Penguin Hits And Happenings

As September dawns, the NHL season is .... finally .... right around the corner. 

The dog days of August are over and it's time for our favorite sport to get back in season.

Training Camp for the Penguins starts two weeks from today, but one guy who won't be on the ice in the black, white and las vegas gold is center Jordan Staal, who the team revealed (officially) this week has suffered a few 'setbacks' in his recovery from having a tendon torn on the top of his foot when Montreal Canadiens' defenseman P.K. Subban accidentally stepped on him in game 1 of the teams' Eastern Conference Semifinal series in May.

According to Penguins' GM Ray Shero, Staal will not be ready for the start of camp, but is at this point expected to be able to play when the regular season opens for the Boys of Winter against their cross-state rivals and Eastern Conference Finalist Philadelphia Flyers on October 7.

While there have actually been mixed reports on exactly what the problem has been for the Pens' Selke Trophy finalist -- some have indicated he suffered from an infection -- it is undeniable that Staal hasn't been able to skate as frequently as he othewise might have in summer preparations for an upcoming season. 

Certainly, part of that has to do with the fact that Staal had a second operation relative to the injury in June, but the point is that it's going to take Gronk some time to get into skating shape when he's finally able to get his boot on and move around without real limitation.

Staal has been quite frustrated with his summer -- not surprisingly -- but he's shooting for the halfway point of camp to really ramp up his on-ice work. 

If anyone can bear down and prepare himself for the rigors of NHL work in short fashion, it's the Penguins' hard-working, farm-boy thoroughbred from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

What I'm hoping #11 avoids, though, is having his season wash-out as the result of an off-season corrective procedure.  As we all know too well, Max Talbot was pretty much useless to the team last year after going through off-season shoulder surgery right after he was the hero in game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final.

Max took a long time to rehab and was just never the same all season long.

I hope the same doesn't happen with Staal.  It goes without saying he's more important to the team than Talbot is.

What's going to be interesting to see is how Staal's setback affects the plan the Penguins had going into this year to move Staal up to center the second line and shift Evgeni Malkin to wing.  In all likelihood, that will be put on hold for a while.  We'll see.

But speaking of something interesting, how about Bill Guerin skating around the Flyers' practice facility in New Jersey just the other day, and wearing a Flyers' t-shirt in their locker room afterwards??

Of course, Guerin was notified about a week or so ago by Shero that the Penguins wouldn't be offering him a contract, and it's long been known that Guerin was hoping to play one more season for a contender in the Eastern Conference. 

But to see him wearing that garb?

He deserves better.

There's no word, by the way, that Guerin is close to signing a contract with the Flyers.  In fact, Philadelphia GM Paul Holmgren and Guerin both claimed that the on-ice session was simply a matter of convenience for a guy looking to skate while he was in town with his son.

Still, the rumor mill is that the Flyers have been kicking the tires on Guerin, and that their cap situation is really the main thing keeping them from offering Billy G a contract of some kind.

Time will tell where this goes, but let's hope I don't have to root against a guy that was so key to the franchise's 3rd Stanley Cup victory because he now suits up for the enemy.

Lastly, the Penguins were progressively out in the forefront of the community again this week, validating the team's #1 ranking in 'fan relations' in all professional sports (as per ESPN the Magazine) by announcing that they would be giving away nearly 8,000 tickets to children and youth hockey programs in the Western Pennsylvania region to attend the Pens' pre-season game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on September 25.

Pittsburgh's effort in this regard is actually a part of a partnership between the team and Imagine Pittsburgh, a local think tank organization that looks to attract -- and retain -- bright young professional talent to the city.

As a part of their plan, the team and Imagine Pittsburgh will be dolling out free tickets to 51 local Colleges and Universities and various youth hockey and other children's organizations throughout the region, all in the hope of filling the stands that night with kids aged 4-24 and showing off both the CONSOL Energy Center and the region.

Another great initiative for a team always on the cutting edge of marketing their product.

More soon.