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:

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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:

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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:

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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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Personal Update

Hey, I just wanted to let anyone who cares know that late last night, my Gram's doctors finally concluded that the risks of not doing surgery outweighed the risks of going through with it, so this afternoon, she had her gall bladder removed. It was the best we could hope for: she made it through with flying colors!!! :D :D :D :D :D

We kind of have to play it by ear to see if she suffered any long term effects on her mental capacities, but the surgeon and the doctors seem very optimistic. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to any of you who said a prayer or sent out a positive vibe into the universe for my Gram. I cannot even put into words how much that means to me.

Since there isn't a game tonight, I thought you might like to see a little more Killian. Here's a cute shot of the Red Baron (LOVE that nickname, Bill - it's perfect!) on my couch with his blanket:

Pens v Sens

Folks, we've got GREAT news tonight...

MAX IS BACK!!!!!!

AND SO IS GONCH!!!!!

After losing half of the team to injury/illness, the return of these two key players is enormous. Their return is as important as Geno's return. However, all is not well: our honorary backup goalie, Jay McKee (who leads the league in blocked shots) is out for 2 to 4 weeks with an infected finger. Oy. Two steps forward and one step back... :(

Anyhow, you can pass the time until the game begins by checking out a video and some photos of our Captain with the Olympic Torch! :)

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

Sidney Crosby Carries The Olympic Torch

Last night, Sidney Crosby carried the Olympic Torch through his native Nova Scotia. Here are the highlights (there's a Chinese ad before the video, but the report itself is in English):














Congratulations, Sid. It is a well deserved honor. :)

What a Month

As I said before, I'm not deliberately trying to neglect TSCS. I'm still getting accustomed to having a puppy that I have to monitor constantly, and my Gram has been on a health rollercoaster (we're not sure what's happening to her - she keeps getting sick, and doctors think it might be her gallbladder but she can't get surgery because it might kill her). Needless to say, life has been a little hectic around here.

(Greyhounds left to right:) Connor, Logan, Link, and Killian in a rare moment of calm. It's amazing how well behaved they can be when they're waiting for a treat. ;)

We did take a break from it yesterday and headed to Pittsburgh for the game. It was a really good time. I really needed the break. (Parking was insane, though!) The Guerin/Getzlaf brawl was the highlight of the evening for me, second only to meeting Iceburgh in the hall. He is as charming as ever. :) I got a few good pictures for you.

Gronk's shorty:


Siddo:


My first look at the new banner:


The coaches:


Guerin schooling Getzlaf:


The victorious team:


I thought this was weird... The attempt at smack talk fails epically because, um, ducks are birds too:


You have to ignore the grossness of the sidewalk to appreciate this last one:



I apologize for missing most of the beginning of this season. Things will hopefully calm down soon. I so miss doing The Show. :(

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

Pens v Bruins

Okay, I'm so not trying to ignore this blog on purpose. The Red Devil (a.k.a. Killian) is a handful of energy, and we still have to monitor him constantly because he wants to play but the Greyhounds are 8 times his size. In his defense, he's finally beginning to settle in a bit, but because woodstock and I are working the same shift this week, Big K has been spending 8 hours in a small room by himself and is a complete tornado when we get home. I'll post some more pictures of him soon. :)

Anyhow, we're watching this one online because Versus and DirecTV both suck. Even though the picture quality is terrible this time around, I somehow doubt it will be as painful to watch this game as it was to watch Saturday's. O_o

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

Pens v Kings

Tonight our Boys will be facing the Kings, which means we'll be seeing Rob Scuderi skating with the bad guys. No word on whether or not Sid will be in goal. ;) (How amazing was that save? All those summers spent in between the pipes while playing street hockey really paid off! What a player.)

The Pens are still taking names and kickin' arse. L.A. isn't going to know what hit them.

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


[ Posted from my iPod Touch using the BlogPress App ]

Pens v Ducks

Okay, I'm trying this iPod app again. The Boys begin a weeklong tour out West. Siddo has been a man on fire lately and shows no signs of slowing down. There won't be a recap tonight - these late games don't even start until my bedtime, haha!!! ;)

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


[ Posted from my iPod using the BlogPress App ]