Pittsburgh hosts the Buffalo Sabres for the first time this season tonight at Mellon Arena at 7p EST  in the last game this week until Saturday afternoon.  The Penguins are coming off of a 2-1 shootout win over west rival Detroit in Sunday’s NBC Game of the Week.
Buffalo has maintained its lead in the Eastern [...]

We’ll get to this 700 Club business in a minute, but first, some notes on a 3-1 WBS win over Manitoba today.
Unless he had fallen victim to some kind of hockey version of Steve Blass Disease, you knew John Curry was going to snap out of his funk eventually. But when he gave up a [...]

In case you missed NBC’s 20 seconds on it the Toronto Maple Leafs made two different moves today.
The Maple Leafs have obtained defenceman Dion Phaneuf, forward Fredrik Sjostrom, and defenceman Keith Aulie from Calgary in exchange for forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and defenceman Ian White.
The Maple Leafs have also acquired goaltender J.S. [...]

Jimmy Howard would steal a game for the Wings for 65 minutes but ultimately was bested in the Shootout as the Pens beat the Wings 2-1.  A fine defensive effort from Pittsburgh required all the extra time available to beat Howard and the Wings for the bonus point.

To begin this is not the only meeting [...]

Tonight’s game, a 6-4 loss to Manitoba, was the sixth straight defensive disaster for the Penguins. There is a 6-3 win over Syracuse wedged in there, but in that game, the score went from 4-0 to 4-3 in short order, so that can qualify as a poor defensive showing as well.
From reading the comments, I [...]

First big stick tap to Tony over at The Confluence for this find:
You’re gonna be out of luck if you were looking forward to watching the Stanley Cup Finals rematch between the Penguins and Red Wings and unlucky enough to live in one of several local television markets.  NBC will be pre-empting programming on Sunday [...]

The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled forwards Nick Johnson and Mark Letestu from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, it was announced by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero.

Johnson, 24, has played four gam…

During Friday Nights Capitals/Panthers game Caps Dman and Team Canada reject Mike Green laid what might be the most viscous and blatant elbow this year on the Panther’s Michael Frolik.  Quickly today Green has been handed a 3-game suspension by the NHL and will forfeit $81,606.21 in pay.  Here is the elbow:
Caps head coach Bruce [...]

The last time these two met the Penguins raised their third Stanley Cup on Joe Louis Arena ice.  Max Talbot had two goals.  Things have changed for both teams in some big ways since then.  The Penguins host the Red Wings in their only regular season matchup.  Barring a threepeat of the finals we won’t [...]

When I went down to the locker room after tonight’s game, an 8-6 Hershey win at the Mohegan Sun Arena (first time I’m writing that), I was expecting the Penguins would admit they had a terrible five minutes at the end of the first period and beginning of the second, but I thought they’d be [...]

The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-assigned forwards Chris Conner and Nick Johnson to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, it was announced by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero.

Conner has posted three points (…

Malkin scored first but the the defense made travel plans and Pittsburgh drops one to the Senators 4-1.  Brian Elliott along with great defensive support bolstered an Ottawa attack that took advantage of the lethargic Penguins defense.

Jordan Staal would start his 300th NHL game along side Chris Conner and Nick Johnson who have been called [...]

This morning skate at Coal Street thing seems to be catching on. On Monday, it was Chris Conner. Today, it was Nick Johnson. He took part in the first part of WBS practice, essentially getting in his morning skate, then headed across the state to play for Pittsburgh against Ottawa tonight.
Johnson was needed because Tyler [...]

From The Pittsburgh Penguins news feed :
The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed forward Joe Vitale to a two-year contract extension, it was announced today by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Vitale, originally selected by Pittsburgh in the seventh round (195th overall) of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, is in [...]

The Penguins finally shed some light on the situation with Eric Godard.  He will be out 4-6 weeks with a groin injury which puts his return after the Olympic break.
Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma announced that forward Eric Godard will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a groin injury.  “Eric Godard is 4-6 weeks with [...]

The Penguins host the Ottawa Senators this evening for the final meetup of the regular season between the two teams.  Pittsburgh has won two of the previous three encounters.  Now the Senators have Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza back in their lineup and are riding the play of goaltender Brian Elliott.
The Sens are 29-21-4 overall [...]

One Day after sending him to the AHL the Penguins have recalled Chris Conner back to the NHL club according to Chris Johnston of the Canadian Press.
#penguins recall Chris Conner one day after sending him back to the AHL.
You will remember that Conner scored both the opening and game winning goals against the Rangers on [...]

I’m having a little case of reporter envy today. When I got back from WBS practice at Coal Street, I read Sam Kasan’s report from Pittsburgh practice.
He’s got all kinds of stuff in there. Injury reports and quotes and junk. Read it. It’s very informative.
Me? The most interesting thing I found out today is that [...]

Honestly too many different things going on to put up an authoritative title for this entry.  Here is the Wednesday offday practice notebook.  Look for some things to be updated on this as there is more from the team.  No mention of any callups but some of the things below make me think there will [...]

Brian Elliott is playing just about as well as any goalie in hockey right now is the talk.  He was named first star of the week in the NHL on Monday and last night rung the Devils up in a 3-0 shutout, his 4th career.  Last week he went 4-0 and only allowed 5 goals [...]

Eric Godard hobbled off the ice during the first period of the Penguins 4-2 win over the Rangers Monday night.  Many of us have been patiently waiting for the Penguins to say something on his status.  Thus far they have been tight lipped which is their standard operating procedure this year.  You can see Godzilla’s [...]

Every dollar counts in the salary cap era. You want to be able to pick up the next Bill Guerin at the trade deadline this year? Then you have to send Chris Conner down this morning even though he scored two goals the night before. You have to send Nick Johnson down even though he’s [...]

In case you haven’t noticed when I’m not dealing with something at work, doing something with my kids, wife, or friends I tend to eat, sleep, and breath hockey.  One of the things I have heard five times in two days in the idea of handing the coach of an NHL team the ability to [...]

Not even 12 hours after spurring the Penguins to a 2-1 victory over the Rangers forward Chris Conner has been reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.  Conner was called up as a late substitute for Bill Guerin, who missed Monday night’s contest, and filled in nicely putting in 2 including the game winner.
The Penguins announced the demotion along [...]

Callup Chris Conner sparks the Penguins with 2 goals including the 3 period answer winner. Pittsburgh battled through 6 minutes of penalties to open the 3rd only to fall behind shortly after.  Geno and Conner lead the way back as the Penguins dropped the Rangers 4-2 for their second straight win at MSG
Bill Guerin and [...]

Chris Conner took what was essentially a morning skate at Penguins practice this morning at the Coal Street Rink, then headed to MSG for the Pittsburgh-Rangers game tonight. He’s filling in for Bill Guerin.
Why did Conner get the call? He’s been on a tear lately. Five goals and three assists in his last three games, [...]

Yes, you are reading that right.  A 7 year old bike riding English boy has raised and donated more money to Hatian relief efforts than the NHL.
He’s no Wyclef Jean or George Clooney, but that hasn’t stopped seven-year-old Charlie Simpson from raising more than £100,000 ($161,000) for the Haiti earthquake.
The NHL has donated just $100,000 [...]

The Penguins play the second half of back to back games Monday night in Madison Square Garden against the Blue Shirts looking to go 2 for 2 on this short road trip.  The last time the Pens were  in MSG they handed the Rangers the second loss of a home and home powered by a [...]