Penguins/NHL category, Page 283

Having regularly traded away draft picks in pursuit of Stanley Cup championships, it’s important for the Pittsburgh Penguins to replenish their prospect pool with undrafted college free agents. They took a step in that direction Monday, signing Michigan Tech winger Jake Lucchini to a one-year contract that kicks in next...

While most NHL players fall somewhere between tolerating and actively hating it, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jared McCann said he actually likes playing games on back-to-back days. “You almost feel better the second game. You feel like you’re still in it from the first one,” McCann said. He proved it Sunday...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – There was plenty of sound and fury contained in a home-and-home series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets that concluded Saturday night. There was the great Blue Jackets goaltending debate. Columbus coach John Tortorella all but admitted that Sergei Bobrovsky has a Penguins problem when...

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray is officially moving into workhorse territory. Murray will make his eighth straight start when the Penguins play host to the Boston Bruins on Sunday night, coach Mike Sullivan announced a few hours before the puck dropped. Casey DeSmith, who hasn’t started since Feb. 21, will...

The Pittsburgh Penguins got a draft pick under contract Saturday, signing 2018 fifth-rounder Justin Almeida to a three-year entry level contract that kicks in next season. A 5-foot-11, 165-pound center, the 20-year-old Almeida is having an outstanding season for the Moose Jaw Warriors, ranking fourth in the Western Hockey League...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A physical home-and-home series with the Columbus Blue Jackets that will wrap up Saturday night is just the beginning of the most difficult stretch of schedule the Pittsburgh Penguins will deal with in the last quarter of the season. On Sunday night, they’ll play the tail end...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella had no problem pinpointing the one area of the game that gave his team the most trouble in a 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. Shot blocking. The Penguins held a 24-12 advantage in blocked shots in the...

The Pittsburgh Penguins have won eight straight meetings with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Over the past two seasons, goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is 0-2-3 with an .882 save percentage of the Penguins. Columbus coach John Tortorella said he will pay neither of those facts any mind as his team prepares to...

As the NHL’s Feb. 25 trade deadline beckoned, Columbus was half-expected to trade goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and winger Artemi Panarin, each in the final season of his contract. A rebuilding of sorts seemed likely. But there were no obvious suitors for Bobrovsky. The legit Stanley Cup contenders all have legit...

A home-and-home series – like the one the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets are currently in the middle of – is a relatively rare occurrence in the modern NHL. The Penguins, for instance, have only three of them on their schedule this season. For someone like winger Garrett Wilson,...

In the most important stretch of the season, the Penguins are starting to get hot. Thursday night, they won the first of two crucial games against the Blue Jackets, with a return match coming Saturday in Columbus. The Penguins blanked the Blue Jackets, 3-0. And a lot went right along...

By winning two Stanley Cup rings before his 24th birthday, Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray established himself as the type of player who ramps up his game as the stakes get higher. Murray wouldn’t say he’s the kind of guy who particularly likes playing at this time of year, though....

Only two points separated the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets for eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings, so their Metropolitan Division game had Stanley Cup playoff implications. That their meeting Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena was the first of back-to-back games between the division rivals — they...

As good as a trade-deadline acquisition looks on paper, he still has to fit into his new team’s lineup. That’s a lesson the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets are on opposite sides of coming into their key Metropolitan Division matchup Tuesday night. Ballyhooed pick-ups Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, Adam...

Facing one of the teams the Columbus Blue Jackets are battling with for a playoff spot in a tight Eastern Conference race in one of the biggest games of the year, John Tortorella is starting his backup goalie and telling his players to relax and have fun. Joonas Korpisalo, not...

As the Pittsburgh Penguins have begun to ramp up their play heading down the stretch, picking up points in the standings in five straight games, a serious flaw remains that could easily sink their progress. The Penguins are struggling on the penalty kill. The Penguins have allowed at least one...

There’s a big home-and-home series that could have a massive impact on the Eastern Conference playoff race coming up in the next few days. On Thursday, the hammer hosts the nail. On Saturday, the windshield visits the bug. OK, that’s not what it says on the official NHL schedule. It...

A Mike Tomlin favorite from Baltimore is hitting free agency. The Bruins helped the Penguins…a little bit. And Bryce Harper is so rich he may think that he can buy the definition of “tampering” out of the Oxford dictionary. We want Weddle? The Ravens released Eric Weddle. The Steelers could...

When it comes to praising the Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin-era Penguins, as a fanbase — and media corps — we can get a little … What’s the word I’m looking for? Gushy? Effusive? Flowery? Fawning? Yeah. Any of those fit. Big picture, given the franchise’s accomplishments over those years, that applause...

Phil Kessel has been a popular player in Pittsburgh since joining the Penguins in a 2015 trade. On Tuesday night, fans at PPG Paints Arena showed just how much they adore the affable goal-scoring right wing with a remarkable second-period ovation. Kessel is mired in a career-long 16-game goal drought....

Somerset native Bob McElligott is the play-by-play man for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He joins me for the Thursday Sided.co “Hockey Week” podcast. The Penguins and Columbus have enormous back-to-back games coming up. These contests Thursday and Saturday are huge in the Metropolitan Division standings and may go a long...