Sid v Max

Look for this to air during the 2010 Winter Classic. Many thanks to Friends of The Show Cathy F. and Nicole G. for finding the link to the article with the commercial.

I Have To Buy an Olympic 'A'

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

Siddo and Flower were named to the Team Canada Olympic roster! :D Not only did Sid make this Olympic team, he was named an Alternate Captain. (Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer was named Captain.) Anyone of you, like me, who already got Sid's Olympic jersey may now have to find and purchase the 'A' for the chest. I was poking around online and saw that some websites are offering the jersey with the 'A' included, but woodstock got my jersey from a local sports apparel store called Shenk & Tittle, and it does not have the 'A' on the chest. So if I find a place to buy it, I'll post a link on The Show for anyone else who may need it.


With Siddo and MAF making Team Canada and Geno and Gonch making Team Russia, the total number of Penguins playing in the Olympics for certain right now is four. Team USA will announce their roster during the 2010 Winter Classic. Perhaps we'll be adding a few more names to the Olympic list!

This is such good news I almost forgot about the blown 3 goal lead from last night... ALMOST. >:( Because of my season series bet with Johnny Sabre, now I have to wear a Sabres jersey. Hopefully my skin doesn't melt. :P

Tonight the Boys are in New Jersey where Flower will be playing against his Team Canada teammate Martin Brodeur. The third goalie named to Team Canada was, of course, Roberto Luongo of the Canucks. The complete Team Canada roster follows:

GOALTENDERS

Martin Brodeur, New Jersey

Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh

Roberto Luongo, Vancouver

DEFENSEMEN

Dan Boyle, Ottawa

Drew Doughty, Los Angeles

Duncan Keith, Chicago

Scott Niedermayer, Anaheim (C)

Chris Pronger, Philadelphia (A)

Brent Seabrook, Chicago

Shea Weber, Nashville

FORWARDS

Patrice Bergeron, Boston

Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh (A)

Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim

Dany Heatley, San Jose

Jarome Iginla, Calgary (A)

Patrick Marleau, San Jose

Brenden Morrow, Dallas

Rich Nash, Columbus

Corey Perry, Anaheim

Michael Richards, Philadelphia

Erc Staal, Carolina

Joe Thornton, San Jose

Jonathan Toews, Chicago

Congratulations, Sid and Marc-Andre!

GO PENS!!!!!!

Pens v Leafs

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday. My fabulous husband got me Sid's 2010 Winter Olympics jersey! :D It's gorgeous! I did my best to get a shot of all those little graphics in the maple leaf, but since it's kind of shiny, the flash kept reflecting back. So I took a picture on low speed with no flash and then used Photoshop to brighten it a little bit. It didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. It has a slightly eerie glow, but at least you can see the detail (which was the point in the first place):


Speaking of the 2010 Olympics... Congratulations go out to Geno and Gonch! Both made the cut for the Russian Olympic team! I have to say it will be strange to be rooting against them. ;) Tonight the Pens host the Leafs before taking off for back-to-back road games.

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

Seasons Greetings from TSCS

Best. Holiday commercial. EVER.


Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy Holidays to all of you. You've helped make a very tough year (for me personally) a little easier to get through. Thank you with all sincerity. May you and yours have a safe and joyous holiday. :)

Nollaig Shona Daoibh!!!

Pens v Devils

WOOOOOO!!! I'm going back to work tomorrow! :) I really miss my coworkers. Being sick for a week makes you feel like you've been isolated for months. I only left the house once this week to go a mile and a half to the doctor! I'm WICKEDLY behind on my Christmas preparations, but honestly, I'm just grateful I'm going to be well enough to see my Gram on Christmas day. :) :) :) :) :)

The Devils are in town. The victor of this game (our Boys, of course) will occupy the top spot in both the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference. Eaton is out due to the injury he sustained midway through the Sabres match; Skoula is in. Brodeur broke another record recently, which almost makes me want to respect him... But then I remember that whole sister-in-law incident, and it reminds me why I don't. (He and Tiger Woods - and probably about 100,000 other pro athletes - should start a d-bag cheaters club. Oy.)

I think I'm going to wrap presents while I watch the game. There's snow outside, my kitchen smells like a bakery, there are gifts for under the tree, and there's a great hockey match on the TV. I just LOVE this time of year!

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

Pens v Sabres

The Pens simply MUST win this one for me: I have a bet with my Sabre-loving former boss (who will henceforth be known as Johnny Sabre). We've actually got individual bets for each time the Pens and Sabres meet this season. The loser has to wear the winner's jersey on the following dress down Friday. We haven't finalized what will occur when the regular season meetings are complete, but I don't have to worry about that because the Pens are going to win them all just for me! ;)

Just a random FYI: Penicillin is not the miracle drug I thought it was going to be. Oh sure, I know its discovery changed the course of humankind for the better, but MAN! It is not working fast enough for me. I still feel like mud. Luckily, the Red Baron seems to recognize that I'm not well because he's been EXTREMELY mellow this week. I do have be careful, though - if I give him any indication that I'm feeling even slightly better, he stops whatever he is doing to charge me. Let me tell you, there is nothing in this world more terrifying or more adorable than an Irish Setter puppy running at you full on! :)

I've got another week of treatment to go, but I'm hoping to be a little better and get back into the swing of things in time for the New Jersey game. Until then,

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

One Downside

I love my job. After a year there, I still love it as much as I did that first month. But I realized that there is one major downside to working at a school: I have been sick more times this year than I had been throughout the previous 5 maybe even 10 years put together. I'm really sick again (I'm hoping to get a morning doctor's appointment after failing to beat this on my own), and I just wanted to let you all know so you didn't think I was bailing on TSCS.

Since I'm posting this from my bed with my Droid I can't format the text, but as always...

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

Pens v Canadiens

There are TONS of good stories and videos on the Pens' website right now. Actually, if that's not a regular stop in your daily web travels, you're seriously missing out.

Another piece of the Penguins puzzle is back - Gogo is in tonight's lineup. That means all of our D-men are healthy again [*KNOCKS ON WOOD*] leaving only forward Kuni as the last injured Penguin yet to return.

From Stanley Cup winners to Santa's helpers - this team is amazing. :)

Siddo and Rupp are dominating the team right now; both are playing out of their minds. Tank seems to be struggling a little bit - he's been playing really well and seems to be doing everything right but that goal just keeps eluding him. At this point, it's likely now more of a mental wall that's blocking him, so look for his points total to blow up once he finally breaks it.

Even though we ultimately lost to the Canes on Monday, the way the Boys were able to mount an almost-comeback demonstrates that there really isn't a problem to worry about. Obviously, in an 82 game season we're not going to win them all. That said, I want this particular losing streak to end at 2.

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

Pens v Canes

Three words:


SIDDO IS BACK!!!!!!!


Enough said.

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

Pens v Blackhawks

It figures. :( Just when he's on a hot streak, Siddo gets sidelined by his old groin injury. Unfortunately, groin injuries are nasty. They take forever and a day to heal. So it's better for him to take a night or two off than ignore it and end up missing a big chunk of the season.

I don't have a lot of time tonight because I'm making a big dinner because woodstock and I both have the same day off on a game night (well, that and I want to play with my new DROID!!), but I thought I'd share a few of pictures of Killian experiencing snow for the first time:




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

Pens v Avs

Colorado is coming to the Mellon tonight after losing to the Panthers in a shootout last night. Rupp is having a banner season, Siddo is a machine, the regular roster is returning to normal, and collectively the Boys are playing solid hockey. :)

In the meantime, here is a screen grab of the picture Friend of The Show MouthGuard told us about in The Friends' Zone in the last post. It's a priceless shot of MAF doing to IFHSA™ what I'm sure we all wish we could do to him:

Somehow I bet even that didn't shut him up.

I thought I would share with you how you can grab your own screenshots, since there are a TON of great photos in Flash slideshows. I have an iMac now, and it's super easy with OS X. But there's a neat (FREE!) utility that I use on the Windows 7 side to make my life easier. Instructions for both operating systems follow.

WINDOWS USERS: Click here and download MWSnap. It's a FREE utility that allows you to save snapshots of entire windows or portions of windows in five different image formats (.jpg, .bmp, .gif, .png, and .tif). It's not hard at all to figure out how to use.

MAC OS X USERS: There's a really simple way to do screen capture images already available. All you have to do is press the command + shift + 3 keys simultaneously. You'll hear a camera click, and the image file (a .png file) will be instantly saved to your desktop. This method saves a screenshot of the content visible in the entire display. But if you just want a portion of a certain window, use command + shift + 4. The cursor will change to a + that you can click, hold, and drag over the portion you wish to save. Again, you'll hear the camera click, and the image will be saved to your desktop. With this method, you don't have to crop the image out of the rest of the display. :)

Smack talk time: The Penguins are on fire! They're so hot, they're going to melt the Avalanche!

:-/

Ooooohh...... Not so much good at the smack talk, am I? ;)

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

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."

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