Penguins Nation

With less than a month remaining before the start of training camp, the Pittsburgh Penguins will hope to put a tumultuous offseason behind them and look forward to defending their Metropolitan Division title as well as chasing the Stanley Cup. While the Pens were the class of their division last season and set a franchise record by reaching 40 wins in 57 games, success doesn't carry over from one season to the next. The Penguins will have to prove that they are still the front-runners. With that in mind, let's take a look at how the Pens match up with the rest of the Metropolitan ...

You'll be hard pressed to find a line that's been rolled out more consistently than Sidney Crosby between Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis over the last few years. Kunitz has been a top-six fixture since the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired him in 2009, while Dupuis played his way onto the top line after being considered a throw-in in the Marian Hossa deal in 2008. When the Penguins made a splash and acquired Jarome Iginla at the trade deadline in 2013, it was Dupuis' speed and two-way acumen that forced the 12-time 30-goal scorer onto the second line to play with Evgeni Malkin. This ...

The Pittsburgh Penguins come into the 2014-15 season boasting some very promising talent within their organization.  The club is well-known around the league for having one of the top defensive crops in a long time. Brian Dumoulin, Derrick Pouliot and Simon Despres highlight this group of blueliners. On offense, the talent doesn’t run very deep, but a few forwards have a lot of upside, such as 2014 draft pick Kasperi Kapanen. However, there are five prospects who aren't as popular within the organization as the aforementioned guys. The players listed here are the dark horses who are looking to take advantage of the ...

Patric Hornqvist scored 22 goals for the Nashville Predators last season, good for 73rd in the NHL and placing him in the company of players like Brent Burns, Alexander Semin and Matt Read. It's a classic case of "one of these things is not like the others," though, as it's highly unlikely that Burns, Semin or Read will jump into the NHL's top 20 goal scorers in 2014-15. Hornqvist, on the other hand, is poised to do just that. The 5'11", 189-pound forward has scored at least 20 goals in each of his four full campaigns—he only scored two goals in ...

We haven't seen exactly what new Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Johnston has in store for the team, but we can reasonably assume his style won't dramatically shift in just one summer as he transitions from the WHL to the NHL. As the bench boss of the Portland Winterhawks, Johnston deployed a scheme that required defensemen to be able to skate well and make accurate first passes out of the zone. Moreover, his offensive system discourages dumping out of the defensive zone and calls for forwards to pitch the puck back to the blue line once the opposition has collapsed to protect ...

We haven't seen exactly what new Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Johnston has in store for the team, but we can reasonably assume his style won't dramatically shift in just one summer as he transitions from the WHL to the NHL. As the bench boss of the Portland Winterhawks, Johnston deployed a scheme that required defensemen to be able to skate well and make accurate first passes out of the zone. Moreover, his offensive system discourages dumping out of the defensive zone and calls for forwards to pitch the puck back to the blue line once the opposition has collapsed to protect ...

The 2014-15 NHL season is inching closer and closer each day, which means the first minutes of ice time draws nearer for the Pittsburgh Penguins’ prospects. The Pens have a deep array of youthful talent on the blue line and in the crease. Brian Dumoulin, Simon Despres and Derrick Pouliot highlight the young defensive core, while Tristan Jarry and Matt Murray are looking forward to one day backing the club to its next Stanley Cup in net. On the offensive front, however, prospects seem to run thin. Jayson Megna and 2014 draft pick Kasperi Kapanen seem to be the only guys that ...

Kris Letang had a remarkably tough 2013-14 season. Instead of pushing for an Olympic roster spot with Canada and challenging for the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 27-year-old spent a majority of the campaign dealing with serious injuries and ailments. He was forced to miss almost the entire opening month of the season, appearing in his first contest on October 25 against the New York Islanders. By that point the Penguins were already nine games into the campaign, and most of the team's players were already locked into their regular routines. The NHL season is a long one, but Letang ...

With the first game of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ regular season in a little less than nine weeks, questions surrounding the opening day lineup have already begun to spark. It’s not hard to understand that certain positions are a lock, such as Evgeni Malkin at center on the second line or Christian Ehrhoff’s slot on the first defensive unit. Others, however, will be. In this article, we will go over the three areas on the ice that have people guessing as to who will play where. Since we are only in the middle of August, it seems these questions won’t truly be answered ...

It's been a summer of change for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but new general manager Jim Rutherford doesn't appear to be done shopping just yet. That's not too surprising, as Rutherford seems to view the Penguins roster as a work in progress. After trading James Neal and signing free agent defenseman Christian Ehrhoff (among others), Pittsburgh reportedly has its eyes on one of the more popular remaining free agents available in Paul Bissonnette, according to Craig Morgan of Fox Sports Arizona (h/t Pen's Labyrinth). If Bissonnette does sign in Pittsburgh, it will be a full-circle deal for both player and team. It was the Penguins ...