Penguins v. Flyers Preview

     It's been confirmed to me, that the Pittsburgh Penguins will open up the 2013 NHL season against their rival, the Philadelphia Flyers. This rivalry is huge, and I know both cities are very much so looking forward to this shortened season opening up like this. The game will supposedly be at 3:00p.m., per my source.

     What's going to happen during this game? It's hard to say, really. The playoffs are something that the Penguins definitely need to forget about and put past them, which I think they've already done and will be able to do during this first meeting. Things have changed since last season, as far as the roster goes, for both teams as follows.

For the Pittsburgh Penguins, the following offseason signings/acquisitions have happened:

06/04: Acquired G Tomas Vokoun from Washington.
06/22: Acquired C Brandon Sutter, D Brian Dumoulin and a first round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft from Carolina.
06/30: Re-Signed D Matt Niskanen.
07/01: Re-Signed C Sidney Crosby.
07/01: Signed C Trevor Smith, C Warren Peters, and LW Tanner Glass.
07/13: Signed RW Benn Ferriero.
08/30: Re-Signed LW Eric Tangradi, D Brian Strait and D Robert Bortuzzo

The following departures have also occurred:

-C Jordan Staal (traded to Carolina)
-RW Arron Asham (unrestricted free agent, signed by NY Rangers)
-LW Steve Sullivan (unrestricted free agent, signed by Phoenix)
-D Zbynek Michalek (traded to Phoenix)
-G Brent Johnson (unrestricted free agent)
-RW Colin McDonald (unrestricted free agent)
-C Cal O'Reilly (unrestricted free agent)
-RW Richard Park (unrestricted free agent)
-D Alexandre Picard (unrestriced free agent)
-C Jason Williams (unrestricted

For the Philadelphia Flyers, the following offseason signings/acquisitions have happened:

06/23: Acquired D Luke Schenn from Toronto for RW James van Riemsdyk.
07/01: Re-signed G Michael Leighton.
07/05: Signed LW Ruslan Fedotenko and D Bruno Gervais.
07/23: Re-signed C Ben Holmstrom.
07/26: Re-signed RW Jakub Voracek.
08/08: Re-signed D Marc-Andre Bourdon.
08/16: Re-signed RW Wayne Simmonds.
08/20: Re-signed LW Scott Hartnell.

The following departures have also occurred:

-RW Jaromir Jagr (unrestricted free agent, signed by Dallas)
-G Sergei Bobrovsky (traded to Columbus)
-RW James van Riemsdyk (traded to Toronto)
-D Matt Carle (unrestricted free agent, signed by Tampa Bay)
-D Pavel Kubina (unrestricted free agent)

     Clearly, a lot has happened in terms of roster change for both teams, so things could shake up a little bit. The problem with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia though, is these are two teams that are very similarly matched in talent and ability, as well as want to win. As we all know, Pittsburgh met Philadelphia last season in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, but the rivalry goes so far beyond that. The meeting last season, ended all too painfully and quickly for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and hopefully there is no repeat of that this season.

     I'll post any updates, as far as the schedule and everything else as I receive information!!!

Pittsburgh Penguins Schedule

     You saw it here first, well at least I hope. The GM's of the NHL teams, were given the schedules for the 2013 season on January 11th, and I was able to get my hands on PARTS (not all) of it. Obviously if you're not a Penguins fan then you really don't care, but here it is anyhow. I don't have starting times for any games, except for the first one, but be happy you're seeing this much of it so soon...

January 19- @ Philadelphia (3:00pm)
January 20- @ NY Rangers
January 23- vs. Toronto
January 25- @ Winnipeg
February 15- @ Winnipeg
February 26- @ Florida
March 9- @ Toronto
March 12- vs. Boston
March 14- @ Toronto
March 17- vs. Boston
March 28- vs. Winnipeg
April 11- @ Tampa
April 13- @ Florida
April 19- @ Boston
April 27- vs. Carolina (Last Home Game of Season)

You're welcome, & LETS GO PENS !!!!
It's a Great Day For Hockey.

16 Hours Later...

     I woke up out of a sound sleep around 6am today, to see the big news. It's almost like my body knew. I can't believe I'm actually laying in my bed typing this up right now, simply because I didn't think the day was going to come in the near future, but ladies and gentleman, the NHL Lockout is OVER.
   
     16 long hours of talks happened in New York City on Saturday, with concessions from both sides. At 5:00am today (January 6th) it was released that the NHL and NHLPA have reached a verbal agreement on a tentative framework for a new CBA. This framework hardly came easy though, after 113 days and a loss of 625 regular season games, or over 1/2 of the 2012-13 season. It took a lot longer than it should have, and angered many. The constant feeling of false hope, as we sat back watching the  politics unravel, while millionaires argued back and forth with, well, other millionaires.

     The NHL is coming back with a 10-year CBA solidified between Don Fehr and Gary Bettman. Of course there were many sticking points, causing these long discussions and meetings between both sides, and some of the cleaned up details of this new CBA have made their way to the media. One of those being that there is now a 7-year contract limit (8 for own players) and a 64.3 million dollar cap for 2013-14. So, after the NHL asked for a $60 M cap, the players were able to bump them all the way to $64.3 M.

     Though this ordeal started back on June 29th, when collective bargaining came to a start between the NHL and NHLPA, the lockout technically began at 11:59p.m. EDT on 9/15/2012, after both sides tendered offers.  The June 29th meetings, sparked a July 13th proposal from the NHL that set things back for what ended up being months. That offer included a very dramatic drop in the players' share of revenue, going from 57 to 43%. The next big offer was announced by the NHL arrived in October, which had put the 50/50 split in revenue and a season start date of November 2nd. That offer, was obviously not taken, and talks continued. That offer, which pushed the next round of cancellations, resulted in the Winter Classic between the Red Wings and the Maple Leafs getting cancelled.

     Drama really unfolded in December, when meetings between the plays and the owners without Bettman and or Fehr being present in the room; several proposals; and even mediation with the U.S. federal government. January 11th was hanging around as the date that the entire season would be cancelled, and we're not far from that at all. The clock has definitely been ticking and everyone was well aware of it.
   
     The season is expected to begin on January 19th, but could begin as early as January 15th. Teams will only be playing within their respective conferences. The season is looking like it's going to be 48-50 games long. If it is 48 games long, then the season will obviously begin earlier. Teams would play their division rivals, 7 times and would face the other 10 clubs in this conference home and away (20 games). There will be NO interconference play, as expected. The scheduling is subject to change, but it's going to be pretty close to what I just mentioned.

     Training camps should be starting Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of this week, depending on how things unravel, especially with so many players being over seas.

     Regardless of anything else though, HOCKEY IS BACK !!!!!

Is The NHL Lockout Nearing End?

     Twitter has seemed to have exploded over the past few days, with rumors of the lockout ending, and ending soon for that matter. Collective bargaining negotiations resumed Wednesday afternoon, giving a feeling of hope to us fans, that this 81-day lockout might finally be coming to an end. There are rumors that there will be an announcement sometime Friday, December 7th, that the lockout is over, but it is still hard to say.

     On Tuesday, representatives from both sides sat for over 8 hours, making it seem as if things were going well. Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr were both absent from these meetings, which was clearly a good thing. New owners and new players were present, and some apparently had a huge presence in these meetings. At the end of the day, Steve Fehr of the NHLPA said, "It might be the best day we've had so far." Us fans can only hope so... Now, the question is, as we all sit and wait, will all of the fans return? I've had many tell me that they will not be watching this season, because of the lockout, but I have also had many say that they just can't wait for it to come back.

     Another question that is looming, is how long will the season be? Some have implied that a 54-60 game season would be reasonable, and possible as long as the season kicks off before December 25th. Keep in mind that if an agreement is reached, players would need a few days to return to their respective cities, and a week-long training camp would need to take place before games could get underway. All games through December 14th are already cancelled, as well as the Winter Classic which was slated to take place at Michigan Stadium on New Years Day, and the All-Star Game in Columbus.

     In the mean time, Twitter is blowing up right now, thanks to the @NHLPodium account. Hopefully we get news soon, preferably before Friday. It seems as if someone will be speaking soon, and we can only hope it's about the end of the lockout. Most likely, we'll get some irrelevant remark from Bettman about how "things are going well." It's not like we aren't used to that though... Hopefully we'll have good news soon...

NHL vs. NHLPA

    I think it's more than safe to say that all of us hockey fans are more than sick of this back and forth, or lack there of... Between the NHL and the NHLPA. It is getting old, and was old the day the lockout was announced. I know I haven't posted about anything, since right before the lockout began and I really feel it's because I'm just so disgusted with all parties at this point. I have seen so much flaw in the actions of Bettmans' side, as well as Mr. Fehrs. It makes us wonder what the goal in all of this really is, because getting a season underway soon sure doesn't seem like it at this point. I'm at the point in time, where I'd like to simultaneously slam Gary Bettman and Don Fehrs' heads against a wall. I'm going to assume that a lot of people, including myself are wondering how they're so far apart on a 50-50 deal. It's millionaires and billionaires fighting each other and it's disgusting. This is all awful to sit back and watch, when all us fans want to be doing, is sitting back and watching some games.

     I am not getting into the dirty details of all of these proposals exchanged over the last few days, because I don't see it being necessary. This past weekend though, the NHL held a focus group, to really gauge the fan base reaction to the lockout as well as other NHL related matters affecting them. Not long after, did the NHL surprisingly make a new proposal to the NHLPA, offering to split all Hockey Related Revenue 50-50. That move by the NHL lit a fire under a lot of us and got us very excited. It really gave a sense of hopefulness and a feeling of confidence that this deal could get done quite soon, and in time for us to still have an 82 game season. 

     Following that, the NHLPA took a couple of days to develop three counter proposals, one of which would also offer to split the Hockey Related Revenue 50-50. So why did they not agree or accept? The owners saw one issue with this proposal, and that was... The owners would have to honor the contracts that were already in place prior to the expiration of the previous CBA with no escrow. Also, any future contracts signed after the new CBA is in place, would see a higher escrow percentage in place to make up for that lost money. Quite frankly, I see absolutely NOTHING wrong with them taking that 50-50 but wanting the contracts in place honored. If you care to explain to me how that isn't fair, I'd love to hear your explanation. 

     Even more interestingly enough though, Bettman turned down all three of those counter proposals today, within 10 minutes. He obviously didn't need much time to think about it, so we find ourselves asking... Did he think about it at all? Is it even possible to actually thoroughly read and discuss all three of those offers within 10 minutes and shoot them down? We're left wondering...People don't know who to side with, whether it be the owners or the players right now. All of the fans are fed up, and I'm sure that the people normally employed at these arenas during the NHL season, are even more fed up. It's not the fans that are hurt the worst. It's the people the NHL indirectly employs, it's the local businesses surrounding each venue that are getting hurt. Those people are being severely affected by all of this, and it really is sad. They're now unemployed (yes, I know the players technically are as well) but I think them not having paychecks unexpectedly is a lot more serious than millionaires not getting paid...

     

That's all I have to say about any of this. Bottom line is, I'm frustrated and I want hockey back. 

The NHL Lockout Is Here

     It isn't the words that any of us have wanted to hear, but the National Hockey League, has officially locked out. The NHL stated that there would be no bargaining with the NHLPA, September 15th, 2012 leaving absolutely nothing in the way of this work stoppage. This lockout is the 4th stoppage since 1992 and the third to hit a major sports league in only 18 months, including the NBA and the NFL.

     Bill Daly, the deputy commissioner of the NHL said that both sides have spoken by telephone, but there will be no formal bargaining before the dreaded midnight deadline. He and Steve Fehr, brother of Donald Fehr had conferred to see if there would be any face to face talks. This marked 3 straight days that the sides would speak by phone, and not face-to-face, once again avoiding the negotiating table.

     It's been almost a year that commissioner Gary Bettman threatened to lock the players out if a new CBA wasn't set by the time that the current one was set to expire. That deadline has arrived, and it is appearing unlikely that training camps will open net week. The regular season was set to open on October 11th, but that date is in danger as well.

     A lot needs to be sorted out, and we as fans hope as much as the players do that things start to get moving in the next couple of weeks. More than the regular NHL season is in danger though. There are a couple of important dates on the calendar in the professional hockey world. New Years Day, marks the Winter Classic, set to take place at the 115,000-seat Michigan Stadium between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The other big day, is the January 27th All-Star game, that will be hosted by the Columbus Blue Jackets, one of the small-market teams in the league that is struggling.

     Hopefully the whole season will not be lost as it was in 2004-05 and we won't have to see this again:

     

     Proposals were traded on Wednesday, September 12th but neither offer moved them closer to marking a new deal. At that point, the lack of progress had really deemed the lockout inevitable. Wednesday and Thursday really gave it time to sink in, that the season may not be starting on time.

     Also on Wednesday, Don Fehr addressed the media in New York City and stated that during the meetings that morning, the union's proposal was consistent with their core principals. The proposal itself was on the core economic issues, because there is such a significant gap on those, that the secondary issue is being put on the back burner. Bettman stated that day, that under the NHL's new proposal, players would pay 9.7% escrow in Year 1 under their projections. He also added that the unions proposal wasn't much different from the last one, while the league made significant movement in theirs. When he was asked about the possibility of the season being lost, he said, "I certainly wouldn't want that to happen. No one wants that to happen." (k, Gary...) The NHL counterproposal he spoke of, was 6 years in length and offered to start the players share at 49% of hockey-related revenue and end it at 47%. Their previous proposal was 46%, and the new proposal didn't change the definition of hockey related revenue as the last one did.

     In response to that offer, Fehr said that it is still not an offer that interested the players whatsoever, given the drop from the current 57%. The NHLPA counter proposal was 5 years in length and eliminated the 57% of hockey related revenue they wanted in the last season, and would save the owners $900 million.


     Basically, they talked in circles while addressing the media that day....

Donald Fehr addressing the media. 

Don't they all look so happy!??!

     With the impending lockout, many players are heavily considering going and playing elsewhere. Some of those players, are listed below.

Evgeni Malkin: KHL Magnitogorsk
Sergei Gonchar: KHL Magnitogorsk
Alex Ovechkin: KHL
Henrik Lundqvist, Erik Karlsson: SEL Frolunda Indians (IF WHOLE SEASON IS LOST)
Sidney Crosby: Considering playing in Europe, unsure.
Pavel Datsyuk: KHL or SEL
Jaromir Jagr: HC Kladno
Teemu Selanne: Jokerit
David Krejci: Possibly will play for a team in the Czech Republic, but hasn't give his word to one yet.
Ilya Kovalchuk: KHL
Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen: Kalpa (They're both part-owners of the team)
Martin Brodeur: Will possibly go to Europe, but also hasn't given word yet.
Claude Giroux: Will most likely play a season somewhere, but no word has been given as to where.
Nicklas Backstrom: If a FULL Season is lost, then he may head home to play.
Henrik, Daniel Sedin: If FULL Season is lost, they will return to play for the Modo as a "last resort."
Martin St. Louis: May return to Switzerland, where he played in the 2004-05 lockout.

     My take on all of this? I have mixed emotion. I'm pissed just like a lot of other fans are, and I'm sure the players are as well. I don't want to see ANOTHER season lost. I'll miss going to games, and watching games and it's going to suck to see a full season be pissed away because of millionaires fighting billionaires. The thing is though, basically all of these problems the owners caused for themselves. Specifically since they started to circumvent the CBA as soon as they could. I'm not saying that they have absolutely no right to make the requests or demands to save their asses... But, they kind of got themselves into this mess.

     As a random example... Just look at what Parise and Suter signed with the Minnesota Wild. Yeah, it was good for them for being able to orchestrate deals like that and they used the leverage necessary to construct the best deal for themselves. It's not too different from what the owners have been trying to do with this CBA. If the Wild thought that what Parise and Suter wanted was unreasonable, then they wouldn't have paid attention to them and offered them anything at all. They have the right to not acquiesce the two of them. The players have that same exact right when it comes to the demands of the NHL as well. At this point, the clock is ticking. The players want their season, and they want whats fair. The fans want to watch their teams play, and enjoy a FULL season. If a season is lost, it's going to hurt the fan bases, cities revenue from tourists (people traveling to games, especially the winter classic), and even charities amongst so many other things.

     It's hard to point fingers at only one person, because there are really so many to blame. Time is ticking away and now we're just a few hours from the NHL officially locking out.

Steelers Fall To Denver, 31-19

     Well, tough loss is one way to put it. The Steelers seem to have a lot of work to do this season if they want it to be successful. It's still early, but after tonight things looked a little rough. The offense looked like it did last year, and the defense looked far from the #1 ranking it was awarded last season.
     Manning and Roethlisberger both threw two touchdown passes and both used their no-huddle offenses liberally. Big Ben, had a chance to pull this game out and come out of it with a W though. Pittsburgh trailed by 6 with under 3:00 on the clock when Ben completed a 19 yard pass to Sanders. Two plays later, Ben tried going back to Emmanuel along he left sideline when Porter picked it off, returning it for that 43 yard TD that decided the game. That was the only interception of the game for either QB. Sacks though, Ben was taken down 5 times, Manning twice.
     For every scoring drive the black and gold came up with tonight, the Broncos had an answer. Peyton directed Denver with the no-huddle offense he did so well with Indianapolis taking his offense 80 yards to score the go-ahead TD with under 10:00 on the clock. The "conservative" Steelers offense had some serious issues getting going in the first quarter, though the defense was able to make up for it with their two sacks and turnover.
     Bottom line, lots of work needs done it seems. Things need tweaked, and yes it's only the first game of the season, but if we're having these issues now, they'll probably come up later as well. Better to take care of them, and rectify the issues now, rather than get destroyed in the playoffs when it REALLY matters.

Breaking It Down: 

Big Ben: 

     In the 1st quarter, Big Ben was perfect, for 25 yards. On the other side though, he got sacked very easily. He wasn't stellar, but he wasn't horrible either. Following that, in the 2nd quarter things started looking a little worse. 7 had two completely terrible passes in the redzone early on to force us to settle for a short field goal. After that, he was able to get a good drive and touchdown pass to Miller near the end of the quarter, to make things look up a little bit.

     The 3rd quarter rolled along and Ben was under constant pressure. Ramon Foster and Marcus Gilbert were out of the game on our offensive line and Ben did everything that he could to get us in field goal range to start. Ben started looking a little more sharp, and trying to complete passes and extend plays like the "good" Ben does. Later on in the 3rd, he began to slip off. He was close to getting picked off on consecutive plays, but he was able to drive the offense down for a shot at a TD.

     The 4th quarter.... It wasn't good. Ben was under pressure practically every time he went back to pass and he came close to throwing an interception on a pass intended to go to Mike Wallace. Wallace was wiiiiide open on a broken coverage, but Ben didn't have enough time to find him and get to him. After that "moment," Ben tossed his absolute worst pass of the night, that ended up right in the hands of Denvers' Tracy Porter who ran it back for a touchdown and snuffed the last bit of the flame for our black and gold.


Defense: 

     Starting off with sacking Manning a couple of times, things looked promising. Though, it didn't come close to happening again. The defense apparently decided they weren't coming back after halftime. They held Denver to a field goal, late in the game to give the offense a bit of a chance, but they're the reason we were even in that position...

     The D gave up a few long 3rd down conversions in the 1st quarter, but aside from that they looked pretty good early on. They were putting good pressure on Peyton, with two sacks tallied. The D in the 2nd quarter wasn't quite as solid and they gave up a TD drive that ended with a 7 yard TD to Denvers Knowshon Moreno. 3rd down proved itself to be an issue for the Steelers defense throughout the game, though they held the Broncos' offense to only 7 points in the first half.

     In the second half, more specifically the 3rd quarter, the defense was only on the field for a mere 2 plays after the offense allowed them to wait for roughly an hour on the sideline. At that point, they made a decision to not touch Demaryius Thomas on a 71 yard TD. Not so good. In the 4th, things got a little bit better, but not much. They still couldn't stop anything. Manning was able to get whatever he wanted in the last quarter and every single RB that Denver put in, was able to get decent yardage. In the end, it was a less than stellar performance by the Steelers' D.


Offense: 

     Bruce Arians offense, didn't look much different from the offense that was present tonight for Pittsburgh. First and second downs wasted, hoping Roethlisberger can do something incredible to see them on the 3rd down. So much hype was built up for this new and improved offense, and then watching it was disappointing. Gilbert and Foster getting hurt, didn't help up at all but injuries aren't anything new, and the team needs to be doing something other than waiting for Big Ben to do something.

     During the first quarter, the offensive line showed signs of struggle and the running game wasn't really existent. They showed to be predictable, running on first and second downs, setting up for a long third. Same thing, over and over. Again, in the 2nd quarter with the predictability. There didn't seem to be too much of a difference. There was predictable play calling, with the typical outcome of almost always seeming to be in a 3rd and long. Like the past though, the regular offense needs to get a LOT better, instead of looking goof in the no huddle with Ben.

     Third quarter, Ben's play helped the offense look better thankfully, because the offense looked like they forgot how to play. Dwyer and Redman ran hard, but they were running the same draw play every single time. Continuously wasting first and second downs, again hoping Ben saves the day on the third. I feel like everyone at home was calling out every play we were going to run in the redzone. That's just not good. Fourth quarter wasn't good either. The offense proceeded to look bad, and only went as far as Ben carried them. He did a decent job carrying them most of the game, until he threw the pick 6 to totally end it.


Special Teams:

     I don't have a ton to say here. Suisham hit both of his field goals, and he didn't have a punt returned, so aside from the wonderful punt by Drew Butler, the special teams were pretty quiet tonight.


How do you think the Steelers fared tonight? What do you think this season has in store for them?
Let me know what you think about what their future holds this season below!!!!