Things looking up in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (AP)  Penguins team owner/GM Gary Brown has taken the past three years to rebuild the Penguins organization into a winning team.  How?  

"We look for grinders who play two-way hockey.  We believe the game is won in between the blue lines, the neutral zone, with an emphasis on checking and scoring opportunities resulting from our opponent's mistakes.  Not to mention that we have one of the game's best goaltenders (Elvis Merzlikins), who comes up with the big saves when needed," Brown told reporters inside his office.

"Let's start with our team captain, Chandler Stephenson.  His name is rarely mentioned among the league's top forwards, but he plays a solid two-way game and with (Anton) Lundell and (Evgeny) Dadonov as his two wings, they've become a potent threat on the power play.  And let's not forget that we a solid second line centered by Kevin Hayes along with sneaky Brandon Saad and the oft-injured Ondrej Kase.

Then we have our top four defensemen:  Rasmus Ristolainen, Justin Braun, Jamie Oleksiak and Radko Gudas.  They're big, they're mobile and they makes the lives of opposing forwards miserable with heavy hits when needed.

And our PK specialists, Ryan Carpenter, Michael Raffl and Nick Cousins, can slow down any opposing power play unit."

Bottomline:  Look for the Penguins to sneak into the playoffs, just like we did last year. Expect a lot of 3-2 and 2-1 games.  Our philosophy is a win is a win.  It doesn't have to be pretty.  Opposition teams are going to hate coming into the 'Gloo.  Well, fuck 'em, I always say."