The Flyers have been ass for most of the season.

So they fired John Stevens on Friday. [ PUCK DADDY ]

Peter Laviolette looks to be the man pegged to take over.

And as Greg at PD mentioned, there seems to be a lack of locker-room leadership.

Pierre McGuire just went on a coke binge.

Somehow this is worthy of its own post.

Or maybe not.

From Bob McKenzie on Twitter.

Will he end up in WBS?

Will the Caps take him back?

How many times will Ray Bourque's name come up when discussing this development?

So many questions.

The Pens know how to win games. You don't.

Nothing more, nothing less.

The Nordiques played their balls off, but the world champs slowly pulled away.

With 20 wins and the 40 points that come with them, we're watching the Penguins pull away from the pack in the Eastern Conference. The Pens didn't reach 20 wins until three days before Jesus' birthday last year.

Saturday night brings us the first real fun game of the season.

The Blackhawks and Hossa come to town.

What a matchup.

We'd type more here, but like 8 people read websites on Fridays.

Recap after the jump.

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Listen to the game at [WXDX]

If you have any questions for Mike Lange, Phil Bourque or Bob Grove join the Penguins Radio Network Facebook page.

You can submit questions via the discussion tab for the Crash the Net segments or Penguins Hotline after the game.

Marc-Andre Fleury had better watch out.

Keith Ballard has struck again.

He's leaving a trail of ridiculous mishaps and injured goaltenders in his wake.

Ballard may be waiting outside Mellon Arena tonight - armed with a hockey stick, a lost edge and a bad sense of judgment - ready to take out yet another netminder.

Thanks to Ballard, Craig Anderson is out with a neck injury and Peter Budaj will be in net for Colorado.

The Avs arrived in Pittsburgh at 3AM, fresh off of a loss to Florida last night.

They did not hold a team practice today.

The Penguins haven't played since Monday.

"Yes, they're in the middle of a road trip. But if it's going to be an advantage, you have to exploit it and show it. ... They're going to be playing against Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in our building for the first time, so they're going to have some jump and excitement. I'm not expecting a tired team. I'm expecting a team that's going to play a team they view as a team that won last year and has some great players."

-- Dan Bylsma [Post-Gazette]

This is the only regular season meeting between the two teams this year.

We are almost endeared to Tiger now

because of his usage of the word "huge" in this context.

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It isn't offically a Penguins season until someone starts a Dustin Brown for Jordan Staal rumor.

We all know who started it. Eklund. What can you say about the guy? The Internet wouldn't be the same without him.

The full trade, as per the Dustin Brown fan club network aka [LGP] is Dustin Brown and Jack Johnson for Letang and Staal.

So lets just have fun and shoot it down now.

1. Lifetime stats: Dustin Brown -65. In fact, he has never played a season where he has finished a plus.

Jordan Staal  +19. Only one year he finished a minus.

Dustin Brown, 95 goals in six seasons.

Jordan Staal,  69 goals in four seasons.

2. Career Playoff games: Dustin Brown = 0

Jordan Staal = 49

3. Salary: Brown is signed longer, for less. So LA would be taking Staal for less years, and more money. Okay, so the salary think makes sense for the Pens, shut up. STOP IT.

As for Letang for Johnson. Thats not happening. We won't even speculate.

Summary: Dustin Brown is mud.

Shero wouldn't trade Staal when the Pens were at their lowest point last year. Staal is Shero's first ever pick.

References:

[dustin brown stats]

[Staal stats]

[Kings salary]

[Pens salary]

suck it.

[ Caps Insider ]

What a paycheck.

We're happy when we can desposit $20 in a First Niagra account.

When we first heard about the Alex Ovechkin kneeing incident, we felt nothing.  So it goes without saying that we weren't surprised.  And a lot of other fans weren't.  Maybe it is because the Penguins haven't played the Caps this year, and maybe not.

Our sentiments toward Ovie are clear:  He is a Capitals player, so we despise him.  But he is hands-down the most exciting player in the National Hockey League.  If we had to convince a group of extraterrestrials that hockey is a fast-paced, high-energy sport in order to save the planet, we would show them Ovechkin.  Just as JAPERS RINK feels about Crosby, we don't have a love fest for Ovechkin, but we respect the talent that is there.

Our feelings on the suspension:

This is becoming a recurring theme for Ovie.  He goes for a hit, knows he won't get it, can't swallow his pride, and tries to stick his knee out in a last-ditch effort to avoid a fail.  People in every corner of Internet message boards and comment sections are talking about how Ovechkin better not change his game, since he's seemingly the only player in the NHL to give 110% on every shift or something.  No clue how a blatant kneeing incident is proof of that.

And just have to say it:  Crosby and Malkin can't play Ovechkin's game.  Ovechkin can't play Malkin or Crosby's game.

It's ridiculous to have comparisons anymore.

We decided to spare everyone the pain of watching a business card-sized YouTube embed of the hit before the jump.

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On Inside Penguins Hockey, Mike Rupp was asked which Pens player he would date if he were a woman:

On a more manly note: Video of Rupp's hat trick last night: