Penguins Nation

With great power comes great responsibility. Everyone's favorite Webhead learned this lesson the hard way. When you're among the most talented and highly paid players in the NHL, cold streaks are no longer a luxury. You're expected to have an impact on the outcome of games, especially during the postseason, when the contests are more important and pressure is high. Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby both have power. Neither can sling webs from their wrists, but their All-World talent gives way to a lot of responsibility. If they don't score and produce, the Pittsburgh Penguins are a decidedly average hockey team. James Neal ...

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in prime position to return to the Eastern Conference Semifinal Monday night in Columbus as they look to knock off the pesky Blue Jackets. After failing to secure a 3-1 series lead thanks to another comeback by the Jackets, the Pens took the lead Saturday night after a solid effort by each of the club's members.  The Penguins had their ups and downs throughout the series, but they rallied and now look to roll on to the second round with a win. Before Monday night’s matchup between the Metropolitan division rivals, I wanted to take a look at each ...

With both the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins in a tight race in their respective playoff series, the chance of them meeting in the second round is an exciting notion for fans across the league. The two Pennsylvania clubs have one of the bitterest rivalries not only in hockey, but also in all of sports. The Flyers currently have the upper hand when it comes to the playoffs, winning four of the past six postseason meetings. The Pens, however, have one more Stanley Cup than their Metropolitan division rivals, with their most recent championship coming in 2009. Both teams feature superb talent in ...

After the game, he was lamenting the fact he didn’t get what looked like an easy empty-net goal with a little less than two minutes left in regulation, but Sidney Crosby didn’t need to score to help the Pittsburgh Penguins put the Columbus Blue Jackets on the brink of elimination in their opening-round series of the NHL playoffs with a 3-1 victory. The Penguins captain paced his team to its most well-rounded performance of the postseason Saturday night and gave Pittsburgh a chance to wrap it up Monday in Columbus, Ohio, in Game 6 and move onto the second round against ...

Coming into their series against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Pittsburgh Penguins knew that special teams were going to be important. Names like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin might jump off the page more than Ryan Johansen and Jack Johnson, but the Blue Jackets were just as good as the Penguins during five-on-five play throughout the regular season. Pittsburgh's five-on-five goals for/against ratio was at 1.05 at the end of the campaign, while Columbus was sitting at 1.06, a microscopic difference that suggested the gap between the Penguins and Blue Jackets might not be all that large—at least during even-strength play. It ...

Though the Pittsburgh Penguins are tied at two games apiece with the Columbus Blue Jackets, they have shown that they are not playing like the powerhouse club everyone has come to know. After an atrocious finish to Game 4 that allowed the Jackets to tie the series, the Pens are in dire need of three men to pick up their game. Captain Sidney Crosby, defenseman Kris Letang and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury are part of the core that general manager Ray Shero has built this club around. It is crucial they start performing better, especially against a young club like the Blue ...

Game 4 was the embodiment of everything that could possibly go wrong in a playoff series for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Watching the contest was like witnessing a one-by-one rollout of everything that has cost this team a shot at the Stanley Cup since 2009. Every issue and problem was there on display at one point or another, despite the Penguins leading 3-0 at one point in the game. If Game 2 was a stutter step, then Game 4 was Pittsburgh hitting the mat. That's a tough loss for any team to take, much less one that has had issues bouncing back from letdowns ...

Just like last season, the Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves in a 2-2 series against an opponent with inferior talent but a superior work ethic. Having gone 31-3-2 during the 2103-14 regular season when leading after two periods, the Pens have managed to fumble away two-goal leads and are now in a best-of-three playoff—the outcome of which may have a major impact on what next year's team will look like. As the series shifts back to Pittsburgh for a crucial Game 5, let's take a look at what the first four games have taught us about the Penguins.Begin Slideshow

Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, a Matt Cooke suspension and a costly Marc-Andre Fleury mistake in the playoffs. The Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender is proving once again to be unpredictable and inconsistent. He's a coach's and fan's nightmare. Fleury was basically a nonfactor through the first three games against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the opening round of these NHL playoffs—which in his world is a good thing. He wasn’t by any means spectacular with an .899 save percentage and 2.99 goals-against average after a pair of 4-3 victories and a 4-3 loss. Through almost 60 minutes in Game 4 on Wednesday ...

There's a notion floating around that the Pittsburgh Penguins are lucky to have a 2-1 series lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Maybe that's because it's so fun to root for the underdogs. Maybe it's because non-Penguins fans always dig for reasons to pile onto Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury. Regardless of the reason, that's the storyline right now. That the Penguins should be thankful for their 2-1 series lead. In the eyes of many, Fleury was in the midst of another collapse in Game 3. The power play was visibly struggling to produce chances, and the only saving grace was ...