“Hardly Best On Best” 12/16/24

On the way to stealing a point from their loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins lost Marcus Pettersson to what has proven to be a week-to-week lower body injury. That’s not good, especially for a team who’ve just recently begun banking points en route to a possible wildcard berth.

Jeff’s gears have been ground. The culprit? The NHL’s decision not to include Russian players in a so-called ‘best-on-best’ tournament. Promoting an event as featuring the world’s most elite talent is far from genuine, when the odds-on favorite for Hart Trophy winner, Kirill Kaprizov is at home or on vacation. Alexander Ovechkin. Artemi Panarin. Igor Shesterkin. The list goes on, and none of them will be participating in what could otherwise have been a truly killer shindig.

Subscribe to Jeff’s new Penguins-related Substack feed:
https://substack.com/@penspod

Thank you for listening!!

Follow the podcast on IG:
@flypenguinsfly

Follow your hosts on Blue Sky:
Jeff Taylor: penspod-JT.bsky.social // Jordan DeFigio: @fidgenewton.bsky.social

LETS GO PENS.

JEFF TAYLOR + JORDAN DEFIGIO