Pittsburgh Penguins
November 8, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Getting ready for faceoff …
Game: Penguins (9-2-1) vs. Buffalo Sabres (3-10-2), 7:08 p.m., First Niagara Center, Buffalo
Goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (8-2, 1.99) vs. Jhonas Enroth (1-6-1, 3.34)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X
Online: Live box score / Multimedia / Official game notes
November 7, 2014
Kris Letang waits his turn for a practice drill Wednesday at MTS Centre. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — A weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of randomness from a whole lot of time around our city’s teams …
• So much of the early chatter about these still-too-early-to-call Penguins has been about buy-in. As in, are the players — specifically Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — buying in to Mike Johnston’s approach and strategy?
I aimed to get to the bottom of this on this trip, especially since I’d expressed doubts of my own. And sometimes, the best way to do that is to turn off the recorder and just have a few conversations. So you aren’t going to read direct quotes here, as much as a summation of sentiments. If that isn’t good enough, hey, feel free to check all the happy talk that gets spoken in front of cameras and microphones and do your own deciphering.
They are buying in, but slowly and conditionally and with different concerns.
November 7, 2014
Rick Tocchet and Mike Johnston argue the referees’ call on a hit by Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien. — GETTY IMAGES
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — There’s something about the hockey soul that savors, that celebrates what the men inside the sport simply call “a good hockey game.”
When they cite the phrase, they do it with spirit.
They do it with respect.
They do it with … I guess you could call it reverence.
Who won and who lost, in the most genuine way imaginable, becomes secondary.
“That game had its own unique personality,” Paul Maurice, the Jets’ coach, was saying late Thursday night at MTS Centre. “Skating, speed, scoring, goaltending, heavy hits, lots of chirping on the benches … it was a good battle … fun to be a part of.”
He then slightly smiled.
“I just liked that game.”
And this was the guy whose team lost, 4-3 by shootout, to the Penguins.
“That was one well-played hockey game,” Mike Johnston was saying in a near-echo down the hall. “If you look at it from an entertainment point of view, it had everything. It had physical play, it had speed, it had scoring chances, it had big saves, it had special teams with both teams doing well on the penalty-kill. … I give Winnipeg a lot of credit. They came at us.”
And this was the guy whose team won preferring to talk about the competition as a whole.
November 5, 2014
Photo-illustration of Marc-Andre Fleury — ALEX MESSMER
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — I’d never seen Marc-Andre Fleury so furious.
No, not Wednesday, of course. If anything, he was the same impish Flower we’ve known forever upon the Penguins signing their franchise goaltender to a four-year, $23 million extension minutes before taking the ice at MTS Centre for practice. He was poking teammates playfully as they’d pass through his crease, shouting jokes the length of the rink, the whole deal.
And why not?
In addition to all that bonus wealth, he also had peace of mind. No longer is there a chance he’ll leave through free agency at the end of his current contract that expires next summer. No longer is there a chance that he’ll pull on any sweater than the only one he’s known in the NHL. And maybe most important, no longer is there any doubt that the men who are his teammates as well as those running the operation — all the way up to Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle — believe in him.
Now, he knows.
“It’s a good feeling,” Fleury said after that practice, surrounded by cameras and microphones at his stall. “I’ve been with this team so long, known some of these players so long … it feels like home.”
November 5, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Penguins’ plane touched down here just a few minutes ago, and the team didn’t take long from there to announce it has signed Marc-Andre Fleury to a four-year, $23 million extension that kicks in next season. Here’s the official release.
Views: The Penguins have one of the NHL’s most accomplished goaltenders, and it was my stance during the most recent playoffs that he and goaltending coach Mike Bales chased away a lot of demons during that run. This is a smart move, and it comes at a cost that isn’t cap-prohibitive.
I’ll have much more on this, including Fleury’s reaction, in the column coming after the Penguins practice this afternoon at MTS Centre. They’re scheduled to take the ice at 4 p.m. Pittsburgh time.
UPDATE 4:35 p.m.: Video of Fleury’s media session just now, coming off the ice:
I’ll repeat that there will be a full column on this. But I need to leave the arena, which is closing for the day, and find somewhere else to write. Soon.
November 5, 2014
Nick Spaling, center, is congratulated on his first-period goal Tuesday night in St. Paul, Minn. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Penguins wrapped up their Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center barraged by pucks and, in a totally you-had-to-be-here-to-believe-it scene, a comparable barrage of debris from the typically docile Minnesota fans as the visitors mobbed Thomas Greiss’ crease to celebrate their 4-1 flattening of the Wild.
Ugly all around, right?
“Nah, not at all,” Thomas Greiss was saying after peeling off his pads from a sound 33-save performance. “We won the game, and it was no goal.”
Well, yeah. Count those as two more quality rejections, then.
Here are some more: Nick Spaling and Brandon Sutter scored always-welcome third-line goals in the opening 23 minutes, the power play struck yet again on the sweetest of setups from Evgeni Malkin to Chris Kunitz, and the Penguins at one stage had a mind-blowing streak of 18 unanswered goals as well as a 3-0 lead on the NHL’s stingiest outfit.
November 4, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 1 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 it 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 1:13 p.m.: Sorry, a bit late. Fairly eventful morning of travel. But all ready to go now …
Dom: Cam Thomas played more than half the snaps on Sunday. Yet, he seems to have done little to warrant such major playing time. Why do the Steelers feel it is better to go with Thomas as opposed to Stephon Tuitt or Daniel McCullers?
DK: Because they’re stubborn like that, Dom. No other way to put it. No other explanation. Doesn’t take much at all to see Tuitt was a beast out there and made a significant difference, just as it doesn’t take much to see Thomas almost never does.
October 31, 2014
William Gay, sporting purple cleats, carries home a pick-6 Sunday against the Colts. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
A weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time around our local teams …
• Willie Gay is wearing purple cleats — yes, even against the Ravens — and he doesn’t care if the NFL fines him for it. He almost sounds as if he’d welcome it.
“They can fine me, and I’ll pay it. Happily,” the Steelers’ corner was telling me this week on the South Side. “It’s for a good cause and a cause that people should be know about. It can’t be a secret anymore. Been a secret too long.”
The cause is domestic violence awareness, a hotter button than ever in the NFL, and no one is better equipped than Gay, for tragic reasons, to discuss it. When he was 7, his mother, Carolyn Hall, was shot and killed by his stepfather after an extended period of abuse. The stepfather then killed himself, and Gay and his two brothers were left without parents.
October 30, 2014
Sidney Crosby stays on the puck after being hauled down by the Kings’ Jarret Stoll. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Sidney Crosby had a choice.
He could have spun away from the check, slipped back along the boards, whirled and twirled and dazzled and deked, as he did to no avail all through the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring. Or he could simply have lowered his shoulder and plowed his own path through to the low slot.
He chose the latter, and Chris Kunitz roofed his rebound.
Kris Letang dangled along the right edge of the power play. He could have tried to dispy-doodle through a defender. Or he could have darted hard to the inside and forced the puck to the net.
He chose the latter, and he was credited with the goal when his flick ricocheted off a defenseman.
Ugly?
Heck, no: Penguins 3, Best Hockey Team In The World 0
“They’re the champions,” Evgeni Malkin was saying late Thursday night of the Kings, formally crowned as such two of the past three years. “It’s great to play against them.”
No doubt. Better yet to beat them, no doubt. Even with Anze Kopitar, Marian Gaborik, Slava Voynov and Jonathan Quick out, Darryl Sutter’s roster is still the biggest, baddest around.
October 28, 2014
Sidney Crosby celebrates his first of two goals, a redirect set up by Simon Despres. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Hockey can be an elegant, graceful game at its most elite level. The world’s greatest athletes glide at warp speed, their skill, their strength and thought processes operating somehow even faster, with little more separating the sides than a split-second swing of the stick.
It can be beautiful.
Or it can be whatever one would call that horrific contortion Peter DeBoer’s face made behind the Devils’ bench after watching Craig Adams carve up the ice to score effortlessly on a breakaway.
Bitter DeBoer face?
Yeah, sorry.
“It’s humbling,” the coach said. Meaning the whole thing, not just Adams’ one-eighth of the output. “All the goals we gave up, it’s unfortunate.”
So with all due acknowledgement for Sidney Crosby’s two goals and the wonderful, warm ovation for Olli Maatta with his fitting introduction among the starters, let’s be honest: The footage of the Penguins’ 8-3 annihilation of New Jersey on Tuesday at Consol Energy Center isn’t about to be sent to the Hockey Hall’s archives in Toronto. Unless, of course, the curators create a special wing for broken plays, badly beaten goaltenders and … did I mention Adams scoring on a breakaway?
Oh, for real.
But here’s what else is for real, and it might never have been better evident: Simon Despres.
