Pittsburgh Penguins

The beautiful thing about a sports season is that it always ends.

For one team, an end of the season and start of a new season is bittersweet, a time to surrender a title unless a rare repeat allows them to retake it.

For the remaining teams, it's a rebirth, a time to start fresh with new players and a new mentality.

The 2009-2010 season for the Pittsburgh Penguins was one of character: How will the young Pens perform when they have a target on their backs?

The overall season result?

Penguins fans, forget about the Flyers.  It’s time to focus on our quickly developing rivalry with the Capitals. 

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, the Winter Classic will be held on Heinz Field in Pittsburgh against the Capitals.  Let the roaring Crosby v. Ovie debate begin. 

With the ensuing Winter Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals gobbling up headlines, the plot got a little thicker yesterday when Penguins forward Max Talbot called Washington Capitals super star Alex Ovechkin a “douche."

Talbot, who was being interviewed on a local Pittsburgh radio station, was referring to an incident when he was introduced to Ovechkin by teammate Evgeni Malkin.

In honor of the fifth anniversary of the Pittsburgh Penguins drafting Sidney Crosby, I have decided to write a series of articles about Crosby’s first five seasons in the NHL.

Crosby is one of the most talented players in the NHL and also one of the most controversial. He is constantly compared to NHL legends such as Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux and current stars such as Alexander Ovechkin.

No matter how much you compare him to other stars, Crosby is in a class of his own. But in this case, that is a good thing.

In their 43 years of existence, the Pittsburgh Penguins have had 20 different head coaches.

Some have been fired. Some have voluntarily left. And sadly, three have left us, but they are still beloved in many circles.

In their careers with the Penguins, they have brought fans disappointment, anger, and joy.

Where do these 20 coaches stand?

This slideshow will rank all of the Penguins head coaches in franchise history. They are ranked according to their accomplishments during their tenure with the team and their coaching careers before and after they came to the Pens.

Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero is shaping up to be somewhat of a loner among his NHL GM brethren.

With the National Hockey League's rejection of the record 17-year $102 million dollar contract reached between the Penguins' arch-division rival New Jersey Devils and star winger Ilya Kovalchuk, the merits (and now the legality) of long-term contracts have once again taken center stage with hockey pundits everywhere.

There are 63 days until the first preseason game for the Pittsburgh Penguins on September 22nd. 

Yes, I'm counting.

This has been the strangest offseason I have ever seen since becoming a hockey fan.

The anticipation of the new season is growing strong and now it's time to discuss who will show up for the Penguins.

One thing Ray Shero did this offseason was step up with the defense—big time. 

With Ilya Kovalchuk's contract being rejected by the League, one must wonder where the balance of power in the NHL has gone.

Once Kovalchuk re-signed with New Jersey, word on the street was that they were among the front runners to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final. They would have been much better offensively with Kovy, especially with playmakers like Jamie Langenbrunner and Zach Parise feeding him the puck.

The Pittsburgh Penguins may not have closed the Mellon Arena in the way they were hoping to, since they were unable to clinch the 2010 Stanley Cup.

But that doesn't mean that The Igloo will be forgotten.

The Igloo hosted the Penguins for 43 years, and in that time, it saw some of the Penguins' greatest moments and some of its biggest disappointments.

As the finishing touches are put on the Consol Energy Center in preparation for its opening next month, it's time to look back at the old barn and relive some of the greatest Penguins moments it brought us.