Pittsburgh Penguins
November 29, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Getting ready for faceoff …
Game: Penguins (15-5-2) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (7-12-3), 7:08 p.m., PNC Arena, Raleigh, N.C.
Goaltenders: Thomas Greiss (2-1-1, 2.46) vs. Anton Khudobin (0-4-2, 2.97)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
November 29, 2014
Sidney Crosby pressures the Hurricanes’ Justin Faulk on Friday night at Consol. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Sidney Crosby was still steaming at his stall late Friday night, well after the Penguins’ rather sickly 4-2 loss to the cellar-dwelling Hurricanes, well after somehow keeping his cool through his standard media scrum.
Sure, he was upset with the showing of the team he leads. That was part of it.
“We just didn’t play well,” the captain responded to a question about what Carolina did well. “I mean, they pressured us. They did a lot of the right things. They out-battled us. But we really just didn’t play well.”
Nope. And there isn’t much to dissect there, either, if you ask me. One out of 82. Big whoop. Another crack at the same opponent comes Saturday night in Raleigh, and here’s betting that outcome rolls out in the reverse.
But there is a legit, larger concern in play of late: The Penguins no longer get power plays.
November 28, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Getting ready for faceoff …
Game: Penguins (15-4-2) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6-12-3), 7:08 p.m., Consol Energy Center
Goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (13-3-1, 2.14) vs. Cam Ward (6-8-1, 2.61)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
November 28, 2014
Frank Coonelly has been the Pirates’ president since late in the 2007 season. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
A weekly roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our city’s teams …
• The Pirates “certainly can and I suspect will” top the $90 million mark in payroll in 2015, Frank Coonelly told DKonPittsburghSports.com exclusively Thursday.
And yes, this will represent another significant increase, contrary to widespread misinformation and misrepresentation of the truth.
If you want bluster, click away. If you want facts, here you go …
The Pirates’ 40-man roster payroll for 2014, the one audited and verified by Major League Baseball’s accounting offices, was $82.1 million. While multiple other outlets were howling over payroll being in the low-$70 million range, this site informed you in the Sept. 5 Friday Insider that the actual projected figure for the full year was $82.4 million.
November 27, 2014
Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby congratulate Blake Comeau on his OT goal and hat trick Wednesday. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
It’s one thing for Mike Johnston to pop up this summer, seemingly out of nowhere, and preach that these Penguins needed to change their feathers and get pucks and bodies to the net.
It’s another thing for Patric Hornqvist to pop up, seemingly with a gift-bag of GPS devices in hand, to demonstrate how to actually do that.
It’s yet another thing to see his teammates, seemingly from the very first faceoff, follow suit.
But man, it’s quite another to hear an opposing goaltender sound downright annoyed by it.
I present to you, Jonathan Bernier, the downright annoyed goaltender of the Maple Leafs:
November 26, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Getting ready for faceoff …
Game: Penguins (14-4-2) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (11-8-2), 7:38 p.m., Consol Energy Center
Goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (12-3-1, 2.09) vs. Jonathan Bernier (7-5-2, 2.54)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
November 26, 2014
Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown celebrate a touchdown hookup earlier this season. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Feeling especially and personally thankful on this Thanksgiving eve …
• I’m thankful to cover professional sports in a town blessed by not one not two but three truly elite performers on each team, which I’m guessing is more than most would count into that category.
I’ll go Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell with the Steelers, each of whom can currently claim a legit argument for being the very best at his position in the NFL.
I’ll go Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and, yes, Marc-Andre Fleury with the Penguins. Because anyone who would discount the latter doesn’t fully appreciate what it meant Monday that he became the third-youngest goaltender in NHL history to 300 wins. And get this: Since making his debut Oct. 10, 2003, at the Civic Arena, Fleury has accounted for 69 percent of the Penguins’ 432 victories while sharing the crease with 15 other men.
November 25, 2014
Beau Bennett is checked by the Islanders’ Thomas Hickey on Saturday in Uniondale, N.Y. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Welcome to 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.
Thanks to the new commenting platform, by the way, there’s a very good chance we’ll be able to conduct this chat on a live chat platform as early as next week.
UPDATE 2:01 p.m.: And away we go …
jayjay_667: Snark free honest thoughts of whether Beau Bennett can fill a top-six role by the postseason? (Without tired cliche “fragile” commentary.)
DK: Whoa there, Snark Police! Hang on just a minute here. Let’s be crystal clear on this: Bennett being fragile deserves neither your quotemarks nor your preface that it’s a tired cliche. It’s a fact. A stone-cold fact. He is injured more often than he plays. It’s been going on ever since he turned pro. It’s highly unfortunate, but it’s also very real.
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
December 2, 2014
Tuesday 12 Qs: Jagr, Simon, Stephon, Gaby
by Dejan Kovacevic • Tuesday 10 Qs • Tags: Penguins, Pirates, Pitt, Steelers
Jaromir Jagr and his New Jersey teammates during a game in Vancouver last week. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 2 p.m. and encourages you to dictate the discussion.
UPDATE 2 p.m.: And off we go …
Snovi LLC: If the Steelers go 8-8 and/or miss the playoffs, will it be considered a mistake to bring back so many old veterans instead of letting guys like Stephon Tuitt, Dan McCullers, Shamarko Thomas, etc. cut their teeth? Might have lost a few more games, but they would have gained a ton of valuable experience.
They’re going to need these guys next year, right?
DK: Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. But I’ll take it further, because I’m not sure the Steelers would have been worse at all with those players out there learning on the job as compared to Cam Thomas, Mike Mitchell and so forth.
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