It's Thursday October 13. This is vaguely important to my daily life since I sign papers all day at work and our system messed up majorly deciding to print the date as the 11th and 12th with no rhyme or reason. Talk about confusing. Today is also important because Sidney Crosby was cleared for full contact practice for the first time since his concussion. Want to know how the world found out?
The Pens tweeted a picture of him wearing a black helmet saying all the guys are wearing black helmets. Subtle. Much classier than Jeremy Roenick's rant about Crosby and his concussion coverage. (To be fair, he is right it was getting a bit wacky but the NHL is still not as big as the NFL or MLB and they need a player like Crosby.)
After their morning practice, Disco Dan has a media presser (shocking) and they questioned him about Crosby's return to full contact (even more shocking). Since they have a tough schedule for the next 2 weeks with lots of games and travel, practices are less intense and therefore have less contact. Therefore getting Crosby contact might have to be more forced. The man for the job in Bylsma's eyes: Ben Lovejoy. Ya know the one that reads to school children in his downtime....
"We’ve joked about it. Have you ever seen Ben Lovejoy in the morning skate on the penalty kill? That’ll be enough. Ben never stopped going when Sid was healthy. Sid and him always had battles as long as Ben’s been out there. So we’ll just put him on penalty kill during our morning skate and that should be enough for Ben to play 100 percent and give him some contact. I think Sid’s the type of player that he instigates contact. He’ll do something that will warrant that from a player. He’ll go out and do something, I don’t think anyone has to worry about that. There’ll be some jossling and some hitting going on, and during training camp when he’s been healthy there’s been jossling with a player or the ire’s gotten both guys, and that will happen again just because of the way Sidney competes. He’ll go after someone or go to the net. He’ll do something and there’ll be some contact there during the normal course of events." -Bylsma
So there ya go. Lovejoy is the man or Sid will cause someone to hit him. Totally normal. I've also seen Lovejoy knock a guy high into the glass when in Wilkes-Barre due to the power of his hit. I think Lovejoy is a fine choice.
The Penguins also resigned Chris Kunitz to a 2 year deal that begins next season. Another great signing by Ray Shero. When your over age 30 Shero is a 2 year type of guy and Kunitz knew that going in. He was happy with that wanted to stick around. He also admitted that having key players like Crosby, Geno and Staal like him as a person and a player helps.
Malkin after sitting out a practice is back in the lineup tonight. He and Alex Ovechkin did a ceremonial puck drop for the KHL's Lokomovtiv team that died in the plane crash. The league has been raising money for the families by selling bracelets at games. Game worn jersey's that have special patches in memorium are also going to be auctioned off. If Malkin wasn't in the lineup, he still would have been a part of the puck drop as he and Ovi were two of the key Russian NHLer's to work on this benefit. Very nice gesture by the league and players.
Realignment is the hot issue and is only going to heat up even more as December approaches (ekkkk). My head is spinning from all the options but if you have the brain capacity to attempt viewing any of them, here ya go. Legendary reporter Bob McKenzie actually gives you a bathroom break in his article, it's that long and intense. This one is a bit shorter and Puck Daddy to the rescue for the cliff notes edition!!
Au revoir for now
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