While our Penguins may be headed to the golf course or parts unknown, their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm club is preparing to take on Lehigh Valley in the first round of the AHL Calder Cup playoffs. Stocking up for the best-of-three set (and, hopefully, a long and successful playoff run), the Baby Pens have bolstered their roster with five prospects. Defenseman Owen Pickering, the Pens’ first-round pick in 2022, joins the team following a solid regular season and playoff run with his junior team, Swift Current. The rangy blueliner tallied seven goals and 46 points during 59 regular season games ..read more

With the 2023-24 campaign in the books and not much else to report, I thought it would be an opportune time to publish my season-ending Ex-Penguins Update. The player topping the list hardly comes as a surprise. Thanks to an extraordinary finish following his trade to Carolina (a whopping eight goals and 25 points in only 17 games) Jake Guentzel led all ex-Pens with 30 goals and 77 points. Seattle sharpshooter Jared McCann was second in both goals (29) and points (62). Quickie quiz. Which Penguins GM past or present actually left McCann unprotected in the 2021 Expansion Draft? If you answered ..read more

“A lie has no legs and cannot stand, but it has wings and can fly far and wide.”–William Warburton “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.”–Joseph Goebbels ########### As I was mulling over my individual grades for our Penguins while preparing my previous article, I decided to take a peek at Natural Stat Trick to see how the numbers shook out. In the past, I’ve used 5v5 goals for percentage (GF%) as a measuring stick. I was considering using the same criteria as a basis for my grades this time around. I also wanted to check out a rather shocking statistical anomaly my esteemed co ..read more

I haven’t written much this season, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been following our favorite flightless fowl. Now we are at the end of one more farcical season, and it is time for a postmortem for the 6th Pittsburgh Penguins’ corpse, in a row. Some Penguins’ fans are angry, even more are frustrated, but these emotions are predicated on each fan’s expectations of the team. For those Penguin Poop readers that remember my preseason predictions, they will remember that once again I was pretty much spot on. My only error this past season was in thinking that at least Sidney Crosby, or Evgeni Ma ..read more

Back in the summer of 1968, my favorite song was The Worst That Could Happen. Sung to perfection by Johnny Maestro and The Brooklyn Bridge, it’s a soulful, remorseful lament about a man whose girl decides to marry another. I was thinking about our Penguins this morning when the song popped into my head. Was our 8-2-3 stretch run, while heartening and inspiring, in reality the worst that could happen for the black and gold? While I hate to say it was all for naught…the team finally came together after a season of stumbling in the dark…the bottom line is, we missed the playoffs for the second y ..read more

I suppose like so many other Penguins fans, my attention was riveted to the “Scores” page of NHL.com last night. Eyes fixed on the Capitals-Flyers and Red Wings-Canadiens games. Of course, we needed the Caps and Wings to lose to keep our playoff hopes alive. For a while, things seemed to be going our way. The Canadiens held a 4-3 lead over the Wings as the final minutes ticked off the game clock. On the far side of the state, the Flyers and Caps were knotted up at 1-apiece. Perfect. Then, with three minutes to play and totally out of the blue, a red EN (empty net) indicator flashed next to “F ..read more

Our Penguins did what they needed to do last night. Namely, took care of business. Skating before a throng of 18,198 at PPG Paints Arena, we overcame the Predators (and zebras, too) to score a well-deserved 4-2 victory. In the process keeping our playoff hopes alive. To the action. As ready to play as we’ve been all season, the Pens tore into the Preds with a rabid first-period assault while piling up a stunning 20-5 edge in shots on goal. We appeared to draw first blood at 6:23 on a power-play goal by net-front demon Michael Bunting. However, the Preds claimed goaltender interference and the ..read more

When I wrote my article yesterday comparing this season’s playoff scenario to last spring’s, I detailed some of my concerns. Never dreaming they’d manifest almost verbatim during last night’s sloppy, error-filled 6-4 loss to the Bruins at PPG Paints Arena. If anything, I figured by mentioning our issues I’d eliminate the chance of them happening…kind of like mentioning an opposing goalie’s shutout bid. Unfortunately, the PenguinPoop curse seems to understand reverse psychology. The Penguins appeared to carry the play through a scoreless first period, but looks can be deceiving. Although we ou ..read more

A little over a year ago (April 8 to be exact) the Penguins clobbered the Red Wings, 5-1, in game number 80 of the 2022-23 season. In the process seizing control of their playoff destiny. All we needed to do was win our final two games against weak sisters Chicago and Columbus and we were in, no matter what the Islanders and Panthers did. Remember? With a playoff berth virtually tucked in our hip pockets, we proceeded to poop the bed sheets, losing to the lowly Connor Bedard-less Blackhawks, 5-2, on home ice. Our playoff hopes scuttled, we fell in OT to the Blue Jackets two nights later. The ..read more

Somewhere, embedded deep down in some remote corner of our Penguins’ DNA lurks a self-destruct gene. It surfaces at the most inopportune of times. The full-force of that self-destructiveness was on display last night at PPG Paints Arena during arguably THE most important game of the year. The one our very playoff lives depended on. Let’s see. Blown multiple-goal leads (multiple times to boot)? Check. Goals allowed in the last-minute of periods? Check. Bone-head decisions at critical junctures? Check. The only mishaps missing? A shorthanded goal against and our usual abject failure in overtime ..read more