All stats at even-strength and analytics are adjusted for score and venue.
All stats adjusted for score and venue where applicable.
Once again, our friend The Beverly Brewmaster is here to help get you drunk. Follow him on Twitter @BvrlyTweetMaker
A wise man once said: “You’ve got to sell your pumpkin futures before Halloween! Before!” What does this have to do with beer? Not much. But it’s pumpkin beer season, and few styles evoke more controversy. Personally, I’m not a fan of most pumpkin beers, but the ones I tend to like are the darker offerings. The assertive flavors in pumpkin pie spices need tempering, and the roasted flavors you get in a stout keep the spices from dominating.
One pumpkin beer I had last week that I really enjoyed is Dark O’ The Moon pumpkin stout from Seattle’s Elysian Brewing Co. [Full disclosure: Elysian was purchased by Budweiser’s parent company a couple years ago.] The characteristic cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove flavors are there, but they’re not overwhelming. The coffee and cocoa flavors from the roasted malts balance the spices perfectly, and at 7.5% alcohol it’s got some body and warmth to it while still being somewhat drinkable. So if you’re looking for something to sip on while the kids are trick-or-treating (or while you hide in the basement pretending that nobody’s home so nobody will ring the doorbell, you cheap bastard) and you don’t generally think of yourself as a pumpkin beer guy, you might want to give Dark O’ The Moon a shot.
Whenever a player is traded, no matter how loved, there’s an instinct to try and justify how his loss won’t be as big as your first reaction indicates. Sure, there are trades that are just so bad you simply can’t talk yourself into them (hi there, Trevor Daley). But for the most part, you’ll always run for some shelter of information that makes you feel like your team won a given a trade. Even though a perfect trade is one where both teams benefit, but we don’t live in that world and this is a capitalist society, dammit.
So a little of that went on here when Artemi Panarin was dealt to Columbus for Brandon Saad. Yes, Saad is actually younger and yes Saad has something of a more all-around game. We commented on Panarin’s shoosty-tendencies at the end of last year. How his feet didn’t move quite the way they did his rookie year and instead he was becoming more and more Ray Allen waiting for his corner three. That works when LeBron or Patrick Kane can kick it out there for you. But is that really the case?
When it comes to international competitions, there are really only three team sports anyone cares about. Basketball, hockey, and soccer. Maybe one day the World Baseball Classic will catch on, but we’ll all be either in the ground, in the wind, or not aware of our surroundings when that happens. And as a Yank, it can get dispiriting to see how the overlords of the sport in hockey and soccer run things. And it wasn’t so long ago that USA Basketball had to have an awakening, when gold medals at the Olympics and World Championships suddenly were not automatic. You wonder if such a thing would have to happen in the other sports, when the US has never been on top.
Game Of The Night
Predators v. Bruins (6pm)
Cleary the Penguins-Hawks is the game of the night, but we’ve spent all day talking about that so let’s move on for once, huh? Let’s admit there’s something outside of our little bubble! Open the spectrum a bit, maybe learn something about someone. Anyway, everyone’s favorite little-hockey-team-that-could, despite their GM having a tradition of signing sex offenders continues unabated, hits the ice tonight in The Hub. All eyes will be on the Preds this season, because all hockey writers want to go get drunk on Broadway on the company dime again and then rerun all their “hidden hockey gem” stories. As for the B’s… they’ll just hope Zdeno Chara can live through this.
vs. 
RECORDS: Penguins 0-0-1 Hawks 0-0-0
PUCK DROP: 7:30pm Central
TV: NBCS CHICAGO OR WHATEVER THE FUCK IT’S CALLED NOW
IRON CITY IS ACTUALLY PRETTY MUCH AS GOOD AS YEUNGLING: Pensburgh
After spending the past month gnashing our teeth or making fun of people gnashing their teeth about who would fill out the third defensive pairing or who would be on the fourth line, the Hawks get to roll it out for real tonight. In an odd bit of scheduling, it’ll be the second game for the Penguins, when you’d have to guess if this were the NBA or NFL they would have had, y’know, the team that just won its third Cup open the season against the team that last won three Cups close together in a primetime slot. Instead, you’ll be getting Antti Niemi on local TV! The NHL people, you can’t beat it with a stick!
Mike Darnay is Editor-in-chief at Pensburgh.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeDarnay, where he’ll be bitching about Liverpool FC as much as I am.
The Penguins have lost Bonino, Cullen, Daley, Cunitz, and Fleury from last year’s champs. Which of these will hurt most?
I feel like this question might need to wait a little bit — at least until we see how Jim Rutherford decides to handle the 3C position. As it appears going into the season, losing Nick Bonino is going to hurt the most. If the Penguins can make a trade for someone like Riley Sheahan and remedy that roster spot, I think the answer might be Matt Cullen. He very quietly played a fantastic veteran role as a 4C (much like Michal Handzus did for Chicago, right?). (Not funny, Mike, -ED)
Mike Darnay is Editor-in-chief at Pensburgh.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeDarnay, where he’ll be bitching about Liverpool FC as much as I am.
The Penguins have lost Bonino, Cullen, Daley, Cunitz, and Fleury from last year’s champs. Which of these will hurt most?
I feel like this question might need to wait a little bit — at least until we see how Jim Rutherford decides to handle the 3C position. As it appears going into the season, losing Nick Bonino is going to hurt the most. If the Penguins can make a trade for someone like Riley Sheahan and remedy that roster spot, I think the answer might be Matt Cullen. He very quietly played a fantastic veteran role as a 4C (much like Michal Handzus did for Chicago, right?). (Not funny, Mike, -ED)
Perhaps the oddest component of the Penguins’ back-to-back championships is that only two defensemen played every playoff game both years. One is Ian Cole, who obviously doesn’t matter. And the other is Brian Dumoulin.
It’s been a strange cast rotating through. Two years ago Ben Lovejoy played every game, and Kris Letang only missed one. Olli Maatta, Justin Schultz, Trevor Daley, and Derrick Pouliot also saw time in the playoffs.
Last year, Letang missed the whole playoff campaign, and Maatta, Ron Hainsey, Cole, and Dumoulin went the route. Schultz and Daley played most of them but missed a couple games each. Mark Streit and Chad Ruhwedel also came up for air at various points.
So with Letang’s body basically being constructed of balsa wood, is Dumoulin now the most important d-man in Pittsburgh?
