{"id":455641,"date":"2026-02-12T14:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455641\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T14:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:29:08","slug":"wild-olympic-start-flyers-trade-chips-penguins-eye-openers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455641\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Olympic Start; Flyers Trade Chips; Penguins&#8217; Eye Openers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The start of Olympic hockey was everything we\u2019d hoped and more, with some heroic performances in an upset, and an Italian goalie who nearly engineered the biggest single-game upset since 1980 in the other game. The NHL trade chatter is back in the Metro Division on Philadelphia and Columbus, though Columbus might sign players instead. And we dug into the biggest surprises of these Pittsburgh Penguins. <\/p>\n<p>Please accept my apologies. I planned to do the PHN+ Q&amp;A on Wednesday, but when I went to pull up the questions, they were trapped in the abyss between our old site and the new. I got a few of the old questions, but the first 11 were merely previews. <\/p>\n<p>So, we\u2019re doing this again. I saw some good questions\u2013<a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/phn-pittsburgh-penguins-qa-submissions-again-re-do\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"51091\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here to resubmit<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Penguins<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Surprises. There have been a few, and we ranked them. We cracked open the book on this season\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/top-5-pittsburgh-penguins-surprises-for-2025-26-season-erik-karlsson-evgeni-malkin\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"51077\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Steelers Now: Alan and the boys are getting a good headstart on next season. Here\u2019s what the <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/pittsburgh-steelers-2025-depth-chart\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">2026 Steelers depth chart<\/a> looks like.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s now a back-and-forth amongst former Steelers players. Joey Porter ripped Ben Roethlisberger to shreds, professionally and personally. Said he wasn\u2019t a good person. Former teammates began to weigh in on the old <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/ex-steelers-teammates-react-to-joey-porter-sr-ripping-big-ben\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Steelers drama<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I have no idea what\u2019s true and what\u2019s not, but Pittsburgh is a small town. Bad gas travels fast. It\u2019s kind of sad, really. <\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Baseball Now: OK, this is kind of interesting. Remember Jacob Stallings? He joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/pittsburgh-pirates-jacob-stallings-joins-front-office\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Pittsburgh Pirates front office<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s just about baseball season (Sorry, I won\u2019t pay too much attention until after hockey, eh?). Here are the five key storylines to follow during <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/pittsburgh-pirates-spring-training-storylines-konnor-griffin-paul-skenes\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Pirates spring training<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>NHL Trade Talk, News, &amp; National Hockey Now<\/p>\n<p>The Athletic ($): The coaching change in Columbus has changed the playoff race in the Eastern Conference and probably the NHL trade deadline. The Columbus Blue Jackets have some very tradeable pending free agents, or they have several players to sign. Aaron Portzline took a critical <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7024944\/2026\/02\/06\/blue-jackets-bowness-streak-break\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">look at what comes next<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Philly Hockey Now: The Philly Flyers also have some trade chips, including one on whom I wonder if the Penguins should kick tires. See if you circle the same player that I did among the <a href=\"https:\/\/phillyhockeynow.com\/2026\/02\/07\/flyers-trade-rumors-deadline-ristolainen-tippett-konecny-plan-change-after-losing-streaks\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Flyers trade chips<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Olympics!<\/p>\n<p>Slovakia pulled the massive upset, dishing a big loss to the mighty Finns. Juroslav Slafkovsky was a bulldozer in the win. Then, Italy almost pulled it off with a goalie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/olympics\/article\/slafkovsky-scores-twice-as-slovakia-upsets-finland-to-open-mens-hockey-at-olympics\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">standing on his head<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sportsnet: Why Canada MUST win, but they need to enjoy the ride. Yes, a media outlet in Canada is also demanding that they have fun doing it while under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/olympic-men-hockey\/article\/the-canadian-way-why-team-canada-must-win-but-savour-the-ride\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">intense pressure<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Boston Hockey Now: The other surprise team in the East is the Boston Bruins. They weren\u2019t supposed to be very good, but a new coach, a couple of rebound seasons, and here they are. Jack Studley details everything going right for the <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonhockeynow.com\/2026\/02\/12\/what-has-gone-right-for-bruins-olympic-break\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Bruins retool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Jack is a newbie, but is absolutely getting better every day and working his butt off, so give him a follow on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jackstudley13?lang=en\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">X here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>New Jersey Hockey Now: Next season will be another year for some wild retro jerseys. James Nichols has the, oh god not that one, <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nhl\/new-jersey-devils\/devils-news-hometown-remix-alternate-uniform-2026-27\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">New Jersey Devils retro sweater<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/nhl-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">nhl news<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/nhl-trade-talk\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">nhl trade talk<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/olympics\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Olympics<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-penguins\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"categories single-categories\">Categorized:<a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/category\/links\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Links<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/category\/nhl-trade-rumors\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">NHL Trade Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The start of Olympic hockey was everything we\u2019d hoped and more, with some heroic performances in an upset,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,106,8482,2602,1467,56,5205,100],"class_list":{"0":"post-455641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-news","12":"tag-nhl-trade-talk","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","16":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","17":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116058139087777609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}