Blogs

FIRST, A CLARIFICATION Thanks to an observant reader, I was tipped off to some misinformation from my previous post. Regarding Penguins prospects who are restricted free agents, please scratch from my previous listing Cs MARK LETESTU and DUSTIN JEFFREY. Letestu is in the final season of a two-year deal, and Jeffrey is in the last [...]

SHERO BACK IN ACTION Penguins GM RAY SHERO resumed his normal routine this week after dealing last week with the death of his mother. He has about a six-week window to negotiate with any of the Penguins’ potential free agents. A reminder: the free-agent season opens July 1. The following players who filled regular roles [...]

I’m told the Penguins are not entertaining the possibility of trading Evgeni Malkin, the 2009 NHL scoring champion and playoff MVP and, with a $8.7 million salary-cap hit, the franchise’s co-highest paid player.

GETAWAY DAY GIFTS Sorry for the few days between updates. Perhaps over the course of the summer I will detail the days of a beat reporter to provide readers a clearer view of my schedule. A peek at the past few days, however, would show that I spent a lot of time updating phone numbers [...]

Trib photographer Chaz Palla and I spent most of Tuesday on planes and in airports attempting to reach the City of Champions. I had a few hours to consider that there could be only a few hours remaining in Pittsburgh’s return to City of Champions-status.

I am actually sitting in a lounge at JFK airport with Uncle Scottie, and he cannot say if the Phoenix Coyotes would become the Winnipeg Jets upon a return to that cold Canadian city. I can only hope so, because the Winnipeg Coyotes doesn’t sound right or look proper.

OK, the inconveniences of a sportswriter’s life are not a topic most readers favor. How about this one …

GOOD GUYS GET DUE REWARDS Count this beat reporter as pleased to have seen Tuesday night in the visiting dressing room at Bell Center two guys smiling who hadn’t done a lot of that in the past couple of days. Penguins C Evgeni Malkin and G Marc-Andre Fleury deserved a star turn after feeling the [...]

A discussion with somebody in the Penguins organization who has seen a lot more playoff hockey than me led me to this conclusion: We all forget far too fast.