Penguins/NHL category, Page 252
Vote on Marc-Andre Fleury’s best playoff saves. And relive the 2009 Stanley Cup Final
Wednesday’s “Essey Tire” hockey podcast features Penguins Radio Network host Brian Metzer, as we flashback to the 2009 Stanley Cup Final. Because, well, there are no 2020 NHL playoffs to discuss right now. Thanks for that, covid-19. So the best we can do is look to the past. And AT&T...
Penguins’ Bryan Rust settles into routine of working out, board games, street hockeyVideo
Hockey players are famously routine-oriented. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise Bryan Rust has been drawn to a daily schedule even during these uncertain times of stay-at-home orders. “I get up, usually have a little bit of a slow morning and usually have a coffee, hang out a little...
Penguins’ Zach Aston-Reese moves in with Bryan Rust, wifeVideo
Take a nationwide lockdown headed into its fourth week, the suburban house of a hockey player and his wife, add her brother, his teammate and three dogs. “My wife has been good with it — a house full of boys,” Bryan Rust said Tuesday. “But she has been awesome.” Rust...
Penguins’ 2016 Stanley Cup Final wins, 2009 Game 7 to air on TV, radio
The Stanley Cup playoffs would have begun Wednesday, and as such potentially could have been one of the most-watched and listened-to nights of the year on AT&T SportsNet and 105.9 FM radio. In lieu of what could have been Game 1 of a Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers first-round series, the stations...
Angello’s commitment to Penguins, community recognized by AHL
Community service has been important to Anthony Angello for as long as he can remember and something his mother always preached. Whether it was volunteering at a nursing home, meeting with hospital patients or something as simple as reading a book to children, he has cherished those experiences and is...
Patrick Marleau remains hopeful he’ll still get shot at Stanley Cup with PenguinsVideo
Patrick Marleau is stuck some 2,500 miles from Pittsburgh, and the 3 ½ weeks he has been separated from the Pittsburgh Penguins now dwarfs the brief time he has played for them. Asked Monday about his tenure with the Penguins, Marleau began by using the past tense — twice. Marleau...
Mark Madden: Don’t expect sports to return in the next year
I originally thought greed would drive big-time sports leagues to return soon. Perhaps sooner than they should. Now it seems covid-19 is stronger than greed. Isn’t that one heck of a statement? It’s not Vietnam, as per the parallel drawn by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Schefter wants the NFL Draft postponed...
Tim Benz: Coronavirus may be ruining sports world. Does it have to ruin our hope?
I’m no longer simply bored with the coronavirus-induced sports desert of the moment. I’m now in full-blown depression. My blues extend well beyond sports and into just about every avenue of how people have politicized and polarized the pandemic. It started with the chorus of people insisting sports “weren’t important”...
Tim Benz, Mark Madden: Do sports have a future in coronavirus era?
This week’s Madden Monday is… …well, what can I say? It’s pretty bleak. Mark Madden and I are both pretty bummed out over the covid-19-induced state of affairs influencing the sports world. It’s feeling more and more like every sport — including football — won’t be allowed to resume for...
John Steigerwald: When they return, sports should be made-for-TV events
Let the games begin. Or not. President Donald Trump held a conference call with the commissioners of all the major sports leagues Saturday and told them he is hoping people can start filling stadiums and arenas by August or September. That’s good news for the NFL and college football, but,...
In covid-19 era, will 2020 see sports join 1994 MLB, 2005 NHL as champion-less seasons?
A year without awarding the Stanley Cup? No 2020 NBA champion? Even, perhaps, no World Series or Super Bowl winner? All are seemingly in play as the nation — and world — deals with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The major sports leagues in North America have been shut down in...
Penguins’ Bryan Rust, Zach Aston-Reese, Marcus Pettersson buy 500 pizzas for needy
In another example of goodwill by athletes from local pro sports teams during the coronavirus pandemic, Pittsburgh Penguins players Bryan Rust, Zach Aston-Reese and Marcus Pettersson purchased 500 personal pizzas for local community distribution centers. The Fox’s Pizza Den personal-sized pizzas were delivered early Friday to the locales in the...
Mike Sullivan appreciates time at home, balances keeping Penguins engagedVideo
Mike Sullivan has spent more time working on his pickleball game than Sidney Crosby has on the ice. There’s a much better chance Sullivan is lost in a hardcover novel these days than he’s finding himself immersed in an opponent’s detailed scouting report. As in most of the rest of...
Penguins can count on Brian Dumoulin, John Marino for spark when hockey returns
The Penguins don’t know when their next game will be played. They are pretty sure defensemen Brian Dumoulin and John Marino will be in their lineup when it happens. That is very good news for the Penguins. They were an outstanding team with Dumoulin and Marino in the lineup this...
Penguins’ Mike Sullivan: doctors, nurses, law enforcement ‘are our true heroes’
Mike Sullivan cracked a joke to open up his video conference call with media Tuesday. “I never thought I’d say this,” the Pittsburgh Penguins coach said, his sly smirk visible even through the choppy nature of the call, “but I’m happy to be doing this today.” A Boston-area native and...
Mark Madden: Sidney Crosby’s trophy case earns respect from peers
The NHL Players’ Association asked its membership to select hockey’s creme de la creme. The 588 who responded to the poll chose Edmonton’s Connor McDavid as the NHL’s best forward. They also picked the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby as the league’s most complete player and the player you’d most want on...
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ Mike Vellucci recalls ‘crazy’ season
Would Mike Vellucci have liked his team to have a better record? Sure. However, that’s not the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins coach’s biggest takeaway from a season in limbo. Vellucci touched on a couple of topics during a video call with reporters Tuesday, namely how he and his team are trying to...
Five games, five nights: Pick one Penguins game to watch per Stanley Cup playoff run
During the coronavirus-induced sports blackout, everybody and their brother is re-airing classic old games. The NFL, MLB and NHL networks are doing it. Local radio stations are, too. As is AT&T SportsNet. So for this week’s hockey podcast, Penguins Radio Network host Brian Metzer and I put a twist on...
If NHL resumes play, 2 weeks needed for minicamp, Penguins’ Mike Sullivan saysVideo
Mike Sullivan knows the answer isn’t an easy one, but the Pittsburgh Penguins coach insisted the NHL has “great leadership” that he’s willing to entrust to make the correct decision. But in Sullivan’s opinion, the league’s players would need “somewhere in the timeframe of two weeks” to ramp back up...
Mike Sullivan: Win at N.J. showed Penguins were emerging from funk, have momentumVideo
There is no good timing, of course, for a pandemic or for the paralyzation of the economy facing the nation. But to coach Mike Sullivan, the pause of the NHL season came at a particularly bad time for his Pittsburgh Penguins. Twenty-four hours before the league’s final games before the...
NHL player vote: Penguins’ Sidney Crosby ‘most complete player,’ but not best forward
The NHL’s players apparently do not consider Sidney Crosby to be the league’s best forward — but they do view him as the game’s most complete player. And if the stakes are highest, they’re still sticking with Sid. The NHL Players Association on Tuesday released the results of their annual...
Tim Benz: Jim Rutherford is right about champions having ‘integrity’ in shortened seasons
Tom Glavine. Patrick Kane. Doug Williams. Tim Duncan. “Who are four men who have never been in my kitchen, Alex?” Yes, Cliff Clavin. Technically, that is correct. But I’m going to need you to be more specific. “Who are four MVPs of their respective sports championship round?” Also true. But...
Wheeling Nailers won’t renew coach’s contract
The Wheeling Nailers have decided to part ways with coach Mike Bavis. The Penguins’ ECHL affiliate announced Monday it will not renew the contract of Bavis, who coached the team for the past two seasons. The Nailers went 55-61-15 under Bavis. They missed the playoffs last season and were in...
Penguins moments part of fan-voted tournament as best of NHL seasonVideo
The combination of a new sort of March Madness and the current trend of re-living past sporting events has resulted in an online “tournament” of the best games of the NHL season. The league’s social media platforms are encouraging fans to vote on 64 “moments” from its 2019-20 games —...
NHL has thorny issue gauging teams’ regular-season worth
There’s a dirty little secret that the handlers who carry the Stanley Cup around every summer don’t necessarily want hockey fans to know. Most years, the best hockey team in the world doesn’t take the famous 35-pound silver trophy home. The NHL started handing out the Presidents Trophy to the...
