At the Pens game tonight to once again watch the walking wounded. Good news though is that James Neal is gritting through the pain of a bruise to a bone in his foot originally thought to be broken. He’s a trooper!

Let’s go Pens!

2 Goals, 2 Assists … Like he never missed a beat.

Welcome back Sid!

Joe Vitale helped power the Penguins to a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers last night notching a pair of assists, finishing the evening +1 an winning timely face-offs. He earned second star status for his first multiple point game of his career.

Vitale earned the primary assist on both Dupuis (1) goal that put the Penguins up 1-0 late in the first and Matt Cooke’s (3) team leading third goal of the season mid way through the second to extend the lead to 2-0.

Mark-Andre Fleury has the save of the game when he reached out with his glove to block a wide open net and then scrambled blindly to keep the puck from going over the goal line.

Florida would get goals from Goc (1) and Fleischmann (1) but the Penguins would add a short handed goal from Richard Park (1) an even strength marker from James Neal (2) to put the game away despite a late chance for the Panthers on the power play. The Panthers would pull their goal tender for the duration of the man advantage but depots playing 6 on 4 hockey, they could not cut into the Penguin’s two goal lead.

Fleury stopped 32 of 34 shots to earn his third win of the season and the Penguins improved to 3-0-1 on the season.

Notes:
- Joe Vitale has been proving his worth this year so far. He has been a headache for other teams to contend with in the face-off dot and now he is setting up his teammates to score.

- James Neal has now scored twice in the first four games of this year compared to just 2 goals last season after becoming a Penguin at the trade deadline. Last night he picked up a valuable garbage goal by heading the the front of the net, something he needs to keep doing.

- The penalty kill of the Penguins confined their impressive play shutting down the Panthers on all five opportunities they had in last night’s game.

Welcome back TK!

Jagr and or his agent should be making this official later today.

My source has not been wrong yet. Let’s see if he/she/it can keep a perfect record.

Update June 30th, 10 AM:

I am being told official announcement to be made Friday at noon.

Update July 1st, 10 AM:

Looks like other sources in the media are confirming all this. Jagr to Pens with announcement at noon today with a big splash page on the site welcoming Jags home.

Update July 1st, 11 AM:

My source says the Penguins are getting ready to revoke their offer to Jags! Citing that the agree they had appears to be off as Jagr seems interested in getting more money than coming to Pittsburgh. Reportedly Mario is fuming.

Update July 1st 11:45 AM:

NHL.com is reporting the Pens have withdrawn their offer.

So much for Jagr’s proclamation that he would return to Pittsburgh for league minimum if asked by Mario. Looks like Jags really hasn’t grown up?

Update July 1st 1 PM:

The Red Wings also have dropped out of the list of teams seeking Jagr. Looks like they are not interested in playing games. Apparently Jagr is.

Received a two word text over lunch from source in the Pens org saying only, “extremely disappointed.”

That means one of two things.

The first thing it could mean is that he is having symptoms. I doubt this because I’ve seen the videos of him working out on the ice and he looks happy and healthy. Also, people whom I have talked to who have seen him skate say he looks healthy.

Second it could mean Crosby is getting checked out to see if he is ready for contact. According to two doctors I spoke with and relayed this information to, both who deal with sports related head traumas, they said this would be standard practice where they would bring in the athlete and subject him to controlled, rigorous workouts to test their ability to take a hit.

Just my observations.

The AK-27 gets another stint with the Penguins at 38 and was told of the trade today on his birthday. Despite being 38, Kovalev has proven to still have a scoring touch. Just two years ago with the Canadiens he tallied 35 goals and 84 points. Last year he had 26 goals and this year so far he has netted 18 pucks for Ottawa.

Kovalev seems certain to add some scoring punch to a team that is still missing many of its top scorers due to a rash of injuries. I assume that Kovalev, considering his age and tenure, will be wearing the #27 when he suits up for the Penguins. Although that number is currently worn by veteran forward Craig Adams.

That should lead to an interesting introduction when he and Sid first appear in the locker room together. You sort of wonder if Crosby was consulted before this trade … but not really because Sid is a professional and much like we saw with Asham and Cooke, what happens on the ice when players on opposing teams is washed away when they suit up for the same club.

As for Neal, well he has the scoring touch that you would like to see in a winger for Crosby at least for the price that was paid. He has 21 goals and 39 points this season. Last year he had 27 goals and 28 assists.

Goligoski became the casualty of a deep blue line for the Penguins. He has the skill to be a top four defenseman but was wallowing as the #5 man in the Penguins defensive corps. And with Despres all but ready to join the Penguins next year someone had to go. And that someone was not going to be Michalek or Martin both of whom the Pengiuns acquired at good prices and locked up long term this past off season. Orpik wasn’t going anywhere and neither was All-Star Kris Letang. Deryk Engelland also was not heading anywhere now that he has established himself as a solid defenseman who can take over the enforcer role for the Penguins when Goddard is most likely not resigned.

Sad to see Go Go go, but overall this trade helps the Penguins and helps Go Go too. In Dallas he will get more ice time and more responsibility as a #3 or #4 defenseman than he would get here in Pittsburgh.

Then came a spurt.  Pittsburgh scored on goals by Dustin Jeffrey (3) at 5:30 of the second, Mike Rupp (5) at 10:36 of the second and Chris Kunitz (17) at 14:12 of the second.  They were up 3-2 when they lost another center, Jordan Staal, to a match penalty and when he was ejected for throwing a gloved punch.  The Penguins almost escaped the second period without that hurting them.  But at 19:47 of the frame Callahan (11) scored to tie up the game on the power play that the Staal penalty afforded the Rangers.

The Penguins dug in in the third period and held off the Rangers through overtime.  Then came the shootout.  Marc-Andre Fuery, who made 26 saves in regulation and OT, stopped shots by Wolski, Zuccarello, Callahan, Anisimov, Stepan and Dubinsky.  Lundqvist stopped Letang, Dupuis, Kunitz, Goligoski, Kennedy and Conner.

Then came Dustin Jeffrey, the man who scored the first goal of the game for Pittsburgh and who by all rights would be playing daily for the big club on a lesser team not chocked full of talent.  He scored in round seven of the shootout.  Fluery then proceeded to stop Marian Gaborik to end the game.

The Penguins were undoubtedly happy to come out of it all with two points considering their situation.  But surprisingly the Penguins have been playing well without their superstars lately.  They are proving that they can stay competitive, adapt and even win when temporarily missing pieces to the puzzle.