Dan’s Daily: Amazon’s Hockey Broadcast Team; Penguins Power Play Overhaul

The Pittsburgh Penguins began the new era of their power play under assistant coach David Quinn Monday. Kris Letang spoke of new ideas and excitement. The Penguins prospects returned to the ice after being humbled on Saturday. How they deal with the smackdown will define the next few weeks. Elsewhere in the Daily, the NHL trade rumors are circulating in Calgary, and it’s becoming a matter of when not if. John Tortorella made a wonderful gesture by inviting Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau’s father to coach the Philadelphia Flyers’ practice. And Amazon Prime announced their broadcast team for the Monday night hockey broadcasts.

I didn’t get to do the story Monday about Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin hyping the Steelers crowd before the game on Sunday. Since it’s out of date now, I can tell you that Kris Letang chose the No. 58 jersey not just because he wears 58. The Steelers were going to give him a T.J. Watt jersey, but he asked for a Jack Lambert jersey.

Letang explained to PHN that as a rookie, a reporter wrote a story about him and the significance of No. 58 in Pittsburgh. Lambert—who loves hockey—saw the story and sent Letang an autographed jersey. Letang didn’t wear the autographed jersey Sunday, but he fully knows his connection to Lambert and appreciates the connection.

Other little notes from Monday: Jeff Carter was at practice just to watch and say hello. Tristan Jarry missed practice because of a doctor’s appointment, but he’ll be available today.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The power play. Oh, what it could have done for the team last year and the year before, but instead, it was a festering wound of failure. Quinn is here to help change that. The new look power play debuted. Also on Monday, coach Mike Sullivan put jobs up for grabs on the blue line. Check out the Penguins notebook.

Saturday night was not a good one for the Penguins’ young players. The Buffalo Sabres taught them a few lessons rather rudely. Here’s how they reacted and what comes next for the Penguins prospects.

Tonight, the Penguins will get another shot at many of those Buffalo Sabres who roughed them up, legally and extra-legally. A handful of the prospects will get another game, including Rutger McGroarty. Here’s who to watch and how to watch the Penguins game.

Pittsburgh Baseball Now: Simple question. John Perrotto swings away–should the Paul Skenes be Rookie of the Year?

Steelers Now: The takeaways from the Pittsburgh Steelers home opener on Sunday. Guess what? Justin Fields is showing that he is the Steelers quarterback.

NHL Trade Talk, News & National Hockey Now

The Athletic ($): So, what will it cost to get Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, and Blake Coleman out of Calgary? The NHL trade rumors are abuzz that veterans are leery of sticking around if there’s a tear-down rebuild. So, what is the trade cost for other teams?

DFO: Amazon will unleash a pretty good broadcast team for their national Monday night games. John Forslund will do the play-by-play and is a worthy successor to Doc Emerick. Mark Messier will complete the in-game broadcast, but I am not familiar with most of the studio crew.

Philly Hockey Now: Remember for years that I told you John Tortorella was a quality human? I’m glad he is getting the recognition he deserves, even if it’s later in his career. Torts did something yesterday that was just touching. He invited Johnny and Matthew’s father, Guy Gaudreau, to help with the Flyers’ practice.

New Jersey Hockey Now: New coach Sheldon Keefe had a few tweaks for the Jack Hughes line, including the style of play. Here’s what you’re going to see a lot of with this season’s New Jersey Devils.

Sportsnet: The New York Rangers and Igor Shesterkin are scheduled to part ways next summer unless they can agree on a new contract. However, a new report suggests they are far–far apart.

Montreal Hockey Now: Patrik Laine had five shots on goal, and the Canadiens had a big preseason win led by a pair of early 20-somethings who are going to be really, really…really good (including one the Penguins passed on in the draft). Check out the high-flying Montreal Canadiens.

Philly Hockey Now: The flip side of the Canadiens’ win was that they embarrassed the Flyers. I’ll give you a second to dry your eyes. Here’s the report on the same game but with disappointing performances from the Flyers’ prospects.

Detroit Hockey Now: Who likes the Michigan Wolverines? I love them when they play Penn State, but Steve Yzerman seems to like the hockey program quite a bit, too. In fact, Michiganders might make up all four Detroit Red Wings centers.