Now that we’re over a month into the season, this felt like a good time to put together a reference guide of sorts for the 2023-24 Penguins when it comes to different aspects of their team dynamic, especially with so many new (and veteran) additions into the mix and a couple of notable departures.
“They have a lot of different routines here, I'll say that much,” Erik Karlsson said with a smile. “So, it's coming. It's been pretty good, I think. It's a good group of guys. You know, I can only speak for myself, but it feels like it was easy to walk into this locker room and feel like you were part of it. Obviously, it's gonna take some time before you feel like you've completely in it, but we're working towards that, and there's nothing we can do to expedite it. We just have to go through experiences together. Every day, it gets a little bit easier.”
Read on to see the players’ nicknames, fantasy football duos, who plays cards on the team plane, and more about the current victory song and P.O Joseph’s new role as team DJ.
NICKNAMES
FORWARDS
Noel Acciari: Cookie
Jeff Carter: Carts
Sidney Crosby: Sid
Lars Eller: Ells, Tiger
Jake Guentzel: Guentz, Guentzy
Vinnie Hinostroza: Just Vinnie
Evgeni Malkin: Geno
Matt Nieto: Niets (pronounced NEETS) or Nietsy
Drew O’Connor: OC
Rickard Rakell: Raks, Ricky
Bryan Rust: Rusty
Reilly Smith: Smitty
Radim Zohorna: Big Z
DEFENSE
Ryan Graves: Gravy
Pierre-Olivier Joseph: P.O
Erik Karlsson: Karl
Kris Letang: Tanger
Marcus Pettersson: Petey
Chad Ruhwedel: Rudy
Ryan Shea: Sheazo
GOALIES
Tristan Jarry: Jars
Alex Nedeljkovic: Ned
Magnus Hellberg: Chopper
There are obviously a few unique ones that stick out from some of the new guys – Cookie, Tiger, and Chopper – and we have the story behind all three. Here they are, in their own words.
ACCIARI ON ‘COOKIE’
"My first year in Florida, it was early on in the season, and I was sitting next to Keith Yandle. There were no cookies at the pregame meal, and I asked him, do we not get cookies here? He said, no, we usually just get ice cream, but I bet if you ask the team services guy, we can get some. I was like, all right - it’s part of my pregame. He goes, oh yeah, go and ask him. So, I go ask him, and he’s like okay, okay. But the next game, they weren’t there. I’m sitting next to Yands again. I’m like Keith, there’s no cookies. What’s going on? He saw I was kind of getting a little upset, and actually, I think going into that game, he went to Starbucks before and bought me some cookies. He said, I’ve never seen a grown man get so upset about no cookies – I gotta call you Cookie. That stuck, and every team after has called me that, since my name is tough to nickname. Everyone’s just jumped on board with Cookie. I still have them as part of my pregame routine."
ELLER ON ‘TIGER’
"Tony Robbins is a coach, motivational speaker. Years ago, like maybe 2017 or something, he comes in and runs a seminar for the team when I was in Washington, one of his speaker events. So, we’re all sitting there and I’m sitting in the front row. It’s very energetic, there’s music going… he wants you to get in this very emotional place. At one point, he wants me to come up on the stage, because I’m sitting in front. And he wanted you to yell out your spirit animal, yell it out in front of everybody. So I yell out, ‘TIGER!’ Everybody is just dying laughing. Ever since that day, my nickname has been Tiger. My daughter will sometimes ask Alexa, ‘who’s Lars Eller? And it says, his nickname is the Tiger.’ We’ll be dying laughing."
HELLBERG ON ‘CHOPPER’
"I actually got that in Ottawa last year. Obviously, my last name is Hellberg, so they called me Helly. Then Helly became Helicopter, and then Helicopter became Chopper. I guess Crosby talked to some of the guys in Ottawa, and they kind of told them what they called me last year, and they liked it here, too. So now, I think it's going around the room here as well."
FANTASY FOOTBALL
The Penguins play in a PPR league, where Jake Guentzel is in his first year as commissioner. Guys partner up as co-GMs instead of going solo. Here are this year’s duos:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby
Bryan Rust-Chad Ruhwedel
Matt Nieto-Vinnie Hinostroza
Erik Karlsson-Lars Eller
Reilly Smith-Alex Nedeljkovic
Rickard Rakell-Marcus Pettersson
Noel Acciari-Ryan Graves
Drew O’Connor-P.O Joseph
Jeff Carter-Head Equipment Manager Jon Taglianetti
Alex Nylander-Ty Smith
Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Tristan Jarry and Radim Zohorna don’t play, and Ryan Shea said he was already in too many leagues.
Don’t sleep on the Swedes, as they are the defending champions from last season. While there’s not much belief around the room that Rakell and Pettersson can pull off a repeat, they’re confident in themselves despite a 4-5 record that had them ranked sixth at the halfway point.
“We had a tough spot in the draft, 10 spot,” Pettersson said after last Wednesday’s practice in Los Angeles. “We made a big splash just now. We got some heat for it. The boys thought it was kind of a dumb move. We had to take some chances to prepare for playoffs. We traded (Travis) Kelce and (Jahmyr) Gibbs for (Justin) Jefferson. I saw today that Jefferson is coming back to practice. We don’t want him to play too early and re-aggravate it. I think we’re thinking about the long haul. We like our chances.”
Their countryman Karlsson estimates he’s been doing fantasy football for about a decade. He didn’t dabble his first few years in the league since he didn’t understand the sport, but now, Karlsson is all in. The same can’t be said for his partner, as Eller is “strictly an investor,” Karlsson said. “Erik’s investment is probably 95 and mine is 5,” Eller said. “He’s been okay. I liked his picks. But we’ve just been hit hard by injuries.” They lost Nick Chubb in Week 2, so that didn’t help. “But we’re battling,” Karlsson said.
Nieto is also someone who just spots the money, joking that “if we do crappy, I always have someone to blame.” But Guentzel said that Matt’s team with Vinnie Hinostroza looks like one of the favorites.
As for the styles of the other new duos – Smith/Nedeljkovic and Acciari/Graves – they all take it pretty seriously. Smith calls fantasy football his one vice, and said he is an extremely aggressive GM. “There's a limit on transactions, it’s seven – and ours is always at seven. At all times,” Smith said. “Sometimes I'll forget the trades that I throw out there. Guys will be like, Smitty, what is this? This is garbage. I’ll be like, you’ll have to tell me what it is, because I forgot (laughs).”
CARDS ON THE PLANE
This is a staple of team flights across the league. There are two main games that go on across the aisle from each other, and spots can be tough to get.
Alex Nedeljkovic took the one vacated by Brian Dumoulin, joining Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and Chad Ruhwedel – though Ryan Shea is filling in while the Penguins netminder is on long-term injured reserve. That game tends to be slightly lower-key than the other one anchored by Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, as Erik Karlsson and Lars Eller are learning first-hand.
“Geno’s very emotional… Tanger really pushes his buttons,” Eller said with a laugh. “Me and Erik just kind of quietly stick to our games.”
TEAM DJ-VICTORY SONG
After the last four games, ‘I Touch Myself’ by the Divinyls could be heard blasting from the Penguins locker room, as it’s their current victory song. Kris Letang is the one who came up with it, saying he always listens to 80s music – and when that came on as part of a playlist, it just felt like the right fit.
“I think he came up with a great victory song,” Marcus Pettersson said with a grin. “It's starting to catch everybody's minds in here, like guys are going outside the locker room kind of humming.”
P.O Joseph isn’t quite as on board, joking that while he really likes Tanger as a person, his music taste is questionable. The same can’t be said for the young defenseman, who has taken over as team DJ, a role previously occupied for years by Brian Dumoulin. It’s a pretty thankless job that’s not easy to do, so Joseph has relied on crowd-sourcing to try and find a good mix.
“I’ve just been asking people what they like for different times of day,” Joseph said. “It’s fun to see people putting their own song on. It's easy to judge until you have to do it. Everyone had kind of a struggle sending me three songs, but now it's good. Then I add some of mine from time to time to surprise them.”
