For those who haven't noticed, the Hockey Hall of Fame website has a "Stanley Cup Journal" page where you can follow the Cup as the team celebrates with it this summer.

 

Today's entry was Eddie Johnston.

"This is the most blessed city in hockey," Johnston said on the Penguins' website. "We've had the best player every year for the last twenty years. First, it was Mario and then (Jaromir) Jagr. Now we have Sidney Crosby, (Evgeni) Malkin and (Jordan) Staal. We have a young, talented group. It's great to be around those kids."

Towards the end of the evening, Ed Johnston took a moment to look back at his wonderful career. "It's been enjoyable," he said. "This franchise has been terrific to me. I've been blessed."

Johnston will be taking a substantially reduced role with the team starting next season.

 

 

 

Speaking of substantially reduced roles, Dale Tallon has been demoted to "a senior advisor of hockey operations" within the Chicago Blackhawks.

Stan Bowman - Scotty Bowman's son - is the new general manager.

 

If we've learned anything this summer, it's that Twitter is an outstanding resource for hockey fans.

It's not just a near-constant distraction and a never-ending source of trade rumors and breaking news either.

No, there are NHL players who tweet.

And while most of their updates are boring, press release-type stuff, Martin Havlat's page is an exception.

 

Havlat wasn't shy about taking shots at Blackhawks management after he wasn't re-signed for next season.

But it has now gotten better.

Here are some of his recent updates:

 

 

Outstanding entertainment.

 

Every time a GM's decision causes drama we're even more glad that Ray Shero is running our ship.

 

 

The Pens are inviting 26 players to their prospect camp.

Eric Tangradi, Simon Despres, Luca Caputi and Dustin Jeffrey are among the most notable names attending.

 

It looks like the Pens will open their season on the road against John Tavares' New York Islanders.

A dozen different bloggers and hundreds of other conspiracy theorists are already outraged at the very idea.

No one is sure why, but Sidney Crosby is involved and so people get upset.

The full schedule comes out tomorrow.

 

There are also rumors of a Capitals/Canadiens game at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

The event would be part of the Habs centential celebration.

Keeping with the way the celebrations have gone so far, the stadium will likely fall over during the game.

 

Gary Bettman made $7.1 million dollars last season.

We're hearing that he spent all of that money to fix the Stanley Cup Final so that Crosby would get a ring.

 

Wayne Gretzky made about the same amount of money "coaching" the Phoenix Coyotes last year.

 

 

 

Empty Netters found that video from last night's final SportsBeat.

COMMENTS ARE BROKEN ON THIS POST

A new video from Benstonium.com:

 

 

Embeding doesn't seem to work.

You can watch the video here.

 

EDIT:

Also, the final "Savran on Sportsbeat" airs tonight at 6:30 on FSN.

Savran will remain with FSN however.

 

 

We promise we'll stop posting these milestones soon.

 

 

Go Pens.

 

 

Well this just works on every level.

Former Penguin defenseman, Jiri Slegr is running for office in the Czech Republic.

 

 

tip goes to some guy on LGP.

 

 

Go Pens

 

 

 

Per the [PG], the Pens are close to signing Jay Mckee.

 

As [Pensburgh] points out, Mckee had 185 blocked shots last year, more than Scuds or Hal Gill.

He also killed an average of 3:18 minutes of penalty time a night.

 

Do it.

 

Go Pens.

 

EDIT:

It's official

"The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins have signed defenseman Jay McKee to a one-year contract, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero."

[Penguins.NHL.com]

 

One year, $800,000 according to the [Trib].

You know things are bad when something like the preseason schedule being released excites you.

 

Friday, Sept. 18, Toronto @ Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m.    
Monday, Sept. 21, Pittsburgh @ Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 22, Pittsburgh @ Toronto, 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 24, Pittsburgh @ Columbus, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 25, Columbus @ Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 27, Pittsburgh @ Detroit, 5:00 p.m.

 

A game against Detroit?

When is the last time a Stanley Cup Final rematch took place in the preseason?
A quick, lazy Google search couldn't tell us.

 

There's also two games against Columbus.

Solid.

 

Three of the six games are against the Western Conference.

 

We're analyzing the preseason schedule.

This is hockey withdrawl at it's finest.

 

 

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Perhaps the only thing more difficult than winning the Stanley Cup is defending it.

It hasn't been done since 97/98.

 

There are a number of reasons why.

First, the rest of the teams in the league spend their entire seasons gunning for you.

Second, after winning the Cup most teams have significiant pieces of their team bolt for other cities in hopes of scoring a big pay day.

This leads to the third reason, which is that every other team in the league spends their offseason trying to improve their own team and fill in the holes they noticed during the previous season.

 

The Penguins are going to experience all of those things next year.

 

They are the champs and thus they have become the measuring stick.

Last year the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the defending champion Red Wings in their first game of the season.

The city celebrated the victory like it was 1967.

That's the way it will be every time someone upsets the Penguins next season.

 

However, the main difficultly in defending the Cup will be the moves made in the offseason.

 

Almost every team has added or subtracted from their roster in hopes of overthrowing the Pens next season.

 

Today we look at what teams in the Eastern Conference have done.

 

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