Weekend Pens Points: Pens fans are the best

Another week down which means another week closer to some real life hockey again. Until then, here’s your weekend Pens Points:

We’ll start off with some good news for once. Give yourself a round of applause, Pens fans, as we were named the 9th most passionate fans among the four major sports leagues in North America, highest on the list in the NHL. Having Mario Lemieux as owner and Sidney Crosby as captain certainly helps. [NHL.com]

Plenty of love around the internet this week for Brian Dumoulin. Hooks took a deeper look at the return of Brian Dumoulin from his recent injury compared to Justin Schultz and the results have not been too favorable to Schultz after his tough ankle injury several years ago. [Pensburgh]

Former Penguins defenseman Dave Burrows was known as one of the best defensive defenseman in Penguins history. Brian Dumoulin is making quite a case for himself to surpass Burrows for that distinction. He may already have done so. [Trib Live]

You may not realize it, and I hadn’t until I read this article, but Dumoulin is the fourth-longest tenured player with Pittsburgh behind Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. Dumoulin wasn’t very well-known when he was acquired in the Jordan Staal trade but has turned into one of the biggest pieces of that trade. He paved his way through Wilkes-Barre/Scranton where he was groomed into the player he is today. Jonathan Bombulie and Seth Rorabaugh at The Trib rank the Penguins’ top five talents that also paved their way in the AHL with WBS. [Trib Live]

The Trib completed the Dumo-Trifecta when it was his turn in their “A to Z” series that evaluates all 55 players with an NHL contract with Pittsburgh. The list goes from Niclas Almari to Jason Zucker, hence the ‘A to Z’. [Trib Live]

Brian Dumoulin wasn’t the only Penguin player in the news the last few days. Martin Straka was getting tons of mentions on Pensburgh the last few days. He played in 560 games with Pittsburgh and recorded 165 goals and 277 assists. He continues his hockey legacy as he was named an Assistant Coach with the Czech Rebublic’s national team last week. He will serve under other former Penguin Petr Nedved, who is now GM of the Czech national team. [DK Sports]

Brendan Leipsic and a several other players have found themselves in hot water for some very not-so-nice things to say about other people and players around the league. The Capitals announced yesterday that they have placed him on waivers and intend to terminate his contract as a result of his comments being made public. His private conversations were made public which is a slippery slope, but that does not make his or any of the several player’s comments any less disappointing and Leipsic is now out of a job in the NHL. [Yahoo! Sports]

Bobby Orr’s legendary overtime winner in the 1970 Stanley Cup turned 50 years old yesterday. A new documentary goes back in time and reflects on the decisions that the Bruins made to get them to that point that changed the course of their franchise in the most famous hockey goal of all time. [The Hockey News]

Last week Georges Laraque was diagnosed with COVID and was experiencing difficulties after developing pneumonia in both of his lungs. This week he’s on his steps to recovery and speaking out about the league’s plans on resuming this season. [USA Today]

On this day in Penguins history:

• 1992 - The Pens’ Ron Francis scored an overtime goal (2:41) to beat the New York Rangers, 5-4, in Game 4 in the Patrick Division Finals. The Pens eventually beat the Rangers in six games.
• 2000 - The Penguins lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, and were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Herb Brooks ended his stint as Penguins head coach and finished with a 29-24-5-2 record for a winning percentage of.553.
• 2009 - Evgeni Malkin scored 3:28 into overtime to defeat the Washingon Capitals, 4-3, in Game 5 and gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 edge in the series.
• 2013 - Penguins captain Sidney Crosby named a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award.
  Tomas Vokoun made 31 saves against the NY Islanders to earn his first shutout with Pens - the 20th playoff shutout in team history.