Work hard, play hard, and repeat for the Pens

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be chasing a third consecutive championship this season. Though the desired result is the same as last year’s, several things are quite different…

The foundation of the Pens has remained intact; capitain Sidney Crosby and forward Evgeni Malkin are still leading the way in Pittsburgh, but the team’s depth took some hits during the summer.

A big loss on the offensive lines is Nick Bonino, who signed with the Nashville Predators after the opening of free agency. Crosby’s buddy Chris Kunitz and forward Matt Cullen has also headed to different locations.

On the blue line, Trevor Daly left for the Detroit Red Wings, while veterans Ron Hainsey and Mark Streit also signed elsewhere.  

But the biggest loss appears to be on an emotional level: goalie Marc Andre Fleury was sent to the Vegas Golden Knights during the expansion draft, and the netminder is going to be greatly missed by the team and fans. 

So, even though the Pens will look to repeat the actions to obtain the same result, to win another championship in June, they will realize some elements are not consistent with last year’s success. 

A new challenge lays ahead for the defending champions, but some things are the same: the Penguins refuse to give up. They have speedy agile forwards and strong defensemen, and netminder Matt Murray will look to take on a bigger workload and impress Pens’ fans everywhere.

Game on!