Recent Posts

Report: More Teams Interested in Acquiring Reilly Smith?

While the big name drawing interest and plenty of speculation on the NHL trade market is Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jake Guentzel, another Penguins winger may be drawing more interest. According to Daily FaceOff’s Frank Seravalli, formerly of TSN, Reilly Smith is drawing broader interest than Guentzel. This season, Smith has struggled with the Penguins amid […]

Penguins’ Guentzel Trade Chatter: What Hurricanes Can Offer

In the latest and perhaps last chapter of the Jake Guentzel trade saga, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ division rivals are now mentioned as potential suitors. Lost in the shuffle of NHL trade chatter focusing on Western Conference teams such as the Vegas Golden Knights and Vancouver Canucks, Metro Division foes New York Rangers, and the Carolina […]

Penguins Wrap: Malkin’s Big Admission; Honoring Jagr’s Greatness

The Pittsburgh Penguins are celebrating their past this weekend, honoring Jaromir Jagr for his many achievements during 11 seasons with the franchise. Good idea, because there’s not much to celebrate about their present. They snapped a three-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory in Chicago Thursday, but remain well behind the Eastern Conference playoff field […]

Bunting Never Saw Trade to Penguins Coming, But Seems Glad it Did

CRANBERRY — No one, especially Jake Guentzel, should have been surprised when the Pittsburgh Penguins moved him as the NHL trade deadline approached. When Guentzel didn’t re-sign with the Penguins and seemed to be intent on testing the free-agent market this summer, they had little reason to keep him once their playoff hopes became a […]

Penguins Trade Grade: 2nd-Tier Hurricanes, Pens’ Loss Deeper than Guentzel

The Pittsburgh Penguins did not get the top prospects, nor a top-six NHL player from the Carolina Hurricanes as Penguins president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas zipped Sidney Crosby’s longtime sidecar Jake Guentzel to Carolina for three prospects, a conditional second-rounder that could become a first, and Dubas-acquainted winger Michael Bunting. Bunting will plug a […]

Pointless in Seattle: No Comeback for Penguins in 2-0 Loss

The Pittsburgh Penguins had been forced to play from behind in three consecutive games before they visited Seattle Thursday night. Each time, they’d found a way to rally and grab a victory. So when the Kraken got the first goal at Climate Pledge Arena, the Penguins probably weren’t overly concerned. Especially not when they had […]

Penguins Postgame: This Can’t Continue

In one of the great cheesy late 1990s movies, Bruce Willis and his band of misfits who rocketed to space on a top-secret space shuttle to save the planet from an asteroid must radio to NASA that their mission has failed. Armageddon has a happy ending as the crew saves the day but the Pittsburgh […]

Dan’s Daily: TSN Debates Penguins Sell-Off; Jagr Speaks Wisdom

The Pittsburgh Penguins again won a 54-minute game but lost the 60-minute version, the latest in a series of hard-knuckled blows to their playoff hopes as they dropped a 2-1 heartbreaker to the LA Kings on Jaromir Jagr day. For his part, Jagr dropped a little F-bomb on TV, captivated everyone with his speech, and […]

Jake Guentzel to Make Road Trip; Penguins Mum on Status

CRANBERRY — The Pittsburgh Penguins will take winger Jake Guetnzel on their coming west coast road trip, which begins Tuesday in Vancouver and ends on March 4 in Edmonton, but that’s as much as coach Mike Sullivan was willing to divulge Saturday following the Penguins’ practice at the UPMC Lemieux Complex. Guentzel is currently on […]

Penguins Top Flyers, 7-6; Playoff Fate Back in Their Hands

The Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t just win a wild hockey game Sunday. In addition to defeating Philadelphia, 7-6, at PPG Paints Arena, they regained control of their playoff fate. The victory, which allowed the Penguins to complete their homestand 2-1-1, means they have the possibility — mathematically, at least — to overtake the four teams separating […]

Dan’s Daily: Trade Deadline Matches; Penguins Falling Fast

Freefall out into nothing. The Pittsburgh Penguins lost their third regulation game in a row with their third disappointing effort in a row and are poised to miss the playoffs for the second season in a row. Penguins love became a funeral pyre Wednesday. Sidney Crosby pushed back, but coach Mike Sullivan was admittedly at […]

Sad Penguins Room: ‘Bond Hard to Put Into Words,’ Crosby, Sullivan Talk Guentzel

The NHL trade rumors became a reality not long before the opening puck drop. The game was a forgone conclusion for most of the 60 minutes. The Washington Capitals played well, the Pittsburgh Penguins did not, and the result was a 6-0 beatdown of not only the Penguins on Thursday night but an unceremonious extinguishment […]

Penguins’ Dubas Will Get Lots of Calls, But How Many Matter?

There will be innumerable breathless reports across North America between now and the NHL trade deadline next Friday at 3 p.m. about general managers, including Kyle Dubas of the Pittsburgh Penguins, fielding calls inquiring about particular players, and which scouts have requested a press-box seat at which games. Many, if not all, of those reports […]

Penguins Grades: Time’s Up. Another Bad Pens Loss Likely Seals Fate

EDMONTON, Alberta — Time is up for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Because of a pair of embarrassing losses this weekend, you may not see winger Jake Guentzel and several others in a Penguins sweater again. With everything at stake on a four-game road trip, the Penguins followed a hard-fought overtime win over the NHL-leading Vancouver Canucks […]

Jagr’s Proving That You Can Go Home Again

Jaromir Jagr is not the same guy who made his first trip to Pittsburgh in 1990. The mullet that became something of a trademark for him when he was a teenager is long gone, replaced by a more businesslike hairstyle. And there are more than a few strands of gray on his head these days. […]

Penguins Grades: Mistakes, Chaos, Survival and Playoff Hope

Perhaps it was the pressure or intensity of having their backs to the wall, but the Pittsburgh Penguins played the type of game they’ve needed to play all season. And they also made just as many maddening, pull-your-hair-out-by-the-roots mistakes as they’ve made all season. They scored a power-play goal, and they allowed a brutal shorthanded […]