Letang out again with upper-body injury
NEW YORK – After missing 11 games in the past month, defenseman Kris Letang is out again for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Letang will not play against the New York Rangers on Monday night due to an upper-body injury and his status is considered day to day, coach Mike Sullivan said...
First call: Previewing Penguins-Rangers; support for Tom Izzo
In Monday’s “First Call,” we give you a preview of Monday’s Penguins-Rangers game, a look at the weekend’s impact on the NHL’s Eastern Conference standings, some support for Tom Izzo and some height perspective on UCF’s Tacko Fall. Wrecked Rangers The Penguins get back into action Monday night against the...
Tim Benz, Mark Madden discuss Penguins, start of Pirates season, Tom Izzo ‘controversy’
There is a lot to get into for “Madden Monday” this week with Mark Madden of 105.9 the X. We start with the Penguins and the impact of recently acquired forward Denis Sav … uh, I mean … Jared McCann. How about that spin-o-rama goal he scored Saturday night in...
Penguins in midst of remarkable defensive turnaround
It’s not all that surprising the Pittsburgh Penguins have one of the best records in hockey since the NHL trade deadline. They’re a talented, veteran group that has been through the wringer of an 82-game schedule before. They know when it’s time to buckle down. What’s shocking is exactly how...
Penguins’ Matt Murray puts late-game woes behind him with strong showing in Dallas
DALLAS – While he was stuck in a stretch where he gave up the tying goal in the final five minutes of regulation four times in 13 games, it seemed tone deaf to point out how well Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray was playing. Yeah, his save percentage is great...
Jared McCann’s short-handed goal gives Penguins win over Stars
DALLAS — The way they got the lead was so pretty, the Pittsburgh Penguins just couldn’t bear to give this one away. Jared McCann scored a short-handed goal on a spinning backhander to break a third-period tie and lead the Penguins to a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on...
Former Penguins defenseman Jamie Oleksiak gets right back to where he started from
DALLAS – There are very few players in the history of hockey who can relate to what defenseman Jamie Oleksiak has gone through in the past two seasons. In December of 2017, the Dallas Stars shipped him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a fourth-round draft pick. In January, the Penguins...
Penguins’ Jared McCann sees no need to apologize for racking up empty-net goals
DALLAS – Since he joined the Pittsburgh Penguins in a Feb. 1 trade, four of the nine goals Jared McCann has scored were shot into an empty net. That’s the kind of development that will earn McCann some good-natured razzing from teammates who will chide him for picking low-hanging fruit,...
Hot goalies keeping lid on Penguins offense
DALLAS — The Pittsburgh Penguins caught a break when the Dallas Stars decided starting goalie Ben Bishop, who leads the league with a .932 save percentage this season, would get Saturday night off. Yeah, some break. Instead, they were to face backup Anton Khudobin, who is eighth in the league...
Goals are only thing missing for promising Penguins 3rd line
The recent postseason history of the Pittsburgh Penguins is littered with third lines that made a championship difference. In 2009, Matt Cooke, Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy were known as the best third line in hockey. In 2016, the HBK Line featuring Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel set...
Bryan Rust’s goal helps Penguins avoid potentially frustrating loss
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In the first period of Thursday night’s game against the Nashville Predators, Pittsburgh Penguins winger Bryan Rust had a handful of scoring chances, including one shot that rang off the post behind goalie Pekka Riine. Was he starting to grow frustrated? “I was about to break my...
Penguins give up late lead again, prevail in shootout vs. PredatorsVideo
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For the fifth time in their past 14 games, the Pittsburgh Penguins blew a one-goal lead late in the third period and went to overtime. This time, they lived to tell the tale. Sidney Crosby converted on his attempt in the shootout, Matt Murray stopped all three...
Sidney Crosby says Penguins better served going for empty-netters than sitting back in late-game situations
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Playing the position runs in Sidney Crosby’s family, and he’s been known to goof around between the pipes in pick-up games and other informal settings from time to time, but make no mistake: He’s not a goaltender. As such, the idea of sitting back and letting opposing...
Penguins growing weary of trying to make playoffs one point at a time
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Coming into a matchup with the Nashville Predators on Thursday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins have lost two in a row. Both losses, however, came past regulation, in overtime against Philadelphia last Sunday and in a shootout Tuesday in Carolina. All told, the Penguins have picked up a...
Penguins call-up Adam Johnson to rely on speed in NHL debut in Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When most call-ups are set to make their NHL debuts, they have to prove they can keep up with the speed of the NHL game. That shouldn’t be a problem for Pittsburgh Penguins winger Adam Johnson. As he prepares to face the Nashville Predators on Thursday night,...
Penguins’ Olli Maatta cleared for contact as competition for lineup spots on D heats up
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Olli Maatta took a few minutes to fill out an NCAA tournament bracket Thursday morning, taking Duke to win it all and, perhaps because he was influenced by the talk from the locals at Bridgestone Arena, Tennessee to make the Final Four. What Maatta’s really excited about,...
Many Penguins issues to discuss heading into matchup vs. Predators
Our Penguins beat writer, Jonathan Bombulie, joins me to talk about the Penguins’ game Thursday in Nashville. He is in Tennessee. There’s plenty to discuss. • What is the biggest problem surrounding the Penguins’ three-game losing streak? • We need to figure out why the goal-scoring has gone dry. •...
Penguins call up forward prospect Adam Johnson
The Pittsburgh Penguins added some youth and speed to their lineup Wednesday, calling up winger Adam Johnson from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. Winger Joseph Blandisi and defenseman Juuso Riikola were sent down. Johnson, 24, is Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s top-scoring forward this season, recording 18 goals and 40 points in 63 games. He’s...
Hits just keep on coming for Penguins defensemen
The Pittsburgh Penguins defense corps has taken a lot of hits lately. Figuratively, there’s probably no greater body blow a defense can absorb than surrendering a lead late in regulation and losing in overtime or a shootout, and the Penguins have done that four times in their past 13 games....
