Penguins player reports vs Jets: Poor d-zone play from Neal, other forwards a growing concern

Premium Post-Game Player Reports Game 4 – Friday, January 25, 2013 Penguins @ Jets Centers Sidney Crosby| 2 Goals, even rating, 3 SOG, 2 BS, 4 Hits, 1 GV, 24:07 TOI, 8 FW – 6 FL, 57.1% Crosby scored two first period goals and led the Penguins offensive attack but his two-goal night wasn’t enough for the Penguins. Crosby opened the scoring at 4:26 of the first period, taking a pass from Kunitz in the slot and with Olli Jokinen on him, snuck a snap shot inside Pavelec’s right post for the goal. On Crosby’s second goal of the night at 14:48 of the first period, he came through the neutral zone with speed after taking a pass off the

Post-Game Buzz: Breaking down Penguins 5-2 loss and is Tangradi’s opportunity with Malkin nearing an end?

LEAFS – PENGUINS POST GAME BUZZ The Penguins had seven giveaways and were plagued by poor puck management Wednesday night in their 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, whether it would be a failure to get pucks deep or turnovers inside their own end. “There just wasn’t enough execution with the puck and management of the puck to play where we needed to play,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “We didn’t have enough shifts in their end and we didn’t execute and make passes thru the neutral zone as good as we could have. Definitely not our best game,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said afterwards. Poor puck management played a part in nearly every Leafs goal: Clark MacArthur’s goal

Breaking down Penguins forward depth chart & Analysis on Projected Lines

FORWARD DEPTH CHART With the lockout over, burning questions for the Penguins upfront is how the top-6 will shake up after the departure of Steve Sullivan and revamping a third line around the newly acquired Brandon Sutter, following the trade of Jordan Staal on draft day this past June. Strong indications have been that Matt Cooke will enter camp as the front runner to move up to a top-6 role in a short-term role on a line with Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby. Other internal options who could get early looks include Tyler Kennedy, Eric Tangradi and a longshot candidate being Dustin Jeffrey who if given the opportunity, could be primed for a breakout season. Despite the loss of Staal,

CBA Analysis: Players placing too much of burden on wealthy teams helping poor teams in proposal

Photo Credit: @NHLPA It became clear Tuesday that Union leader Don Fehr gets it. The NHLPA could have easily went rogue and played hard ball by proposing to abolish the hard salary cap system in place or the salary cap system altogether. That’s a fight the NHLPA would never win and Fehr clearly knows it. Overall, the NHLPA proposed a smaller percentage of revenues for players and an expanded revenue sharing program putting the focus on wealthy teams to redistribute more of their revenue to help stabilize the market for struggling teams. “We do believe that the proposal the players made today, once implemented, can produce a stable industry that can give us a chance to move beyond the recurring

Crosby among big name players in today’s CBA Negotiations where NHLPA will make “alternative view” proposal

CBA NEGOTIATIONS Photo Credit: @NHLPA The big names are in attendance for today’s CBA negotiations where the NHLPA will be presenting their first proposal after dissecting the NHL’s proposal for nearly a month and coming away with pretty much nothing they liked. Don Fehr is calling today’s proposal not a “counter proposal” but an “alternative view”. The CBA expires on September 15th and commissioner Gary Bettman said last week the league intends to lockout the players if a new CBA is not struck, saying the league has no plans to play next season under the current CBA which legally could be extended. With the two sides still needing to work out a number of complex economic issues and differences in

NHL: Parameters of Crosby’s new deal being put in place?

SIDES DISCUSSING TERM OF 10-12 YEARS? Discussions between GM Ray Shero and agent Pat Brisson have heated up in the past week with both sides said to be expressing optimism that a deal for Sidney Crosby will be put in place as early as July 1 when Crosby can sign.

Tuesday’s Flyers – Pens Playoff Report: Bylsma singing the praises of Bryz; Post-Practice Reactions, Tidbits & GM Brian Burke talks “The Pittsburgh Model”

TUESDAY’S PLAYOFF REPORT — Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma was singing the praises of Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov today following the Penguins workout. “I know Bryz and I have experience playing with him and coaching against him, ” Bylsma said. “Bryz’s talent is something we haven’t seen a lot of, but it’s very high end. He’s an extremely talented goalie, a big body goalie with quick legs from side to side. That’s what we’re going to see with Bryzgalov. I expect him to be in there for every game. That’s what we’re looking for.” — A week or two ahead of schedule, defenseman Ben Lovejoy is a near lock to be an option to play this week and word as of this

Morning Pens Buzz: Blueprint on attacking Pens offensively has emerged; Likely Playoff lines established; Post-Game Chatter

MORNING PENS BUZZ The Penguins dropping three of their last four games, continue to express frustrations over their struggles defensively. With the goaltending starting to take a step back in the past few games, issues defensively that have been there for the past six to seven games are starting to catch up. “We didn’t do a lot of good things and paid for it again,” captain Sidney Crosby said on the Penguins 5-3 to the Islanders Thursday night. “We made some mistakes and they capitalized on it.” A blueprint on how to attack the Penguins offensively is out there. Establishing a strong cycle in the offensive zone and spacing the Penguins out has been a prominent way to exploit the

Latest Pens Rumblings: Team has open mind on trade front going into deadline day

WAIT AND SEE MODE Penguins GM Ray Shero is always looking to improve his team at the deadline, and the team enters the final hours of the trade deadline with an open mind on several fronts, a team source says. What Shero and many GM’s around the league have been met with is a tough market highlighted by few players available and high asking prices for marginal impact players. Pittsburgh like a few other top contenders who are looking to add but not desperate to make a move, are waiting for the prices to hopefully come down as the deadline inches closer. As of late Sunday afternoon, the Penguins were said to still be in wait and see mode when