"It's not the biggest city, but it's a city I really like."

I've got a lot of Sid-tastic links for you today! Well, actually they came from several Friends of The Show...

• Michelle B. - Sidney Crosby: This no Pitt stop (Today's title comes from this article.)
• Stagerat & Lauren H. - Penguins' Crosby not pulling a LeBron (This is nearly the same article as the previous one, but this one is written for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.)
• Carlie D. - Vote for the Greatest NHL Captain of the New Millenium (Siddo is in second place. You can vote once per day.)
• Stagerat & Jan M. - Crosby Answering All Questions (Take that, Semin!)
• Michelle - Penguins Shop for Project Bundle-Up
• Michelle sent in a video of the Project Bundle up article:

• Stagerat - Crosby, Ovechkin Receive NHL Honours
• Michelle - Penguins Crosby named NHL player of week (Post Gazette)
• Stagerat - Crosby named first star of the NHL's 'Three Stars' (Tribune Review)
• Stagerat & Kellie D. found this video tribute to Sid honoring his First Star Status on the Pens' website:

I got an update from Friend of The Show Jan about the Mario Lemieux Foundation auctions for her drawings:

Just wanted to report that the bidding is over for my two drawings and I am so pleased that one brought in $200 for the foundation and the other brought in $210 for The MLF. How cool is that? Again, thank you for letting me be a part of the family of Friends of the Show! I think it's cool that the first drawing I ever did of our Captain that was featured on YOUR site went for the top price of the two.

Once again - congratulations, Jan! $410 for the MLF! I'm so proud of you! :)

Finally today, I received this e-mail from Friend of The Show Lauren a few days ago:

It was snowing at my house yesterday before I left to drive back to Ohio for class, and I should've been working on a paper, but instead I took a break to take my dog Emma and Sidney Penguin outside for a couple of pictures! :) Enjoy!

Look at how sweet Emma is:







What a pretty puppy!!! Big thanks go out to Michelle, Carlie, Stagerat, Kellie, Jan, and Lauren for their contributions to today's post. Tomorrow I'll have some amazing game day pics for you.

The View From The Lawn

I know I told you I had something awesome planned for today - it turns out I've got two awesome things now. I'm still working on the post I was talking about last night (you'll understand why when you see it). In the meantime, I got an email from good Friend of The Show Michelle B.

She and a couple thousand (WOW!) other Pens fans went to watch the game on the huge 12'x16' TV in front of Gate 3 at the Mellon Arena. Here are some of her pictures from the lawn:







↑ ↑ ↑ Yeah... It's spelled wrong, but it's the thought that counts, right?!


















You have no idea how much I wish I lived a little closer to Pittsburgh. That looks like it was a freakin' BLAST! Big, BIG thanks to Michelle for sharing her pictures with us!!!

A REMINDER: The auction for Sid's PSMR plate went live yesterday. (As of right now, it is already up to $173.63!!!) Click the logo below to go right to the eBay page to bid. If you can't afford to bid on Sid's plate, click here for more information about other ways you can help.


(Don't forget to check back here later tonight for the other special post!)

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

Sidney's Special Plate

I'm soooo excited to bring this to you!!!

The good folks at the Parkinson Society Maritime Region (PSMR), a Nova Scotia based organization that serves as the voice of Maritimers living with Parkinson’s Disease, are having a Celebrity Plate Auction in which our title man Sidney has participated. Proceeds from the auction will benefit research, education programs, and support services.

Sid's always willing to help out for a good cause. He's done his part, now the rest is up to you. :)

More than 1.2 million people in Canada and the US live with Parkinson's, for which there is no known cause or cure.

Okay. Let's say - hypothetically - that Sidney Crosby isn't your cup of tea. Good news! Several other celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Muhammad Ali (who happens to suffer from the disease), Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah McLaughlin, Harrison Ford, and even Stephen Colbert have also designed and autographed plates that will be auctioned on eBay from April 20 to May 11 as a fundraiser for the PSMR. A total of 58 celebrity plates will be offered. (Click here to see the entire list of celebrity artists.) The only stipulation of the design was that each celebrity was asked to draw a tulip because it is the world-wide symbol of hope for Parkinson's.

The PSMR was nice enough to send me a sneak peek with this really good, clear photo of Sid's plate:

The Saint did a great job with the tulip - look at the PSMR's logo at the bottom of the page - though, I hope he's not planning on quitting his day job, haha!
The auction for Sid's plate goes live on May 4, 2008.

Click on Sid's plate to check out all the auctions and BID, BID, BID!!! And if you don't have enough money to bid on any of the autographed plates, think about purchasing a Parker Bear. They're on sale for just $10.00! Of course you can always give a donation - remember that every little bit helps.

Aren't I a cutie?!

Click the logo below for more information about the various ways you can help the PSMR.

Pens v Ducks (W 5-4)

Ahhhhhhh. This is more like it. And before I say anything else, I must begin by saying Petr Sykora is AMAZING. He had a hand in 3 of the 5 Penguins goals (2G, 1A) tonight. Incredible. He rightfully earned the top star of the game. The Penguins twice scored goals within 20 seconds of the last - once in the 2^nd period, and once in the 3^rd. Marc-Andre Fleury was looking much better tonight, but he was still not as steady in goal as he has been in the past. Georges Laraque had another impressive night. If he keeps this up, we might be able to forget what happened with him last season. ;)

Sidney was looking outstanding as usual, getting an assist on a beautiful pass through Chris Pronger's feet to Ryan Malone. There was a scare when Sid blocked a shot with his foot, but he soldiered on and continued to play. X-rays did not show any broken bones. (Whew!!!) He'll be able to relax a bit and ice his foot for the next couple of days - they don't play again until they face the Canadiens on Wednesday. Here are Sid's highlights as reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The goal was made possible by center Sidney Crosby, who lunged along the right-wing boards and swatted the puck to Malone in the center of the ice. "I was just trying to get the puck over," Crosby said. Once Malone got it on his stick, he moved down the slot and stuck a shot over [Jonas] Hiller's glove for his first of the season. Crosby's assist is his only point so far. The Penguins probably expected him to have more after two games, but have to be grateful simply to have him in uniform.

Sidney passes the puck around Sean O'Donnell

He was hobbled after blocking a Francois Beauchemin shot with the outside of his right foot during the first period. Crosby, who broke his left foot blocking a shot March 16, was in obvious pain and skated gingerly to the bench, but was able to return in the middle of the period. X-rays did not detect a fracture, although Crosby, who acknowledged that "it did swell up," operated at less than peak efficiency for the balance of the evening.

"He's a warrior, and he always finds a way to get things done," Malone said. "That's the important thing."

Odds for a win were against the Pens - until tonight's game, they had only won 2 of the last 10 home openers. It was a hard fought victory, but anyone that thought beating the defending Stanley Cup champs would be easy was grossly misinformed. So what does Sid think of the win? "It feels good," Crosby said. "Especially against them."

And before I let you go, I wanted to make sure I mentioned this next story:

Sidney Crosby and Mark Recchi have purchased suites at Mellon Arena for the 2007-08 Pittsburgh Penguins season and will make them available to numerous children’s charities throughout the region.

At the Penguins’ home opener on Saturday night against Anaheim, Crosby’s suite will host kids from the Make-A-Wish Foundation while Recchi’s suite will host Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Many other children’s charities will be involved throughout the season.

“We think it’s very important for professional athletes to give back to our community, and we can’t think of a better way than enabling kids who are disadvantaged or have special needs to experience the excitement of a Penguins game at Mellon Arena,” Crosby and Recchi said in a joint statement.

Recchi has actually been doing this for a number years now, and it's especially nice to see that Sid is following the Wreckin' Ball's lead by giving back to the community.

Another Penguins Off-Season Golf Tourney

This is about a month late, but I completely forgot about it until I read Jes's post yesterday. (My apologies!)

Every summer for the past ten years, the Mario Lemieux Foundation (MLF) has a private celebrity golf tournament to raise money for the cancer and neonatal research projects of the MLF. Attendance is by invitation only. My husband was lucky enough to score a pass for the 2002 Mellon Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational from the company where he works. He got to watch the celebrities golf and was able to get autographs from Mario himself, Eddie Olczyk (just months before he was named the Pens head coach), and hall of fame goaltender Grant Fuhr, as well as many others. But like I said before, you've got to be invited to go. They don't sell these passes.

This year's tournament took place at the Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, Pa. over two days beginning June 27 and ending the next day. The MLF website details the action:

The Mario Lemieux Foundation was proud to have Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield take over the presenting sponsorship of the Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational in 2007. For the second straight year, the golf event was held at the exclusive Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, PA and was closed to the public.

The star power was as strong as ever, as Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Ben Roethlisberger, Steve Spurrier, Dan Marino, Lou Holtz, Lynn Swann and a field of 35 celebrities played with Pro-Am groups on Wednesday, June 27. Presenting sponsor Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield enjoyed six Pro-Am groups, including pairings with Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, and Marcus Allen. The team of Heinz and Grant Fuhr edged out Dan Marino’s team from Accenture to win the first-place team trophy.

This is the biggest picture of Sidney golfing I could find.

The Thursday pairings included Dan Marino, Steve Spurrier, and Jamie Dixon with Highmark, Lynn Swann with Mellon Financial Corporation, and Jim McMahon with Great-West Health Care. Pierre Larouche and his team from Duquesne Light took home the first-place Pro-Am prize.

The final day of the MLCI was the second annual celebrity-only event that pitted Team Lemieux against defending champion Team Larouche in a Ryder Cup style face-off. After winning nine of the possible 15 points in the individual morning matches, Team Lemieux held on [to] beat Team Larouche by a final score of 12½ to 10½ to etch their name on the Lemieux Celebrity Challenge trophy for the first time.

A view of the 18th green and clubhouse at Laurel Valley Golf Club.

It's so nice to see all these celebrities come together for a good cause every year. If you look at the roster on the website, you'll see LOTS of celebrity athletes and actors, many of whom make regular appearances on the MLCI. Congrats to Team Lemieux, but let's hope it doesn't take Sidney 10 years to have his name etched on Lord Stanley's Cup!!!

Au Bout de Souffle

For those of you who, like me, are not fluent in French, that translates to "The Breathless Tournament." The following story comes to us from Friend of The Crosby Show Lisa-Marie W. She not only alerted me to the story, she actually took the time to translate several articles about the tournament just so I could bring this story to you. She also took the photos. She did such a great job telling her story in her emails that I'm just going to quote her and add links to some of the things she says for clarification purposes.

(She left this in the comments section on the nickname poll results post:)

Sidney has been in Magog, Quebec (about an hour away from Montreal) in a tournament called Au Bout de Souffle. The tournament is organized by Yanic Perrault, and all proceeds go towards certain hospitals and charities in the area. Overall, this year 32,000 was raised. Sidney played with the Maxi-Club Perrault team, along with Yanic and Jack Johnson. They've all been here since Thursday, and the tournament wrapped up today. Sidney's team went undefeated, won the championship, and Saint Sid racked up 14 points over a few games. He was very gracious -- coming out and signing autographs for every single person waiting in line, paying special attention to the kids. He posed for photos and gave them pucks -- a real nice guy. It was a great tournament!

(She offered to send me some of the pictures she took of Sid at the tournament. I contacted her and she had this to say:)

I did manage to snap these three after the tournament was done, and his team (Perrault/Maxi-Club) won the trophy. Sidney took it last, and when he did, he raised it way over his head, yelled "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!" and kissed it as if it were the Stanley Cup. He's such a goof. He stayed for a long time, making sure all the kids got autographs, taking pictures with them and flicking pucks to people. Just a stand up guy :)

A shot of the Perrault/Maxi-Club

Sidney

Sidney again

(After receiving the photos, I wrote to her that I was going to post about the tournament, but that I'd have to do so without the details because I haven't spoken French since high school and have forgotten most of what I learned. She then sent me this:)

This is the 14th year in a row of the tournament, organized by NHL player Yanic Perrault every year. This is Sid's 3rd consecutive year, all of which he's played on Yanic's team. The tournament is like "shinny" hockey -- there's no checking, and the play doesn't stop for infractions. The whistle is blown and another puck is just thrown on the ice. The tournament is composed of 8 teams composed of professional players (you can find the rosters here: http://www.aboutdesouffle.qc.ca/joueurs.asp). During the tournament, there are also about 8 teams of players from Junior ranks or the AHL (though no real big names, besides Espo). The tournament lasts from July 24th-29, with the juniors battling it out for the championship, and the pros battling it out for a separate championship. Games are one hour long -- 3 periods of 15 minutes with a 3 minutes warm up, a one minute "rest" between period 1 & 2, and a 12 minute rest between periods 2 & 3. There is only one "spare" player per team, so each player got the chance to sit alone on the bench for 20 seconds or so. That's the general info. Here are two articles that I've translated for you:

Magog, Sunday July 29th 2007 - A new record for the "Breathless" tournament
For the 14th year, the tournament submitted a record breaking $31,000 to seven charitable organizations within the region. The money will be split in most part between the Hyperbar Foundation of Memphremagog, Charlotte Dugrenier (a 4 year old girl with cerebral paralysis), The Sports Foundation of Sherbrooke, The Sports Merit Committee of the Eastern Townships, The Circus of Stars, and the Eastern Townships Foundation for Epilepsy.

Magog, July 29th, 2007 - Perreault Maxi-Club maintains their championship
Yanic Perreault's team held onto their championship title for a second time in a row, in the 14th annual "Breathless" tournament. Perreault and his teammates beat the M-150 team in the finals, with a score of 6-4. Yanic Perreault was nominated Player of the Game with 3 goals, and the Best Player in the Tournament was awarded to Sidney Crosby, who earned his excellence with 15 goals and 14 assists in 5 games. In the Spot Wellington (the non-pros), The Quebec Nordiques got the better of the National Bank team in the finals, with a win of 13-6.

For the record, she sent me the link to the tournament rosters. If you click on that link, you'll see more than one familiar name on several of the teams. I really can't thank Lisa-Marie enough for the photos and the story. Without her help, today's post would not have been possible. :)

How Much Would YOU Pay for Sidney's Old Clothes?

If you said anything less than USD$ 47,520, you'd be outta luck.

From TSN.ca:

Sidney Crosby's first NHL all-star jersey went for US$47,520 in an auction that earned US$140,397 for Hockey Fights Cancer.

Other notable final bids were $5,681 for Brendan Shanahan's jersey and $5,020 for Martin Brodeur's jersey. The jerseys were worn during the first period of the Jan. 24 game in Dallas and were auctioned online as a NHL-NHLPA project.

Other final bids on jerseys: Ryan Miller, $4,880; Rick Nash, $4,860; Joe Sakic, $4,679.00; Eric Staal, $4,520; Daniel Briere, $4,464.44; Roberto Luongo, $3,640.00; and Vincent Lecavalier, $3,179.

Hockey Fights Cancer was founded in 1998 by the NHL and NHLPA to raise money and awareness in the fight against cancer. More than US$9 million has been raised to date.

This just proves that Crosby is 10x better than Staal, Sakic, Nash, and Briere.