My source within the Pens organization tells me that they and Jagr have an understanding about terms for a contract. My source would not cite terms.

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NHL.com is reporting the Pens have withdrawn their offer.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

Matt Cooke threw and elbow to the head of the Rangers Ryan McDonagh. He deserved a suspension for the hit. He deserved it because:
1) It was a dirty hit
2) Cooke is a repeat offender

He also knew it was coming because:
1) He knew Mario pissed off Gary Bettman by calling the NHL on the carpet over head shots
2) The league had just wrapped up its winter meetings where head shots were a hot topic

But the suspension he got was silly. It was, at the time because the Penguins were not a lock for the playoffs, a minimum of 10 games (if they had missed the playoffs) and a maximum of 17 games (if they played a seven game opening round having made the playoffs). Now the suspension, with the Penguins having made the playoffs is a minimum of 14 games.

It was a silly suspension because, I bring this up again, Gillies of the Islanders … sorry I mean the New York Goons … chased down a man across the ice, knocked him down and then continued to beat on him while he was on the ice and got just 9 games. Then Gillies came back from suspension and in his first game back threw a blatant elbow and promptly got a 10 game suspension. At least Cooke waited a few games between coming off his last suspension and his latest infraction for crying out loud!

There was little doubt at the time of the Cooke suspension that the league was sending Mario a message to sit down, shut up, and stop making them look so bad. There is even less doubt now.

Last night, repeat offender, and Red Wings thumper, Todd Bertuzzi proved that. You might remember Mr. Bertuzzi. He is the schlub that punched Steve Moore from behind on March 8th, 2004. Moore suffered a concussion, facial lacerations and several broken vertebrae. That incident got Bertuzzi suspended indefinitely by the league and he wound up missing 20 games (13 regular season and 7 in the playoffs).

Bertuzzi has not seriously cleaned up his act since. He regularly finds any excuse he can to hit players late. In 2003-04 he amassed 122 PIMs in just 69 games. In 2005-06 he massed 120 PIMs in 82 games. In 2006-2007 he netted only 13 PIMs but also only played in 15 games. In 2007-08 Bertuzi had 97 PIMs in just 68 games. In 2008-2009 he got sent to the sin bin for 74 minutes in just 66 games. Last year he had a respectable year of just 80 minutes in 82 games. This year the aging winger has been able to get just 61 penalty minutes. This however is due mostly to the fact that he can no longer chase down players the way he used to. Make no mistake he would love to! But he just cannot.

And he was up to his old tricks again last night as he found an excuse to throw a purposeful elbow into the head of Ryan Johnson. Of course Red Wings fans, who as we here in the ‘Burgh have learned are some of the most ignorant and ill-educated hockey fans, around are defending the hit calling it unintentional. I have read numerous praises for Bertuzzi as being a “gentleman” for immediately seeking out Johnson and apologizing for the hit that got him a 5 minute major as well as ejected from the game. Coming from a Detroit fan ok, I can see why a thug who apologizes would be a “gentleman” in their eyes considering most of the thugs on Detroit’s streets have no such courtesy. I mean, could you imagine? It would be laughable to see a gangsta thug rob a woman at gun point and then tell her how sorry he was!

I have even seen comments from Johnson claiming that he does not think the hit was intentional. Ok, so because Johnson is too stupid to know what Bertuzzi was trying to do to him that makes it ok?

The video says it all and here it is. My commentary follows:

You can clearly see at around 0:39 of this clip (during the replay) that Bertuzzi sees that Johnson’s head is down as he tries to clear the puck. Bertuzzi lifts his elbow, rides it up Johnson’s arm and straight into his head. His right elbow is more than halfway up and Bertuzzi, seeing that he was going to miss Johnson, threw that elbow out there on purpose. There is no doubt about this. That is except to the NHL brass, Red Wings fans and other assorted people who know little to nothing about hockey.

Today the league announced Bertuzzi’s punishment. That punishment? Zero games suspension. Oh yeah, the NHL is really serious about hits to the head and cracking down on repeat offenders. Nope. What the league is really about is making sure Mario knows his place. Bettman cannot stand that Lemieux knows more about what’s up that he does and he certainly cannot stand that Lemieux gets more respect than him. I mean honestly, if you walk into a room and on one end is Mario and the other is Bugsy Bettman, who do you think is going to have the bigger crowd. I mean of legitimate hockey fans, not brown-nosing yes men. Of course it is going to be Mario.

So Bettman acts like a thug to get even. He slaps Cooke hard, lets Gillies off with a relatively comparable love tap and lets Todd Bertuzzi get off scott free.

The joke that is the NHL just keeps running.

It wasn’t the Stanley Cup Finals but the Penguins and Red Wings engaged in a classic battle that was entertaining if not nail biting. Both teams staked out there game plans and each countered the others best laid plans. For the Penguins it was find Wings netminder Jimmy Howard and throw frozen rubber at him early and often. For the Red Wings, depleted by injuries all season, it was weather the storm and be opportunistic.

There was no doubt that Howard kept the Wings in the game. He faced a withering assault and assortment of scoring attempts of all types from slap shots to wristers to banging in garbage from the doorstep and stopped all but one of the 47 shots he faced in regulation and overtime. That one that he missed was on a Sidney Crosby (34) backhand late in the first. However with the help of some posts and what as at times utter chaos in the Detroit zone that was all the Penguins could muster.

The Red Wings however hung in there and after managing just 11 shots through the first two periods came to life for about five minutes in the third and scored the game tying goal midway through. That is the way the game ended after sixty minutes and despite having to kill a penalty in overtime, the Penguins and Wings moved on to the shootout.

Fleury had already been strong all game long, although he too had a couple fortunate bounces save his bacon, despite nursing a still broken finger on his glove hand stood tall in the one on one session forcing Pavel Datsyuk to miss the net on his shot and making a save on Jason Williams.

In the end it was the dynamic duo for the Penguins that made sure the game went on no longer once Fleury stood tall between the pipes. Kris Letang could not beat Williams but Crosby and Malkin both scored on their chances and it was Malkin’s shot, a soft push into the net after Williams was down and out that brought the crowd at the Igloo to its feet as the final score officially read 2-1 Penguins.

The win was important for the Penguins who are sitting in fourth place in the East and being challenged by surging Ottawa (31-21-4, 66 pts), who just beat the Penguins at the Igloo on Thursday night. The win against the Wings gives the Penguins (34-21-1, 69 pts) a three point lead over the Senators and keeps them just three points behind the New Jersey Devils (35-17-2, 72 pts) who are leading the Atlantic Division but also have two games in hand over Pittsburgh.

Tonight the Penguins though have to turn around again and do it all over as the Buffalo Sabres come into town. Buffalo is leading their division and third in the east at 32-14-7 and 71 points.

Ok, I just got myself out of bed after a night of sound sleep resting easy knowing that the Stanley Cup was heading back here to Pittsburgh. Now that my head has cleared I am ready to give my thoughts about not just Game 7 but also the entire Stanley Cup Finals and playoffs.

• “That’s life” – Yes, it certainly is isn’t it Mr. Hossa. When asked about how it felt loosing the cup again after bolting from the Penguins to the team he felt had a better chance at securing Hockey’s ultimate prize this is what he had to say about it. Karma sucks huh?
• Hockey is an odd sport. Sure Penguins booed the Hossa every chance we had after he spurned the Penguins for Detroit, but we respect him because we know how good of a player he is. It was like when Jagr left the team. He was booed constantly on the ice but when they showed video highlights of him and tributes to his successes even while he was on the visiting team we cheered him … then we went right back to booing him. We all wish Hossa success in the future … just not against the Penguins.
• Hossa not only did not get the Stanley Cup he so desperately wanted, but he was for all intents and purposes a complete non-factor in the Finals. You think Pittsburgh Fans were hard on him? Wait until Detroit gets through tearing him a new @**hole. He won’t be able to get out of Detroit fast enough.
• Who would have thought that Maxime Talbot would be this year’s Fedotenko and score both the Penguins goals in the final game? And who would have thought that Mad Max would be the series leader in goals with four?
• During the Penguin’s first Stanley Cup run in 1990-1991 Frank Pietrangelo made what became known as “The Save” subbing for the legendary Tom Barrasso in Game 6 of the first round against New Jersey and robbed Petr Stastny of an easy goal. This year I think we have The Save II and The Save III and The Save IV. The Save II was when Fleury robbed Ovechkin in Game 7 of the second round in Washington to suck the air out of the Capitals. The Save III was by Rob Scudderi in Game 6 as he prevented the tying goal with Fleury out of position in the final moments. The Save IV was Fleury leaping like superman from the far post with the final two seconds ticking away, lept into the air to stop an elevated puck shot by Lindstrom and saving the game from going into extra frames.
• No Crosby? No Problem. Sidney Crosby was knocked out of the game for all intents and purposes by a fairly clean check by Johan Franzen. It was a tense moment for the Penguins as Crosby would return to play only one shift in the third. But the team rallied and played hard even if they did D-up too much in the third and gave Detroit far too many opportunities.
• 6:07 – that’s when I started to get really worried after Fluery let in another soft goal to allow the Wings to cut the lead to in half and be within one.
• Thank God for the posts. The posts were in play all series long. Early on in the series the Penguins were the victims of every bad bounce off of them. In Game 7, late, it was the crossbar that made one of the biggest saves against the Red Wings to keep me from being even more anxious than I already was.
• Penguins evolved when they needed to in this series. The Red Wings made it clear that they were not going to allow the Penguins to play their brand of up and down the ice high octane hockey. So they adapted, turned into a checking monster and hit like most Pens fans have never seen before.

My Three Stars of the Game:

3rd star: The crossbar

Hey, it made a great save in the waining moments!

2nd star: Max Talbot

With the only two goals of the game Max unquestionably deserves this honor.

1st star: Marc-Andre Fleury

I don’t care what you say, despite the vast amount of improvement Fleury still needs to make in the coming years (he needs to get much better handling the puck and with his glove hand on the high side) Fleury blossomed and saved this series with performances in Games 6 and 7 that make him worthy of the 1st star.

Series MVP:

I’m giving this honor to our two best goal tenders – Fleury and Scuderi. Without Fleury’s glove and without Scuderi sacrificing his body constantly, the Penguins would never have won this series.

Player I am happiest for:

Bill Guerin. I love this guy. He plays hockey the way it should be played and was a great addition to this team at the trade deadline.

What I hope for most:

Well, other than another Stanley Cup, I hope the Penguins and many of the pieces of this team can come to agreeable terms to keep the Champs mostly in tact moving forward. Scuderi, Fedotenko and Guerin are all free agents and are key parts to this team. They are not irreplaceable and I have not seen a list of free agents yet, but keeping all of them would be a boost. But Scuderi put on a clinic in the playoffs and will have teams falling all over themselves to sign him. I hope that Fed and Billy will decide to stay on for next year. Miro Satan and Petr Sykora are also players I would like to see come back, but honestly I do not see the Penguins paying Miro the kind of money they currently are to play on the fourth line – a role I think he blossomed at this year once put into it.

And just for good measure I want to say it once more …

THE STANLEY CUP CHAMPION PITTSBURGH PENGUINS!

This is it. We are down to Game 7 and it is for all the marbles. On Friday night the Penguins will march into Mordor … I mean Detroit and attempt to defeat Sauron … I mean the Red Wings.

For the Penguins this will be uncharted territory. This team has not had to endure the pressure of a single game to crown the NHL champion having lost last year in six to Detroit where there were no last minute heroics to be had. This year it was Detroit who could not find the net as game six wound down.

Forget pressure. Both teams are under it. Detroit needs the Cup to show that they still have what it takes to be champions and prove wrong those that say they are too old. Pittsburgh needs the Cup to prove that they are not doomed to be the bridesmaid and never the bride. Plus getting back to the finals three years in a row for the Penguins is a bet I will not even make.

Forget age versus youth. Sure the Red Wings are older but older warriors are wiser. Pittsburgh is younger for sure but so far the speed of their youthful legs has been pretty much held in check.

Goaltending? Both Fleury and Osgood have proven to be mortal at times and both have been spectacular at others. But I will give this obvious conclusion … which ever plays better in Game 7 wins.

Big names and big guns? So far this series has belonged more to the role players than that stars who have consistently canceled each other out.

Matchups? So far it is has been a series of picking your poison on both sides of the ice. Put Zetterberg out there against Crosby and you negate Crosby but also Zetterberg as Crosby has fallen into the counter role of his constant shadow.

Trends of history? Who cares! Sure the Penguins have been unbeatable in Game 7s but those players are for the most part long gone from this roster except those that played in the Washington series this year. Sure Detroit has been pretty much invincible on home ice but the Penguins have shown that they can win there in both the regular season and the playoffs … just not this postseason so far. They are either due or just incapable of doing it.

So considering all this I tried to think about what I would say to the Penguins team if I were coach Bylsma prior to game seven. What follows are my extemporaneous remarks written without edit as if I were speaking to the team and continuing with the Lord of the Rings theme I opened with …

The Lord of the Rings is a heroic tale of men, and hobbits, who had to go to war for their very survival and they found out a lot about themselves as they fought each battle. They learned that even when they thought that they had nothing left to give there was more that they could bring forth to fight the next battle. Along the way they suffered losses and felt the sting of defeat. But they also experienced great victories as well.

We have done the same. We have taken to the field of battle and both lost and won along the way. We are beaten and bloodied. Our bodies ache. But there is one last battle that must be fought before this is over and that battle will determine who is the hero and who is the villain. Everything up until this point is meaningless.

One game to rule them all … that is what this season has come down to. It probably never should have come to this considering Detroit stormed out to another 2-0 series lead this year on us. But while the first three games played out with the same results as last year, the last three games have each seen a different winner from the previous season proving that nothing is certain. The future is not written nor is it based on the past. There was no Game 7 last year so everything from here on out is all brand new and all bets are off.

One game to find yourself … to find yourselves as either champions or as nothing but a footnote that is to be surely forgotten except to be cursed in the sports bar by disgruntled Pittsburghers or mocked by joyous Red Wings fans. Well Sid, how badly do you NOT want to be in that photograph of the losers again as Detroit parades around with the Cup in triumph? The time to decide is at hand. The time to find yourself and rise to the occasion is now. There is no tomorrow.

One game to bring it … and bring it while leaving nothing on the ice and no doubt at all. When this game ends the looser goes home empty handed with only the hope that they could potentially return to this precipice again next year and a trinket of a trophy from the Conference Championship to show for their efforts. The time is now for the future contains no guarantees. If you want the Cup you must win tonight and never think about future opportunities that may never arise to claim it.

Are you frightened Sid? How about you Geno? Marc-Andre? Jordan? I do not believe that you are nearly frightened enough! It is time to pledge to each your life (or death) to protect one another and stand as one. It is time to draw a line that Detroit will not be allowed to cross. It is time to pledge your stick, your mind and every inch of your body to this task at hand. It is time to proclaim to your foes facing you that if they want the prize before you both that they must claim it from you for it is in your hands which victory rests! Do not allow them to take it without a fight! They tell you that there can be no victory. But there is always hope.

When Frodo took the One Ring to Mordor he did so believing that he would not come back alive. But he did what he needed to do. He was willing to sacrifice everything for his friends and strangers who were counting on him. And in the end he found out that death was not so certain after all although pain certainly was.

The gates of Mordor are opened and are challenging each of you to dare to enter and face down your nemesis; to face a foe that is menacing and wields unimaginable power. You must not fear pain. For you will feel pain. You must not fear death. For you must expect that you will surely feel as if you are dying as you expend every last ounce of energy over the course of this final and deciding game no matter how long it takes be it sixty minutes or six hundred. You must face death without fear in order to cast your demons into the fire and destroy them. To defeat the Red Wings you must know this and be willing to make every sacrifice that is required of you.

Then and maybe, just maybe, you will survive and be heroes.

The time is chosen and it is at hand. The field of final battle is chosen and you are about to go forth up on it. We are in enemy territory from this moment on. If it moves, has the puck and wears a red sweater you will hit it. If the puck is headed towards your own net you will block it. If the puck is loose you will race for it. If you are in the offensive zone with the puck on your own stick, you will shoot it. If you are in a scrum for the puck in front of their goalie you will bury it.

Why? Because you are not just penguins, but Pittsburgh Penguins – the only one of the species that can soar to the greatest of heights.

I have not decided what to say following Game 6 and heading into Game 7. I guess I am still, nearly 24 hours after the fact, on an adrenaline high from watching the spectacle from my seats in D7. So until I decide what to say, just enjoy the highlights …