Game Day Buzz: On Vokoun starting over Fleury, Martin’s timetable, Therrien’s impact on skilled players & lineup buzz

GAME DAY BUZZ PENGUINS (13-8-0, 26 pts) @ CANADIENS (13-4-3, 29 pts) In a surprising development, Tomas Vokoun is getting the start in goal tonight vs the Eastern Conference leading Montreal Canadiens. Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma told reporters today that starting Vokoun tonight had been pre-planned for at least a few weeks now. “This has been a game that Tomas has been scheduled to play for a couple weeks now,” Bylsma said. If this was planned weeks ago, how about telling your No. 1 goaltender ahead of time that he’s not going to be playing tonight in his hometown. According to the Tribune-Review, Fleury expressed disappointment in learning that he’s not playing. “I’m not going to lie,” Fleury said on

Can’t blame Michel Therrien for Janne Pesonen not succeeding in the NHL

Janne Pesonen’s short tenure in the NHL ended just like I expected it too; Back to Europe. Pesonen, 27, signed a contract to play for Ak Bars Kazan of the Kontinental Hockey League (Russia) early last week after totaling 32 goals and 82 points in 70 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Despite putting up impressive numbers in the American Hockey League, scouts and league executives saw Pesonen as nothing more than a fringe NHL player. Pesonen explored the free agent market for over a month with the hopes of landing a one-way contract but there was not one team willing to offer Pesonen a one-way deal. Pesonen received a number of two-way offers from Cup contenders like

Earning a berth to the Cup Finals, a special moment for the organization

Earning a berth to the Stanley Cup Finals was emotional for the Penguins organization Tuesday night. The team has under-gone a lot of change since last year’s run to the finals, including a coaching change which sparked the Penguins dramatic turnaround in mid-February. It was a special night for the organization and there wasn’t a prouder person in the locker room following the game than owner Mario Lemieux. Lemieux has taking more of role in the day to day operations over the past year as the Penguins have evolved into a Stanley Cup Contender. Lemieux and Sidney Crosby share a close bond as Crosby has grown as a person and a player under Lemieux’s wing. The two shared a good

Shero looks for three values; work ethic, accountability & passion

Shero, Bylsma speak to the media Dan Bylsma and Ray Shero spoke to the media following the Penguins off-ice activities this morning. Shero talked about how following the coaching change, he wanted to bring in a coach that would grow with this team and believes Dan is a good fit for the team. Shero praised Bylsma calling him a “bright guy” and claiming he has great values. Shero discussed that he looks for his hockey team to have

The Latest “Chatter”

CD’s for Soldiers at the Mall in Robinson Just wanted to mention that 105.9 WXDX is accepting any new /used CD’s or DVD’s at the Mall in Robinson today. The CD’s and DVD’s will be sent to troops overseas. The Penguins just concluded their practice which began around 11:00 a.m. today. They will depart for Philadelphia this afternoon. The team has been mum on why Kris Letang was a healthy scratch last night. Letang was paired with Ryan Whitney in the morning skate and skated in the pregame warm-ups. The plan going into the pregame skate was for all seven defensemen to skate and then Coach Bylsma would make a decision. When your running an uptempo system why do you

NHL: Therrien hits the airwaves

Michel Therrien spoke to Stan and Guy on ESPNRadio1250 this morning regarding the sudden coaching change the Penguins made. Therrien spoke very highly of the team and says he’s looking forward to having quality time with his kids who were also “apart of this”. Therrien on getting fired ‚ÄúTough to swallow, will always have great memories, doesn‚Äôt‚Äô have any hard feelings.‚Äù Will remain in Pittsburgh for the time being. Still tough to swallow‚Äù Therrien on the teams focus heading into this season Therrien tried to concentrate on having a good start after the bad news of losing Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar to injuries. Got the great start he wanted but the reality is the team got hurt, lost a

Shero: No players came to me asking for coaching change

Shero refutes notion that any players went to him asking for change. Just before all of the message boards start saying players went to Ray Shero to get Michel Therrien fired, that was not the case at all. In a conference call with the media — Shero answering a question from Gene Collier disputed any claims that players went to him asking for a coaching change. Shero said “Absolutely Not” and moved on to the next question.

Breaking News: Penguins fire Michel Therrien

Dan Bylsma has been named interim head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bylsma, 38, has been serving as head coach of the team‚Äôs American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Therrien and Savard were relieved of their duties. Savard has been re-assigned to another position in the organization. Assistant coach Mike Yeo who runs the Penguins struggling power play will remain with the team. Goaltending coach Gilles Meloche will also remain with the coaching staff. Tom Fitzgerald, the Penguins‚Äô director of player development, will join the staff as an assistant coach. Michel Therrien did coach today’s practice in New York which ended around 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. More to come

Canadiens hand Penguins third straight loss; Post-Game Buzz

Montreal 4 – Pittsburgh 2 Despite a strong performance from Luca Caputi who opened the scoring 2:30 into the game, the Penguins gave up three unanswered goals and lost for the third straight game Tuesday night against the Monteal Canadiens. Caputi appearing in his first NHL game scored in his first NHL shift. Caputi started the game on the fourth line with Bill Thomas and Eric Godard but was rewarded with minutes on the first power play unit and saw some ice time with the 2nd line. Roman Hamrlik scored a 1st period goal for the Canadiens. Chris Higgins and Maxim Lapierre scored second-period goals and Andrei Kostitsyn scored with 4:15 left to seal the Canadiens 4-2 win. Goaltender Carey