Penguins Notebook
Penguins News Roundup 2/12/18: Crosby’s 400th, Grabner Report
2:30 p.m.: Check out a few off-day interviews, courtesy of the PensTV team. By the way, that team now includes former Pittsburgh Hockey Now (TV show) contributor Sydney Bauer. Give her a follow!
Off-day interviews →
Crosby: https://t.co/N56XNWEtmE
Murray: https://t.co/zxCRiiq6bP
Simon: https://t.co/8mY7DfT84u
Sullivan: https://t.co/oKlhok513T— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 12, 2018
1:04 p.m.: Mike Sullivan called it a “maintenance day” for Rowney. Tom Kühnhackl and Patric Hörnqvist, both on injured reserve, are not ready to skate with their teammates.
12:35 p.m.: Here are the Penguins’ lines and pairings from Cranberry Township, courtesy of Shelly …
Simon-Crosby-Rust
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
Aston-Reese–Sheahan-Sheary
Guentzel-Blueger-Reaves
Dumoulin-Letang
Määttä-Schultz
Cole-Oleksiak
Hunwick-Ruhwedel
Carter Rowney was missing after a subpar weekend, especially Friday in Dallas.
9:30 a.m.: Trade Rumor — The Boston Bruins are reportedly interested in the Rangers’ Michael Grabner. James Murphy of CLNS Media and MurphysHockeyLaw.net reported Bruins GM Don Sweeney also has an interest in Grabner. Read it here
It appears Jimmy has also picked up a solid hockey writer named Sara Civian. Stick tap to both. The Bruins are rising fast, as Matt and Dan discussed on yesterday’s live postgame show — the ONLY non-team sponsored postgame show in Pittsburgh, yesterday.
7 a.m: The Pittsburgh Penguins earned three of a possible four points on the mini-road trip. The Penguins salvaged a point after squandering a two-goal lead in a shootout loss to the Dallas Stars on Friday. Sunday, the Penguins pulled away from the St. Louis Blues, 4-1.
Matt Murray was solid if not spectacular in net. Sidney Crosby (finally) scored his 400th career goal, Sunday. Perhaps it was fitting Crosby’s milestone marker was a grinder-type ugly goal.
Crosby also scored the empty-netter for No. 401. Bryan Rust and Riley Sheahan also scored.
Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dave Holcomb detailed Rust’s value to the team.
Matt Gajtka looked at Jake Guentzel’s performance and how it compares to Conor Sheary‘s.
The win kept the second place Penguins out of reach of the wild-card teams, New Jersey and Carolina. The Flyers jumped to third place in the Metro Division by beating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1, Sunday.
The Metro Division and Eastern Conference playoff race has settled down. Four teams are still in the race, not counting the New York Rangers, which are marching towards a rebuild.
Per our Dan Kingerski, here are the list of scouts in St. Louis from Sunday:
The L.A. Kings sent a professional scout. VGK sent a pair of scouts. The Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, and Chicago Blackhawks attended as well.
The Penguins practice later today. Pittsburgh Hockey Now rockstar Shelly Anderson will have live reports via Twitter and this news feed. Please check back throughout the day.