Instant Karma's Gonna Get You...

Now anyone who has read The Show for any extended period knows I don't like it when ANY player gets hurt - ever. But I couldn't help but see a measure of poetic justice in the following incident involving none other than A-hOle™ himself. Here's the video of the deliberate knee-on-knee hit he put on the Carolina Hurricanes' Tim Gleason:


Thankfully A-hOle™ himself took the worst of that hit while Gleason is okay. This makes the second boneheaded hit A-hOle™ has delivered in three games. (He was previously nailed for boarding Patrick Kaleta of my old boss's beloved Buffalo Sabres.) And now even his own coach is saying that he is irresponsible on the ice:

After two years of essentially letting Ovechkin be Ovechkin, [Head Coach Bruce] Boudreau said it might be time for a heart-to-heart talk.

"He's pretty reckless," he said. "It's hard telling a guy that scores 60 goals a year to change the way he plays. At the same time, I don't want to see him getting hurt. Maybe he has to pick his spots a little better. The open-ice hits, you just look around the league. It's not only the hitter, it's the guy that gets hit. ... It's something that will have to be addressed by us, I guess. ... Not only as a coach, but as somebody who admires him, I just don't want him to put himself in harm's way, so we'll see."

I mostly agree with what Boudreau said, but I really don't care for how easily he glossed over the risk that Ovechkin poses to others when he makes these stupid hits. Just ask Gonch. Well, the NHL (finally!) suspended A-hOle™ for two games for the hit - two games he probably wouldn't be able to play anyways since he's the one who ended up getting injured. He'll also forfeit $98,844.16 of his salary to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund. Remember - the NHL just suspended Cooker this:


By comparison, are these hits equal? No way! Cooker hit with his shoulder as Anisimov was caught with his head down as (for whatever reason) he watched his own pass rather than paying attention to the players on the ice around him. On the other hand, A-hOle™ clearly and intentionally stuck his knee out to make contact with Gleason. So should the punishments have been equal? NO WAY!

Despite the suspension, somehow I doubt this is the last time we'll be talking about a dirty hit from Alexander Ovechkin. Perhaps he might have gotten the message if the NHL would have ordered the suspension to begin once he's been cleared to play. But I guess they'd rather wait until he ends someone's career to get that "harsh."

Share your opinion in The Friends' Zone below - even if you're a Caps fan. But please be mature enough to follow the guidelines listed in The Friends' Zone Policies. Comments that violate them will be deleted.

Pens v Rangers

Here we go again! This is sure to be a crazy rematch.

First things first: SIDDO GOT FIRST STAR OF THE WEEK! :) :) :) :) As if it could have been anyone else after his performance this week!

Gogo (apparently also known as Goose, haha!) is out again. He's got a "lower body injury" which some are interpreting to be an aggravated groin injury. And by now you have probably heard that Cooker is out, too. He was suspended for 2 games for the hit on Anisimov - a punishment that seems like it may have been a little harsher because he is Matt Cooke. I'm no official, but that was not a deliberate head shot. But since he was suspended in January, he's considered a repeat offender. That also means he'll forfeit $29,000 of his salary to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

But really, I need someone (anyone!) to explain to me why Cooker was suspended but Avery was not. (Check out this excellent write up about the situation on The Bleacher Report and the lack of consistency from the NHL regarding these punishments or lack thereof.)

This drawing of Super Mario was provided by good Friend of The Show Sid-drawing Jan. I know it's kind of random in relation to the content of this post, but really - who doesn't want to see more Lemieux? :)

I'm sure IFHSA™ will give us even more reasons to hate him. Funny how the big D-bag suffered no further ramifications after he took a run at our Captain's head in the last game (which was the catalyst of the ugliness that ultimately led to the Cooke/Anisimov incident) AND the cowardly unprovoked attack on a completely unsuspecting Fedotenko. (Yeah, I said attack. It's only a fight if the other guy participates.) Fortunately, Siddo saw him coming and ducked out of danger, and Tank wasn't injured. We'll see if he tries anything that stupid again tonight, and more importantly, if he does, whether or not the NHL will do anything about it.

You'll recall that I said I'd share my belated birthday gift from the G twins. 1WingAngel and her sister Nicole G. sent me this email:

Happy Belated Birthday, Jodie!!! [snoop: Thank you! :)]



I'm very happy to let you know that my sister, Nicole, and I recently achieved what we'd like to call our "Roaming Penguin Hat Trick" -- all three of our Roamers are now signed by their respective players! And yes, that means Marc-Andre Penguin (Nov. 3, 2008), Max Penguin (Dec. 1, 2008), AND a certain Sidney Penguin... ;)

Sidney Penguin met his human counterpart today after the Boys' game day skate. Nicole and I arrived at the Igloo at about noon (we cheated because we now live at Duquesne University, less than ten minutes away on foot) and stood along the green fence just outside of Gate 2 alongside a HUUUUUUGE crowd. I was certain that hardly anyone on the roster would approach this unusually large crowd, but I was soon proven wrong.


A young hockey team, the Peterborough Petes (Jordan Staal's team from his younger years), was in town, and some of the guys couldn't resist visiting them. Tyler Kennedy walked right up to the crowd and made his way down the line, then Ruslan Fedotenko followed suit. Jordan Staal and Eric Godard then walked to their cars, but when the young hockey players were escorted into the parking lot, Staalsy paid a visit to his former team... and that's when I noticed Sidney Crosby walking towards the group.


I tapped Nicole (he's her favorite player), and we watched as he signed autographs for the boys and posed for photos. Then he also walked to the long line of fans and proceeded along the fence. I was stunned, because I hadn't thought for a moment that Sid would approach such a sizable group. I put my jersey aside so that I could document Nicole holding out her Sidney Penguin for Sid to sign. Said documentation has been uploaded to my YouTube account, and here's the link.


Notes:
--The woman following him is a Penguins' employee. She set the rules for how long Sid signed for the crowd, and maintained control.

--Sid initially missed Nicole because he was in a conversation with a fan, and Nicole wasn't holding SP over the fence. She didn't want to risk dropping him (although, if she HAD dropped SP over the fence, wouldn't it have been something if Sid picked it up?? :) ).

--The quality is awful because it was recorded by my anxious self using my digital camera...

-- The first two attached photos are of Sid meeting the Peterborough Petes. The third is apparently a look at Sid's thighs... taken by Nicole. The fourth is our RPHT. And last is a screenshot of SC and SP. :)


So there you have it. Sidney Crosby met Sidney Penguin today... and Mama G., Nicole G., and myself have an unofficial "Roaming Penguin Hat Trick!"

GO PENS!!!

Good grief, that is BEYOND AWESOME!!! Siddo finally met his Roaming counterpart! How cool. :D :D :D :D :D Congrats, ladies! Thanks SO MUCH for sharing this with us.

Strap in for what could be a bumpy ride at Madison Square Garden...

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!

Pens v Rangers (W 8-3)

What. A. Game. The Pens absolutely decimated the Rangers. Sid was amazing. How freaking awesome was the hat trick on hat night?! :) In all, he earned five points. What a player.

Okay, so I have made a change in the way comments are made. We've been getting hit pretty hard with spam comments about where to buy Viagra and how to use Playstation 3 consoles. (WTF?!) Up until recently, they were only hitting old posts, so I've been spending a good bit of time deleting them by hand. But this is becoming cumbersome, and yesterday they started hitting the current post. So from now on, you'll have to fill in a captcha before your comment will post. Hopefully this will deter the culprits.

Good Friend of The Show Jaime sent me a few pictures to share with everyone. She made a wallpaper using all the best shots of Siddo following the Cup win in response to the NHL's "This is Our Year" campaign:

Click to enlarge

She also cleaned up the scan of the picture of Mario, Sid, and the Cup that I pulled from the Reflections on a Season 2009 book:

Click to enlarge

And she sent us these scans. Jaime's friend Lizzy B. is a talented artist and drew a few pics of the Saint and one stunning picture of Le Magnifique:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Amazing work, Lizzy! :) Tomorrow we face the Rangers again, this time at Madison Square Garden. Look for this one to be intense. They'll be looking for revenge after being humiliated in Pittsburgh.

Also tomorrow: I'll share with you a belated birthday present I got from good Friends 1WingAngel and Nicole G... ;)

GO PENS!!!!!!!!

Pens v Isles

I hope everyone's holiday was as nice as mine was. :) It's an early game today. The Pens are braving their way through New York Black Friday traffic to get to the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to face the Islanders at 2:00pm Eastern.

If you haven't seen this yet, check out the awesomeness that is the Penguins and Paws 2010 calendar.


The Pittsburgh Penguins Wives Association and Met Vet present a calendar full of our Boys with their own furry friends as well as some pets that are currently up for adoption. Proceeds from the calendar benefit Animal Friends and the Animal Rescue League of Western Pennsylvania. What a fabulous Christmas gift idea, right? :) :) :) They'll be selling it at the Mellon Arena beginning this December, or you can buy it online here. I'm going to have to get two - one for home and one for the office. :)


Maybe today Godard will get the goal that was JUST BARELY out of his reach on Wednesday...

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pens v Canadiens

I am elbow deep in Thanksgiving dinner prep cooking. This will be my third consecutive year preparing the big feast for woodstock and me; however, it is my first time hosting guests. Originally, it was only going to be my sister, but my father just called to tell me he and my mom may come down for dinner. It's not like there won't be enough food - I got a 20 pound turkey for free this year! The problem is now I'm nervous... If something gets burned or otherwise ruined, it's on me. O_o Here's hoping it all goes off without a hitch!

Since I know I won't have time to do this tomorrow, let me take a minute to wish you all a happy, blessed, fattening, and safe Thanksgiving with your families. :)


Now, COME ON, BOYS! Get that victory and give us all one more thing to be thankful for tomorrow!

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pens v Panthers

The Pens are in Florida gearing up to face the Panthers. None of our other injured Boys are scheduled to return. Hopefully our Captain is feeling better (although, how amazing was that performance against the Thrashers from a sicko Siddo??). Speaking of Sid, I'm going with a totally random shot of him today. I found it when I was looking for good pics of him with the Olympic Torch. I can only guess that it comes from an advertisement that was meant to encourage youngsters to eat healthier foods, but it just creeps me the hell out:



I don't know about you, but the detailed view of his internal organs makes me the opposite of hungry for Kellogg's food...

Anyhoo,

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!

Pens v Thrashers

The good news keeps coming: Even though he took a puck to the face resulting in 10 stiches, BROOKSIE IS BACK!!! :) :) :) :) :)

Four down (Geno, Max, Gonch, & Brooks), five to go (TK, Kuni, Tanger, Gogo, & McKee)...

Mad Max will be playing on Siddo's line, so look for something special to happen there. We'll get to see our old friend Colby Armstrong. And don't forget there's definitely no love lost between Kovalchuk and our title man. We all know what happens when Sid gets mad, right? POINTS!

Get ready for a good one.

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!