doox

We can only hope...

3 games - more than I thought he'd get, but less than I hoped for.

Sheary for the Pens. Beagle for the Caps.

Fleury took a puck to the face in the game, and apparently was dazed a bit yet finished the game. I wonder what that means for the Philly game - hopefully Murray wasn't too taxed, and he can start over Zatkoff.

Kings and Blackhawks trade one disappointing ex-Pen defenseman for another.

Do the players at least get final say before it goes to print?

I think a straight-up trade was fair. Throwing in Clendening tilts it slightly.

He's not helping his cause to not get voted into the 3v3 All Star Game.

At this point, maybe. I would have been happier if they hadn't burned a year of his contract and had not horribly misplayed him up until this point. I had a suspicion that they were going to misuse him, and I hope it doesn't hinder his development too much.

I knew they were gonna screw up the Sprong situation.

Surely, the Pens have to cover some of Scuderi's contract, right? I don't know why chicago would agree to a straight-up trade.

http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=792679&cmpid=pit-fb-penguins Yessssssss

How is the practice complex? I may head out there to check it out in January.

I guess we'll find out - he's got head coaching experience in the mid 2000's with the Bruins but I don't really remember him. He's been an assistant in the NHL as well, so hopefully he can command respect.

Yeah, that was basically a big FU, I think. Well, it worked - Johnston is out, Sullivan is now the HC.

Sadly, Johnson bought himself some more time. Sprong got an entire 6 minutes of ice time, with nothing but a spot on the bench for the 3rd.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/bryan-trottier-nhl-letter-to-my-younger-self/ Great article, here. I loved the stuff about Kevin Stevens, Badger Bob, and youtube.

It's nice to see a few line-up changes, at least. Clendenning is in for Scuderi and Plotnikov is in for Bonino.

They want to play a defensive style with the highest paid offense in the league, yet they want the D to activate when they have one player back there capable of doing so with any success. I went to the Columbus game and it was frustrating to say the least. They couldn't get out of their end, and they would make these cutesy little passes to nobody instead of getting it out of the defensive zone. Malkin, in particular, likes to do a no-look pass near the blue line which gets intercepted with regularity. They just look like they don't care, and 58 minutes of the game I went to was a turd sand

Cole has been off his game lately. He was brutal in the Calgary game, and Letang seemed really pissed about his giveaway that led to the last goal. I forget where I read the D pairings - probably facebook - but the Pens app has projected lines of Letang/Maatta, Lovejoy/Dumoulin, and Scuderi/Cole. I don't know about Pouliot, For whatever reason, MJ doesn't want to switch the D up much, so I was surprised he's supposedly going with this pairing. I figured Clendenning would crack the line-up at some point, especially against Vancouver, but nope. Pouliot got in trouble for that public int

Letang was being dragged down by Cole. Word is that Letang and Maatta are being paired tonight.

I'm still in favor of calling penalties like they did the first season after the lockout. I'd be ok with eliminating sliding shotblocking, as well.

You guys saw this prick? http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/adult-intercepts-puck-meant-for-young-penguins-fan--video-004827889.html Apparently, he's a douchenozzle named Terry, who is a craps player at the casino in town. From the people I talked to that know him, there's no chance he wasn't proud of himself afterwards. He once faked having brain cancer for the sympathy and free license to get away with more bad behavior at the tables.

An interesting read on Reddit, discussing Rossi and one of his articles that called out Mario: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCkQFjACahUKEwidz_Cap-bIAhXGVz4KHW7MCH8&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fpenguins%2Fcomments%2F32t60z%2Frob_rossi_needs_to_be_banned_from_covering_the%2F&usg=AFQjCNE6pMoL0EVeFLpxgsRW-OGDvbpwHw

He's a journalist, but respected is a reach. He's become a whiny cartoon in the past few years. I prefer Dejan and Josh Yohe.