Game 1's iceTIME

Those of you who've been lucky enough to go to a Pens game know that iceTIME is the program that is given to you at the gate when you enter the Mellon Arena. In the issue I got at Game 1 there was a nice piece on our Captain that I scanned to share with you. Click the image to enlarge it for easier reading. Enjoy! :)

This is the cover.

Tomorrow. Philadelphia. Matinee madness. DO IT.

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

A Minute With Siddo

I just got my mail, which included the newest edition of FACEOFF magazine. (Sign up for a FREE subscription here.) In this issue, there was a brief interview with our title man. Rather than type it all out, I scanned it for you. You'll notice at the end of the article, there is no punctuation at the end of Saint Siddo's response. I assume it was an editing oversight because there is not a second page to the article. Click the image below to enlarge it so you can read it.

Enjoy!

Old School Sid

Before we get started, I wanted to make you all aware of a slight (yet significant) change I made this morning to the layout of The Show: The Archives section was getting a little long, so I threw it into a drop down menu box. Now it only takes up one line! :) The menu is located at the very end of the blogroll on the right underneath the site's stats counters.

Good Friend of The Show Narmeen A. sent in the inspiration for today's title: she took her copy of Reader's Digest Canada from October 2005 and scanned in the pages for us so we can read it! Click the scans to enlarge them for supersized views.






Friend of The Show Jordan L. sent me an email that said, "I was driving on I95 between Baltimore and Washington DC on Tuesday and saw this. It’s supposed to say 1-800-GO-PENSKE:"

Sweet!

Time now for a Roaming Penguin update! Sidney Penguin has taken quite a long trip for the third leg of his world tour. He left Omaha and headed to Buffalo, NY - the site of one of the bigger moments in his namesake's life:


While in Buffalo, he stopped by Friend Blankiegreen520's house:


Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Penguin has departed Nashville and landed in Dubois, Pa...


...where Friend Terri A. snapped a picture of MAP "with his major league counterpart's jersey:"



And now I leave you with TSCS's Quote of The Day:

"It was my first move as the coach. I knew the kid and what he'd been through since he was 13, 14 years old. It was going to be his team at some point down the road anyway, and I thought he was ready to start handling the responsibility."

~ Head Coach Michel Therrien, on his decision to name an 18-year-old Siddo as an Alternate Captain of the Pens on December 16, 2005 - just two months after the Saint's first NHL game. (If you'll recall, the move drew tons of criticism from many, including fashion plate Don Cherry.)

Many, many thanks go out to Narmeen for scanning her magazine for us, to Jordan for sharing her truck photo, to Blankiegreen520 & Terri for sending in their Roaming Penguin pictures, and to Friend Jan M. for pointing out the article with today's quote.

Sid's Place

Today's post comes courtesy of good Friend of The Show Cassie C. She got her March issue of ESPN Magazine (you may have heard about it, haha), and she sent me this photo and the details behind it:

They asked each of their cover subjects about "MY PLACE" - the one place they loved to be. Sid's was his house in Nova Scotia because he could get away from everything there. The pic was taken on the lake the house is on.

Check out Sid's backyard:

What a view. (Um, ladies, I was talking about the lake.)

Thank you for sending that in, Cass!

Also, a commenter identified simply as "d" just gave us a link to some news about Sid's status on TSN.ca:

Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby is expected to resume skating this week, perhaps as early as Thursday. However, sources say he will not play against the Lightning Thursday evening, nor will he dress for the weekend game against the Devils.

Crosby has had soreness in his right ankle since originally suffering the injury in a January 18 game against the Lightning. He returned to the lineup on March 4 after missing 21 games, but after playing in just three games, he began experiencing soreness and has sat out the last three games.

Well, it sucks that he's going to be out for this weekend, but remember that it is MUCH better to be safe than sorry (← that's a Sidney fan's mantra right now), and I think Geno, Syko, and Malone can hold down the fort until Sid comes back. Also, Staal and Hossa worked well together in yesterday's game, so don't worry about the Pens.

On a personal note, my husband and I will be attending the season's final home game against the Flyers on April 2, so if Sid isn't back by then, I may need you all to remind me of this as I'm throwing a slight temper tantrum... :P

Thanks for the link, d!

Impact!

Sid's on another magazine cover. Well, sort of... he's this month's cover feature for Impact! Magazine, the NHL's online magazine. It seems like they conducted Sid's interview before the season started, but it's still worth a look because it's all about NHL captains. Something a little weird - the magazine actually compares Sidney Crosby to Bing Crosby. Say it with me now: W-T-F?! Click the picture to go to the magazine.



After that, head on over to the Philadelphia Flyers' website and see jealousy rear its ugly head in this little gem about how much Philly hates Sidney. Come on, Flyers fans, envy doesn't look good on you. Then again, there's not a lot that does look good on a Flyers fan... :P

Thanks go out to good Friends of The Show Susan W. and Bill in NS for hooking us up with the Impact! link, and thanks go out to our good Friends over at ThePensblog.com for the Flyers link. Make sure you check out the video of the near miss Geno had with the skate of Mike Richards coming up to his face during the last game that ThePensblog found on YouTube. (Take special note of the "I will KILL you" expression on his face immediately after it happens...)

Pens v Rangers tonight. We're at that every-game-counts time of the season... (Not that every game doesn't count, but you know what I mean!) Get ready for a battle!!! :)

Sidney Crosby - An Essay

First things first - I don't think any Pens fan could possibly forget that it was exactly one year ago today when Mario Lemieux made the sun shine once again...

Le Magnifique unveils plans for a new arena...

...then says the words we all longed to hear: "Tonight, I'm proud to announce that your Pittsburgh Penguins will remain right here! Thank you, Pittsburgh. Have a great night."

THANK YOU, SUPER MARIO. With everything in me I THANK YOU.

Also, I thought you might get a kick out of this: You may remember that I've mentioned that my supervisor is a rabid Sabres fan. The IT department here shares a huge open office. He sits in the corner diagonally from me. This is what he sees every day on the wall facing his desk:

Obviously the newspaper clip on the left is the local paper from the day after the Winter Classic. The shot on the right is Sid taking Miller to school in a shootout win (ironically) also exactly one year ago today. Just below the older picture is the Sabreslug I turned into a bloody mess to celebrate that particular win.

After last night's win, this is what I did to the dry erase board in our office:

Sorry about that big black square, but that's where all our cell phone numbers are listed.

Now, since this is his Show, let's get back to Sidney! ESPN has cracked open the vault for its 10^th anniversary issue. They've posted links to old articles about their 10 cover athletes for this month's issue. The Saint, as you know, is one of those elite athletes, and ESPN dug up an old essay that Sid wrote when he was 18 years old and in his first year in the NHL. Those of you who may remember this article should know that it is definitely worth re-reading because it's interesting to reminisce and compare Rookie Sid to Captain Sid. Don't feel bad if you missed it the first time around, though, because let's face it - how many people actually look to ESPN for hockey news? :P

Before I go any further, though, I want to tell you that today's photos of Sidney come to us exclusively from Good Friend of The Show Pensgirl. She took them at the 11-17-07 game against the Rangers. She was nice enough to give me several absolutely amazing photos, and I'll be using more of them randomly in the future. THANK YOU so much for sharing them with us, Pensgirl!!!

Without further ado, here's Sid's essay in its entirety:

I wanted to be a goalie growing up. I think every little kid does, because of the equipment. It looks like fun. But my dad discouraged me. He thought Id enjoy skating around and chasing the puck more than sitting in the net freezing.


I've never really played against anyone my own age. It's always been that way. I think it helped me. When I was young, I realized I had a gift, or maybe some talent other kids didn't have. I don't know if its nature or if it came from just playing a lot or having a passion for it. But you can have all the talent in the world, and without a work ethic, nothing will happen for you. That's something I've always told myself. I always wanted to go first. When I was 16 and knew I might have the opportunity to get drafted, I wanted to go No. 1. My parents always told me, if you want to go first, make it easy on yourself. Don't be sitting there on draft day thinking, am I going to go No. 1, No. 2, No. 3? Make it easy for them.


So it was nice when all those sacrifices that I made and that my parents made finally paid off. Draft day made everything worth it. I would have been happy to go anywhere. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to play with Mario. I trained with him here in LA last summer, had dinner with him a few times. He was really great to me, really down-to-earth. He even drove me to the airport for a 6 a.m. flight. I think his wasn't until 8, but he picked me up at 5. That's pretty amazing.


I don't think I'm just a one-way player. I think I'm an all-around player, like Peter Forsberg or Steve Yzerman. I'd like to be the guy who can take big faceoffs late in the game or block shots or hit a guy if he needs to be hit. Obviously, I think my strength is making things happen offensively and scoring goals. But I don't want to be known as someone who can just do that.


I'm not going to try to be another Wayne Gretzky. I don't think there's ever going to be another Wayne Gretzky. When people say I'm going to save hockey, I think of it as a challenge. I'm not going to shy away from it. I want to be the best, but I realize you can't be the best overnight. In your first year in the NHL, you take it one step at a time. There's going to be expectations and pressure. I'm ready to accept that and handle it. But I also think the NHL is going to be a lot of fun, playing in the best league in the world, competing and being challenged. That's what makes it so good when you succeed. I'm young and I know there are a lot of great players in the league. But I don't think its other peoples expectations that I have to live up to, just my own.


I've been a marked man since I started playing. It's always been that way.

A lot of thanks go out to another good Friend of The Show, Cassie C., for providing the link to the ESPN article. :)

One last thing for today then I swear I'm done: after seeing all 10 covers of the magazine, it appears that Sid wasn't the only athlete to fall victim to ESPN's photoshopping massacre. Check out A-Rod in particular - he looks just as weird as Sidney does...

(Click to enlarge.)

Video of Sid's ESPN Cover Shoot

Many thanks to Good Friend of The Show Cassie C. for sending this our way:

Okay - the Sid in the video looks NOTHING like the Sid on the cover:


YIKES.

Our injury depleted Penguins face the Sabres later tonight (still sans their captain, of course). There is a scheduled outage for Blogger at 10:00PM Eastern. I'm not yet sure how this will affect my ability to recap the game, since I can't stay up TOO late on work nights, so I'm just going to play it by ear...

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!

Sid's ESPN Magazine Cover Hits Newstands

Waaaaaay back in November, I told you about a photo shoot that Sid participated in for ESPN Magazine's 10^th Anniversary edition. Here's a refresher:

On Monday morning, Sid took part in a photo shoot for ESPN Magazine's 10^th Anniversary issue (which doesn't hit newsstands until March 2008!). Let's just say the wardrobe was a little out of character for Sir Sidney...

The stylists, Rachel Thomas and Khalilah Williams, showed Crosby two black jackets, one leather.

"I'll wear whatever you want, but I wouldn't usually wear this stuff," said Crosby, who arrived in jeans, a T-shirt, a gray hoodie and a Reebok ballcap.

If his RbK clothing line is any indication of his personal style, he's Mr. Casual with a preference for T-shirts, sweatshirts, and sneakers over button downs, neckties, and loafers.

That wasn't the only "wardrobe malfunction" (← what a stupid term, eh?) of the day: Evidently, the theme for the photo shoot required Sid to be dressed in black from head to toe. He was given a pair of black slacks and a pair of black jeans, neither of which accommodated his tree trunk legs. He ended up wearing the jeans he came to the arena wearing, which will likely be darkened later using photo editing software for the magazine.

Well, it's finally March 2008 and the issue hits stands tomorrow! :) Good Friend of The Show Michelle B. hooked me up with this preview of the cover:

Okay. It might just be me, but does anyone else think it looks like they photoshopped the Saint so much that he looks like a mannequin or maybe even a comic book character? I don't know; I can't quite put my finger on it, but he definitely doesn't look like his usual self... Tell us what you think of the cover in the comments section.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has this to say about it:

The magazine staff selected 10 athletes who represent some aspect of the magazine's past 10 years or the next 10 years. While they didn't tell us directly, we're guessing Crosby represents the future.

Many thanks go out to Michelle for the picture, and I found the last Post-Gazette link on Empty Netters so I owe Seth a big thank you, as well!

The Pens Should Trade Sid

WHEW! I almost blacked out just typing those words. Let me assure you - this is not an idea I support. In fact, I think it would be the biggest mistake the Penguins organization could ever make. That said, good Friend of The Show Loser Chris explains why the Pens might consider dealing the Saint away in this provocative article over at Taking One For The Team:

... would the Penguins be better off trading Sid?

Ever since early last season a hot topic for Penguins fans has been how will the team keep all of their young talent in Pittsburgh with a salary cap in place. This isn't to say that I don't think the Penguins can keep their core intact. I think the Senators have laid a solid blueprint for locking up the nucleus of your team and staying under the salary cap. I really do think the Penguins can keep Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, and Whitney in the black and gold for the long haul. But that doesn't mean they couldn't improve the team by moving Sid.

"Don't trade me, bro!"

While I love Sid to death and would love nothing more than to see him win several Cups and rewrite the NHL record books in a Penguins jersey, I would not be upset if Crosby was traded in the "right" deal in order to improve the Pens' chances of winning the Stanley Cup. If the right offer came along, I wouldn't hold it against Ray Shero if he took it.

WOW. I can barely wrap my head around that. (You'll have to head on over to TOFTT to see what the "right" deals would be.) Personally I don't believe any deal would be the right deal. It's one thing to set forth the argument that Sid's talent alone would be enough to make trading him a ludicrous mistake. That's a given. But you also have to consider the financial ramifications of getting rid of Sid. Let's face it: Sid not only is the best player in the world, he's the most marketable. His jersey has been the best seller since he entered the NHL. He sells out arenas all over the country. Letting him go would be like setting a big pile of cash on fire. And, needless to say, when Chris sent me this article, I promptly hit the reply button and politely informed him that he and I could no longer be friends. ;)

Now to help you recover, ThePensblog.com staff hooked me up with this next article. It seems Sidney's appearing on the cover of yet another magazine. This time, he'll be making an appearance on Whirl - a Greater Pittsburgh Luxury Lifestyle Magazine. The accompanying article outlines the camaraderie of this young team as well as how Sir Sidney handles the hype surrounding him:

“You don’t take it for granted,” Crosby explains to me in the most modest of tones. “But you kind of get used to it here since people support the team so well. It’s a lot of fun. The fans are great here. They’re loud.”

It’s noisy in here as well, full of reporters clamoring for a few moments with the players. I notice a motto painted in bold, black letters on the wall of the locker room: IT’S ALL ABOUT PRIDE, COMMITMENT, AND RESPECT.

Don't tread on me - 'cause it'll cost ya.

The Penguins emblem, too, is emblazoned across the center of the carpet in black, white, and gold. It’s under strict “do-not-step-on” orders. “Look out! That’s a hundred-dollar fine!” someone shouts as a reporter, new to the room, nearly treads across the penguin’s head.

The players’ obvious and devout adherence to this rule is just one way they enact the axiom displayed on every wall of the room. Their intense pride, commitment, and respect for the team, the organization and, most of all, each other, is strikingly apparent after only a few minutes in their presence. Perhaps this, in part, is what makes them world-class players worthy of worldwide recognition.

The Pens face the Carolina Hurricanes tomorrow night at 7:30pm Eastern. GO PENS!!!!

Sidney Crosby does GQ

Sidney Crosby decides to shed his shirt for a couple of pictures in GQ (Guys Quarterly).

Let the girly shrieking commence...