Morning links: Sidney Crosby turns 25, Richard Park jumps to Europe, a Flyer suffers injury

Richard Park has moved on, signing with a team in Switzerland for next season. Park was serviceable (7 goals, 7 assists in 54 games) and a good role player for the Pens, but at this point Joe Vitale is clearly a better 4th line center option. Park, 36, was orginally a Penguin draft pick all the way back in 1994, so good on him for getting to continue his career and the best of luck to the guy. [The Pensblog]

Flyer defenseman Andrej Mezsaros has suffered a torn achilles in training and will need surgery. Ouch. Never good to see any injury, even one for a rival. This will probably send the Flyers into over-drive too to get another defenseman, so definitely don't celebrate this one. Also, as pointed out, the Devils Travis Zajac suffered the same injury last summer and was out until mid-December, but he admitted he came back too soon and was on the shelf again until March. So it's definitely a whole the Flyers will need to address. [Puck Daddy]

Other play by play options. No Pierre, no problem. [The Score]

Hard not to be inspired by the story of Jack Jablonski, the paralyzed teenager up in Minnesota. He keeps working and fighting and we're only too pleased to share happy updates. Surely there will be more in the future. [Twincities.com]

Finally, a big happy birthday in the Penguins world to Sidney Crosby who is 25 but the media will probably still call him a kid because it rhymes. And also to Pens blogger extraordinaire Jesse Marshall over at Faceoff Factor.

As a bonus Sid nugget, this is a few days old (which makes it ancient in internet time, so apologies) but Crosby's trainer was on 93.7 the Fan and had some encouraging words about the Captain's training. He's symptom free, able to push himself all the way and really seems to be focusing on improving his speed and power down low. Sounds like he has a lot planned for this season to get back to the "old" Sid. [93.7 The Fan]