Pittsburgh Penguins
November 24, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Getting ready for faceoff …
Game: Penguins (13-4-2) vs. Boston Bruins (13-9), 7:08 p.m., TD Garden, Boston
Goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (11-3-1, 2.10) vs. Tuukka Rask (10-6, 2.36)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
November 22, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Getting ready for faceoff …
Game: Penguins (13-3-2) vs. New York Islanders (13-6), 7:08 p.m., Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, N.Y.
Goaltenders: Thomas Greiss (2-0-1, 1.96) vs. Jaroslav Halak (8-4, 2.54)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
November 21, 2014
Kyle Okposo goes hard forehand to beat Marc-Andre Fleury for the winning shootout goal. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Apologies in advance, but this deserves all kinds of disclaimers before the first significant sentence:
• The Penguins’ 5-4 shootout loss to the Islanders on Saturday night was one game of 82. It was no big deal from the season scope nor even this singular outcome. It came down to the final, decisive strike by New York’s Kyle Okposo. Could have been anyone. Could have gone either way.
• The Islanders are as skilled, as creative offensively as any team in the NHL. If you don’t think so, power up that DVR and take a harder look. They’re legit.
• Mike Johnston has been nothing less than a godsend.
And I can’t stress that last one emphatically enough. Jim Rutherford couldn’t have fared any better in finding the right man with the right plan for this group.
November 21, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Getting ready for faceoff …
Game: Penguins (13-3-1) vs. New York Islanders (12-6), 7:08 p.m., Consol Energy Center
Goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (11-3, 1.98) vs. Chad Johnson (4-2, 3.27)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
November 21, 2014
Russell Martin met the Toronto media Thursday in his introductory news conference. — CTV PHOTO
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
A weekly feature rounding up a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our city’s teams …
• There are countless reasons why teams don’t divulge information about contract offers to players who reject them. And for every one of those, there’s a counter-reason why agents won’t want that out, either.
In the team’s case, above all, it can set a poor precedent. Divulge one offer, and it sets the bar for divulging pretty much everything down the road. It also can foster distrust among players or agents for future dealings. And it can unnecessarily create tension inside the locker room among other players who soon will have their hands out.
All of this, and so much more, is why the Pirates are anything but eager to divulge details of their now-well-short bid to keep Russell Martin in Pittsburgh.
November 19, 2014
Pascal Dupuis had returned to the Penguins from major knee surgery for this season. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Pascal Dupuis has been diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung, the Penguins just announced at a press conference at Consol Energy Center. He will miss at least six months while undergoing treatment with blood thinners.
The clot was detected Monday through testing after Dupuis had complained of chest pain. Dr. Dharmesh Vyas, the team physician, said the clot traveled from the leg to the lung and was the second known such incident for Dupuis. The other, not previously made public, happened in January of this year while Dupuis was recovering from major knee surgery.
Dr. Vyas called it ‘extremely important’ that it was found when it was and would not speculate as to whether or not this was career-threatening.
“Hockey’s definitely second in my mind right now,” Dupuis said. “I’m thinking about my family.”
Dupuis and his wife, Carole-Lyne, have four children.
Views: Godspeed to one of the best men I know.
November 18, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Getting ready for faceoff …
Game: Penguins (12-3-1) vs. Montreal Canadiens (14-4-1), 7:38 p.m., Bell Centre, Montreal
Goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (10-3, 2.13) vs. Carey Price (11-3-1, 2.49)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
November 18, 2014
The corner opposite the Predators’ arena, Broadway businesses and AT&T skyscraper. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Welcome to the Music City edition of Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 2 p.m. and offers you a chance to dictate the discussion.
The format is simple: Use the comments section below to submit an entry. No more than one per person, please. Submit early if you prefer, and I’ll pick from that batch to get rolling, then monitor new entries once we go live. All topics welcome, as always.
UPDATE 2 p.m.: Away we go …
zidanesdagger: DK, assuming the Steelers do the right thing and kick LeGarrette Blount to the curb after his shameful quit-job last night, are they REALLY going to go with only Dri Archer and Le’Veon Bell for the rest of the season? Any potential targets they could sign?
DK: The fact that it’s now early afternoon and nothing has happened leads me to believe nothing will. These things tend to go pretty quickly. If Mike Tomlin was going to cut him over this, it shouldn’t have involved much deliberation.
November 16, 2014
The Penguins mob Marc-Andre Fleury after his save ended — for real — Saturday’s shootout. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
The ending to the Penguins’ 3-2 shootout victory over the Rangers on Saturday night came amid such mayhem it might be best summarized by noting that the second word of this sentence actually should be pluralized.
Endings.
Because there were two: The Penguins lost, and then they won.
And unlike Dewey defeating Truman, this wasn’t a matter of faulty reporting but a matter of fact. At least for a minute or so.
“Crazy. So crazy,” Evgeni Malkin would describe the scene later. “We were all in locker room, and they tell us, ‘Go back! Go back!’ “
That crazy.
If you were inside Consol Energy Center, you still might not have believed what you witnessed. And not just because there’s an excellent chance you left before the contest was legitimately decided, fairly thinking that it already had been because, oh, you know, the winning shootout goal was pushed behind Marc-Andre Fleury by New York’s Dan Boyle, the final score was lit up on the big board, the final horn blew not once but twice, both benches emptied, Henrik Lundqvist was high-fiving all his fellow Rangers as they filed off, all three stars had been announced and, in what really should have sealed the deal, Dan Potash had set down his microphone because there would be no happy postgame interview with a home-team player.
November 15, 2014
Derrick Colter shoots over Bluefield State’s Avery Holliday on Saturday. — DAVE DeNOMA / DUQUESNE ATHLETICS
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
No sooner had the basketball been launched from Derrick Colter’s fingertips than he was hacked by Bluefield State’s Avery Holliday. Hard enough that Duquesne’s gifted junior guard fell back onto the A.J. Palumbo Center court and was wholly horizontal by the time that ball touched twine.
Even with the rest of his body prone, Colter’s arms shot up, raised in triumph.
Did he see the 3-pointer?
“Just kind of felt it,” he’d confess to me later with an aw-shucks grin. “All I saw was ceiling.”
Quite the raise-the-roof moment, if you will.
And no, not because played an infinitesimal part in the Dukes pounding a badly overmatched opponent, 91-51, in the university’s 99th season opener Saturday.
Not because it would be one of a career-high seven 3-pointers, one shy of the school record.
Not because he’d spike up to a career-high 26 points after averaging 9.3 last season.
Not even because the game of his life was occurring on this extraordinary young man’s official return from a five-month battle with cancer — non-Hodgkin lymphoma — that involved 20 consecutive days of radiation treatment.
“It was the shot. That’s it,” Colter said. “When I put up a shot, I want it to fall. So when it went down after I got knocked down, yeah, I enjoyed it a little.”
Believe it.
