New Official Pens Tidbits Thread

[SCMom]

Orpik was on the ice for practice today, though I know it'll still be a couple more weeks before he's back.

Comrie and Asham are both on the ice in full gear today. I don't think Comrie will do much even if he does come back, since he's missed so much time...but it would be great to see Asham back out there soon.

[SCMom]

Head coach Dan Bylsma had a few updates:

* Kunitz is day-to-day, and probable to play Tuesday vs. Buffalo.
* Asham hasn't had concussion symptoms for six days, and skated hard for the second straight day.
* Comrie is working in full gear, but still is "considerable timeframe away from even returning to practice."
* Tangradi and N.Johnson still have concussion symptoms.


"Nick Johnson and Eric Tangradi are still out with a concussion.

"Arron Asham has been symptom free for six days now, today being his sixth. It was a second hard skate today, so he is moving in the right direction.

"Mike Comrie was on the ice in full gear. He's been on the ice in full gear three times now. He's a considerable timeframe away from even returning to practice.

"Brooks Orpik, this Wednesday will be his second week out from his broken finger.

"Crosby and Malkin, I have no update.

"Chris Kunitz is day-to-day, probable for (Tuesday's) game."

http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.ht...id=DL|PIT|home

[SCMom]

Pens win 3-1 over the Sabres tonight...their first win in regulation since Feb. 4th (which was also over the Sabres). Goals came from Neal, Michalek and Letestu (both Michalek and Neals first goals as Pens and they both got assists tonight as well). Kunitz did play tonight as well. Had a pretty good game.

Good solid game...Fleury played out of his mind to keep it close.

Philly won over the Oilers tonight (no big surprise there)

The Habs have a 4-0 lead over Boston in the third, so I guess you can call it a loss for them

Standings now:

1. Philly 66 GP 88pts
2. Boston 66 GP 84pts
3. Wash. 67 GP 84pts
4 Pens 68 GP 86 pts
5. TB 66 GP 82 pts
6.Mon 66 GP 79 pts
7. NYR 68 GP 74 pts
8, Buff 66 GP 72 pts

We're coming for you Philly!

[SCMom]

Pens' Bylsma Gets Three-Year Contract Extension
Wednesday, 03.09.2011 / 11:00 AM
http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.ht...fb-pghpenguins

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma has agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2013-14 season, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.

Bylsma, 40, led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2009 and has his team in the hunt for the top spot in the Eastern Conference this year despite an injury-depleted lineup.

“Dan has very quickly established himself as one of the best coaches in the National Hockey League,” Shero said. “He has been a perfect fit for our organization since day one, and we look forward to having him leading our team for the next three seasons.

“I think what we’ve been able to accomplish so far his season, even with players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal out of the lineup for extended periods of time, is a testament to his coaching system, his adaptability, and his composure under pressure.”

Bylsma has an overall record of 104-52-19 with the Penguins and has the highest winning percentage (.649) of any coach in franchise history. He also is tied with the legendary Scotty Bowman for the team record in playoff victories (23) and playoff series wins (five).

This season, Bylsma has led the Pens to a 39-21-8 record for 86 points – tied for third place in the overall NHL standings – despite having seen his team already lose 265 man-games to injury. That includes Staal missing 39 games, Crosby missing 27, Malkin missing 25, Chris Kunitz missing 15, Mark Letestu missing 13 and Brooks Orpik missing 12.

The Penguins currently lead the NHL in penalty-killing efficiency (86.8 percent) while ranking fifth in team goals-against average (2.41) and tied for fifth in one-goal wins (19). They’re also tied for seventh in goals scored.

Bylsma was named interim head coach of the Penguins on February 15, 2009, with the team in 10th place in the conference and in danger of missing the playoffs altogether. They responded by going 18-3-4 in 25 regular season games to rise to fourth in the conference standings, then defeated Philadelphia, Washington, Carolina and Detroit en route to the Stanley Cup. Along the way, he also lost the “interim” tag.

Last year, in his first full season behind the bench, the Penguins were 47-28-7 for 101 points.

The native of Grand Haven, Michigan played nine NHL seasons as a right winger with Los Angeles and Anaheim from 1995-2004. He played 429 NHL regular season games, recording 19 goals and 62 points, and also played in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final with Anaheim.

He began his coaching career as an assistant with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks of the AHL in 2004-05 and made his NHL coaching debut as an assistant with the New York Islanders in 2005-06.

Bylsma was an assistant coach with the Penguins’ farm team in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for two seasons from 2006-08 and was named head coach at the start of the 2008-09 season. He went 35-16-2 in 54 games with WBS before being promoted to Pittsburgh in February of that season.

Bylsma played four years of college hockey at Bowling Green. He and his wife, Mary Beth, have one son, Bryan, and reside in the North Hills.

[SCMom]

Kovalev recieved a warm welcome back to Pittsburgh last night (his first game back in Pitt)...check out the video they played at the Consol last night here.

[Killer]

Disco should get Coach of the Year just for getting the Pens to the playoffs.

[SCMom]

The French Connection
Thursday, 03.10.2011 / 7:40 PM / Features
By Michelle Crechiolo
http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.ht...id=DL|PIT|home

La connexion française – the French connection.

That’s what four players in the Penguins locker room have. And while they’ve all adjusted to American culture at different times and speeds, in the end, they all speak the same language in the Penguins locker room – both literally and figuratively.

Maxime Talbot, Marc-Andre Fleury, Pascal Dupuis and Kris Letang are the Penguins’ four French-Canadian players, all of them hailing from the Canadian province of Quebec.

Fleury, 26, and Talbot, 27, are the two longest-tenured Penguins of that group. They have a history that goes way back, as they both played in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League – albeit with different teams – from 2000-04.

The two were then teammates for Team Canada at the 2004 World Junior Championships before they both broke into the league for good with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League for the 2004-05 campaign.

In retrospect, it couldn’t have worked out better for the two of them to learn on the fly together. They’re now road roommates when the Penguins travel.

“I think it was nice to have Max, a guy that I knew from before,” Fleury said, who hails from Sorel. “It’s a little different with all of the English around, so it was nice to have him there.”

“It was obviously easier to adapt when you have different guys with you that come from the same place,” Talbot said. “You learn things at the same time.”

Dupuis, however, didn’t have quite as smooth a transition when he first came to the U.S.

Dupuis, 31, broke into the league in 2000 after signing a free-agent contract with Minnesota. He spent his first professional season with Cleveland of the International Hockey League, and adjusting to English was a tough transition for the Laval native.

Ever heard of a dish called “Same Thing”? Dupuis sure has. It’s what he ordered at restaurants during his first year in the league, as he didn’t understand the dinner menus when the team went out and felt bad asking for translations.

He chose instead to simply tell the server that he would have the same thing that the person next to him had ordered.

“Guys ordered sushi and stuff like that. My first time eating sushi I thought it was called ‘Same Thing,’” Dupuis joked.

Letang, who is from Montreal, was fortunate enough to have Dupuis, Fleury and Talbot already in the organization before his arrival. They have taken the 23-year-old defenseman under their wing to help him get acclimated, with Fleury even housing Letang for a pair of training camps while he looked for a place of his own.

“I was not that comfortable at the beginning with the language,” Letang said. “I was just really quiet, scared to talk. But coming in, I think Pascal, ‘Flower,’ Max, helped me a lot to get into it. They talked to me, gave me some tips.”

“You try to get the youngest French guy,” Talbot said. “I remember during camp, you take guys like Simon Despres out for supper. He speaks English, but you try to show him around. It’s not so much being French-Canadian. You try to do that with all of the rookies and young guys. You show them around. But especially sometimes when you speak French, it might be even more helpful.”

But they all admit that while it’s nice to have a group of French-Canadians in the Penguins organization, in the end, it doesn’t matter much with the closeness of this Pittsburgh squad.

“I think it’s nice, but I think in Pittsburgh we’ve always had teams that are very close to each other,” Fleury said. “It didn’t matter if you were French, Russian, English. I think everybody just gets along good and we have such a great chemistry, so that it makes it easier. You just come to the rink and it just feels good. It’s all your buddies there. So it’s a big help as a team.”

[SCMom]

Pens play the Habs at home today @ 2pm. Nobody new coming back and no new injuries. Should be a good game...hopefully with a win at the end.


Max has a tiger named after him at the Pittsburgh Zoo.

[YOUTUBE]oc6DHtPVs_Q[/YOUTUBE]

This is a www.PittsburghPenguins.com exclusive!!! The Pittsburgh Zoo named a tiger after Maxime Talbot. After Friday's practice Talbot went to the zoo to meet "Max," and while he was there he also met the penguin named "Fleury." (Story and video coming later). Read all about Max & Max's here.


Max and Max - look at the gleam in his eye


Max feeding Max. Tigers hate pepper. They love cinnamon.


Max meets "Fleury."


"That's my boy," Talbot said.

Trying so hard to resist using any "tiger blood" jokes. Sigh...

But we can't resist "The Hangover" jokes. After Max met with his namesake, he went to make nice with the young cub's mother. After Max fed her, she got sleepy and laid down to rest.

Which is when Max suggested we sing the ballad made famous by Stu Price (played by Ed Helms) which begins with the line, "What do tigers dream of, when they take a little tiger snooze?"



http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=555706&navid=DL|PIT|home

[SCMom]

Well, Pens got whooped by the Habs 3-0 this afternoon...and the Flyers lost, but in OT. Blech. On to the Oilers tomorrow night.

[4xSBChamps]

Originally Posted by SCMom

Well, Pens got whooped by the Habs 3-0 this afternoon...and the Flyers lost, but in OT. Blech. On to the Oilers tomorrow night.

Lightning lost in OT to Florida, so the Guins are still in the 4th-seed (I believe?) at this time