Penguins Change Up Their Lines & The Marc-Andre Fleury Curse Is Real
And why Mario Lemieux is still the greatest
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Today we are going to look at some line changes the Penguins have made due to injuries, the Marc-Andre Fleury curse and more.
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Penguins Forced to Scramble Lines Due to Injuries
November 30, 2023 by Sylvie McCarthy
Sooner or later, the injury train was going to make its stop in Pittsburgh, and a little over a week ago, the Penguins felt its effects. Second-line winger Rickard Rakell was placed on injured reserve because of an undisclosed injury. Rakell had not scored a goal through the first 17 games of the season, and it is not clear when he is expected to return.
Defenseman Chad Ruhwedel is also currently out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury. These injuries have forced the team to shuffle their lines and give some younger players the opportunity to shine.
Marc-André Fleury Curse Continues to Hit Teams
November 28, 2023 by Ben Wagner
The NHL’s expansion protocol dictates the holding of a draft to fill out the roster of new teams. The Seattle Kraken picked apart the rest of the league to staff their team in 2021-22, just as the Vegas Golden Knights did when they began play in 2017-18. When the Golden Knights arrived on the scene, the hockey world was shocked when the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins failed to protect franchise goaltender and former first-overall pick Marc-André Fleury.
The Golden Knights jumped on the opportunity and selected Fleury in the expansion Draft. The former Penguins superstar promptly led the upstart franchise to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost in five games to the Washington Capitals. Subsequent struggles led them to deal Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks, a team in the middle of their own rebuild. The Blackhawks then traded him to the Minnesota Wild at the 2022 trade deadline, where he remains under contract.
Remembering What Made Mario Lemieux the Greatest
October 5, 2023 by Shawn Nicholls
Equal parts exhilarating and devastating, sports are quite simply unpredictable. Ask the city of Pittsburgh. This week 25 years ago, Penguins fans experienced both emotions at the same time. Riding back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and looking like a team destined to three-peat, Mario Lemieux stepped to the podium at a sudden press conference to announce he had been diagnosed with a Nodular Lymphocytic form of Hodgkin’s disease.