Pittsburgh Public Schools students are getting another chance to walk into PPG Paints Arena without paying a dime, as the Penguins and the district team up to hand out two free preseason tickets to every student.
The offer covers the Penguins’ preseason games on Monday, Sept. 21 against the Buffalo Sabres and Tuesday, Sept. 22 against the Detroit Red Wings. Each ticket package also comes with vouchers for a complimentary food item and drink, courtesy of Aramark.
Tracey McCants Lewis, the Penguins’ chief legal and community affairs officer, said the program is meant to give more kids a first taste of hockey - and sometimes turn that first visit into a habit.
"I've had parents that have brought their children, and now they come every season," says Lewis. "Or they've bought a mini package, or they buy single game tickets to come to the games because they enjoy it so much."
She said the experience goes well beyond the action on the ice.
"There's so much that happens during a game that kids, people, pick up on anything," Lewis adds. "It could be the T-shirts that we hand out.
It could be something that's happening on the ice besides the game, the Zamboni, the singers, everything. It's just a fun time."
The partnership is in its fourth year, and Lewis said the goal remains simple: get students engaged, give them access, and make sure they feel welcome at the rink.
"The mission is really to get students involved, interested in hockey, and give them an opportunity. We had some parents even that had never been in PPG Paints Arena," says Lewis.
"Hockey is for everyone, and we just wanted to make sure that we invited students at PPS. It's a great opportunity for them to enjoy the game of hockey."
Lewis said students should have received a flyer with redemption instructions at the recent PPS back-to-school drive, and guardians should also have gotten an email from the district. Parents can also go online.
In Other News...
Devils Already Face A Big Question With Their New Winger
The Devils paid a real price to add Luke Evangelista, sending Nashville a first- and second-round pick to bring in a winger who arrives with immediate expectations and a looming contract question. He is entering the final year of his deal, but for now he says his attention is on playing rather than worrying about an extension, which is exactly how a new arrival wants to sound while trying to settle in and make an impact.
For Pittsburgh, the larger backdrop is familiar because it circles back to Sidney Crosby and what comes next. There has been ongoing speculation about whether he could eventually land elsewhere, but the latest sense is that he may simply stay where he has been all along. In a league where one move can reshape the conversation quickly, the Penguins are still being measured against the possibility that their captain remains the central figure in it. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Scoring Race Feels Wide Open For One Big Reason
The Penguins finished third in the NHL in goals scored last season, which says plenty about how dangerous their attack can be when its healthy and clicking. Anthony Mantha led the club with 33 goals, while Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust were right behind him with 29 apiece despite both missing significant time because of injuries. Add in Egor Chinakhovs midseason arrival and his 18 goals in 41 games, and the picture starts to look less like a team with one clear finisher and more like a group with several players capable of leading the way.
Chinakhovs pace after joining the lineup is what makes the scoring race feel especially open heading into the new season. If he can keep producing at anywhere near that level, he becomes a real threat to challenge the usual names at the top of the board, and that only deepens a forward group that already showed last season it can pile up goals in a hurry. For the Penguins, the interesting part may not be who finishes first so much as how many legitimate candidates they have in the race. [Read more 🡒]
Former Sabres Forward Closes The Book On A Journeyman Career
Jean-Sbastien Dea has called it a career, closing out a long pro hockey run that stretched across the AHL, brief NHL stops and a stint overseas. For fans in Pittsburgh, his name still carries a familiar ring from the journeyman path he carved through the organization and beyond, a path that eventually took him from North American minor-league rinks to Europe.
Dea finished with the DEL's Eisbren Berlin after spending most of his pro life grinding in the AHL, where he piled up 153 goals and 341 points in 517 games. He also logged 5 goals and 7 points in 37 NHL games, a reminder of how close he stayed to the top level even as his career became defined by persistence, movement and the steady reality of life as a veteran depth forward. [Read more 🡒]