Mr. Kennedy to sit one out, Caputi called up

Quick hits:

--For the second time in under a week, NHL disicplinarian Colin Campbell rung up a Penguin; this time it's Tyler Kennedy one game for leaving the bench to engage Toronto's Luke Schenn in a fight. It's unknown if Mr. Kennedy would have gotten a longer timeout if he hadn't gotten wiped on the ice by Scheen.

--In personnel moves, the Penguins have called up their brightest prospect from the minors; Luca Caputi. Paul Bissonnette has been re-assigned. Caputi has 13 goals (and 35 points) in 46 games down in the minors, not bad stats for a 20 year old. It will be interesting to see how he fares, here's to hoping that Michel Therrien doesn't give him the usual 6-7 minutes for most young callups.

--Two interesting tidbits from Pensburgh: Sergei Gonchar takes another step on the road to recovery by being cleared for contact in practice. And Ray Shero indicates the "expectation" management has for the players to "make a push". It sounds like a trade could be coming soon, possibly when Sarge can return. As we've mentioned before, signs are pointing that Alex Goligoski could be the bait.

--Sad story from Montreal, as former Penguin Robert Lang suffered a pretty gruesome career threatening achilles injury. The surgery was said to be successful, so that is a good thing. Here's hoping that Lang, an avid golfer, is back to the links at some point when the weather gets warm. And back to the NHL too.

--It would be a shame if Lang's career ended in this eye-popping jersey, eh?


--Congrats to Sidney Crosby, who was named the NHL's second star of the week...Penguin killer Jamie Langenbrunner was named the league's top star.

--A quick check of the standings don't show much progress, as a 1-1-1 record out of the break woud indicate. The Pens are in 10th in the conference; Florida is in 9th--one point up on the Pens (with two games in hand). Carolina is clinging to 8th place with two more points than Pittsburgh.

--James Mirtle's update shows the Penguins need to go 19-12-0 to ensure a playoff berth.

Bradley vs. Bissonnette

While Matt Bradley's participation in this fight as being heralded as a cult hero in some places, we have to imagine this highlight isn't going to make any Caps montages or highlight reels. And while you do tip a hat to Bradley's courage to drop with a bigger, stronger, young, better fighter, you can still question the results. Heart and desire will only get you so far (in the locker-room for stitches, in this case). And it was admirable that Bradley returned to the ice but hey it's hockey, where uncommon occurrences of playing through pain are, well, common.

We wonder what will happen when Caps enforcer Donald Brashear is back in the lineup for the next Pens/Caps game…Will he go after the youngster Bissonnette or stick to his more traditional heavyweight dancing partner of Eric Godard.

Do this to someone on the street and they will take you to jail, kids..

Why does Colby look unhappy

A) Because of the hideous jersey (We could have sworn it said "Trashers" at first view...and numbers on the front, really?)

B) Because it's going to be a long season in Atlanta

Stu Barnes Hangs 'em up

From a story we first saw at Mirtle, former Penguin Stu Barnes has decided to retire from hockey in order to take an assistant coaching position with the Dallas Stars.

Barnes played the game in a heady, gritty, determined style. He wasn't the biggest guy out there, but he always seemed to score the biggest of goals.

Interestingly Barnes played parts of three seasons (206 games) with Pittsburgh. In that stretch he scored 67 goals and 69 assists. So even though Barnes only played about 17.9% of his NHL games in a Penguins uniform, he scored an incredible 25.6% of the goals (and 22.7% of his overall points) with Pittsburgh.

With this retirement and Jaromir Jagr and Marty Straka skating off to Europe, this leaves just Robert Lang left playing in the NHL from Pittsburgh's 1997-98 squad. We point this out because it makes us begin to feel a little old.

Anyways best of luck to Barnes in his new capacity...Given his work ethic and mind for the game, we think he'll be great as a coach.

The Billy Tibbetts Urban Legend

OK, it's summer and to keep entertained, here's a quick little story we heard many years ago second-hand off a friend of a friend of a friend. In other words, it's an urban legend; probably not true to life at all.....But it is entertaining and, given the cast of characters, it doesn't seem out of place.

Billy Tibbetts is a name a lot of fans might not know. He is probably most famous for being out of hockey for four years while he was in jail from 1996-2000. The Penguins signed him and gave him a shot and it just didn't work out. Tibbetts played total of 62 games over two seasons with Pittsburgh (scoring 2 goals, 7 assists and registering 188 penalty minutes). He bounced around from Philadelphia to New York to Boston and a lot of minor league teams in between before running out of chances in the NHL. He now plays in Finland.

Tibbetts, for lack of better phrasing, just couldn't stay out of his own way. For instance, this quote from his Wikipedia page sort of sums up some of the troubles and various attitude problems and trouble with authority that Tibbetts just can't seem out of:

He was arrested early in the morning of August 13, 2007, after leading a Massachusetts State Police trooper on a high-speed chase from Scituate, MA to Abington, MA, where he crashed his 2007 BMW into a fence and a telephone pole, and fled on foot.

So with that background in mind, consider this folk-lore urban legend...


The story dates from one of Tibbetts' stints with the Penguins, sometime in 2001 or 2002. Billy was often getting called up or re-assigned to the AHL's Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. The stress, excessive travel and uncertain day-to-day future of being a bubble player was starting to wear on the temperamental man so he was beginning to snap at those around him.

After games, visiting teams usually take showers, receive quick treatment if necessary and then get on a chartered team bus to be taken back to the hotel or airport. Players trickle onto the bus after the games and play cards, joke around with each other, talk on cell phones, sleep; normal type of stuff you'd expect. There is also a pecking order of who gets to sit where, with veterans calling seniority to get good seats at the front of the bus.

As the legend has it, Tibbetts was one of the first players on the bus and was able to snag a prized seat up front, opposite side of the driver. As players filed on, one of the veterans--among them rumored to be Kevin Stevens (who's a little gruff himself)--asked Tibbetts to move to the back, being as he was young player without many games played in the league. Tibbetts rebuffed strongly, not wanting to surrender his seat. There was a heated confrontation, nothing physical but an intense, vulgar exchange that would make George Carlin himself proud.

In the end, at the urging of other moderate team "graybeards" and to maintain peace, Tibbetts was ousted to the back of the bus and the vet got his choice seat. Stewing over this defeat and not wanting to look like a punk in front of his other colleagues, the hotheaded Tibbetts, as the story goes, allegedly thought up a quick plan for revenge.

Supposedly in Tibbetts hands was a cheeseburger that he was eating for a post-game meal. Fed up with getting jerked around and with his situation in general Tibbetts knew what he had to do. He flung the cheeseburger towards the front of the bus, towards the vet who embarrassed him publicly.

Unfortunately Billy Tibbetts wasn't a baseball player, his aim was off and in the fit of rage the cheeseburger supposedly sailed a clear foot over the sitting target's head. The burger was on a path to harmlessly hit the front windshield. Except, as the story goes, as fat would have it guess who just happened to be stepping on the bus at the same moment that Tibbetts hurled his projectile?


As the story goes, Tibbetts was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre the following day and soon after the Pens decided to cut ties with him.

Follow-up to a story you probably don't remember

Long time keen minded readers (if we have any), might remember that former Penguin Tom Kostopolous got arrested this past summer in a bar incident with his Montreal teammate Ryan O'Byrne.

Well, since it's summer and literally nothing else is going on, we saw on KK that charges against O'Byrne have been dropped.

Somewhat humorously (as far as run-ins with the law go) O'Byrne was accused of stealing a purse at a bar in Florida. The cops came but O'Byrne said he thought the purse belonged to his ladyfriend. Supposedly the old TK wouldn't back down from the po-lice nor be quiet when told to, so he got the hook as well....Charges against him were dropped soon after the incident.

Come to think of it, it's been a long year for those few and proud Captains of the Wilkes-Barre Penguins, because "Kosty" wasn't the only member of that fraternity to get arrested.

Naslund interested in Pittsburgh return?

In what could finally lay those Alek Stojanov nightmares to rest, Markus Naslund apparantely would be considering a return to where his NHL career started in Pittsburgh.

Here's a link: (warning it's in Swedish) which we found by way of the wonderful HFboards.

Someone who apparantely understands the article (which has Crosby's name and a picture of the musatchioed man in it) relayed the following details that we've mashed together...

"What kind of guys I will play with, and what kind of hockey I will play
will be a big decision in my future.....I will play next season, the question is where...I feel very motivated to play in NHL" says Naslund and wont go back to Modo and Sweden

"Money is not the important part, I prioritize the social bit, what type of hockey the team is playing and what kind of players they have....With the uncertainty for the future it was the right decision to sell my house (in Vancouver)" says Naslund.

"Though it might not mean I wont return here"Naslund is an UFA july 1st.Source

"Of course it would be fun to play with Crosby," says Naslund.

Take this with a grain of salt, but it's certainly an interesting development. Talk is cheap and easy, it'll be more impressive if Naslund puts the pen to the paper and joins the Penguins.

However, the Pens (and their fans) should be aware this is a player in decline. His points total as slipped every season since the lockout. Last year he had 30 assists, his fewest in that category since the 1998-99 season. He's gained the reputation of a free-floating player away from the puck that doesn't have much interest in playing defense. As a team leader for the Canucks he hasn't delivered and at turning 25 this summer, Naslund is no spring chicken.

Let's not discount his talent though, this is a guy who scored 55 points this past season and would seem, if healthy to be a lock for 25-30 goals and 35-40 assists on a line with Crosby. Naslund, a natural left winger, would fit perfectly with Crosby. Both are good skaters, have a lot of skill and think the game well. Naslund is selling his house, which we think is significant; for whatever reason it looks like a move from Vancouver is in the cards...And Pittsburgh seems to be on his radar. He mentions money isn't important, but we don't think he's signing anywhere for close to league minimum. Still, the Pens should plenty of money short-term (before Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin extensions kick in for 2009-10) to accomendate at least a one year deal.

As usual all we have for you is a lot of speculation and not too much of actual action. But this is a development to definitely keep an eye on. It'd be getting a little ahead of ourselves to imagine a top like of Naslund-Crosby-Hossa next season, but wouldn't that be amazing?

Congrats Baby Pens

Understandably lost in the shuffle with that other Penguins team going far in the playoffs, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have won the AHL's Eastern Conference. So they win the prestigious Richard Canning trophy (props to JB for that).

The Baby Pens won a game seven against Portland by defeating former Pen (and not a Sweater Ted favorite) Jean-Sebastien Aubin. Aubin is a great goalie at the AHL level and made 37 saves on 40 shots before an unstoppable bid by Tim Brent won it. That alone would be impressive, but consider that Aubin missed the previous four games with an undisclosed lower-body injury and spotted in a walking cast. Tip of the cap to him.

Brent has been one of the stars of the AHL playoffs, he leads the league in goals (11 in 17 games and is tied second in points (20). Similarly awesome has been rookie Alex Goligoski who is also in that tie for second place in scoring (Golly has 3 goals and 17 assists in 17 games). Goligoski also leads all defensemen in playoff points.

The opponent in the finals is the always dangerous Chicago Wolves. They are Atlanta's farm team and seem to always stock up on the experienced players that are good at the AHL level but don't have much NHL aspiration. Of Chicago's top eight playoff scorers just one (Brian Little) is under the age of 25. The Baby Pens, by comparison, have five of their top eight scorers (Brent, Goligoski, Ryan Stone, Connor James, Mark Ardelan) coming in under 25 years old.

Since Ty Conklin's callup, Wilkes-Barre has relied on two very young and untested goalies (John Curry and Dave Brown). Curry, an undrafted player in his second year with the Pens organ-eye-zation, emerged as the man and has played like it; boasting a 12-5 record, 2.48 GAA and 90.8 save percentage. One area Chicago is young at is the goaltending position where Ondrej Pavelec, a 20 year old former second round pick, is the 'tender.

We don't follow the AHL that closely, so we haven't (and won't) be making a prediction. And with the Pens in the Stanley Cup finals, the Calder Cup isn't on our radar that much. However it's good to see the success on the farm and hopefully the boys can keep it rolling.

Funny thing happening in Dallas

For one of our features this summer we were planning on doing a little "where are they now" type five year roundup with the group of Wilkes-Barre Scranton Baby Pens that were followed around and had their season made into a documentary by NHL Productions.

Well unlikely happenings have forced an early first entry to that feature.

Kuklaskorner pointed out an interesting article from Dallas about former WB/S alternate captain that year, Toby Petersen, and the lift that he's provided to the Dallas Stars in neutralizing the uber-dangerous Detroit duo of Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

How Petersen (generously listed officially at 5'10 and 197 pounds) has been able to foil legitimate stars has been something of a surprise. He left the Pens organization as a free agent after the 2003-04 season and caught on with Edmonton, spending two more seasons in their farmclub. "Petey" has great speed, good offensive instincts and is a real "heady" player but lacks the pure skill and an opportunity to be a regular NHL Top 6 forward. With the landscape of the bottom two lines being mainly filled out with grinders, checkers, PK specialists and young players, Petersen doesn't fill that niche either. He's been over-looked from the very beginning, when he was a 9th round draft pick of the Penguins in 1999. This is a player with 133 goals and 203 assists (336 points) in 506 career AHL regular season games, he has had success and admirable staying power in the professional level.

Then in the spring of 2006 he got called up for the taxi squad for the Oilers Stanley Cup final run and got two play two games in a 4th line capacity when the flu bug bit the Oilers lockeroom. Petersen made something of this opportunity, scoring the first goal in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals to help the Oilers win against the Anaheim Ducks 5-4.

Petersen hasn't been able to catch on in the NHL, going back to the minors for the past two years before he got the chance to play most of the season on a weak Edmonton team in 2006-07 [scoring 6 goals, 9 assists in 64 games]. Still he could not crack the youth movement of the Oilers and they let him slide where he signed on with Dallas' organ-eye-zation, where he was back to the familiarity of minor league life.

Until this spring, when (thanks to injuries) he's been in Dallas' lineup for 15 of their 17 playoff games, back to his role as a spare part 4th liner playing anywhere from 2-9 minutes on any given night. Until he got matched up against Datsyuk and Zetterberg when Dallas was down 3 games to 0 and seemingly had no hope. While, against all likelihood and reason, Petersen has stuck around and is now doing enough to get noticed again (if you're noticing this is something of a trend, you're catching on).

The NHL playoffs often produce unlikely heroes; guys who step out of nowhere and have a magical stretch of games (like John Druce in 1990 or maybe even Johan Franzen this spring) and then hang around but eventually fade away just as fast as they've come. Now it's looking like a center too small and not valuable enough to stick anywhere for too long (one with zero goals and zero assists this playoff at that!) is making a huge difference. Another reason why hockey, beneath the surface, is the most captivating sport.

It's good to see good people do well. We're pulling for you Petey, if only for tonight and Wednesday.

Craig Patrick talks Penguins

Great interview in Sunday's Trib by Rob Rossi with former Pens GM Craig Patrick. Patrick was in charge of the Penguins for a fifteen plus years but ever since he got fired by the team after the 2005-06 season he's dropped off the hockey landscape, rarely talking to the press or getting his name in the papers a lot.

When asked what did him in, Patrick responded:

We just ran out of time. It worked immediately after I and a bunch of us were gone. When I was let go, I was told, "It's time to make a change." I can understand that. But if we had been around at the beginning of the next season, we'd probably still have jobs. But that's not what happened.

While we do think he has something of a point, we don't really agree with this. The Penguins needed a breath of fresh air; even simple things like not having internet access in the coach's office. Patrick, while good at what he did, became stale. After the lockout he got bold and picked up high profile free agents (John LeClair, Ziggy Palffy and Sergei Gonchar), none of whom paid dividends early, if at all. It was a bold move, but one that didn't pay off.

Two years after his firing, Craig Patrick's imprint still remains on the team. Sure you can look to the slam dunk draft picks like Sid Crosby and Evgeni Malkin but dig a little deeper and you'll find eight players (Scuderi, Malone, Orpik, Talbot, Whitney, Fleury, Kennedy and Letang) that Patrick and his crew drafted and helped to develop. Sure some of those guys are first round picks and we're not suggesting it's impressive he drafted NHL'ers but rather just to point out just how much he's shaped the team that we still see today. And that doesn't even take into account the guys like Carcillo, Welch, Armstrong and Christensen that enabled his successor Ray Shero to pull the trigger on a couple of Patrick-esque patented deadline day gambles.

Craig Patrick had a tough economic climate to deal with pre-2005, there's no doubt. But he wasn't able to parlay established star players like Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka, Robert Lang and Darius Kasparaitis into much anything of long term value, which is a huge negative. Then his lockout signings went bust and it became apparent it was time to go a different direction. CP got lucky to be in a position to get to draft Malkin and Crosby but what he did in drafts from about 2002-2005 really laid the ground-work for where the Penguins are now. And he deserves a lot of credit for that.

John LeClair helping the Pens (for the 1st time)

Strange, but true.

The LeClair figurine was a gift from the son of West Point hockey coach

Bill Riley, who coached Malone when he played at Shattuck-St. Mary's, the famous Minnesota prep school. He's become a lucky charm.

"I think he actually looks like John LeClair. They both had that bowl (haircut)," said Malone. "If guys have gone a couple of games without a goal, they'll come over and give him a touch, whoever needs it."

"He loves the road," Malone added of this LeClair, which travels in an equipment bag.

Well that would be the first time LeClair's helped the Pens in recent memory...

Daniel Carcillo drops Krys Barch

For those that don't like seeing a man get knocked TFO, don't watch this..



Daniel Carcillo is a wildman. In a way, we're happy he got a chance to play for a team like Phoenix where he could be in the NHL. If he was still in Pittsburgh, he'd probably be in the Ryan Stone/Jon Filewich category of prospects buried in a deep organization.

The Old TK Got Arrested

Two Habs arrested in Florida nightclub incident

To be fair, in a crazy situation like this things can escalate really quickly. And when the cops have your buddy isolated they're not always the best communicators. Especially if you've been drinking.

But in looking through my handbook--as a veteran of going to bars, getting in trouble but avoiding jail, Rule #1 clearly states listen to the police and do what they say.

Kostopolous seems like a decent person and a good guy, I doubt he was causing a ruckus but things happen.