Repeat After Me - "In Shero We Trust"

After the lows (the shocking news of Marian Hossa's departure) and highs (Geno's 5 year extension) we went through yesterday, it looks like we've got another reason to celebrate today. We've locked up the Flower!!! From TSN.ca:

A day after signing core players Evgeni Malkin and Brooks Orpik to long term deals, the Pittsburgh Penguins took care of their goaltender on Thursday.

Sources tell TSN Marc-Andre Fleury has signed a seven year, $35 million extension.


The deal includes a no-move and limited no-trade clause that triggers in 2010-2011

The no-move prevents the Penguins from placing Fleury on waivers, while the limited no-trade still allows for some flexibility with Fleury controlling the list of teams he would consider in the event Pittsburgh wants to trade him.

SWEET! :) For this one, I'll send you over to The Flower Shop for a little celebratory post from good Friend of The Show Loser Chris.

After Hossa bailed for Detroit, we begged for a winger for Sidney. Well, now Shero got us two - the Pens signed Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko to patch the hole Hossa left. Also from TSN.ca:

Both deals are one-year contracts, with Satan earning $3.5 million next year and Fedotenko $2.5 million.

Miroslav Satan
(From Wikipedia: The proper Slovak pronunciation of his name is "SHAH-than", but North Americans usually pronounce it "Shuh-TAN".)
Haha, I've always used the latter pronunciation. I didn't realize it was incorrect until I searched for the best way to type out the pronunciation for you and found this information... Whoops!

Satan, twice selected to the All-Star game, scored 16 goals and added 25 assists in 80 games last season for the New York Islanders. The native of the Czech Republic has 685 points in 947 career NHL games.

Ruslan Fedotenko
(pronounced ROOS-lahn FED-uh-TENK-oh)

Fedotenko marked 16 goals and 17 assists in just 67 games last season, also for the Islanders. Fedotenko was sidelined for parts of the year with a knee injury.

Maybe neither one is a comparable match to Hossa, but they're both pretty good players in their own rights. Remember that both Sid and Geno have the uncanny ability to make guys around them better players (Tampa Bay is about to find this out with Ryan Malone), so I think these two guys will fit in nicely. It looks like Shero did have a few backup plans after all, so we'll just have to wait to see how this all plays out in the end. Shero's next move may just be a contract extension for GRONK! No matter what happens, the Pens are going to have a different look next season, and sometimes different is better. :)

Before I forget, both the Saint and Geno are up for ESPY awards. Some of you mentioned it in the comments sections of the last couple of posts, but I keep forgetting to add it to a post. Now you guys need to VOTE FOR SID AND GENO!!! (Use my link - the one on the Pens' website is broken.) Thanks to Friends of The Show Narmeen A. and Susan W. for sending me the emails that reminded me to post this! ;)

You can thank Friend Bobby T. for this picture. It's from the latest Hockey News. Click it to enlarge it for the wallpaper size.

Friend Jennifer B. sent in a tip for us:

Didja know that there is a free Penguins podcasts on itunes? It's called Penguins Rink Rat Report. If you put that in the search box when the results come up you'll want to hit "subscribe" it should give you access to all the podcasts for the entire 2007-2008 season. The most recent podcasts are interviews with each of the draft prospects and then one from today with Ray Shero. There's no way for me to give you a link, unfortunately so if you have trouble finding it let me know. I do know that even if someone doesn't have an iPod, you can access iTunes and download the podcasts.

I highly recommend downloading iTunes and subscribing - there are some really good interviews on these Podcasts.

Also - don't forget to send in your pictures for our TSCS Summer Project! I'd love to see some pics of you guys sporting your Pens gear in front of exploding fireworks, hint hint! But remember, the only "requirement" is that you have something Penguins-related in a picture with something related to your city, state, province, and/or country.

Thanks to all the Friends who helped out with today's post!