Today was a good day to be a Penguins fan. First, we got to laugh at the Philadelphia Flyers’ fans who decided it was a good idea to boo Sidney Crosby despite the fact he was appearing in an anti-cancer promotion on the Flyers’ jumbo-tron. Then, the actual good news started to pour in:
• At 10:30am, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that the Penguins have signed winger Chris Kunitz to a two-year contract extension that will keep him in a Pens sweater through the 2013-2014 season. The extension calls for an average salary of $3.725 million per season, about the going rate for a 25 goals per year guy. Kunitz has been an excellent addition since being acquired in the 2009 trade that sent defenseman Ryan Whitney to Anaheim and has done mostly good work as a two-way player alongside Sidney Crosby on the team’s top line. I, among many, am excited to see how the Crosby-Kunitz-Neal line performs when Crosby returns to action.
• Around 11am the news broke that captain Sidney Crosby has been cleared for contact in practice. This is the next-to-last step in Crosby’s return from post-concussion symptoms. It was reported that Crosby skated in the Penguins’ morning skate with a regular line and no alternate color helmet that players wear which designates them for no contact. It should not be long now before Crosby returns to game-action, barring no setbacks of course.
• Finally, it was reported that Evgeni Malkin participated fully in the Penguins morning skate and will be a game-time decision for tonight’s game against the Capitals. Even if Malkin is unable to play tonight, the fact that he was a full participant in the morning skate and is seriously considering playing tonight is a big relief for Pens fans who had to be somewhat holding their breath as the team would only classify Malkin’s injury as a “lower-body injury” and that he was “day-to-day”. For a guy who missed most of the previous season with a torn ACL, any lower body injury becomes a concern, especially when the team is reluctant to release further information.
With those three pieces of news coming out today and the season’s first match-up with Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals tonight, it is indeed a good day to be a Penguins fan.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment