The Calm Before the Storm?

When you take on the responsibilities that come with blogging about a team you're guaranteed the regular season right off the bat.  If you're lucky (or the team is skillful) the season will extend at least another best of seven series; maybe two, three or all the way up to four.  This year the Penguins were fortunate enough to see the Finals, but as you may have noticed now in the wake of all the excitement and craziness that surrounded the Pens right up until their Game 6 loss, there's not much to talk about.  Is it just another day in the offseason, or the proverbial calm before the storm?

If I had to guess I'd say it's the latter of the two - the calm before the storm.  Pensburgh will remain on top of whatever (re)signings surround the team in effort to develop an overall take on the team's actions from you, the readers and contributors. 

For the time being we've already touched up on Orpik, Hossa, Malkin and to an extent Hossa.  Here are just a few others you can expect to have their names thrown around over the next 3 1/2 weeks.

Gary Roberts - retirement?

Mark Eaton - a history of knee injuries may be the end of his time with Pitt

Georges Laraque - what will he be willing to play for?

Jarkko Ruutu - will the fans' appreciation of this roughneck motivate Ruutu to take a discount?  (I vouch no, but would love to see it happen.)

Pascal Dupuis - present on the ice in the playoffs but next to the PK provided nothing more than a shadow

Ty Conklin - he'll find a new home and full-time gig elsewhere (and deserve every minute of ice time)

Jeff Taffe - waivers?

We'll get into the word surrounding these guys soon enough, but if you'd like to chime in now feel free.  In the mean time, check out this list of UFAs.

You may have also noticed a Versus banner that surfaced on occasion here on both the old version and new version of the site.  I'm happy to say that Versus approached me earlier in the playoffs to take part in a collaborative marketing effort.  In exchange they offered some swag for the site.  Expect to have the chance to get your grubby little hands on some free stuff within the next two weeks.

Jack Falla, former Sports Illustrator stringer and author of the hockey novel Saved was kind enough to grant me a few minutes of his time late last week.  In addition to the Q&A, Jack provided a signed copy of his novel of which I plan to giveaway to a lucky Pensburgh member. 

Remember, if you don't already have a Pensburgh username, then make one now and save yourself the time.  You'll definitely need one to win, but registering now might help even more - especially if I decide to do a "first to comment" sort of contest.