Jonathan Bombulie stories, Page 20

If the Pittsburgh Penguins are to return to the type of championship form they showed in 2016-17, their prospects will have to play a role. During those back-to-back Stanley Cup seasons, homegrown talents such as Matt Murray, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl and others made significant contributions....

Having traded away multiple draft picks in recent years in pursuit of the Stanley Cup, the Pittsburgh Penguins have to find other ways to replenish their prospect pool. They’ve had some success in signing undrafted college free agents, adding Zach Aston-Reese, Casey DeSmith and Conor Sheary via that avenue in...

Judging by the reality of the salary cap, fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins can expect the team’s blue line to look a little different next season. Judging by the comments of general manager Jim Rutherford, it probably won’t be too different, though. The cap dictates the Penguins will have to...

Pittsburgh Penguins assistant Jacques Martin is a candidate for the head coaching job of the Buffalo Sabres, according to multiple reports. Martin, 66, has been with the Penguins for the last six seasons, serving mostly as the assistant coach who works most closely with the team’s defense and penalty kill....

The first war of words between coaches of the Stanley Cup playoffs has broken out, and to the surprise of many, Columbus’ John Tortorella wasn’t involved. Hours before his Vegas Golden Knights took on the San Jose Sharks in Game 7 of a first-round playoff series Tuesday night, Gerard Gallant...

Pittsburgh Penguins winger Patric Hornqvist will play for his native Sweden in the World Championships next month in Slovakia, the Swedish ice hockey federation announced Wednesday. Hornqvist will be joined on a star-studded Swedish roster by New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, Arizona Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Calder Trophy...

At the time, it looked like the start of something for the Pittsburgh Penguins. In the third period of a Dec. 4 home game with the Colorado Avalanche, everything winger Patric Hornqvist touched found twine. His natural hat trick in a span of 2 minutes, 47 seconds not only set...

Sixty-nine years ago Tuesday, Lower Burrell native Pete Babando scored perhaps the most dramatic goal in NHL history. Babando scored 8 minutes, 31 seconds into the second overtime to give the Detroit Red Wings a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 7 of the 1950 Stanley Cup...

After having an apparent third-period goal waved off by officials, Alex Ovechkin was sent to the locker room early as the Washington Capitals suffered a 5-2 loss in Game 6 of a first-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night. With the Hurricanes leading 3-2 with less than...

The Pittsburgh Penguins added a highly regarded European free agent to their depth chart Monday, signing 27-year-old Finnish center Oula Palve to a one-year deal. The 6-foot, 176-pound Palve was among the top 10 scorers in Finland’s top league in each of the last two seasons. This year, he recorded...

As general manager Jim Rutherford prepares to perform offseason roster surgery designed to bring the Pittsburgh Penguins back to championship-caliber prominence, he has at least one thing going for him. He’s in the middle of a pretty decent run at the trade table. Defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Erik Gudbranson and...

General manager Jim Rutherford and coach Mike Sullivan stood side-by-side at a season-ending news conference and announced, in one voice, that the Pittsburgh Penguins must be harder to play against moving forward. So, what does this mean for Phil Kessel? By the conventional definition of the term, Kessel’s game is...

As the Pittsburgh Penguins tried to grapple with a quick playoff exit this season, Kris Letang and Mike Sullivan became entrenched on opposite sides of a divide that seemed new, dramatic and important. Sullivan stood at a podium after his team was swept by the New York Islanders and declared...

Emotions ran the gamut as Pittsburgh Penguins players tried to wrap their heads around a stunning first-round sweep by the New York Islanders this week, but most fell somewhere in between disbelief and disappointment. As he packed up his gear before heading home to Thunder Bay, Ontario, for the summer,...

At the end of summer, Sidney Crosby will celebrate his 32nd birthday. That is part of the reason the beginning of his summer won’t include a trip to Slovakia for the World Championships next month. It’s a tournament he helped Canada win in 2015, the last time the Penguins were...

After the Pittsburgh Penguins ended a six-year championship drought by winning the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons in 2016-17, the generally accepted theory was that they did so with speed. General manager Jim Rutherford acquired players like Carl Hagelin and Trevor Daley and the Penguins responded with an up-tempo attack...

Two years ago, Olli Maatta’s season ended with a sun-soaked nap on an apartment balcony after the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrated a second straight Stanley Cup with a parade down Grant Street. On Thursday morning, as the Penguins cleaned out their lockers in Cranberry, his season-ending mood was decidedly more somber....

Given their performance in a first-round sweep by the New York Islanders and his track record as an active general manager, there is zero chance Jim Rutherford wants to go into next season with the same roster the Pittsburgh Penguins used at the end of this year. Factoring in the...

Sitting in his locker stall moments after his team was swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin said it was difficult for him to talk about how the team needed to improve to regain its championship form. He...

For decades, it generally has been an accepted part of hockey lore: The playoffs are where high-flying offenses go to die. Over the past three seasons, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals have done their part to change that attitude, winning the Stanley Cup on the backs of their generational...

When the Pittsburgh Penguins open the fourth game of their first-round series against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, they will apparently be using their third different top-line combination. Jared McCann was bumped up to the first line with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel as the team took morning...

The extent to which the New York Islanders have suffocated the Pittsburgh Penguins in their first-round playoff series is surprising. The Penguins had the sixth-best offense in the league in the regular season, boasting a roster that included four 70-point scorers. They’ve managed a total of two goals in the...

For the third time since Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin joined the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team has lost the first three games of a playoff series. The first time, they made it a series. The second time, they were swept. Which path they take this time will be determined in...