Basically a week till the draft. Not a ton going on. Only subject worth talking about over and over again is the Kris Letang situation.

Some other shit...

-- According to Rob Rossi at the Trib. Allan Walsh, Pascal Dupuis's agent, met with Ray Shero. [ Trib ]

-- Shero also met with Kris Letang's agent. At the GM's meeting Shero had some interesting quotes. [ Yahoo ]

"Having met with Kris last week, I know his feelings about trying to stay in Pittsburgh, but we all know it's a business," said Shero. "Having said that, I just want to try to get a deal that works for us and for him."

-- This is hilarious. How Game four ended in Austin. [ AA ]

If you've haven't seen it, there is a Boston blog called Masshole Sports that is the worst blog maybe ever. Their recap usually includes some picture and a bizarre caption. Example here. In tribute to their horrible site, we encourage some submissions for every Boston loss going forward. 

Here is the recap of game four:

CBC Montage:

If you haven't read part one of Mike Colligan's Kris Letang breakdown, you should. [ THW ]

Letang's future is really the main focus of the Penguins off season at this point. After what we saw Mark Streit get from the Flyers today, could Colligan's assertion that the Pens could pay Letang nine-million a year still be in play? Yikes.

UPDATE:

Here is Part 2.

So this may explain why Crosby was jammed in Game 1:

Have to be honest, lost a lot of respect for Chara after seeing it. More from the Toronto Sun here.

Dirt move. Hockey gods never forgive.

Three good reads

--Sean Conboy rounded a bunch of us up for a chat. [ Pittsburgh Magazine ]

-- Chicago Tribune. Yikes. [ AA ]

-- Panther Tickets are really cheap. [ PDL ]

( Biznasty tweeted that Thursday)

-- Great read from Rob Rossi on how the Pens and Malkin came to an agreement. [ trib ]

Last fall, upon returning to Pittsburgh from playing with his Russian hometown Metallurg Magnitogorsk during the NHL lockout, Malkin informed his agent, J.P. Barry, he wanted to sign a long-term deal with the Penguins. However, he did not want to negotiate until after the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Also interesting to see that Shero spoke to Crosby to make sure it was okay with him that Malkin will technically be the Penguins' highest-paid player.

-- PSAMP owns the Internet after this post. [ PSAMP ]

Late-January, 2014 - Pens slump heading into the Olympics. Tell your dog that you can't see Bylsma as head coach once everyone returns from Russia, and you would've gotten rid of him back in June if you had your way. The dog humps your leg.

--GIF OF THE DAY

-- iPhone Wallpapers for every team. [ IMGUR ]

-- AA rounded up some tweets from people watching Game 1. [ Awful Announcing ]

If you've haven't seen it, there is a Boston blog called Masshole Sports that is the worst blog maybe ever. Their recap usually includes some picture and a bizarre caption. Example here. In tribute to their horrible site, we encourage some submissions for every Boston loss going forward. 

Here is the recap of game one:

By the way here is the CBC montage:

The deal is eight-Years, $76 Million. It's a $9.5 million cap hit per season. That's more than Crosby per season, but still decent. It's much less than he could have received as a free agent.

Via the Pens:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have agreed to terms with forward Evgeni Malkin on an eight-year $76 million contract extension, it was announced today by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero.

The deal begins with the 2014-15 season and runs through the 2021-22 campaign, and has an average annual value of $9.5 million. He will earn $9.5 million for each of the eight seasons.

Malkin, 26, is one of just three Penguins in franchise history to win multiple Art Ross Trophies as the NHL scoring leader (2012, ’09), joining Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. He has also won the Hart Trophy (2012), Ted Lindsay Award (2012) and Calder Trophy (2007). A three-time 100-point producer and a four-time 30-plus goal scorer, Malkin has been named team MVP on three occasions (’08, ’09, ’12); earned a spot on the NHL’s First-Team All-Star squad three times (’08, ’09, ’12); and has been named to four NHL All-Star Games (’08, ’09, ’11, ’12).

The bad news is that, as the highest-paid player on the team, people will be even quicker to criticize him and blame him for everything than they are now.

The good news? Evgeni Malkin will be a Pittsburgh Penguin for a long time.

We'll take it.

Stability

Think back to the end of the Craig Patrick era. There was no system, coaches were in and out, and basically the Penguins were like a college kid who kept overdrafting their bank account.

In the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001, the Pens got smoked in five games by the Devils. The feeling at the time was that the organization had no direction. And that feeling was right. The Penguins fell into 5 years of hell until Ray Shero transformed the organization into a powerhouse. It didn't hurt he had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but it also didn't hurt he had a structure. The minor leagues play the same systems as the pros. There's one direction and one mind-set. Throw in some cash...boom.

Over the past 6 season, the Pens haven't finished below 5th in the Conference. For four of those seasons, Dan Bylsma has led the ship. When you have a good infrastructure, everything else can be fixed. We hate comparing the Penguins and Steelers, but in a town where so many jerk off to the Steelers' stability, how is the Penguins locking up their coach a bad idea?

If there is a reason to fire Bylsma and replace him with someone better, we have yet to see anyone come close to making a decent case. For example, look at this piece from LOLin Dunlap of The Fan. Premature, eh?

Again, let me point out that after premature exits in the playoffs against Montreal, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and now Boston, it is still my secure conviction that Wednesday’s press conference should have been one in which Shero should have been relaying to the masses the Penguins were looking for a new coach

He is not a bad coach

Bylsma is 201-92. That's a .671 winning percentage. You can't debate facts, jack. He manages Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin very well. If he didn',t he'd be gone. We asked Mike Colligan about head coaching, and he told us this about:

"Head coaching is the attitude, the big picture decision, managing player personalities."

Game.

He'll learn from years of mistakes

Dan Bylsma strikes us as a smart guy, a guy that hates to lose.The last two years have been embarrassing. Even the 3-1 blown series lead to the Lightning was rough.

But we personally feel that Bylsma will rise. If he can identify the issues and learn, the Penguins are set up to become a team that can get to the Cup every year. How many teams can say that? Maybe three or four? 

People will bitch and complain.

But in the end, this is the best move to make for the Penguins at this point. There is no need for the nuking of the entire franchise.