LAS VEGAS \u2014 There were a couple of important losses Wednesday night, and the Eastern Conference playoff race is crystalizing with only a couple of teams within striking distance of stealing a spot while other teams have dropped out. On the Penguins\u2019 travel day, we had a little fun looking at the seven failed goaltender challenges, but then turned serious with an honest look at what comes next for the Penguins rebuild and, more specifically, what comes next for the Penguins aging stars.<\/p>\n
It was a good day in Las Vegas. I got my work done, but also enjoyed plenty of $3 margaritas (probably not much alcohol in them), had wonderfully nutritious eggs and bacon breakfast off the strip with Vegas Hockey Now scribe Hannah Kirkell, who\u2019s just a hockey nut through and through. I walked the Strip to decompress and had one of my favorite Vegas dinners: prime rib at the Four Queens on Freemont St. <\/p>\n
I forgot how potent their horseradish is. My eyes were watering and my nostrils flared. Then PHN capped it off with a late-night snack at Tacos El Gordo with a former Pittsburgh media member who lives out here. I highly recommend going out of your way for El Gordo. It\u2019s grubby street food at its finest. I also recommend the cafe at Four Queens. <\/p>\n
And if you\u2019re out here, Battista\u2019s Hole in the Wall Italian Food is one of the last great old Vegas institutions still running. It\u2019s still reasonably priced and serves free table wine\u2013it\u2019s just off the Strip beside the Horseshoe. <\/p>\n
I\u2019d post a photo of dinner, but a big slab of prime rib and a potato covered in butter and sour cream doesn\u2019t photograph very well for the morning audience. <\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Penguins<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Vince Comunale did the legwork on this one. The seven deadly challenges, all going against the Penguins. When you put them side-by-side-by-side, a few of them look even worse. A few of them cost the Penguins games. It\u2019s an interactive exhibit\u2013take a look and sound off. Which ones were and which ones weren\u2019t goaltender interference<\/a>. <\/p>\n I still maintain that, given the wildly subjective and inconsistent nature of the calls, the odds of all seven going against the Penguins defy belief. <\/p>\n Now, color me surprised by the decidedly angry and one-sided comments section. What started as a quick blog for an off-day touching on Evgeni Malkin\u2019s future turned into a real in-depth exposition of Malkin and Kris Letang\u2019s future and Kyle Dubas\u2019s path forward to rebuild the Penguins<\/a>.<\/p>\n After months and months of being bombarded with \u201cTear it down, rebuild!\u201d fans, we\u2019re now getting a wave of \u201cDon\u2019t you dare touch Malkin and Letang!\u201d fans. Penguins fans are usually the most divided in sports, so this should be a civil discussion, eh?<\/p>\n Steelers Now: The NFL free agency period has been swift and decisive, but here are still 20 UFAs on the big Steelers board<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh Baseball Now: The case FOR and AGAINST potential rookie phenom Konnor Griffin starting the season with the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>.<\/p>\n NHL Trade Talk, News, & National Hockey Now<\/p>\n Montreal Hockey Now: They needed this one, but lost in regulation. The Ottawa Senators could have closed to within one point of the Columbus Blue Jackets as the first team out of the playoffs, and within three points of the Boston Bruins for the second wild card (and within four points of the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins, too). But alas, Montreal\u2019s young goalie Jacob Fowler took it away, and the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> helped the cause.<\/p>\n The Washington Capitals also lost, and are now seven points back of a playoff spot, and eight points behind the Penguins. <\/p>\n TSN: The difficulty of the Canadian teams. Montreal and the Edmonton Oilers were goalie shopping, but both were on Sergei Bobrovsky\u2019s no-trade list, making it a no-fly zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n GMs say they need to stop handing these NTCs out \u2026 which probably means they will dish even more on July 1.<\/p>\n Sportsnet: Why it\u2019s time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to just tear it down and go full tank mode<\/a>.<\/p>\n NHLtraderumors.me: It appears the Boston Bruins also kicked the tires on Vincent Trocheck and were quite put-off by the price tag: A good young player and a first-round pick<\/a>. <\/p>\n And Utah signed Nick Schmaltz to an eight-year deal with a $64 million payday. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: nhl trade<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <\/p>\n Categorized:Links<\/a> NHL Trade Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 There were a couple of important losses Wednesday night, and the Eastern Conference playoff race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,4,4433,118,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-499548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-nhl-trade","11":"tag-penguins","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","14":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116216575984256816","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499548","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=499548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}