Pittsburgh Penguins

[Cobretti]

Mike Johnston travelling to Moscow to meet with Geno

That's a new one I haven't heard of... but also an interesting gesture to get to know one of his best players one-on-one
Makes you wonder a bit if there was some friction between Geno and the Pens organization recently? Or maybe they're considering a blockbuster trade?

[Zorro]

Or he just wants to get to know his players better before the season starts.. This is a great decision by the Penguins!!

[MarmotKing]

Plus, who doesn't want to go to Russia...

[rataylor22]

Plus, who doesn't want to go to Russia...

I think this was sarcasm, but apparently it is pretty darn nice in the summer.

[Zorro]

Plus, who doesn't want to go to Russia...

Ohhhh no you diiiii'int......... HaHa..

[The Comish]

I can't believe no one has posted in this thread since July!

Injuries seem to be the story so far for the Pens this season. At least it's not Crosby or Malkin! I'm loving all these injuries, mostly because I don't have any of the guys who went down, plus I own Steve Downie in a couple pools. I think he has the offensive ability to play in the top six, but he often gets pigeon-holed as a third liner goonie guy at best. Check out those junior numbers, in his final year, he had 35 goals and 92 points in 45 games (plus 124 pen mins)! He has a career total of 50 points in 49 AHL games, so he's not just some clown there to check the opposition, although he sometimes acts like that!

Seemingly under the radar, Marc-Andre Fleury is in line for his best NHL campaign ever. In 21 games, he's 15-4-2, with a 2.16 goals-against average and 0.925 save percentage. His career best to date is 2.32 and 0.921. Yeah, okay, let's see how he does come playoff time, I get it, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, especially considering how many man games they have lost to injury so far this year.

[Dennis4022]

Kessel will start the season on Crosby's wing, Hornqvist with Malkin and very likely Kunitz and Perron get the first shot on the left wing.

[loco man]

Am I missing something regarding Perron? I thought that he played LEFT wing with Crosby and Hornqvist last year. Why are they saying that he is a right winger, who may get a look on the left side?

[Dennis4022]

Am I missing something regarding Perron? I thought that he played LEFT wing with Crosby and Hornqvist last year. Why are they saying that he is a right winger, who may get a look on the left side?

Perron can play both wings and he did in Edmonton. Pens only played him as a lw so far and it makes most sense

[MarmotKing]

Live stream of tonight's game:

Pittsburgh Penguins ‏@penguins 2m2 minutes ago

Good news #Pens fans! We are going to have a live stream of tonight's game available on http://pittsburghpenguins.com .

[CHunter]

The Pittsburgh Penguins had a players only meeting after Saturday's 4-0 loss to New Jersey.

Hope they'll start to play as they should....it's getting ridiculous with the players they have.....

[Rehdaun]

The Pens lines with new coach??? got me to thinking about this thread. Why not breathe some life into this one. Who's out there? Let's get a discussion going. The coaching change is a great break point to start anew. Here's what we know so far.

The Penguins have gone 0-2 since Mike Sullivan has taken over the head coaching duties. They have a goal differential of a -6 in those two games, scoring only 1 in a 4-1 loss to Washington on Monday and shutout by Boston 3-0 on Wednesday.

During this time they lost Fleury, out 1-2 weeks with a concussion and Beau Bennett (go figure), out 4-6 weeks with a shoulder injury. That's on top of Kris Letang's upper body injury which is different than his last undisclosed injury and Pascal Dupuis deciding to hang up the skates. Good luck Pascal! You made the right decision.

Also out is 36 year old Rob Scuderi replaced with a slightly younger and more offensive Trevor Daley when Pittsburgh and Chicago swapped defensemen on Monday. A little part of Scuderi is still with us in the form of salary. The Pens retain 33% of Scuderi's salary. Goaltending prospect Matt Murray is in as well, called up after Fleury went down. He might see some action tomorrow as the Pens play a back-to-back tonight and tomorrow.

The lines have been in constant flux in Sullivan's short tenure changing daily. Here's the lines from this morning's skate:

EV

Wing	Center	Wing
CHRIS KUNITZ	SIDNEY CROSBY	CONOR SHEARY
DAVID PERRON	EVGENI MALKIN	PHIL KESSEL
SERGEI PLOTNIKOV	NICK BONINO	PATRIC HORNQVIST
DANIEL SPRONG	MATT CULLEN	ERIC FEHR

EV

D	D
BRIAN DUMOULIN	BEN LOVEJOY
OLLI MAATTA	TREVOR DALEY
IAN COLE	DAVID WARSOFSKY

PP1

1	2	3	4	5
CHRIS KUNITZ	PATRIC HORNQVIST	SIDNEY CROSBY	EVGENI MALKIN	DAVID WARSOFSKY

PP2

1	2	3	4	5
DAVID PERRON	NICK BONINO	PHIL KESSEL	TREVOR DALEY	OLLI MAATTA

The Pens take on the 17-9-4 Boston Bruins, fresh off their 3-0 shutout against the Pens on Wednesday tonight. Game time is as 7:00 PM. There you have it. Let's discuss.

So when do you think the Pens will break out? Will it be tonight? These lines?

I hope it's tonight. A win tonight will sure give them a boost going into the holiday break. They might even be able to coast into the break with three wins as they play Carolina tomorrow and Columbus on Monday.

[lektrix]

Was hoping we'd see Murray tonight....... booooo

[Rehdaun]

Was hoping we'd see Murray tonight....... booooo

Easing him in with a start against the Canes is a better choice in my opinion.
https://twitter.com/JoshYohe_PGH/sta...84080273276929

[Nehithaw]

Our Penguins will never amount to much if they can't stay healthy, can't keep the puck out of the net and can't find any depth scoring.

The Penguins will succeed if:

* Our stars play like stars.
* Our players stay somewhat healthy - They fired the wrong people - I would have fired the training/health staff - enough is enough.
* We could find some f@ckin D-men that would help the goalie keep the puck out of the net and exact any revenge that needs be exacted.

How hard is it find someone to play with Malkin and/or Sid and be somewhat productive?

Do I have to come out of retirement or what?