The Day After

Thanks to all of you who offered your birthday wishes to me!!! :) I got all kinds of presents: flowers delivered to my work, a Coach wallet, 2 Snoopy Hallmark ornaments, candy, a cake, my lunch paid for by my boss, AND my husband cleaned the entire house while I was at work - bathrooms, dusting, laundry, and everything! Alas, I didn't get anything sparkly - yet. My husband tells me I've got a "big gift" to open this Saturday when my family will be arriving to celebrate my milestone birthday. If it's sparkly, I'll let you know, but truth be told, the house being cleaned by someone other than me is worth more to me than the Krupp diamond! Now on to the Sid news for the day...

First up, Adam and Derek of ThePensblog.com examine the "Secondary Sid" theory. For those of you who don't know what that is, apparently there is a rumor that Sid is credited with unearned secondary assists in order to boost his points to comply with a conspiracy that Gary Bettman has orchestrated to ensure that the new face of the NHL does well. It's a ridiculous theory that ordinarily I wouldn't waste my time on, but since ThePensblog guys went to the trouble of tracking down the origin and debunking the rumor, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Longtime Friend of The Show Eric B. of The Sidney Crosby Spotlight sent me an interesting bit of news. It seems Saint Sid has been nominated for Sports Illustrated's 2007 Sportsman of the Year Award. Sportswriter Michael Farber explains why:

Consider the golden child of the red-haired stepchild of the Big Four professional sports: Sidney Crosby of the National Hockey League. Perhaps that characterization is unfair to both.

Although Crosby is still clumsily referred to as "Sid the Kid" -- he turned 20 last August -- he is a man well equipped to handle anything, legally, except a wine list. And the gross revenues of the NHL (a league that used to be considered the NASCAR of the North and now can only dream about having NASCAR's clout) are within a billion dollars of the NBA, which is not bad considering that hockey's principle cable carrier in the United States (Versus) is as easy to locate as Judge Crater.

Apparently, Farber doesn't read TSCS. If he did, he'd know that we took care of that "Sid the Kid" thing months ago. :) If you're interested, you can read the rest of Farber's essay or check out Sid's competition.

Also on the docket for today, of course you all probably figured that Sir Sidney would appear on the All Star ballot again. Here's where you can vote for whomever you think belongs on the All Star roster. (FYI - Evgeni Malkin and Ryan Whitney are the only other Penguins nominated.)

VOTE FOR SID

Plans are on schedule for "The House That Sid Built." The Penguins have submitted updated sketches of the new arena to the City Planning Commission of Pittsburgh. According to Penguins CEO Ken Sawyer, "Our plan is to be under full-scale development of the building by next June or July. We may be in the ground a little bit ahead of that doing some excavation and foundation work, but we’re on time for our Fall of 2010 opening." Here are some of the details from the Penguins' website:

The approximately 18,500-seat arena’s interior will stress sightlines and accessibility as well as many high-tech amenities.

“The arena is just going to be exceptional. We’re going to replicate some of the great ideas we’ve seen out there,” Sawyer said. “We’re going to have a series of restaurants and food and beverage opportunities. The concourses will be a lot wider than what we have now and a lot easier to move around. Of course, what you don’t see here is our commitment. We want to have the best and latest in electronics.”

Remember how awful it was one year ago not knowing where the Pens would be playing this season? I don't care what the arena looks like. I'm just happy the Pens are staying in Pittsburgh.

And now, I'll leave you today with a tidbit of information that was sent in by our French speaking Friend of The Show Lisa-Marie W. She works with some of Sid's former teammates from his junior days. Yesterday, she sent this interesting story:

A random fun bit--Sidney Crosby will not sign a jersey for a team he hasn't played for. But the father of a family friend turned 87 this year, so he was given a Habs jersey with the number 87 on the back. And scrawled in the 7 was Sidney Crosby's autograph, with "Bonne Fete Pierre!" written. I thought that was neat. A Habs jersey, no less :) Sid signed it when he was here over the summer.

The Pens face the Islanders tomorrow night at the Mellon Arena. The puck drops at 7:30pm Eastern. GO PENS!!!!!!!