Penguins Nation

Having shot to the top of their division, the Pittsburgh Penguins have benefited from the hot starts of some players and have been able to overcome the slow starts of others. While players, just as teams, have their ups and downs over the course of a season, it's important to see who's leading the way and who's been struggling to keep up, especially on teams that have championship aspirations, such as the Penguins. With the NHL season already more than a month old, let's take a look at who is overachieving and underachieving for the Pens so far.Begin Slideshow

When the Pittsburgh Penguins meet the New York Rangers for the first time this season at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, Pittsburgh general manager Jim Rutherford and coach Mike Johnston might want to pass along a thank you card to their opponents. If the Rangers hadn't mounted their monster comeback to knock off the Penguins in the second round of last spring's NHL playoffs, incumbents Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma would probably have kept their jobs, while Rutherford and Johnston would be toiling elsewhere. Instead, the two are an early-season NHL success story. Player personnel tweaks by Rutherford and a stronger ...

On Thursday night, shootout goals from Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby sealed the Pittsburgh Penguins' sixth-consecutive win as they beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3. The idea of the mighty Penguins beating typically hapless Winnipeg doesn't seem especially outlandish, but the streaking Jets were undefeated in six games going into Thursday's matchup. They also dished out a punishing physical game on a Penguins team that's better known for dazzle than it is for getting down and dirty. As Pittsburgh continues to win games away from the friendly confines of Consol Energy Center, fans are starting to see that this year's team is armed with ...

With an impressive record of 8-2-1 so far in the 2014-15 regular season, the Pittsburgh Penguins are once again in first place in the Metropolitan Division and near the top of seemingly every power rankings list. However, there are always areas of concern that must be addressed. As the Pens continue to adapt to head coach Mike Johnston's system, it will be important to ensure that uncorrected flaws early in the season don't lead to failures in the postseason.  As the Pens continue their march through the busiest month of the season—with 16 games in the 30 days of November—let's take a look ...

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Let's start the insanity. On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced a four-year, $23 million contract extension for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, a deal that has a salary-cap hit of $5.75 million through the 2018-19 season. Fleury is 29 years old and will be 34 years old when the new contract expires. You may notice that beautiful infographic is lacking a category for "save percentage," in either the regular season or postseason, so allow me to fill in those blanks for you so as to better illustrate the insanity of the ...

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Marc-Andre Fleury reached an agreement on a $23 million contract extension Wednesday that will keep the goaltender with the team through the 2018-19 NHL season.   General manager Jim Rutherford confirmed the new deal through the team's official site. He also explained why the Penguins remain committed to the first overall selection of the 2003 NHL draft."I believe in Marc-Andre Fleury, as the team does," Rutherford said. "He's won before and he will win again. We're very pleased to have him signed long term."Fleury is the leader of many key goaltending categories in team history. The new contract ...

One step at a time. The Stanley Cup is still a long way away. The Pittsburgh Penguins enjoyed excellent results through a relatively easy first month of the 2014-15 NHL season. The team looks prepared to face its next round of challenges as its five-game road trip kicks off this week. After an uncertain preseason, which saw superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin largely absent from the ice as new coach Mike Johnston took the reins, the Penguins are thriving. Playing seven of their first 10 games at home, they built a record of 7-2-1 and shut out opponents in three of four ...

After making big changes during the offseason, the Pittsburgh Penguins are aiming to get back into the Stanley Cup conversation in 2014-15. They took a solid step in that direction on Thursday night with a 3-0 shutout win over the defending champion Los Angeles Kings. Last year, the Penguins were a good team whose postseason ended with a whimper after surrendering a 3-1 second-round series lead to the New York Rangers. Coaching, scoring, goaltending and those mysterious intangibles were all called into question as possible reasons for the team's failure to advance, but answers remained murky. As Michael Traikos of the National ...

Once again, the Pittsburgh Penguins are facing the prospect of a hole in their blue line due to a serious medical issue involving one of their most important players. On Monday, the Penguins announced that they'll be without sophomore Olli Maatta for about four weeks after he undergoes surgery next week to remove a tumor from his neck. Wes Crosby of NHL.com reports that the tumor "has an 85-percent chance of being a low-grade thyroid cancer," according to team doctor Dharmesh Vyas. Just back from offseason shoulder surgery to repair a labral tear, Maatta has spent the early part of the 2014-15 season ...

With a new general manager, coaching staff, system and players, the Pittsburgh Penguins entered the 2014-15 season as anything but business as usual. Having been the popular pick to win the Eastern Conference and advance to the Stanley Cup in recent years, the Pens seem to have fallen out of favor with a lot of analysts, prognosticators and even some of their own fans. However, a strong start to the season and standout performances by both veterans like Sidney Crosby and newcomers such as Patric Hornqvist have put the Pens back in the conversation of the elite teams in the NHL. Although the NHL ...