FanHouse MarkEaton

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Tuesday, there are 56 days remaining.

As far as modern defensive monsters go, Mark Eaton has been a bit forgotten. The Wag has imprinted Dikembe Mutombo's image in all our eternal memories; when you think of blocked shots, you think of Deke.

But Eaton can lay claim to the blocks title, in terms of seasonal average. In 1984-85, Eaton racked up a whopping 5.6 blocks per game.

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.

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.

So the rematch is set: Pittsburgh vs. Detroit. For the first time in 25 years, the same two teams will meet in back-to-back years for the right to fight for Lord Stanley's Cup, and while one of these teams is relatively similar to last year's version (with one big exception) the other is very, very different.

We're a little less than 24 hours removed from Friday's Red Wings-Blackhawks game, which saw Chicago claw its way back into the series with a 4-3 overtime win, while a lot of the debate has been centered around Niklas Kronwall's devastating hit on Martin Havlat.

While Havlat was knocked six ways from Tuesday, Kronwall was issued a five-minute major and a game misconduct for interference which set off a firestorm of discussion around the hockey blogosphere and message boards. Was it interference? Was it charging? Was it a legal, clean hit? We asked the NHL for comment.

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After suffering a "lower body injury" in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final, Erik Cole's status for Game 2 has been up in the air during this painfully long two-day break. Cole was injured during Monday's game when he was on the receiving end of a Matt Cooke hit that included knee-on-knee contact.

According to Adam Harris of WRAL, Cole participated in Thursday's morning skate, and it appears he will be available for the Hurricanes when they hit the ice for Game 2. The news doesn't sound quite as promising for his teammate, Tuomo Ruutu.

Well this is kind of a letdown. After watching the Penguins take on long-time rivals Philadelphia and Washington in the first two rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs, they're now taking on the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final. It's a match-up that offers nothing in the way of hatred, bitterness or rivalry. Hopefully the Staal brothers pull a Keith and Wayne Primeau and fight sometime in the first two games. You know, just to stir the pot a little bit.

Having said that, this is an interesting match-up when it comes to hockey and that, of course, is the most important thing. It should be an exciting series, and who knows, perhaps by the end of it both teams will end up hating each other anyway.

As if the second round series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals couldn't get any more entertaining than it had been through the first five games, it did on Monday night. There were three lead changes, shots off the iron, goals off the most unlikely of sticks and, of course, overtime.

After the dust settled on a wild game that saw both teams go through the motions numerous times thanks to playing four games in six nights, it would be Washington's David Steckel who sent the Mellon Arena crowd home unhappy and this series to a seventh game on Wednesday night.

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If you're a Penguins fan, there was certainly a lot to like about their 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening game of their Eastern Conference playoff series on Wednesday night.

They received offense from the usual suspects (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin), they were strong defensively and on the penalty kill, and they even picked up a pair of goals from Tyler Kennedy and Mark Eaton. All things considered, it was a strong showing.

The one area they can improve? As has been the case much of the season, the power play.

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During Pittsburgh's 4-3 win over the New York Rangers this past Saturday, Colton Orr received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for interference on Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton. The call sparked some harsh reactions from the Rangers blogosphere and fan base, while head coach John Tortorella and goalie Henrik Lundqvist spoke out regarding the officiating in general following the game.

It's common to complain about the officiating in any professional sport, but the NHL in particular deals with a confusing and inconsistent disciplinary structure (where a sex joke might get you shelved longer than a hard elbow to the head).

It all prompted us to take a look at the power play/penalty kill differential for every team across the league. But we needed more; we needed some perspective from the league. Luckily, Stephen Walkom, NHL director of officiating, was more than willing to talk it out.