A beautiful weekend becomes a week of anticipation in the hockey world as arbitration hearings are on deck. What comes next might be a giant nothing burger, plain, or the blockbuster that creates capital letter headlines. While we grab the popcorn for the decisions, Pittsburgh Penguins fans may be unhappy to know the Philadelphia Flyers are getting side benefits from the Leo Carlsson offer. In Detroit, the problems and shortcomings of the Steve Yzerman era are finally being discussed, and below is the Penguins’ wrap of content from the past several days.

Even I am having trouble creating new or insightful Penguins stories right now. We will have new content daily for you, but right now, it is as dead as I’ve ever seen it this early. The spike in the salary cap took away a lot of drama.

But I am happy to report/humble brag that I pulled it off. If you follow me on social media, you saw the carnage that was my kitchen this weekend as I threw a dinner party. I forgot to take a few pictures of the final product, but after spending most of 36 hours of Saturday night through Sunday, the Beef Bourguignon was pretty great.

I was crestfallen Sunday afternoon after the Bourquignon looked ruined, but I threw a Hail Mary.

Like many small problems in life, the Bourguignon just needed more wine to loosen up. The gummy texture became an almost perfect thick stew. I made it from scratch, teaching myself how to marble a fatty chuck roast, instead of using cheap stew meat. And I spent way too much time peeling potatoes (people actually do this stuff for fun?!), grating cheese, and chopping onions. Of course, there were smaller whoops, such as losing one of the two fresh mozzarella balls for the caprese salad (how?!) and absolutely burning the galattes au fromage (basically cheese wafers, which are great … when done properly) just as guests arrived.

The final tally was one narrowly avoided visit to the ER for a sliced finger, one cut finger as I grabbed the aluminum foil box without looking and grabbed the serrated part, and a lot of fun. Through the evening, we finished six bottles of wine, belly laughed as my friends absolutely roasted me, and no one knew how badly I flopped with the fromage. The second picture is only a portion of the carnage in my kitchen.

Anthony Jardine brought a couple of bottles of wine from his Original Pittsburgh Winery on Penn Ave. Go there! Let’s do the hockey.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The top prospects list. Here are the top five, and the direct links to the top 20. When we laid out all of the prospects, it really painted a rosy picture for the Penguins’ future.

Of course, even this writer had to admit there were a couple of snubs. We dig into those snubs, honorable mentions, the organization’s secret weapon, and the trade value of some of the Penguins prospects.

Moving forward from the prospects, as we analyzed what comes next, it seems the fate, or reality, keeps shoving Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas in one direction even as he tries to go another. But that’s not a bad thing, even as the specter of an Yzerman splat must scare a lot of GMs; thriving despite a different Penguins direction.

NHL Rumors, News, & NHN

Keep those NHL trade rumors simmering. Thursday is the arbitration hearing for Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves, and then Saturday is the hearing for Jason Robertson. I don’t need to explain why the Robertson hearing could have plenty of impact locally, eh?

TSN: Flyers GM Daniel Briere is living well these days. He rattled the NHL with his offer to Anaheim Ducks restricted free agent center Leo Carlsson. Despite Anaheim matching the offer, Briere said there have been real benefits for the Flyers.

Sportsnet: Remember goalie Jack Campbell? The goalie who resurrected his career but then fell hard and bounced around the league with a hefty contract? He’s not necessarily retiring, but he’s had enough hockey and is enjoying other challenges in life, including becoming a life coach.

Philly Hockey Now: In addition to the bump in perception, the Flyers have another win this offseason. Will James writes why getting Jamie Drysdale’s name on that new four-year contract was a big win for the Philly Flyers.

Detroit Hockey Now: Seven years is a long time. The Detroit Red Wings never got the payoff of the Yzerman hire, which was quite the big news when it happened. Max Smith digs into the one area where Yzerman failed, and the new Red Wings GM must improve.

San Jose Hockey Now: I don’t necessarily think the cover of the EA Sports games is a big deal, but a lot of others do. Macklin Celebrini is on the cover of this season’s release, and he did a few interviews about what comes next for the emerging San Jose Sharks.

San Jose is going to be very … very good, very soon.

Florida Hockey Now: There is an unfortunate problem in Florida. The equipment manager was arrested and later released on a count of domestic violence and unlawful use of 911 services. He’s been suspended pending an investigation by the Florida Panthers.

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