Penguins claim Bourque off waivers from Capitals; "Biz Nasty" grabbed by Phoenix

The Penguins today claimed winger Chris Bourque off of waivers from the Washington Capitals. Borque, the son of all-millennium defenseman Raymond Bourque, is an offensively minded forward with very good potential for a waiver claim. He's never quite put it all together or been able to stick to an NHL roster, so he makes for an interesting reclamation project of sorts.

Also, enforcer Paul Bissonnette, a longtime mainstay in the Penguins' farm system, was claimed by the Hamilton Tigers Phoenix Coyotes. Bissonnette will have a significantly easier go at making an NHL roster there, so it's not a terrible thing for his careeer.

Bourque will start the year in Pittsburgh.

Penguins officially set roster

The Penguins have officially set their roster for opening night on Friday against the New York Rangers. Newly signed Martin Skoula is on it as the seventh defenseman, which means that Deryk Engelland and Nate Guenin are in Wilkes Barre after clearing waivers. Joining them there are Ryan Bayda, Chris Conner and Paul Bissonnette. Ben Lovejoy and Max Talbot start the year on injured reserve.

Here's the lineup for Friday night, assuming center Sidney Crosby returns from a preseason groin ailment:

14 Chris Kunitz- 87 Sidney Crosby- 13 Bill Guerin
26 Ruslan Fedotenko- 71 Evgeni Malkin- 48 Tyler Kennedy
09 Pascal Dupuis- 11 Jordan Staal- 24 Matt Cooke
17 Michael Rupp- 27 Craig Adams- 28 Eric Godard

44 Brooks Orpik- 55 Sergei Gonchar
07 Mark Eaton- 58 Kris Letang
03 Goligoski- 74 McKee

29 Marc-Andre Fleury
01 Brent Johnson

Skoula is the seventh defenseman and the only extra that Pens will carry off the bat.

Skoula signs; several Pens placed on waivers?

The Penguins today signed defenseman Martin Skoula, a defensive but balanced blueliner who will start the year as the team's seventh defenseman. He signed a one-year deal, and seems to have automatically leapfrogged Deryk Engelland and Nate Guenin in competition for the final defensive roster spot.

Skoula may be the Penguins' only extra player to start the regular season on Friday. For salary cap-related reasons, reports are coming out from Jon Bombulie that forwards Chris Conner, Ryan Bayda, Paul Bissonnette, defensemen Engelland and Guenin have all been cut from the NHL roster and exposed to waivers. If these players clear, they will all report to Wilkes Barre and the AHL.

This is not confirmed yet, but it is interesting.

Bayda inks one year deal with Pens

The Penguins today signed grinder Ryan Bayda to a one year, two-way contract. Bayda was in training camp on a tryout basis, and he earned a deal through a nice preseason showing and camp effort. This signing puts Bayda on even terms with Chris Conner and Paul Bissonnette in the soon-to-be-decided race for the final forward roster spot, assuming there is one more spot to be had up front.

Bayda has spent the last few years with the Carolina Hurricanes organization.

Several longshots remain in competiton for final two roster spots

The Penguins are expected to keep two more players on their final roster that will start the season in six days at Mellon Arena against the New York Rangers. Preliminarily, those players will fill the roles of a seventh defenseman and twelfth/thirteenth forward, which means they'll spend several games in the press box this season.

Defensemen Nate Guenin and Deryk Engelland and forwards Chris Conner, Ryan Bayda, and Paul Bissonnette are the final five players competing for NHL jobs, with two of them likely to make the team.

The Pittsburgh proudct Guenin seems to have the inside track on the seventh defensive spot, thanks to a strong preseason and the fact that he doesn't have much to gain from more time in the AHL, where he's played for the last several years.

Conner and Bayda are the two most likely candidates for the last forward spot. If the Penguins elect to take a more offensive angle, Conner will make the team and probably play on the third line with Jordan Staal and Matt Cooke, as Tyler Kennedy moves up to Evgeni Malkin's line. If the team opts for a more defensively oriented, tougher approach, Bayda, or potentially the pugilistic Bissonnette, will make the roster.

A lot will be determined tomorrow evening in Detroit when the Pens return to the Motor City for their final preseason game.

Changes at PTF

For the upcoming season, game previews will remain relatively unchanged, but recaps will take a slightly different formation. I'll be posting up thoughts and observations on the happenings between the glass, rather than just a conventional recap, which would be completely unoriginal and available on any number of websites.

Due to a recent stroke of good luck that has resulted in my family winning Penguins season tickets in a raffle (best five dollars we've ever spent), there will be a slight delay from time to time in the posting of the recaps, since I might not be home from the games yet.

Go Pens.

Sorry for short-changing you in the preseason. The half-assing will stop on October 2nd.

Preseason Game 2- Penguins @ Toronto Maple Leafs

Not a whole lot to talk about for this game. We'll get a look at Konstantin Pushkarev, Nick Johnson, and Luca Caputi. Awesome. Billy Thomas is in the lineup for the Leafs.

Penguins-

Caputi-Malkin-Kennedy
Cooke-Smith-Guerin
Pushkarev-Adams-N.Johnson
Bissonnette-Rupp-Wallace

Orpik-Lovejoy
Goligoski-Guenin
Lee-Letang

Fleury
B.Johnson

Leafs-

Stalberg-Stajan-Slaney
Blake-Allison-Tlusty
Foster-Brent-Thomas
Mayers-Mitchell-Boyce

Exelby-White
Finger-Mikus
Gunnarson-Rogers

MacDonald
Reimer

Go Pens.

Crosby's line takes over in OT win to start preseason

Preseason recaps will be generally short, and this is no exception.

Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz each had two goals, and Chris Conner added another as the Penguins won 5-4 at Mellon Arena tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Kunitz's goals were the final two of the game, tying it up and ending it an overtime. In a comedy of errors, Columbus netminder Dan LaCosta gave up a whopping five goals in roughly one period of play.

Eric Tangradi, making his NHL debut, played very physically and chipped in assists on both of Crosby's goals.

Box.

Preseason Game 1- Columbus Blue Jackets @ Penguins

The Penguins open up preseason play on Tuesday night when they play host to the upstart Columbus Blue Jackets, who made the playoffs for the first time in their existence last season. The game was moved up to accommodate the upcoming G-20 Summit in downtown Pittsburgh.

The Jackets are bringing along a young team full of prospects trying to make the roster. Former Penguin Mathieu Garon will make the trip, and will probably share time with Dan LaCosta in goal. Columbus' first round pick, John Moore, will make his NHL debut.

For the Pens, their top two prospects, Eric Tangradi and Simon Despres, will be in the lineup, and playing in prominent roles on the top forward line and defensive pairings.

Penguins-

Kunitz-Crosby-Tangradi
Dupuis-Staal-Fedotenko
Conner-Jeffrey-Bayda
Sill-Vitale-Godard

Despres-Gonchar
Eaton-Engelland
McKee-Bortuzzo

Fleury
Thiessen

Blue Jackets-

Filatov-Brassard-Mayorov
Umberger-Vermette-Voracek
Picard-Murray-Dorsett
Sestito-Blunden-Boll

Russell-Methot
Lynch-Roy
Moore-Clitsome

Garon
LaCosta

Go Pens.

Three preseason games set for television on NHL Network

The Penguins will have three televised preseason games on the American NHL Network in September. The dates are the 21st, 22nd, and 31st against Toronto, Montreal, and Detroit.

Of slightly more note, players are trickling into Pittsburgh for the start of training camp. Summer break for the blog is officially over, and the bloggers will get back into the swing of things just as the players will.