kris-letang Page index.xml - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

This about sums up the Penguins season
Hockey can be infuriating. In no other sport can you do mostly everything right, but a little chinks in the armor can have an outsized effect if they’re spaced out correctly. Go 0-fer on the power play, or don’t get a save at the right time, or give up the wrong odd-man rush in the gimmick of overti...

This week in the NHL: Looking back at the oldest to play; Handing out awards for 2023; Kris Letang's historic night
Hockey players are a different breed. While most sports see their stars fizzle out by the time they reach their late thirties, the NHL routinely has their stars shine well into their forties. Hockey players play the game with grit and resilience, unlike any other athlete. Maybe that’s why they boast...

This might be Sidney Crosby’s masterpiece, because it has to be
It hasn’t worked in Pittsburgh. While the Penguins made perhaps the offseason’s splashiest move by trading for Erik Karlsson, pairing another surefire Hall of Famer with the three they already had, they’re still only being propped up in the Metro Division by the pointless Blue Jackets. They’re only ...

The Penguins power play will be a doomsday device, just not yet
The Penguins might be the most-watched team in the league this season. When you trade for the reigning Norris Trophy winner, surefire Hall of Famer, and d-man who changed how the position is viewed in Erik Karlsson, to add to your collection of three Hall of Famers already, fans are going to want to...

If Penguins GM Kyle Dubas is going to go down, it’s going to be with the most flames possible
Whatever Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas’s analytic-rep is, he’s going to be remembered for always opting for the big swing. While he may have been championed as a hockey sabermetric darling who rose to the biggest chair in the sport in Toronto, those that deride him would happily point out that a...

Looks like that’s it for the Boston Bruins, the dynasty that almost was
In every sport now, it seems one of the most fascinating things to watch is when an organization decides a particular roster has run its course. Thanks to salary caps everywhere (or just the totally not but really is a cap in baseball) there always comes a time when you have to pull that trigger as ...

It’s time for the yearly symposium on whether this is finally it for the Penguins
This is yet another distasteful side effect of the NHL’s salary cap. Fans and observers of a certain team, especially a successful one, have to start judging just how much sand is left in the hourglass. They have to weigh the age of the best players, salaries of those players, when contracts run out...

Here are the Penguins again, hanging around, hanging around, can’t get rid of them…
In a world where the Patriots didn’t exist (and what a world that would be), perhaps the gold (and black) standard for bucking against the tides, refusing to be victims of a salary cap and system specifically designed to prevent sustained success, and just general obstinance would be the Pittsburgh ...

Fare Thee Well, Penn State, it was’t even fun while it lasted
Penn State has now lost back-to-back games by blowing a two-touchdown lead at Iowa and scoring eight points over the course of nine overtimes at home against Illinois. That’s quite a way to go from being No. 4 in the country to having no hope for the national title whatsoever....

We can’t run from the Penguins and Capitals
This will be the third standings system or alignment the NHL has used in the past decade. But no matter how they shake out the teams or decide how they get into the playoffs, it’s a safe bet that the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals will be at the top. Part of that is the NHL basically we...

I Have Watched This 46 Times And I Can't Tell If It Was A Save Or A Goal
Wednesday’s game between the Cup-hopeful Lightning and the somehow-not-dead-yet Penguins came down to the final seconds, twice. Victor Hedman scored on a power-play slapper with 56.4 seconds left to give Tampa the lead, and then, with, oh, just about 0.3 seconds left, something happened on the goal ...

Sidney Crosby's Called Play Worked To Perfection
The Penguins have been the clear better team in both Finals games, and they’re up two games to none. But it doesn’t always work that way; the sample size of a series is too small for puck justice to win out every time, and indeed, both games have been decided by one goal. Individual plays carry the ...

Kris Letang Suspended One Game
Just like most people predicted. That’s progress, I guess? Here’s the video from the Department of Player Safety:...

Things Are Getting Nasty In Caps-Penguins
Washington and Pittsburgh is a hell of a matchup under any circumstances, but this year—with the Capitals the Presidents’ Trophy Winners and the Penguins the league’s hottest team over the second half—many (bettors, anyway) have this pegged as an early Stanley Cup Finals. And it’s only the second ro...

Marcus Johansson Leaves Game After Brutal Hit By Kris Letang
The calls for suspension rang out during the first intermission of tonight’s Capitals-Penguins Game 3 as Kris Letang knocked Marcus Johansson out of the game with a brutal hit....

Kris Letang Tried To Chop Viktor Stalberg's Head Off With His Stick
Kris Letang is clearly excited for Game of Thrones to come back this weekend, because he used his hockey stick like a goddamn battle ax here and went straight for the jugular. The Penguins beat the Rangers 3-1 on goals and 1-0 on attempted decapitations....

Let's Enjoy Kris Letang's Hip Check On David Backes
To be clear, Marc Methot's hip check is much smoother than Kris Letang's effort on David Backes, but the Penguin got the job done....

Willie Mitchell Uses Kris Letang's Helmet Against Him In Fight
Florida Panthers captain Willie Mitchell got tied up with Pittsburgh's Kris Letang, and inexplicably resorted to swinging Letang's own helmet at him. Willie Mitchell's a lawless man....

Kris Letang Cross-Checked A Linesman. That's A Suspension...Right?
Between Eric Gryba getting two games for a borderline hit that resulted in injury, and nobody from this Sens-Habs mess being punished, NHL playoff discipline seems even more "spin the wheel" than usual. But shoving an official would seem pretty clear-cut, no?...

It's Always Bitey In Philadelphia
We're still trying to sort out what went down, but it looks like Kris Letang's hand got a little too close to Scott Hartnell's mouth. He might want to get tested for rabies....