Brooks Orpik News

It's more of an indication than a coronation, but one that helps to make clear the direction in which Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik and USA Hockey are headed.

Looking back, the Penguins almost did the impossible. Not by winning the Stanley Cup, but by keeping a majority of the key players that helped them become the NHL 's elite club.

The U.S. men's Olympic hockey team may get its head handed to it in Vancouver. The odds will certainly be stacked against the squad as it goes up against hockey powers like host Canada, defending gold-medal winner Sweden and talent-laden Russia.

Turns out more than one player is willing to take a hometown discount to stay with the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins .

Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik, battling Detroit forward Tomas Holmstrom during last season's Stanley Cup final, was invited to the United States' pre-Olympic orientation camp.

Penguins defensemen Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi have been invited to the 2009 U.S. Olympic men's ice hockey orientation camp.

By keeping a couple of wingers today, the Penguins left themselves not much of a prayer to retain a trio of key contributors to their Stanley Cup championship squad.

The NHL salary cap will increase for the 2009-10 season, though not enough to impact clubs in a significant way.

Jay Heinbuck doesn't see the waiting as the hardest part. "Thirty is a nice number to have," said Heinbuck, the Penguins director of amateur scouting, of the club's final-slot selection spot tonight in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft at Bell Center.

Three Boston College hockey alums - Bill Guerin, Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi - captured the 2009 Stanley Cup as contributing members of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Any time a team wins a major championship, there is a necessary period of euphoria and celebration.

Unrestricted free agent Rob Scuderi will be difficult for the Penguins to re-sign. It's no secret the Penguins won't be able to re-sign all of their free agents.

Steelers Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll used to say the hardest part of the Super Bowl seasons of the 1970s was the moment after they handed the Vince Lombardi Trophy to owner Art Rooney Sr.

Did you know that the Penguins only have three "real" players on the roster? They are the ones with the names Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury sewed on the back of their jerseys.

Red Wings fans could tell you that both NBC and the CBC seemed to cheer the Pittsburgh Penguins every step of the way toward their Stanley Cup win, but the Globe and Mail's Bruce Dowbiggin noted that Hockey Night in Canada's Ron MacLean went over the top in his on-ice interviews: June 14, Globe and Mail : His love-in with Maxime Talbot in the ...

The final in-series survey of the Pittsburgh Penguins' press as it applies to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, where the Penguins face off against the Detroit Red Wings begins with this missive from the Beaver County Times' Chris Bradford: Beaver County Times : June 12, Beaver County Times : Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Yzerman, Bourque, Sakic, ...

The best sign of the day, by far, was the one that read, "Hossa, Are You Watching?" Somehow, I doubt was tuned in to the Stanley Cup parade Monday, but even he would have been impressed with the performance of Penguins fans.

In this instance, the statement, "Everybody and their brother is trying to get the last word" regarding Game 7 of the Red Wings-Penguins series is applicable.

I'll start a difficult post with a bit of a confession. To some extent, it's easier to go through twenty or thirty stories and round them up than it is to discuss individual stories, and that's true for a simple reason--Red Wings fans pore over every word that their "deep diggers'" produce.

Mario Lemieux needed seven years to win a Stanley Cup as a player. Doing it as an owner took a decade.