After making big changes during the offseason, the Pittsburgh Penguins are aiming to get back into the Stanley Cup conversation in 2014-15. They took a solid step in that direction on Thursday night with a 3-0 shutout win over the defending champion Los Angeles Kings.
Last year, the Penguins were a good team whose postseason ended with a whimper after surrendering a 3-1 second-round series lead to the New York Rangers. Coaching, scoring, goaltending and those mysterious intangibles were all called into question as possible reasons for the team's failure to advance, but answers remained murky.
As Michael Traikos of the National Post wrote after the Penguins' season came to an end, "It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly is wrong with Pittsburgh when they came within one goal of reaching the conference final for the second time in two years."
With a new coach and a fresh start for 2014-15, Thursday's meeting with the Kings offered the Penguins their first chance to gauge their progress against the team that ultimately beat the Rangers to win the Cup&md ...
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Article written by Carol Schram