What a great day for Washington Capital fans. The closest they will ever come to be a banner raising happens at 8pm tonight.

It’s been a hell of a summer. We’ve been completely checked out, but season 10 of Pensblog returns whether you like it or not.

We’re all back, too. We’ll be rotating Gamedays, recaps, and whatever else between us (Derek and Adam), Rich, and Jesse.  Meesh will make some appearances, the Emmy Award winning Stephen S. returns as well.

Let’s talk:

Summer recap

The Victory lap – the actual team

From what we’ve seen the standard cup parties were pretty normal. Crosby ruled Halifax for a few days, Kessel’s grandma drank from the cup, Malkin had fun, so on and so forth. The Penguins went to the White House last week to cap it all off:

The Pittsburgh media meltdown

What a summer. Let’s be honest, it seems like it went too quick. It’s no secret we’ve all but retired from the blogging game, we accomplished every goal we could think of. However, with the collapse of every newspaper in town, it wouldn’t be right if we couldn’t stick around for one more year to piss on their ashes.

So let’s catch up.

The Collapse of Pittsburgh Newspapers

This was stunning, and quick. Over the summer the PG was going to lay everyone off, but they bought people out instead. In the first stunning move of the media landscape, Empty Netter signed off forever. Seth landed back on his feet at DK on Yinzer paywall. So we’ll never read him ever again, but we wish him well.

If that wasn’t a jolt, Rob Rossi parted ways from the Trib a few months later. Then the Trib said it is going to stop printing papers.

Thankfully, our good pal Rob landed back on his feet at Upgruv.

Currently, in it’s state the Pittsburgh media is at low point. There was a time when you looked forward to turning on the radio and listening, or reading some big time Bullet Bob Smizik column. But those days are over. Now it’s either tune to 105.9 and hear what a continuous pie-eating contest sounds like or tune into the Fan and hear people hate-forced into talking hockey. Someone told us Ron Cook has a radio show now? What happened to this town?

Whether it be great forecasting or incredible luck, DK On Pittsburgh Sports became the hub of the Pittsburgh Sports media. We find DK to be insufferable on every level imaginable, but got to hand it to the guy, what a business decision. Should be named to DK On liquid cash.

So the actual team…

Actually talking about the Penguins is probably something we should do. Here’s the big season preview written before Monday:

“Penguins have same players, probably are going to win a shit ton of games.”

After Monday:

“Penguins have same players, Sidney Crosby is concussed again, but Penguins will probably win a shit ton of games.”

Top 5 biggest things for us:

5. Ben Lovejoy is gone forever.

4. Phil Kessel.

3. Phil Kessel.

2. Phil Kessel.

1. Phil Kessel.

Look, the Five Year Grace period is back in play. As Bill Simmons once wrote:

After your team wins a championship, they immediately get a five-year grace period: You can’t complain about anything that happens with your team (trades, draft picks, salary-cap cuts, coaching moves) for five years. There are no exceptions. For instance, the Pats could finish 0-80 over the next five years and I wouldn’t say a peep. That’s just the way it is. You win the Super Bowl, you go on cruise control for five years. Everything else is gravy.

The Penguins were on year seven last year, and everyone was just about done with them. Then Jim Rutherford made the Penguins great again. Next five years, Jim Rutherford could fix all of the 50/50’s so he can invest in PF Chang’s franchises, trade every first round draft pick, and take a dump in the Stanley Cup and we wouldn’t care. Talk to us in 2021 if you want some strong takes.

So enough random talk let’s go into the game tonight.

Matchup: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Washington Capitals

Where: Consol Energy Center, PPG Paints Arena

Time: 8:00 pm.

TV: NBCSN

Last time we heard from the Capitals:

What a great time to be alive. Nick Bonino’s OT classic pushed the Penguins on, and sent the Capitals packing for another year.

Lines

No clue. Log on to twitter.com around 11am and see how many people talk about the lines in the morning skate. Over/under is 150.

If you need info on the Capitals…

Russian Machine Never Breaks is always a good time.

Impact Players

Capitals: Braden Holtby. We’re really going to lay it on thick with analytics this season. Jesse has provided us with so much awesome raw data. In this graphic we take a look at Braden Holtby’s career:

Sorry we’re not on board the Braden Holtby is good train. He had a good regular season last year, but the Penguins walked all over him in the playoffs. He’s basically the less sucky Olaf Kolzig. No one has ever said, ” Boy, I really think Holtby can steal this one tonight.”

Penguins: Scott Wilson

Honestly might have seen one or two things about the Penguins in training camp. People seem really excited about Scott Wilson. So we’ll see how that pans out.

Storyline worth watching

Sidney Crosby has a concussion. How will he watch the banner raising? What song will the Penguins play when they raise the banner? Big time questions. In 2009 they played the theme from Backdraft. If Kurt Russell comes out during that, they probably go one to win another 4 cups.

We feel like we need to mention A.O only because we feel bad for him. We’re probably three years away from him getting traded to a contender at the deadline so he has a chance to win a cup.

Predictions

Season: Penguins win 54 games. Penguins vs Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Game: Penguins 5-2.

Here’s to another 82.