The Toronto Maple Leafs surprised many by hiring a recently fired players\u2019 coach, while the Vegas Golden Knights stayed in house and hired a former Pittsburgh Penguins player as their new bench boss. San Jose pulled off the first trade of the draft, swapping picks and acquiring a young defenseman from Buffalo. And both of the Canadian networks released their final NHL Draft rankings. <\/p>\n
We also did a live podcast and a Penguins Chat. If you were there for the live version, you saw Ol\u2019 Dan just about to lose his marbles as the software settings were resetting in real time. At first, the video stopped working as soon as we went live, and then the audio muted whenever a picture or video would play. It was a shame because I spent the morning chopping some highlights of newly acquired Oliver Okuliar and really had stuff planned out for once. <\/p>\n
The lesson to wing it like I always do. So, I got everything fixed on the fly, and I think some of you found my bubbling irritation to be funny. Sorry, I went back to YouTube and edited the video, chopping out the busted up start. Afterward, we had a pretty good chat. <\/p>\n
Also, I remembered what was so important that I wanted to write about on Wednesday. I spent the wee hours of Wednesday morning glued to Facebook and Instagram reels of the Scottish fans in Boston. If you haven\u2019t, you must see these proper lunatics lighting up that city, including Red Sox games with patriotism, pure sports joy, and fun. They filled Fenway for a night and were singing and chanting. They extended \u201cI Would Walk 500 Miles\u201d for an entire half inning. It was glorious. <\/p>\n
Bars in Boston report the Tartan Army TRIPLED the receipts from St. Patrick\u2019s Day, and they sang and chanted there, too, while literally drinking Boston dry. Boston \u2026 out of beer! They\u2019re not glued to their phones, they\u2019re not waiting for a great moment, they\u2019re making the event what they want it to be. I was struck by the genuine enthusiasm to simply enjoy the moment and what sprang from it. <\/p>\n
They gather with each other, not attend individually. I\u2019m jealous.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t suppose we American fans will ever get there, but maybe a lot of us could bring a little more to the events we attend. Give instead of take. How hard can it be? Teams will also have to do their part by not forcing \u201centertainment\u201d down our throats in every stoppage with some hosted scoreboard game or sponsored announcement. <\/p>\n
Steelers fans used to be pretty close with polkas and chants. I think my next (first?) vacation is to Scotland for a sporting event. Sing, you brilliant heroes. Da-da da da (Da-da da da)! <\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Penguins<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The chat! Maybe I should make the debacle video available to subscribers so you can watch and laugh. Nah. The podcast portion was shortened, but we got to the good stuff on Oliver Okuliar, three potential Penguins draft picks I think will be available, including one who looks just like a young Pete Davidson, and some Darnell Nurse trade talk, too. It was a solid Penguins podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n NHL Trade Talk, News, & National Hockey Now<\/p>\n San Jose Hockey Now: Trade! I like the deal for both sides. Michael Kesselring quickly didn\u2019t fit in Buffalo, so they traded the young, giant defenseman to San Jose, including a swap of first-round picks. Here\u2019s the Sharks\u2019 trade and analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n TSN: A new \u201cplayer-centric\u201d coach in Toronto. Jim Hiller was canned on March 1 in LA, but he\u2019s now the new boss for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Canadian media is still deciding what to make of the new coach, who is a player\u2019s coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n I get the thinking. Toronto can be so hostile, a guy who takes care of the players might be the right call. GM John Chayka\u2019s second presser went a little better than the first. <\/p>\n Craig Button dropped his final draft list of the season. The rankings are all over the place, but I keep Button\u2019s as a baseline. Wyatt Cullen, Maddox Dagenais, and JP Hurlbert are right in the Penguins\u2019 space. Here\u2019s the list and six rising players to watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sportsnet: Sam Cosentino dropped his last Top 32 Draft rankings. Sam really dropped Liam Ruck but elevated Max Dagenais. Here\u2019s the Sportsnet version<\/a>.<\/p>\n We talked about Dagenais on the live chat, and the more I read about him, the more he sounds like a Wes Clark\/Kyle Dubas selection who projects into the top-six. RHD Tommy Bleyl is another name not to overlook. <\/p>\n Sportsnet: The latest on Mike Babcock, the NHL trade rumors surrounding Matthew Knies, and Sergei Bobrovsky\u2019s future. Nick Kypreos delivered what he\u2019s hearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n NHL.com: Torts out. Ryan Craig in. The Vegas Golden Knights promoted from within and have a new coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Washington Capitals also extended coach Spencer Carbery, and the Utah Mammoth extended Alex Tourigny. <\/p>\n New Jersey Hockey Now: If they cannot trade him, perhaps the New Jersey Devils should consider more drastic measures to move on from goalie Jacob Markstrom, who has not performed up to expectations since being acquired from Calgary. Could we see the Devils buyout Markstrom<\/a>?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: max dagenais<\/a> nhl draft rankings<\/a> nhl trade<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <\/p>\n Categorized:Links<\/a> NHL Trade Rumors<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs surprised many by hiring a recently fired players\u2019 coach, while the Vegas Golden Knights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[96929,96930,10172,73,75,74,1067],"class_list":["post-222813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-max-dagenais","tag-nhl-draft-rankings","tag-nhl-trade","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-penguins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}