"So we're trying to come up with another one for me," Petry said before training camp. "I have no idea what we're going to roll with. (Strength coach) Alexi Pianosi was calling me by my full name. He was like, I can't call you just Jeff, because we have another one of those with Jeff Carter."
I checked back in with Petry today ahead of the season opener on Thursday to discover that the situation has not been resolved. If anything, it's even more convoluted.
"We're working through it," Jake Guentzel said.
Petry did say that back in the day, he used to go by the nickname 'Dish.' Not because he makes a good first pass - which he does - but because of a Petri dish, which is pretty clever. And during his father Dan's playing days as a pitcher in Major League Baseball, his nickname was Peach. So there's options, but a lot of the guys are still just calling him 'Petey' for now - including Marcus himself.
"I do call him Petey, usually," Pettersson admitted with a laugh. "Or Jeff, or Petes. I think it was (associate coach Todd Reirden) that started a little bit with Petes, so we're trying to find little ways to get around it. We gotta start calling each other by numbers. Two-Six and Two-Eight."
That would be helpful when they're on the ice together, with Petry and Pettersson currently making up the second D pairing. Tristan Jarry is currently getting around it by calling Jeff "Pets." Otherwise, "I think eye contact is big with those," Brian Dumoulin grinned. "Make sure they're both not in the room, or designate who you're talking to."
That all being said, as some fans on Twitter have pointed out, Marcus really should just adopt 'Dragon.'
It was a nickname he got growing up in Sweden from a basketball coach, who said that Pettersson and another tall kid on the team going up against each other was like a clash of dragons. Years later, one of the coaches in Anaheim learned about it and ran with it. Then, when Pettersson got traded to Pittsburgh, Derek Grant - his teammate with both the Ducks and the Penguins - got it going here.
"A couple of guys still call me that, like Casey (DeSmith) calls me that," Pettersson said with a laugh. "It's something that travels and it's not really a basketball nickname, but it's got a basketball background."
Regardless of what gets decided, the captain is confident that something will eventually get settled.
"It'll iron itself out," Sidney Crosby said. "No need to force it."
In the meantime, here's a list of the other nicknames for Penguins players throughout the organization:
Josh Archibald: Archie
Teddy Blueger: Teddy (since it's short for Theodor), Bluegs, Blue, or: "I call him idiot. You can write that" -Casey DeSmith
Jeff Carter: Carts, Big Jeff Carter
Sidney Crosby: Sid
Jake Guentzel: Guentz, Guentzy
Filip Hallander: Fil, Hally
Danton Heinen: Heino
Kasperi Kapanen: Kappy
Evgeni Malkin: Geno
Brock McGinn: Ginner
Drew O'Connor: OC
Sam Poulin: Pou, Pouly
Ryan Poehling: Poehls (pronounced PAILS)
Valtteri Puustinen: Puusty
Rickard Rakell: Raks, Ricky
Bryan Rust: Rusty
Jason Zucker: Zuck (pronounced ZOOK)
Brian Dumoulin: Dumo
Mark Friedman: Frieds
Pierre-Olivier Joseph: P.O
Kris Letang: Tanger
Chad Ruhwedel: Rudy
Jan Rutta: Rutts (pronounced ROOTS)
Ty Smith: Smitty
Casey DeSmith: Case
Tristan Jarry: Jars
Dustin Tokarski: Tick
