GO PENS GO!!!!!!!! The 2009 Stanley Cup Finals TSCS "Pep Rally"

Good things are coming to Pittsburgh... I can feel it. :) I've got a ton of stuff for you for tonight's Pep Rally, so I'm just going to dive right in.

I was honored to be the lone female Penguins blogger to be asked to participate in a Pens Bloggers Roundtable discussion by Yahoo! Sports blogger Puck Daddy. I am in the company of the guys from The Pensblog, Brian Metzer of HockeyBuzz, Michael Dell of LCS Hockey, and good Friends of The Show Frankie D. of Pensburgh and Tony F. from The Confluence. We were asked three key questions about the upcoming rematch. Check out all of our Stanley Cup Finals predictions here.

Click this for supersized awesomeness.

I've got a bit of reading material for you. First up, even Don "Grapes" Cherry has changed his mind about our title man.

Second, good Friend Mike@Japan found this article detailing how maniacal our Captain can be when it comes to improving his game.

And finally, I've got a story from good Friend Vanessa D. Just wait until you find out what happened to her and her daughter:

Hi Jodie,

I have been a regular reader of your blog and I love your honest, mature and entertaining style of keeping us fans informed. I am writing today to share with you an awesome experience that my daughter Kelly and I had last week when we took a trip to the Burgh to watch our beloved Pens face the Canes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. It was a beautiful day and we headed out with our chairs to watch on the big screen set up outside the Mellon arena. We live about an hour from downtown Pittsburgh and we had attended a game last year during the conference final so we decided that we should do it again since we had so much fun last year.

Siddo is shown here having a good time at yesterday's practice at the Mellon Arena.

The traffic was pretty light and we actually got a great parking spot and made our way to the arena. Even at 5:00 PM there were already lots of people camped out in front of the screen. Lawn chairs, blankets, snacks and drinks a plenty everybody looked like they were there for a serious celebration. Boy were they right! Kelly and I set up our chairs well within range of he screen and we settled in for what we thought would be a long evening of watching our man Sid and company along with 3,000 close friends. Little did we know that things would get much better.

As we sat and watched the people walk around us Kelly nudges me and says “Look Mom. It’s George, Geno’s translator”. I glanced up to see a man casually dressed in a white polo shirt walking towards us. He appeared to be scanning the crowd looking for someone. Kelly made eye contact with him and low and behold he approached us. “Is it just the two of you?” he asked me. Yes, I told him wondering why he would ask me that and then he produced 2 tickets! “Would you like to watch inside?” he asked. YES, YES of course we would!. Thank you, Thank you very much we gushed and as soon as he handed us the tickets he was gone. Needless to say we were both absolutely floored. I was babbling, giving away the pop that we brought and trying to pack the chairs. I was so happy that I had tears in my eyes. The fans around us were excited for us. New fans moved in and took our spots and congratulated us. We even got them to take our picture with the tickets. As we made our way back to our car to put our chairs in the trunk Kelly called my husband who later told me that she was talking so fast that he couldn’t understand a word she said but he did get the gist of her excited chatter.

As we walked back to arena we both kept laughing and remarking that we could not believe that we actually got FREE tickets to a Pens playoff game. We were hardly dressed for the occasion. Both of us were wearing shorts and Pens T-shirts ( mine a Talbot and hers a Kunitz) Ironically, Talbot and Kunitz were the two Pens who scored in the 2nd period. But trust me we would have gone in wearing our underwear. As we entered the arena we were handed a white towel and a white T-shirt that said “THE REAL EYE OF THE STORM” beneath a close up of the Penguins Eye. They looked great with our shorts. We made our way to our seats in section C-2, row D. They were wonderful seats. Great view of the ice. No Carolina fans nearby.

This shot is also from yesterday's practice.

The Pens warmed up at our end of the arena and I did mange to get some nice pictures. I must admit that I was sort of too excited to really get into the photos but as you know, the game could not have been any more amazing. The crowd was absolutely electric. There is something to be said for 17,000 + fans all waving white towels and chanting LETS GO PENS! Our man Sid scored the first goal and the place just exploded. If the players are more ramped up during the playoffs, the fans, at least Pens fans match that energy. I have been to a number of games over the last 2 seasons but nothing could compare to this enthusiasm. Of course we know that Geno scored a hat trick. His parents were sitting not far from us and they were of course delighted with their son’s performance as were the entire arena. Kelly and I had never been there for a hat trick. It was sensational.

No Vanessa, I think you mean it was "PENSational!" ;)

To close tonight, I've got the traditional Rally downloads. Good Friend of The Show Jaime B. has been hooking us up with wallpapers for the entire playoff run. Today is no different. Here is one she made from a sweet shot of Gonchar going over a drill with Geno: [ 1280x800 ] ...and a wicked shot of Siddo's goal in Round 3 Game 3: [ 1280x800 ] [ 1024x768 ]. And for the mp3 download, I've got the matching goal call: [ Mike Lange Calls Sid's Goal in Game 3 ].

Jaime also made something extra special for us for the SCFs. She made three Pens cursors. I added a few old hockey themed cursors I've had for a while to complete the set, which can be downloaded here: [ Pens Cursors ]. Don't worry - I included installation instructions! :)

So many thanks go out to Jaime, Mike, and Vanessa for their contributions to tonight's Rally post. Okay, folks - this one is for all the glory. Our Stanley Cup finals gets underway at 8:00pm tomorrow night in Detroit. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our retribution.

DO IT.

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