Pens Claim Boychuk Off Waivers

Welcome to the team!

The Pittsburgh Penguins made a surprising move this morning, claiming forward Zach Boychuk off of waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes.

Boychuk led the Hurricanes’ AHL team, the Charlotte Checkers, in scoring with 32 points in 37 games. He played one NHL game with the Canes this season. He was drafted in 2008, 14th overall.

Fun fact: This move reunites Zach with Brandon Sutter. The two were roomies in Carolina and Boychuk even switched to number 16 after Sutter left because he would miss him that much. All together now: AWWWWWW.

Boychuk won’t play tonight against the New York Rangers, and there’s no idea when he’ll make his debut. But I can’t wait to see him!

Crosby Misses The Canadian Cold

Keep warm, Sid (source: Flickr/ztil301)

No, seriously.

Instead of taking a car or bus down to the MTS Centre for practice this morning, Sidney Crosby decided that he wanted to walk down to the arena so that he could experience the real Canadian cold again. It’s about a 4 block walk from the hotel to the arena.

To make this story even more Canadian, our captain even stopped at Tim Horton’s, according to TSN’s Gord Miller on Twitter.

Imagine being the person behind the counter when Sidney Crosby comes in to order a coffee. Awesome.

The Pens play the Jets tonight at 7:30PM. Let’s Go Pens!

Leafs Topple Penguins 5-2

Hopefully the first of many this season!

Can someone bring back the Pens from the weekend games?

The Pittsburgh Penguins dropped their home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs scored 5 times to the Penguins 2.

The good of the game were definitely the two goals. The first one came from reigning MVP Evgeni Malkin. The second came from Sidney Crosby. Both were the first goals of the season for the players.

However, it all unraveled after that. James van Riemsdyk,  a former Flyer, scored two goals. The other 3 game from Clark MacArthur, Mikhail Grabovski, and Tyler Bozak. Toronto goalie James Reimer, getting his first start in net of the season, was shaky at times but managed to keep the Pens away.

Who knows what happened here. Hopefully, the Pens can regroup and get back on the winning side of things when they play the Jets in Winnipeg on Friday.

Penguins Over Broadway

The Pittsburgh Penguins wrapped up their opening weekend with a 6-3 win over the New York Rangers on Sunday.

James “The Real Deal” Neal scored twice, Sidney Crosby tallied his first point of the season, and Tomas Vokoun earned his first win in a Penguins uniform in Madison Square Garden.

After scoring 4 goals in 2 periods, the Rangers pulled goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who also started for the Rangers yesterday.

The Penguins also had their first fight of the season, as Tanner Glass dropped the gloves with former Penguin Arron Asham.

It was a great game for the Pens. Here’s hope they can keep it up for the home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. Let’s Go Pens!

Flower Power

The win against the Flyers’ on Saturday was a big one for goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

With the 3-1 win, Fleury beat Tom Barrasso to become the Penguins’ franchise leader in all time goalie wins. Today’s win was win number 227.

It must have been nice for Fleury to get the win in Philadelphia. After all, this was the team that made him look awful during the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs this past season. It was nice to see him get his confidence back.

Tyler Kennedy got the first goal for the Penguins this season, assisted by Paul Martin, on the power play. Yes, you read that correctly.

James Neal scored goal number 2, assisted by his linemate Evgeni Malkin.

Newly minted captain of the Flyers Claude Giroux scored the lone goal for the Flyers, cutting the Pens lead in half, but Chris Kunitz scored an empty netter to seal the victory for the Penguins.

The Pens don’t have much time to rest. They play the New York Rangers, who lost 3-1 to the Bruins, on Sunday. It’s definitely going to be an intense one, since the Rangers will want to win.

Puck drops at 7:00PM. Let’s go Pens!

Pens Hold Intrasquad Scrimmage

It’s been too long since we’ve seen this in the Consol!

As a treat for the fans, tonight the Pens held an intrasquad scrimmage at the Consol Energy Center for free of charge. They came out in droves, filling up the 18,000 seat arena for the black versus white game.

Team White was highlighted by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, Kris Letang, Tomas Vokun, and Beau Bennett. Bennett, as we all know, is trying to earn a permanent position on the Penguins’ team as a winger for either Crosby or Malkin. Team Black was highlighted by Matt Cooke, Tyler Kennedy, Brandon Sutter, Deryk Engelland, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Craig Adams.

Things that were definitely worth noting:

– Matt Cooke scored two goals, both of them set up by Brandon Sutter, his new linemate. The second goal came on a short-handed attempt.

– Beau Bennett really impressed with his first goal. He dangled the puck before beating Marc-Andre Fleury for the goal.

– Jayson Megna scored in the shootout with this gorgeous attempt here

– The official 3 stars of the game? 3rd star- Evgeni Malkin. 2nd star- Brandon Sutter. 1st star- The Fans. Awww.

It was a great way to say thank you to the fans for waiting for so long to finally see our team play in the Consol. Thanks, Penguins!

Penguins Schedule Released

Who’s excited for this!?

Start ruining your social life. IT’S TIME.

The new official schedule has been released for the Penguins. They will open the season at the Wells Fargo Center, playing those lovely Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, January 19th at 3:00PM. Their first home game will be on January 23rd, against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The first 8 of their 12 games will be on the road.

Other highlights?

– Reigning Eastern Conference champs New Jersey Devils will play the first of two games at the Consol on February 2nd.

– The Flyers make their first visit to Pittsburgh on February 20th

– Jordan Staal returns to the Consol as a Hurricane on the last day of the regular season, April 27th

To see the full schedule, go here. Individual tickets go on sale Tuesday at 10:00AM

Report: Pens To Open Season Against Flyers

This is probably tame compared to what will come

Get your alcohol of choice ready!

According to reports on Twitter, the Pens will open the season in Philadelphia against the Flyers on January 19th at 1:00PM.

As everyone remembers, our quest to the Cup ended in Philadelphia last season, and there was a lot of ugliness between the two teams. More so than usual.

During the off-season, Giroux accused Crosby of slashing his wrists during faceoffs. When asked about it, Sid said he didn’t realize he did and that if he did, he didn’t care. Oh boy.

Stay tuned for more schedule updates as they come in!

So Who Are The Pittsburgh Penguins?

SIGH (source: Flickr/ztil301)

Let’s be real here. I bet a lot of us have actually forgotten who the Pens acquired over the off season. There were some massive trades, and some not so big signings, but the team we saw last season is not the team we will see this year. What’s changed? Let’s check it out!

We’re Back!

Oh yeaaaaaaah

It’s finally here! The NHL and the NHLPA have finally reached an agreement, and we will get a season! A shortened season, but a season none the less.

This means we finally get to see Crosby play regular games for us. Everyone who has seen him has said he is in his prime right now, so it’s going to be exciting to get to witness this almost every night. We get to see Malkin, who has been beasting it up in Russia. The reigning MVP is ready to go, and we can’t wait to see the Neal-Malkin-Kunitz line reunited.

We’ll get to see our new players in action. Tanner Glass, Brandon Sutter, and Tomas Vokoun have yet to play a game in a Pens sweater, and it’s going to be awesome to see some new blood in there.

The new schedule has yet to be released, but we’ll get it up here as soon as it is. Just remember guys. NHL hockey is back!