Penguins gear up for 48-game season, schedule coming

With the end of the NHL lockout upon us, the Pittsburgh Penguins will finally get to return to the ice. According to Elliot Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada, there will be a 48-game season that will start on Jan. 19. Camps will not be allowed to open before Saturday, and according to Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Post Dispatch, the schedule will be announced in the next two or three days.

The Penguins are coming off a season that saw them rack up 108 points, good for second-most in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh did all this despite missing star Sidney Crosby for much of the year due to a concussion. Evgeni Malkin picked up the slack by scoring a career-high 50 goals. However, the Penguins would up falling in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the playoffs.

Pittsburgh made some big changes in the offseason prior to the lockout, trading Jordan Staal to the Carolina Hurricanes and Zbynek Michalek to the Phoenix Coyotes. The Penguins also picked up veteran goalie Tomas Vokoun in free agency.