Rangers game day: Letang's illness hangs over team

Hopefully today we'll get some sort of update on Kris Letang. His illness is said to be not life-threatening (that's good!) but the fact that there's so much mystery and unknown makes it worrisome. Best of luck to him and hopefully he'll be better sooner than later. [The Pensblog]

Deryk Engelland is a swingman and showing some value in unexpected places. [Post-Gazette]

Speaking of value, Jeff Zatkoff has had a solid year. [Faceoff Factor]

A pretty cool list of players with Penguins ties who have played in the Olympics and their career stats. [Empty Netters - PG]

Some dirt on why the Penguins gave up minor leaguer Paul Thompson in a trade yesterday. If you're a scoring forward and you stop scoring, it's not a good thing. [Penguins Insider]

Top 5 Penguins trades of all time. Shockingly, Markus Naslund for Alek Stojanov didn't make the cut.  [Pens Initiative]

In other trade news, the Islanders sent Peter Regin and Pierre-Marc Bouchard (their biggest free agent signings from this past summer) to Chicago for a measly 4th round pick. Ouch. [SBN Hockey]

A twitter Q&A with soon-to-be Olympian Chris Kunitz. [Penguins.nhl.com]

Within minutes last night, Max Pacioretty earned two penalty shots....And he became the first NHL player EVER to miss two penalty shots in the same period of a game. But the still ended up with a hat-trick on the night. Gotta be one of the strangest games of all time for an individual. [Puck Daddy]

Flyers owner has a sad that Claude Giroux isn't going to the Olympics...But it's OK because he also doesn't want NHL players going to the Olympics at all. Jagoff. [Puck Daddy]

..But, as Justin Bourne points out, the incredibly productive Martin St. Louis is an excellent choice for a short tournament. Ah ah ah, short. [Backhand Shelf]

Some whispers that the Capitals have interest in Ryan Miller. I'm not buying it yet. [Washington Post]

Alex Ovechkin says "just settle down" about bad reports out of Sochi, ok? Ok. Well that settles that. [Washington Times]

Katie Baker with a report from Sochi detailing just how it is to be on the ground at the site of the Olympics. [Grantland]