Penguins – Islanders: Odd-man Out with Hornqvist’s return

Penguins – Islanders The Penguins take on the last place New York Islanders tonight in Brooklyn. The Islanders are 21st in goals per game (2.4), 23rd in Goals Against (3.0), 24th in shots per game (29.0) 27th on the Power Play (12.9), 23rd on the PK (80.0). The Islanders not only look like a last place team from the eye test, just about every stat backs up where they currently sit in the standings. They are 29th in the NHL in SAT% and 22nd in the NHL in 5-on-5 save percentage. In a deeper Metropolitan Division than last season, the Islanders look cooked as the calendar hits December 1 tomorrow. The goaltending matchup tonight, Thomas Griess goes for Islanders while

Latest Pens Buzz: Balancing Act, Dumoulin extension talks

Latest Pens Buzz The Penguins had some note worthy news prior to the drop of the puck in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout win over the New Jersey Devils. Almost anytime following a bad loss, we’ve seen Mike Sullivan shake up his lines and go with more balance, hence, what we saw last night in the HBK line being reunited and Matt Cullen moving up to left wing on Sidney Crosby’s line. “I really believe we’re at our best as a hockey team when we have the balance through the lineup,” Sullivan said. “We like the balance, so when we put Phil with Bones and Haggy, we have some real elite talent on three different lines that presents some challenges for our

Penguins – Wild Fallout: Fleury not changing the narrative & More Buzz

Penguins – Wild Fallout: Reported on Wednesday that the Penguins goaltending situation is becoming a complicated matter inside the room to the coaching staff who are “annoyed” with the situation of having to play politics as one source put it and with many core players so close to Fleury off the ice, it’s been a difficult situation as off the ice Fleury is said to be struggling with the fact of no longer being the No. 1 as bad as he’s struggled with his play on the ice. It’s not going to get any easier for Fleury who was lit up today for five goals on the Wild’s first 26 shots and allowed six goals on 36 shots overall in the Penguins

Penguins 6 – Rangers 1: Stars, Depth delivering to great goaltending fuels takeover of game in second period

Penguins Bounce Back with spring like performance Now this was more like it for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They were the faster team and the team play suffocating defense through the neutral zone and overwhelming the opponent in all three zones that resembled the team from last spring. A five goal second period saw Pittsburgh score six unanswered goals in a 6-1 thumping over the Rangers tonight. How dominant were the Penguins in the final 30-35 minutes of the game? The Rangers were held without a shot for a stretch of 23:59 during the second/third period, with Pittsburgh outshooting New York 20-0 during that span. A Conor Sheary goal late in the second period to put the Penguins up 5-1 saw

Source: Penguins suddenly in more of a “listening mode” on Fleury than at any point before

LATEST PENS BUZZ Source: Goaltending situation becoming an annoyance for coaching staff [hide] As the Penguins have received more trade feelers on Marc Andre Fleury in the past 14 days than they have at any point since it’s became clear with Matt Murray’s emergence that Fleury’s future in Pittsburgh is in doubt, has the Penguins stance of keeping Fleury all season changed? NHL sources tell Inside Pittsburgh Sports that Penguins Jim Rutherford is suddenly much more in a listening mode than he previously has been and it might be more about Rutherford’s read of the situation that it’s not a great situation for all parties involved inside the room than a couple teams kicking tires. While rival executives had indicated

What We Learned: Guentzel shines, Penguins struggle with Rangers speed

Penguins – Rangers What We Learned 1. Rangers come at the Penguins in waves: The Penguins saw a Rangers team tonight with a personnel more suited to the group that was the President Trophy Winners in 2014-2015, than the slow out of sync team last spring that Pittsburgh overwhelmed. “They’re focused more on speed now,” Marc Andre Fleury said of the Rangers. In a game Pittsburgh jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Jake Guentzel, New York would score five unanswered goals to secure the victory. New York got their share of bounces, a JT Miller shorthanded marker late in the second to put the Rangers ahead 3-2 among them but the latter half of the game, New

Morning Skate Buzz: Have Rangers closed Gap? Fleury in Goal

Gap Closed? The New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins have faced each other the past three post-seasons. An interesting dynamic with these two clubs is the Rangers for a stretch of two seasons were a team built to beat the Penguins. They were a faster, more structured team that had great success at keeping the Penguins to the outside defensively. Then out of nowhere last spring it was the Penguins that turned the tables. Suddenly they were the faster team and overwhelmed New York with four scoring lines. In a copy cat league, the Rangers ousted by the Penguins, Lightning in back-to-back years, went out and built their team more like the Penguins and Lightning. Now the question is whether

Monday’s TIOPS Inside Buzz Report

TIOPS Inside Buzz *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. More Leadership needed from Wideouts? Antonio Brown’s work ethic outside of game days to fine his craft is rarely matched by others. It’s what has made him into one of the NFL’s best receivers and saw him become the fastest receiver in NFL history to 600 receptions, doing it Sunday in his 96th career game. But is Brown doing a good enough job in leading by example for an inexperienced wide receiver group? Emerging is more and more talk in Steelers circles that Brown has been a bad apple at times and a bad influence on Sammie Coates, Eli Rodgers in critical areas such as attention to details and these inexperienced receivers learning

Steelers – Browns Fallout: Everything outside of the “W” in the win column comes with an Asterisk

Steelers 24 – Browns 9 The good for the Steelers is they care of business against a dismal football team in the Cleveland Browns to improve to 5-5 on the season. They also got some needed help on the scoreboard as the Ravens (5-5) lost to Dallas and the Bengals (3-6-1) season continues to slip away with a bad home loss to the Bills (5-5). The Ravens and Steelers are now tied in the division with a 5-5 record. Big Stats Day for Steelers D The defense was able to pad a lot of stats. Entering the game with 13 sacks on the season, Pittsburgh had 8 sacks from six different players. Stephon Tuitt led the way with 2.5 sacks,

Crosby’s Scoring Surge; LW Options; Forward being shopped to open door for Guentzel?

Sunday’s Penguins Buzz — Pittsburgh’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres saw Pittsburgh pepper the Sabres with 47 shots and put up a 67-31 advantage in shot attempts and 39-18 edge in 5 v 5 shots. Pittsburgh didn’t get the result they deserved. The Penguins have come back from their embarrassing loss to the Capitals with two strong showings defensively, though, against the lowest scoring team in the NHL in Sabres (1.78 GF/G) and an Islanders team starving to score goals. Pittsburgh held New York to 15 shots at 5 v 5 Friday night and Buffalo to 19 the following night. Poor competition or not, there was a stronger commitment from the forwards defensively the last two nights. Now