FanHouse Jordan Staal

To quote fictional hockey coach Ted Orion in D3: The Mighty Ducks (Hey, I admit it, I've watched it): "How long does it take to score a goal? Less than a second." That's a lesson the Boston Bruins learned on Saturday night as they were 0.4 seconds away from pulling out a back-and-forth 5-4 win.

Instead, a broken stick, a buzzer-beating goal and an embarrassing turnover from Tim Thomas in overtime led to a 6-5 loss in Pittsburgh.

Video of the insanity after the jump.

After losing No. 1 defenseman Sergei Gonchar to a broken a wrist over a week ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be without another top player as the reigning NHL scoring champion, Evgeni Malkin, will be out of the lineup for two-to-three weeks with a shoulder strain.

According to head coach Dan Bylsma the injury happened roughly 10 days ago, and sitting him out is a precautionary move at this point.

Three years ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins started a promotion where they would have players deliver season-tickets to fans across the Pittsburgh area. And when I say players, I don't mean fringe fourth-liners or the backup goalie. They would send out Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Marc-Andre Fleury. Core players. Two years ago, Crosby delivered tickets to Alice Kilgore, a woman that had been a season-ticket holder for 38 years. After she received her tickets, she offered a prediction to Crosby: the Penguins wouldn't win the Stanley Cup that season (they didn't, losing to the Red Wings in six games) but would ultimately win it the following season (they did, beating the Red Wings in seven games).

Over the weekend, the Penguins were out delivering tickets once again, and Crosby made a return visit to Alice Kilgore's house ... and he brought along the Stanley Cup. Video after the jump, including Crosby being awkwardly -- and jokingly, I hope -- asked if he likes older women.

The recent SABR explosion in Major League Baseball has changed the way fans watch the game and evaluate the players taking part. Out are batting average and ERA; in are On-Base Percentage and WHIP. If you're a hockey fan looking for the same type of advancements, Behind The Net is a must-bookmark, as well as the folks at Puck Prospectus.

Hockey may be trailing baseball and the other major sports when it comes to advanced statistical analysis, but the gap is starting to close, and Gabriel Desjardins, lead man of Behind The Net and contributor to Puck Prospectus, is one of the people at the forefront.

HOMESTEAD, Pa. -- Phil Bourque spent eight of his 12 NHL seasons as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, helping the team win two Stanley Cups in the early 1990s. Since the 2003-04 campaign, he's worked as an analyst for the Penguins radio network, and we had an opportunity to catch up with him at the team's Championship DVD release on Monday night.

Among the topics discussed: How do the current Penguins compare to the teams he played on, which current Penguin is the modern-day Phil Bourque, and why are hockey players the most approachable, fan-friendly athletes in sports?

I don't know how Penguins general manager Ray Shero pulled it off, but he managed to not only retain the services of Ruslan Fedotenko and Bill Guerin, two of the teams top-six forwards from their Stanley Cup winning team, but he did so while getting them to take paycuts.

After signing Guerin to a one-year deal on Monday, the Penguins announced that they agreed to terms with Fedotenko Friday afternoon. Rob Rossi of the Tribune Review reports the deal as being worth $1.8 million, down from the $2.25 million he made a season ago.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We'll be running our division-by-division preview of the offseason beginning later in the week, but we wanted to give the two top dogs their own space. Yesterday we took a look at the Red Wings. Today: the summer outlook for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Thanks to Max Talbot's two-goal performance in Game 7, along with Marc-Andre Fleury's buzzer-beating save on Nicklas Lidstrom, the Pittsburgh Penguins brought home their third Stanley Cup. General manager Ray Shero now has the task of dealing with 10 unrestricted free agents and finding a way to construct a team that is capable of keeping the Cup in Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Penguins ended a 17-year Stanley Cup drought on Friday night with a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings, giving the franchise its third championship. While current general manager Ray Shero will get his name on the cup for overseeing the hockey operations the past three seasons, former general manager Craig Patrick also had a hand in putting this team together.

After the jump, a player-by-player look at how the 2008-09 Penguins were built over the years.

In The Face-Off Circle: A game-by-game look at the face-off matchups in the Stanley Cup Final

Tuesday's game 6 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings proved to be one of the most intense, exciting, and nail-biting games in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, as it literally came down to a matter of inches in the closing minutes of the third period. It was also the first game in the series where the two teams were even in the face-off circle, as both teams won 24-of-48 draws.

Which ones had an impact on the game? Find out after the jump.

Why not make it seven?

When there's hockey being played as urgently, breathlessly, and brilliantly as Tuesday night's Game 6, and you're given the gift of more, you don't ask why. You just accept it and offer gratitude to the two teams who made it possible. Forget Saturday's anti-climax, a 5-0 win for the Red Wings over the Penguins that again had Detroit looking epic and Pittsburgh embodying the lamb. Forget what you've known through six games.

These two teams deserve the most poignant of climaxes to the thrilling narrative they've written thus far.

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