Toughness For 2010-11 in Pittsburgh

If there is one head coach in the NHL who knows what grit and determination mean to a hockey team, the Penguins Dan Bylsma is that guy. Bylsma’s NHL career was built as a role player contributing the little things out on the ice that often go overlooked in the box scores. His quotations throughout this offseason are written all over the new look DNA of this team with Bylsma saying countless times since the season ended: “We want to be a team that’s tough to play against.” The personnel moves made by General Manager Ray Shero have shown that desire this offseason focusing on defense and making some tweaks to the forwards rotation that will allow some gritty players to make an impact. That wasn’t the case after the Stanley Cup winning campaign in 2008-09 when the Pens slid through the summer months losing toughness rather than gaining it with the losses of both Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill. It seems as though Shero took a complete 180-degree approach to this offseason looking to give this club more of a grinding presence than one of finesse.

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Tags: Arron Asham, Dan Bylsma, Hal Gill, Kris Letang, Matt Cooke, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, Pascal DuPuis, Paul Martin, Ray Shero, Rob Scuderi, Sergei Gonchar, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup, Zbynek Michalek

‘Forward’ Thinking

Now that the Penguins have informed Bill Guerin of their decision to move in a different direction as a franchise on the wing, the team is forced to look internally and evaluate just which players will emerge as the frontrunners to hold down those positions. Training camp will undoubtedly have a lot to do with the ultimate decision of which players are playing in Pittsburgh and which will remain in Wilkes-Barre so it is paramount for youngsters like Nick Johnson and Eric Tangradi have strong performances when the team convenes on September 12th. There are also some current Pittsburgh skaters who will see the opportunity to log some minutes with Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, and Evgeni Malkin on any given night considering who’s hot and who’s not. This all warrants an in-depth look at the Penguins depth chart in terms of forwards to see which players need to step up their game as the team goes in search of some scoring help for their big three down the middle.

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Tags: Alexei Ponikarovsky, Arron Asham, Atlanta Thrashers, Bill Guerin, Chris Kunitz, Colby Armstrong, Craig Adams, Detroit Red Wings, Eric Tangradi, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Marian Hossa, Matt Cooke, Maxime Talbot, Mike Rupp, Nick Johnson, Pascal DuPuis, Ray Shero, Ruslan Fedotenko, Ryan Whitney, Sidney Crosby, Tyler Kennedy

Moving On With a Concern

As predicted long ago, the Penguins are going to turn toward a youth movement on the wing in the upcoming year rather than continuing on with aging veterans. Most Pens fans had already resigned to the fact that forward Bill Guerin would not be with the team for the 2010-11 season, but the team made that official this week as General Manager Ray Shero informed the veteran that the team would be moving on without him. The Penguins have been preparing for this day for a while now with the talent that currently resides in their farm system, but now those minor leaguers will have to make the jump into the deep end and play with the big boys of the NHL. Eric Tangradi is expected to be the most important of those wingers when it comes to filling Guerin’s vacancy as he has the size at 6’4” 215lbs. to be a dominant player, but his skills are still on the fringe of being an effective NHL player.

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Tags: Arron Asham, Bill Guerin, Craig Adams, Eric Tangradi, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Montreal Canadiens, P.K. Subban, Ray Shero, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup, Travis Moen, Washington Capitals

A New Arena, A New Coach

With every new building comes the inevitable demolition of the old, outdated structure (or does it)? The city of Pittsburgh is up in arms over that very question with the new Penguins facility, Consol Energy Center, currently standing adjacent to their old home, the Mellon( err, Civic) Arena. There are clearly two sides to every argument and some feel that the old Pens home should be recycled and reused for other purposes leaving it standing as a relic for the franchise. On the other side there are those looking to turn the page and develop the area currently occupied by the arena with new business opportunities in a busy area. Both sides make compelling points and from a fan’s perspective it would be selfish to simply say that the building should be left standing for historical purposes, but let’s take a look at what the two sides have to offer and make a rational conclusion as to which makes the most sense.

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Tags: Alain Nasreddine, Civic Arena, Consol Energy Center, Dan Bylsma, David Morehouse, Jim Ferlo, John Hynes, Mario Lemieux, Mellon Arena, Sidney Crosby, Three Rivers Stadium, Todd Reirden, Wilkes-Barre Baby Penguins

Hatfields Versus McCoys

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Tags: Arron Asham, Chicago Blackhawks, Dan Bylsma, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Matt Cooke, Maxime Talbot, Paul Martin, Philadelphia Flyers, Ray Shero, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup, Zbynek Michalek

Even Crosby Needs a Wingman

Coming into this offseason, many Penguins fans felt that the team needed to pursue a high-profile winger to pair alongside Captain Sidney Crosby on the top line to raise the team’s level of offensive effectiveness. The free agency market really lacked for any such affordable options so instead General Manager Ray Shero decided to improve the defense and allow the current players in the organization to be configured in new ways to bolster the offense. When weighing the question of offense versus defense, Shero is quite blunt saying: “There was really no judgment to make, because there was no real difference-maker available up front. Now had there been a bunch of talented forwards out there, then I might have gone in a different direction.” What that essentially means to the team moving into the 2010-11 campaign is that they will be relying on farm hands to fill in the holes left by departed veterans Ruslan Fedotenko and Bill Guerin who weren’t brought back after last season.

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Tags: Bill Guerin, Dan Bylsma, Dustin Jeffrey, E.J. Hradek, Evgeni Malkin, Jaromir Jagr, Jordan Staal, Mario Lemieux, Mark Letestu, Nick Johnson, Paul Kariya, Ray Shero, Ruslan Fedotenko, Sidney Crosby, Wilkes-Barre Baby Penguins

A History Lesson On the Future

After a difficult start to their franchise’s history by beginning in the NHL’s Western Conference, the Penguins have steadily transformed Pittsburgh into one of the country’s hockey meccas. In a very similar manner to the team’s early seasons, Pittsburgh had a flourish of success in the early nineties with the Mario Lemieux led back-to-back Stanley Cup winning squads, but slowly declined into mediocrity and nearly lost the franchise to bankruptcy in the early 2000’s. Resiliency has been the motto for the city of Pittsburgh and with the new arena now in the heart of downtown, the Pens appear to be entrenched in the city for decades to come. The Pens are currently try to avoid allowing their present day play as a team become a microcosm of the franchise’s history at-large.

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Tags: Alex Goligoski, Bill Guerin, Brooks Orpik, Dan Bylsma, Dustin Jeffrey, Evgeni Malkin, Hal Gill, Jordan Staal, Kris Letang, Marc Andre Fleury, Mario Lemieux, Matt Cooke, Mike Rupp, Montreal Canadiens, Nick Johnson, Pascal DuPuis, Paul Martin, Ray Shero, Rob Scuderi, Ruslan Fedotenko, Sergei Gonchar, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup, Tyler Kennedy, Zbynek Michalek

New Coaches and a New Building

The Penguins have had the good fortune of having a talented coaching staff with their minor league affiliates in Wilkes-Barre recently and they are hopeful that the trend continues itself. When Mike Yeo chose to leave the team earlier in the offseason that left former Baby Penguins and current Pens Head Coach Dan Bylsma without a right-hand man on the bench. He didn’t stray far to find the man worthy of filling that position in Baby Pens Head Coach Todd Reirden who quickly accepted the new gig. This carousel obviously then left yet another opening on the Baby Penguins staff with the Wilkes-Barre team left looking for a head coach once again. As one might have assumed, the pattern repeated itself with the Baby Pens promoting John Hynes to the position.

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Tags: Andrew Orpik, Boston College, Brooks Orpik, Buffalo Sabres, Dan Bylsma, Donald J. Binotto, Jeff Barrett, John Hynes, Las Vegas Wranglers, Ray Shero, San Antonio Rampage, Todd Reirden, Wilkes-Barre Baby Penguins

All-Time Penguins

It should come as no surprise that the when the Pittsburgh Tribune Review named the Penguins all-time team earlier this week as a part of the opening week for Consol Energy Center, plenty of members from the 1990-91 and 1991-92 back-to-back Stanley Cup winners teams made the cut. That golden era of Pens hockey has been rediscovered in many ways over the past five seasons with the team that General Manager Ray Shero has assembled via the NHL Draft. In honor of that all-time team being designated, let’s take a comparative look at those Penguins of old versus the new version of the team currently skating in Pittsburgh.

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Tags: Bob Errey, Conn Smythe, Consol Energy Center, Dave Burrows, Eric Tangradi, Evgeni Malkin, Greg Malone, Hart Memorial Trophy, Jaromir Jagr, Jean Pronovost, Joe Mullen, Kevin Stevens, Larry Murphy, Les Binkley, Mario Lemieux, NHL Draft, Paul Coffey, Pierre LaRouche, Ray Shero, Rick Kehoe, Ron Francis, Ryan Malone, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup, Syl Apps, Tom Barrasso, Ulf Samuelsson

A New Look in 2010-11

By now the entire NHL knows that the Mellon Arena has seen its final taste of NHL action and the Penguins new home for 2010-11 will be the Consol Energy Center located right alongside the old building. August has begun their welcoming party for the city of Pittsburgh to come and get their first taste of the team’s new state of the art facilities. As for Mellon, it has once again changed its stripes and become the Civic Arena harkening back to the early nineties when Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr used to team up routinely lighting the lamp. Mellon’s naming rights expired recently and all of the signs were removed leaving the arena nameless in the eyes of many, but to the diehards it certainly reverts back to Civic. Consol Energy Center will host its first event on August the 18th when a Paul McCartney concert rolls into Pittsburgh.

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Tags: Beau Bennett, Bill Guerin, Brooks Orpik, Consol Energy Center, Evgeni Malkin, Jaromir Jagr, Jordan Staal, Marian Hossa, Mario Lemieux, Matt Cooke, Mellon Arena, New York Rangers, Pascal DuPuis, Paul McCartney, Philadelphia Flyers, Philip Samuelsson, Ray Shero, Ruslan Fedotenko, Sergei Gonchar, Sidney Crosby, Todd Reirden