Penguin Pentathlon: Five Guys Bettman & Lies
-- Mario Lemieux, Ron Burkle, David Morehouse, Sidney Crosby, and Craig Adams apparently turned the hockey world upside down Monday with a dose of reality and common sense. There’s hockey to be played. Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr can go pound salt.
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-- Think the NHL is going badly? Business TV channel, CNBC, sports a “Fiscal Cliff Countdown" ticker, down to the day, hour, minute and second. At least we all can deduce the deadline for the U.S. budget.
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-- All right, so it’s not really just the Penguins breaking bread in New York.
“Possible progress made in NHL labor talks” discusses how 18 players and six different owners have gotten involved in saving the season. The biggest change to negotiations no doubt is the absence of Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr.
"I think everyone wants to get a deal done, so that's encouraging," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told reporters after the meeting wrapped up around midnight.
NHL Players' Association special counsel Steve Fehr echoed that upbeat assessment, saying it was, "maybe the best day we've had so far."
Progress.
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Red Wings VP Jim Devellano famously called NHL players “cattle” and Detroit was fined a reported $250K for it, according to
ESPN.
Interestingly, there are 100s of cattle breeds, including the
Beefalo and the
Canadienne. Perhaps Devellano was referring to the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens. For a $250K fine I know that’s what I’d say – and likely get stuck with the fine.
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A story on the U.S. selection camp roster for the IIHF World Championships can be found
here.
U.S. coach Phil Housley will oversee the camp, which includes four players trained in the Pittsburgh area: forwards J.T. Miller, Vince Trocheck, Riley Barber and goalie John Gibson.
Penguins draft picks Anton Zlobin, will compete for a spot on Russia’s roster while Teddy Blueger already has a roster spot locked up for Latvia.
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One year ago tonight the Penguins lost to Boston,
3-1, at CONSOL Energy Center. Simon Despres played in his first NHL home game and acquitted himself nicely. Bruins goalie Tim Thomas stopped 45 of 46 shots and helped kill off two Pittsburgh 5-on-3’s.
The big news was a collision between Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz. Crosby would miss more than three months after colliding with his linemate in the neutral zone. It appeared as though he was favoring his leg while leaving the ice, but head and neck pains would keep him off the ice.
“Nobody’s uttered a word to Crosby, nor has Crosby uttered a word yet to anybody but he’s still hunched over,” said ROOT analyst Bob Errey.
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Treasure Life!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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