Penguins/NHL category, Page 68
Penguins’ Kris Letang played through ‘myriad of injuries for a long time’ this season
Pittsburgh Penguins alternate captain Kris Letang was blunt when asked how he was feeling physically a few days before the end of the regular season. “I feel like you should feel after 81 games,” he said, responding to a media inquiry about several end-of-year maintenance days that kept him out...
Valtteri Puustinen, Jack St. Ivany, Radim Zohorna rejoin Wilkes-Barre/Scranton ahead of Calder Cup playoffs
Three Pittsburgh Penguins will get to partake in the playoffs after all, albeit in the American Hockey League. A day after the Penguins’ season came to an end, with no postseason hockey forthcoming for the second straight year, the club reassigned three players to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL to compete...
Penguins’ Sidney Crosby expects contract extension discussions this summer
Any question surrounding the future of Sidney Crosby is sure to generate feelings of intense discomfort for Pittsburgh Penguins fans. After a second straight non-playoff season, Crosby completed the penultimate chapter of a 12-year deal signed in 2012. He is under contract through the 2024-25 campaign with a salary cap...
What’s next for the Penguins after missing the playoffs again?
ELMONT, N.Y. — The Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2023-24 season came to an end Wednesday with a 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena. For the better part of three weeks, they flirted with the postseason, staging an 8-2-3 charge to complete the campaign and falling a few points...
These 10 losses cost the Penguins critical points en route to missing the playoffs again
For the second consecutive season, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be spectators of the Stanley Cup playoffs, having fallen short of the postseason by three points. Last year, the Penguins missed out by one point, ending their streak of 16 consecutive trips to the playoffs. The Penguins’ underwhelming power play, inability...
Tim Benz: Penguins leave management with one last reality check to end 2023-24
I’ll give the Pittsburgh Penguins this. At least they’ve been consistent. Even in how they ended the 2023-24 season during a 5-4 loss on the road against the New York Islanders. One more blown lead. One more goal allowed just before the buzzer of a period. One more goal was...
Penguins’ Jeff Carter hangs up skates after 19-year NHL careerVideo
ELMONT, N.Y. — The Pittsburgh Penguins’ regular-season finale — a 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena — did not mean anything as it pertained to the playoff picture. After all, the Penguins were formally eliminated from postseason contention Tuesday. But Wednesday’s game still commanded significant gravity...
Disappointing Penguins season comes to fitting end with loss at playoff-bound Islanders
ELMONT, N.Y. - There isn’t a one-size-fits-all reason for why the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2023-24 season ended without a playoff berth. They lost way too much for a lot of reasons. That trend continued on through to the literal ending of the regular season as the Penguins were defeated, 5-4, by...
Penguins notes: 6 players appear in all 82 games
ELMONT, N.Y. — Six members of the Pittsburgh Penguins finished the season with perfect attendance. Forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Lars Eller as well as defensemen Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang and Marcus Pettersson appeared in all 82 games, the final of which was Wednesday’s game against the New York...
‘You can’t rely on Philly’: Pittsburgh Penguins fans down after season falters
Brandon Kocent, a diehard Pittsburgh Penguins fan, was deflated like many others in Western Pennsylvania after the team’s push for a playoff spot fell apart before the final game. One of the scenarios for the Penguins to sneak into the postseason called for the Washington Capitals to lose against the...
Penguins maintain belief they are capable of winning the Stanley Cup
ELMONT, N.Y. — Really, the only thing that was all that notably different about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ morning skate at UBS Arena was the time. It started at 11 a.m. With the host New York Islanders skating at their practice rink, the Penguins took to the ice approximately a half...
Mark Madden: Disappointing players, strategy, weeping spelled demise for Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins will miss the playoffs for a second straight season. It feels like an eternity. Or like Buffalo. Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust deserve better. Not many others do. Those who frustrated outnumber those who didn’t. These players are the most disappointing: 1. Erik Karlsson. $11.5 million doesn’t...
Penguins forward Bryan Rust nominated for King Clancy award
ELMONT, N.Y. — Forward Bryan Rust was named the Pittsburgh Penguins’ nominee for the NHL’s King Clancy Memorial Trophy. The league announced nominees for all 32 teams on Wednesday. Named after Hockey Hall of Famer Frank “King” Clancy, the award recognizes “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and...
Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic scheduled to start season finaleVideo
ELMONT, N.Y. — After being formally eliminated from playoff contention on Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to start goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in the team’s regular season finale against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Wednesday. Coach Mike Sullivan announced Nedeljkovic’s status following a morning skate. Nedeljkovic will...
U mad, bro?: Fan anxiety over Penguins’ playoff elimination; doubt about Steelers; pig wrestling
Since we are starting our “Breakfast With Benz” draft previews for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday, we had to move up “U mad, bro?” to Wednesday this week. But given that the Penguins were eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday, one day shorter on the calendar doesn’t mean we are any...
Tim Benz: Fitting end to playoff hopes as Penguins miss postseason without even playing
It’s only fitting that the Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoff hopes came to a sudden halt Tuesday, thanks, in part, to a blown third-period lead and an inability to win in overtime. It didn’t matter that — in this case — it wasn’t even the Penguins that blew the lead or lost...
Penguins eliminated from playoff contention after Capitals clinch final wild-card spot
The Pittsburgh Penguins entered the 2023-24 season with plenty of motivation. “There’s something to prove, I think, for everybody,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said during a season-ticket event in mid-September. By mid-April, the only thing that’s been affirmed about the Penguins is that they are not a Stanley Cup contender....
Here’s how the Penguins can make the Stanley Cup playoffs
Fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins who want to see the club qualify for the postseason will need to take the drastic but necessary step of inking theoretical one-day fan contracts with the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night. Even though the Penguins defeated Nashville, 4-2, on Monday in...
Tim Benz: It only took the Penguins 81 games to perfect a winning formula
For as often as the Pittsburgh Penguins have made life difficult for themselves this season, they earned more breathing room than they were given Monday night. Unfortunately for them, thanks to two first-period disallowed goals on weak goalie interference interpretations, the Pens were forced to sweat out another result. Unlike...
With season winding down, Penguins’ Reilly Smith snaps 13-game goal droughtVideo
For the first time in nearly a month, Pittsburgh Penguins winger Reilly Smith contributed a goal, delivering the winner Monday against Nashville in a 4-2 victory at PPG Paints Arena. Smith broke a 13-game scoreless streak with the goal, which came on a feed from linemate Lars Eller at 8...
Penguins tame Predators but remain on outside of wild-card playoff position
With everything at stake — or at least the ambitions of playing a minimum of four postseason games on the line — the Pittsburgh Penguins turned to the goaltender they signed this past offseason with hopes he would rejuvenate his sagging career and be a true difference-maker. Alex Nedeljkovic. As...
Ex-Penguins forward Jason Zucker back in playoffs with PredatorsVideo
Jason Zucker has something today that he didn’t have in his final days with the Pittsburgh Penguins. An X. As in the initial that gets placed next to a team’s name in the standings when it qualifies for the postseason. Currently a member of the Nashville Predators, Zucker will be...
Penguins’ Jansen Harkins rejoins practice, ready for call if it comesVideo
From the end of November through early March, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jansen Harkins carved out a steady bottom-six role for himself. But March 7, in a deflating 6-0 loss at home to the Washington Capitals, Harkins suffered a hand injury while fighting Beck Malenstyn that required surgery, which has kept...
Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic scheduled to start against PredatorsVideo
The Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to start goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic for a vital contest against the Nashville Predators in their regular season home finale at PPG Paints Arena on Monday. Failing to get at least a point will end the Penguins’ hopes of qualifying for the postseason. Coach Mike Sullivan...
Penguins face difficult path to playoffs with 2 games remaining
Four teams continue to battle for the final wild-card spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference entering the final days of the regular season. While the New York Islanders have the inside track on the third-place position in the East with 90 points, Washington, Detroit, Philadelphia and the Pittsburgh Penguins remain...
