The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-assigned defenseman Nate Guenin to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, it was announced by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.

Guenin, a Hopewell High School graduate, saw action in two games for the Penguins, becoming the third Pittsburgh native to play for the organization in the last three seasons (Bill Thomas, 2008-09; Ryan Malone, 2003-08). Guenin has spent the majority of this season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, posting a plus-1 rating and 22 penalty minutes in 15 contests. 

All is right with the world.

Continue reading "Mellow Is The Man Who Hosts About 120 Live Blogs Per Year"

When asked to share his opinion on Stars forward James Neal’s hit on Blue Jackets winger Derek Dorsett, which cost Neal two-games via disciplinary action from the NHL, Roenick didn’t pull any punches in labeling the Stars’ leading goal scorer.

‘’If Neal would have done this 20 years ago, he would have been blackballed from the league,’’ said Roenick. ‘’If you’re going to get challenged, then drop your gloves and go to it - fight, but don’t come back later on and then give a cheap shot to a guy who has already challenged you.

‘’To me, that’s kind of gutless and I’m sure a lot of guys in the league think that’s gutless also.’’

more from Roenick on different topics…

One of the most overlooked front office jobs in hockey is that of a scout. The scout provides preliminary information on players, and his reports are the first to be analyzed by the personnel people.

There are different types of scouts. One might specialize in watching junior players and try to project what a 16- or 17-year old might become by the time he is 22, 23 or 24 years old. Other scouts, like Pete Mahovlich, ride around sections of North America looking at minor-league talent or taking in NHL games to evaluate players.

Mahovlich, now a pro scout for the Atlanta Thrashers, has been scouting talent for a long time after a very successful NHL career.

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So many of you have been asking to see what these new third jerseys look like, well, this is pretty close.

I think.

The team has done a good job of being secretive about these jerseys and this is what I would call an ‘’artists’’ rendition*.

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How does a player start his season with 11 points in 10 games and barely get noticed around the league?

By playing on a team with Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, that’s how.

Sorry Tomas Fleischmann, but you’re getting some national recognition now from ESPN.com.

“It’s OK, you can keep it quiet,” the Capitals forward said on the phone from Washington, laughing all the while.

He can afford to laugh. A few months ago, he was told his career might be over. Doctors discovered a blood clot in his leg after he returned home to his native Czech Republic following last season, a condition likely worsened by the long flight home.

“We are lucky we caught it, I was in danger,” said Fleischmann.

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Orpik, out since Nov. 10th because of a suspected hip injury, stated that “I think I’m in as long as all goes well tomorrow,”

On Wednesday, New York Rangers forward Sean Avery was part of a Youth Hockey Clinic series that took place at Rye Playland, the team’s former practice facility.

You can check out the photos here.

I also wanted to remind you Blueshirt fans that friend of the blog Jim Cerny hosts Rangers Radio every Friday afternoon. You can check that out here.

Dallas Stars left wing James Neal was suspended two games by the NHL on Friday for a hit from behind on Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Derek Dorsett at 13:01 of the second period of Thursday’s game.

Dorsett was among a group of players battling along the wall for the puck when Neal came charging in. Neal appeared to leave his feet to deliver a blow to Blue Jackets defenseman Marc Methot, but instead he hit Dorsett in the back. The force of the blow drove Dorsett face-first into the glass. He fell to the ice and could not get up.

In case you missed the hit, watch it here.

As the 1,230-game schedule passes the quarter mark with tonight’s games, seven clubs that did not qualify for the 2008-09 Stanley Cup Playoffs currently hold a top-eight Conference position – four in the Western Conference (#2 Colorado, #4 Los Angeles, #7 Phoenix and #8 Dallas) and three in the East (#3 Buffalo, #6 Ottawa and #7 Tampa Bay). The Islanders and Thrashers are a whisker behind the Eastern pack through a first quarter-season that saw outstanding individual and team performances along with stunning last-minute, game-changing dramatics.

Continue reading "The NHL At The Quarter Mark"

Former NHL Players Association Executive Director Paul Kelly fulfilled his wish to stay in hockey by accepting a job as executive director of the newly-formed College Hockey, Inc.

The Hockey Commissioners Association created the organization for the purpose of raising the profile of Division I hockey. Kelly will be in charge of that mission.

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I never liked writing things in under 140 characters anyway. Couldn’t stand writing abbreviated words like “abt” for about or “2″ for too or two. And I didn’t like the “na na, na na na” aspect of how many followers one had. Nobody in the media will admit it, but those who have lots of followers love to sit and feel superior to those with not as many. You can feel it creeping into the zeitgeist some.

Absolutely no one told me to do it, but I just deleted my twitter account and am done with it. Apologies to my dear 1,220 followers at the time of parting, but you’ll find other Pied Pipers of Puck, of that there is no doubt.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-assigned defenseman Chris Lee to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, it was announced by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.

Lee, who was recalled on Thursday, leads all WBS blueliners with seven points (1G-6A) through 15 games, and is third overall on the club with 41 shots.

But even with the season still relatively in its infancy, there still are plenty of questions, so let’s get to the answers now.

1. How come there have been no coaching changes?—A number of teams made their changes over the summer, and some teams that have gotten off to disappointing starts, like Carolina and St. Louis, are coming off playoff seasons, so there hasn’t been as much impetus to make a move. With this being an Olympic year, the guess is any changes will come prior to the Winter Games, so teams can hit the ice hard for the sprint to the playoffs in February.

2. Pick one—Chris Pronger or Dany Heatley?—No disrespect to Heatley, but I build from the goal out, so I’ll take Pronger, who as legendary Scottish announcer Hamish MacPherson once described Cam Neely, is “a beast of a man.” Any time you can add a proven defenseman who is playing over 26 minutes per game, you do it.

read on

The Senators will also be without fourth-line winger Shean Donovan tomorrow and maybe for the rest of the season. He sustained a right knee injury on a knee-on-knee hit by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke. The exact extent of the injury won’t be known until more tests are completed today, but Senators general manager Bryan Murray said it was serious.

“It’s his MCL (medial collateral ligament) for sure and he’s having an MRI to see if it’s the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), too. We won’t know until tomorrow,” said Murray.

He contacted NHL executive vice-president of hockey operations Colin Campbell to discuss the hit, but Murray said he didn’t expect there would a suspension coming for Cooke.

“If it was any other player, you wouldn’t say anything, but it’s happened several times,” said Murray of Cooke.

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