JUST 3 MORE DAYS!!!!!

Wow. Can you believe it's time already? Last summer felt like it dragged on forever; this summer, perhaps hastened by the string of crises I experienced, seems to have blown by in haze. I don't know about you guys, but I'm SOOOOO ready to drop that puck.


We'll be starting this season without a particular favorite of mine, but we were given a bit of good news. Mad Max Talbot is making progress in his recovery from shoulder surgery - he skated today for the first time since the operation. It won't be the same without him. Here's hoping he improves faster than expected. :)


Our title man expects to be ready to hit the ice this Friday following a minor groin injury aggravation during last Thursday's preseason matchup against Columbus. He has practiced, so that's a good sign. Keep your fingers crossed!!


The BIG screen is coming back for Friday's Stanley Cup Banner celebration. (Sigh... One more reason I wish I lived in Pittsburgh!) I wanted desperately to get tickets to the season opener. I haven't wanted tickets this badly since the 01-01-08 Winter Classic, but unlike before, things didn't work out in my favor. I know a few Friends are going, so I'm hoping I'll get some SWEET fan photos from the ceremony and game. (I'm looking at you three, G ladies! ;) )


I didn't respond to any preseason blogger roundtable emails in time to participate, so I'll go on record here on The Show: I am predicting another stellar season for our Boys of Winter. I anticipate that they'll make it to the playoffs again, and (at least!) come out the 2009-2010 Eastern Conference champs. However, I don't look for it to be a Stanley Cup re-rematch. Detroit's players are getting a little older (sorry, KCJacoby!), and I think the much younger Blackhawks and their 12-year-wing-man (and Cup hungry) Marian Hossa will be a force to be reckoned with in the West. What do you think? Leave your preseason predictions in The Friends' Zone below.

All of tonight's pictures are from the 09-13-09 practice except the first one, which if from an Olympic scrimmage game played at the end of August.

Don't forget - there are still a few days left to vote for your favorite Sid!

GO PENS!!!!!!!!

In Defiance of "Defy Ordinary"

Previously, we discussed the Pens' new marketing campaign. The general consensus is that "Defy Ordinary" is for the, um, birds. (Truth be told, I have yet to hear from anyone who actually likes it...) In defiance of the uninspired new campaign, good Friend of The Show Alyse went back to my personal favorite Penguins slogan since I've been a fan - "Experience the Evolution" - and created for us a sweet wallpaper using a montage of key moments from the aforementioned evolution. Enjoy!

[ Click to enlarge ]

Many thanks to Alyse for sharing this with us. :)

The season opener is fast approaching, so don't forget to vote for your favorite Sid!

Vote For Your Favorite Sid!

It's time for a change around here, don't you think? Let me explain...

Longtime readers will recall that last season, I cropped a blurry picture I took of Siddo skating, cut out around him, and ran a distortion filter over him to create a footer for The Show.


After that, I changed the background following a few key victories on the Pens' journey to the Cup victory. Well, I figured since we are beginning a new season, I should probably reset the background to black since we're going back to the beginning of the road again.

I thought for a second about using the old footer I made last year, but then it occurred to me that there isn't any reason we can't still celebrate the 2009 victory for a bit longer, right? So I narrowed the many pictures of Siddo and the Cup down to five shots that I think would make good website footers, and now I want all of you to choose which one it will be. Here are the photos in no particular order (click them to enlarge):

Siddo's First Cup

Victorious Siddo

Happy Siddo

Sid From Behind

The Kiss

Now it's time to cast your vote! I'll leave the poll open for a week. The winner will become a fixture in the lower left corner of the page — hopefully in time for the season opener!

Thanks in advance for participating!! :)

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

The Black and Gold Game

While slowly (but steadily!) making my way through my inbox, I came upon an email with a pair pictures for you:

Here's a couple pictures I have from the Black and Gold game that was played in Wilkes-Barre on September 17^th. Sadly, there's no pictures of the boys, but it was totally awesome to see the Stanley Cup in person. One thing I never expected to see... I apologize for the quality of the first picture — I took it with the camera on my Blackberry:


But this next one is a better quality shot and is from a small little ceremony that they did with presenting the Cup at Center Ice at the Wachovia Arena:

I may be biased, but I think this just has to be the most beautiful trophy in professional sports.

The Black and Gold game was really fun to watch; it's not often that one gets to see Crosby and Malkin go head to head.

Can't wait to read about the Pens more, and I'll be down at the Flyers game on October 8^th. Let me tell you, it's quite interesting to be a Pens fan in Flyers territory — I live just outside Philly — and it's especially interesting since my best friend is a die-hard Flyers fan!!

A new Friend of The Show...
Rita

Thanks so much for sharing the pics and welcome to The Show, Rita! :)

Check back here tomorrow for a special post - I need your help with something... ;)

Some Preseason Losses, A New Marketing Campaign, and Still No Versus

Well, the Pens lost 2 of 3 of their preseason games so far.


No worries, though. It doesn't count, so who cares? :P It's the preseason, lots of our young guys are getting ice time, and the Boys are have shown over the past few seasons that, even if they don't fully come alive until after the All Star (or this year the Olympic) break, they can still make it to the playoffs - and go all the way.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Okay, so the Pens have a new marketing campaign... The slogan is "Defy Ordinary". I've got to be honest - I'm not loving it. In fact, the more I'm hearing it, the more I'm hating it. My favorite Pens slogan so far (since 1997) has been the inspired "Experience the Evolution" because it was more appropriate than even the Pens' marketing team probably anticipated at the time. Last season's "It's a Great Day for Hockey" was a great tribute to Badger Bob as well as a statement of the obvious. (Isn't it always a great day for hockey?)


But "Defy Ordinary"? Perhaps it is because I work at a college, but it seems more suited for our brochure than the side of a Pens' souvenir cup. Don't believe me? Click this link to open the Pens' new commercial in a new window - BUT listen to it with your eyes closed. I "defy" you to dispute that the ending line "We Are the New Pittsburgh" couldn't easily be replaced with "Call Now to Apply for Fall Enrollment." Take a listen and leave your thoughts about it in The Friends' Zone below. (Oh, and don't forget to enter the contest at the end of the video!)


We're getting dangerously close to the start of the regular season, and DirecTV customers (like me) still have no Versus. On September 1^st, Bettman's sports channel of choice was replaced with the following message:

Versus is no longer available on this channel. Comcast, which owns Versus, has forced us to take down the channel because we will not submit to their unfair and outrageous demands.

This has the potential to be a real problem. Fortunately, we live in the Greater Pittsburgh area, so when FSN Pittsburgh and Versus both have the rights to broadcast a game, Versus was always the channel that got blacked out. But there are a handful of times when Versus has exclusive rights to certain games in the regular season and they hold exclusive rights to most of the playoffs, so if negotiations between the Philadelphia based Versus and DirecTV don't work out, woodstock and I will need to use the instructions on the WATCH GAMES ONLINE page to watch them online. If push comes to absolute shove, I can listen to them on SiriusXM, but listening to hockey is less than ideal. (And it will severely limit my ability to recap the game!)

Nope, these pics STILL aren't getting old. :)

Versus has been urging DirecTV subscribers to switch providers, but it's just not that simple. The 2 year contract we signed with DirecTV a year ago is structured kind of like a cell phone contract: there is a substantial early termination fee. At the time, we figured it was the price to pay for the best quality HDTV broadcast currently available. Twenty-two days into it with no real end in sight has me thinking it might not be resolved in time to avoid missing a game. Cross your fingers...

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

And Now... Back to The Show

Hello, my Friends. It's been a while.

Right out of the gate, I want to apologize for being gone so long. Losing Baylee in the midst of coming to terms with my Gram's deterioration and the near-loss of my uncle just completely threw me for a loop. I thank all of you for your patience and understanding and especially for the kind words. You all have become such an important pillar of support in my life. I don't think I'll ever be able to convey exactly how much it truly means to me.

I also must publicly thank my sister for handling the post that broke the news of my beloved Baylee's passing to all of you. I just couldn't have done it. Even now, this post is hard for me to type. I loved that dog like a child. I had him my entire adult life - 1⁄3 of my life overall. He and I had a bond that didn't require us to speak the same language or be of the same species.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of him. I took it about a year ago while I was standing directly over him.

We worked so hard to fix him. When I took him to the vet that morning, I never dreamed the doctor would tell me it was time to throw in the towel. Cancer is cruel and vicious and unforgiving. That holds true for both humans and canines. As you know, Baylee had liver cancer, and it began affecting everything from his appetite to his ability to walk. Eventually, there were no treatments left for us to try, so we had to end his pain. It may sound crazy to non-"dog people", but that was by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It's crazy - I had so many big plans for TSCS to celebrate the big win. This should have been one of the best summers of all time. Instead, for me, it was the worst.

I always loved when Bay would "cockroach" (← Greyhound owners know what that means!) like this, so woodstock took this picture with his phone and sent it to me while I was at work this past July.

Despite the month long absence, I assure you that I have not lost my passion for the sport, for the team, for the player, for this blog. I am back now, and while it may take a few posts to get back into the swing of things, I promise to do my best to be in top form for the new 2009-2010 season. And please continue to be patient with me as I attempt to tackle my inbox - I literally have several hundred unread messages. I will do my best to respond (even if it's just a "thank you") to all of them.


The preseason gets underway tonight at the Mellon when the Pens host the Blue Jackets at 7:30pm. Regular season tickets went on sale last Saturday. I didn't get the game I really wanted (the home opener), so instead I surprised my husband with tickets to two games for teams he'd been wanting to see live for a while - November 16^th we'll be at the Anaheim Ducks game at 7:30pm, and March 7, 2010, we'll be watching the Pens face the Bruins at 3:00pm.


I want to end this post on a positive note — last week I got a shiny new 24" iMac. :) :) :) :) :) It's a total nerd-girl's dream: It has a terabyte (!) dual booting hard drive that is running Snow Leopard on the Mac side, and the not yet released Windows 7 on the other. (It's so good to work at a school!) Vista haters rejoice! Windows 7 is actually pretty darn slick. :)


And, as ALWAYS,


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