Dan’s Daily: Penguins Dirt, Vegas Baby, and Tkachuk Breakout

For the second consecutive night, a player scored four goals, but his team lost. Leon Draisaitl filled the net Wednesday, but the Vegas Golden Knights were too good. Carolina manhandled New Jersey, too. Jimmy Murphy wrote a must-read story about Patrice Bergeron, the human. The Calder Trophy finalists were announced, the New York Rangers will lose a few big-name free agents, and in our Pittsburgh Penguins Q&A you’ll find some opinions and a few insider nuggets.

May the Fourth be with you!

Of course, I enjoy covering live hockey, especially live playoff hockey, but watching Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy’s game plan for Connor McDavid was extra fun. My eyes are being opened to a few things out here. Cassidy is a unique head coach, to be sure.

National Hockey Now launched two more sites yesterday! Welcome Mike Augello and Buffalo Hockey Now, as well as Michael Gallagher and Nashville Hockey Now!

I still haven’t stepped into a casino, but it’s not a bad life when I get paid to cover hockey, people want to work for us, and my walk home last night included this:

Pittsburgh Penguins / Pirates, Steelers:

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Perhaps I should have made this subscriber-only. With a few previously unreported nuggets and some dirt that I know you’ll enjoy, from the next goalie to Stan Bowman rumors and what the hockey industry thought of the Penguins trade deadline. The Penguins Q&A.

Steelers Now:

The Penguins may not have any enforcers, by Mike Tomlin wants “goons” like his second-round pick, Keanu Benton.

What is GM Omar Khan’s nickname? Khan Artist. And he’s earning it with his aggressive overhaul of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Steelers are rising in most power rankings, too.

Pittsburgh Baseball Now:

Seriously, yinz needs to calm down. I was watching Twitter meltdown after the Buccos lost again. Did you think they’d win 70% of their games and have no slumps or rough patches?? The sloppy Pittsburgh Pirates lost to Tampa 8-1.

PBN+: John Perrotto writes there was one remaining question, and Mitch Keller is answering.

Subscribe to one site, and get the other two for free. *Ahem 👆

NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, News & National Hockey Now:

Vegas Hockey Now: Viva Las Vegas. The Xs and Os were fun, and so was the postgame coverage. Despite Leon Draisaitl’s four goals, here’s how and why the Vegas Golden Knights won Game 1.

Boy oh boy, Hextall and the Penguins should have gone all out for Ivan Barbashev at the NHL trade deadline. Nothing I’ve seen dissuades me from that opinion.

NHL.com: Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Carolina breezed past the New Jersey Devils.

Florida Hockey Now: The new breakout star of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs is Matthew Tkachuk.

Yeah, he is…

NHL News:

Calgary Hockey Now: Calgary chose Jonathan Huberdeau over Darryl Sutter. Now what? What now for the Calgary Flames?

NY Post: Patrick Kane seems to be gone. Vladimir Tarasenko, gone. The New York Rangers will lose a chunk of their top nine to free agency, and maybe more.

Washington Hockey Now: Hometown boy and former Capitals player Jeff Halpern will interview for the Washington Capitals head coaching vacancy.

Buffalo Hockey Now: Owen Power was nominated for the Calder Trophy.

Nashville Hockey Now: One of the genuine tough guys is hanging up the skates. Mark Boroweicki is retiring. Nashville Predators news.

Chicago Hockey Now: Nate Brown notes that Chicago fans wanted to see the Blackhawks lose a few more games, including to the Pittsburgh Penguins. That win cost the Penguins dearly and cost the Blackhawks seven percentage points in the NHL Draft Lottery for Connor Bedard. Here are the odds and ends for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Colorado Hockey Now: What does the future look like — his career and with the Avalanche — for Gabriel Landeskog?

Boston Hockey Now: I saved this one for last — Jimmy Murphy got a little dusty writing this. He has the exclusive story on what kind of human Patrice Bergeron is.

He and Sidney Crosby are cut from the same cloth. The very best fabric.

The Star Wars sequels were an abomination, destroyed Luke Skywalker, and should be burned, never to be discussed or seen again. They should also allow Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni to remake them properly. There’s my May 4 take!