Long Time Coming

Max Talbot finally practiced today with the team, wearing a red no-contact sweater (no touchie the Maxie). Where the Pens are having pretty much no trouble without Talbot, their record being currently 7-1-0, he really is a team morale booster. Who doesn't love Max?
This afternoon, he said,

"You miss the boys, that’s what you miss the most. You miss being there in the room getting dressed, getting ready. Being out there and joking around when you miss a shot – guys laughing at you. That’s definitely the hardest part – being on the sideline and watching the guys."

Aw now isn't that heartwarming?

In other news,

Alex Goligoski is growing a moustache having lost a type of shootout bet in practice. Dan Bylsma lost the latest one and now has to wash Jay McKee's car, which apparently is monstrous. But anyway, Goligoski is supposed to grow the moustache for just a month, then he can shave it off. But it's good practice for when he becomes a key player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year.

I'm definitely impressed with Alex so far. And for that matter, I'm pretty impressed with the whole team. Sure, Malkin and Crosby aren't quite at Ovechkin's level of playing this season yet, but it's still early. Promising players to me appear to be Jay McKee, the super shot-blocker, Mike Rupp, who already has 2 goals, and, well, Fleury is just on a roll. He's 6-0-0, our only loss this season coming against the crumbling Coyotes with Brent Johnson in goal.

Needless to say, I'm not worried about the 'Guins Stanley Cup hangover. There is none. Let's just hope they don't fall into a hole like last season. (Cue flashback) Although, I must say Dan Bylsma's system: It's beautiful. A round of applause for Danny B.

(Images and quote from http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=502723)

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hOcKeY!

Is it me, or is hockey season too far off?

What with prospect training camp this upcoming Monday, I feel hockey season is close. But, sadly, it is not. The season begins October 2nd as you may know. The good news is, there's a game on my birthday, November 21 (yes just 2 days after Sykkie and merely a week before Fleury's!) against recently- married former Pen Colby Armstrong (Army)! Now that's exciting! I'm expecting big fights, Feds!

WELL,
I got to meet THE STANLEY CUP!
Here's how it goes:
My dad had neck surgery on a wednesday not too long ago (I was unable to post due to freaking business) and the nurse is like well i don't know if you guys are hockey fans, but the stanley cup is on the fifth floor! we were on the sixth. so, naturally, i started hyperventilating! i touched it, got pics which i shall post later but were taken with my cell so they are crappy. i touched the 91 pens but not the 92, and i forgot to check for the canes and the staal misspelling and also i forgot to look for gretzky.
anyways, here's who's coming to prospect camp (don't forget ulfie's son is going to college)----------
FORWARDS
Andy Bathgate
Luca Caputi
Joey Haddad
Ben Hanowski
Dustin Jeffrey
Nick Johnson
Nathan Longpre
Nathan Moon
Nicholas Petersen
Casey Pierro-Zabotel
Zack Sill
Eric Tangradi
Keven Veilleux
Joe Vitale
DEFENSEMEN
Robert Bortuzzo
Lane Caffaro
Nicholas D'Agostino
Jonathan D'Aversa
Simon Despres
Alex Grant
Carl Sneep
Brian Strait
Denny Urban
Alex Velischek
GOALTENDERS
Patrick Killeen
Brad Thiessen

I'm SO PUMPED FOR OCTOBER!
also, go Stillers. July 31, be ready boys!

Guerin, Adams, Feds, and my new favorite Samuelsson

I already love Philip Samuelsson!

True, he's playing for college next year, but his dad is legendary! How can you not love his son? I found this good pic on the pens website- (I search it for signs of Tangers everyday)

Hmm, he's no Kris, but he's pretty cute.

So, my whole family is VERY happy, but also a little sad.

Why, you may ask? Well, unless you take residence under a rock, the Pens finally signed The Master, Billy G (is for Gangsta!). But, they signed Craig Adams. And see, my family (except my sister who hates hockey) loves all of the Pens. Except Adams. And Gill. One of the only ones we don't really love (we truly love TK the most; how could we not? He's awesome and he's got the same last name as us!).

Plus, they didn't sign Fedotenko or Sykora! I love them two almost as much as I love Guerin! Now, they're going to test out Free-agency, thanks to ADAMS! I suppose I should trust Ray, though. Gotta have faith. Gotta get an XBOX 360 so I can get the game with Patrick Kane on it instead of the game with Ovi's ugly-ass face on it. Sigh. Life is tough.

NHL Awards tonight!

Was too excited to post.

6-12-09:
Had obsessive hockey friends over. We screeched and shrieked for the entire last minute, then went outside, group-hugged, screamed, and jumped up and down.

<-------------Much like this. (I would be Tangers. He's rockin' that hair. <3)
6-15-09:

parade, complete with 23-year-old bitch ON HER DAD'S SHOULDERS!

her excuse: "I'm friends with them!"

then why is she in the middle of a crazy- fan crowd?!?!?

wtf!

anyway, I want malkin for hart (duh)

thomas for vezina

chara for norris

ryan for calder

kesler for selke

st. louis for lady bing.

great pictures!--

Sid, Petr, and Geno, BFFs! (Don't leave us, Sykie!)

I love kunitz, eaton, godard, cooke, and petr's expressions. Are those not wonderful looks?!

Next stop: Hart Trophy. Then back to Russia with Mama and Papa Malkin.

NHL Awards tonight at 7:30 on Versus. Let's watch Geno pwn Ovi once more!

Game 6 Post Game

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!

Scuds saved us again!
and of course MAF!
Goals by:
Mister Kennnnnnnnedddddyyyyyyyy...... Kennedy!
Jordan Staal!

how amazing! We aren't ready to give up on you Lord Stanley!
Perhaps Badger Bob was smiling upon the team...
Great special on him BTW on FSN. SportsBeat Rewind. Very nice.
Also-
In My Own Words: Mario Lemieux

that one was so great! Mario is a really nice guy who considers himself a Pittsburgher, at least in 2005.

Morning before Game 6 (6-9-09)

Well.

No post-game for game 5. I was too busy CRYING!
I cry way too much during hockey.
Flyers: Geno waived of goal; I cried.
Caps: Lost game 6; I sobbed unconsolably.
Canes: Well, I didn't really have to cry there, now did I? I suppose seeing them hold the Prince of Wales trophy did make me emotional. But in a good way. I started fanning myself and shrieking like a 11 year old High School Musical fan. Embarrassing: yes. Did I care: no.


So, this morning, before I die of addiction to the 'guins, I'm doing a post-game. In a pre-game.
Let's start with what went wrong (other than EVERYTHING) in game 5.

Defense: WHERE?!?!? The only defense I could see was Letang and Eaton trying to get the puck out and block shots! Too bad MAF could see Orpik standing in front of the man with the puck. And didn't see the man with the puck. OR THE PUCK! And Sarge: Undescribably BAD! Where was the veteran defenseman? He looked like me trying to stand up and handle a puck at the same time. And I suck at skating. I know he's not 100 percent, but come on!
I ask you, What the PUCK!?
Offense: Too busy filling in for the defense. Oh, there goes Sid! What's he doing? Oh he just blocked a shot! Try making a shot.
Goaltending: Very few of those goals were actually Fleury's fault. (see defense!)
What made me sad was the look on Flower's face, and the fact that Garon played better. Still, I'm Flower Power all the way. Usually I blame Fleury. This game was everyone's fault! I liked last year's game 5 much better!


What we have to do today:
Score.
Score.
Score.
Score again!
Score an empty- netter.
Score with a defensemen.
Score with an offensive player.
Hit Zetterberg into the boards.
Tell HOssa to Go **** himself!
Tell Deadtroit I mean Detroit that it sucks.
Push HOssa into a never-ending well of doom and destruction (and the image of Sidney Crosby hoisting the Stanley Cup).
Break Osbad!
Tell Mike Babcock to stop whining and give it up, you attention- grabbing idiot.

Let's go Pens!
Make up for Pittsburgh's lack of baseball skills with your abundance of hockey skills!

Pre-Game (6-6-09)

It's a hockey night [for] Pittsburgh!

Yes, no more of those two day breaks that MAF hates. It's every other day, like it should be.
The hockey gods have restored balance.
Well, until after game 5. Then it's on 6-9-09. Crap.

And the Pens have made this a series.



-Red Wings Pavel Datsyuk is supposed to play tonight. Coach Mike Babcock said, "He’ll play.”

Ooh, touchy. Tsk, Tsk. Danny B is much better at interviews. And leading his team from a crappy season to the Stanley Cup Final.

-Max Talbot is FINALLY getting the credit he deserves. Even Evgeni MmmMalkin didn't give him credit.



Heck, his own center, Malkin, regularly jokes that Talbot has bad hands and can only score into open nets. -From Penguins.nhl.com

But, now, everyone loves Maxie!

Someone told me, before game 1 of the Flyers/ Penguins series, that Max would go sans a goal (excluding empty-netters) the whole run. Wow he was wrong!


Morning Skate: (Taken from penguins.nhl.com)
It's A Great Day for Hockey - June 6
Sam Kasan
Jun 6, 2009, 11:10 AM EDT
It's a Great Day for Playoff Hockey will be tracking the Penguins' Stanley Cup quest with constant updates throughout the postseason.1:25 PM:Marc-Andre Fleury reminisced about his spectacular 55-save, triple-overtime victory in last year's Game 5 in Detroit and if he'd like to repeat the feat."That would be great. We got the win and that’s all that matters. That was last year. We have to start over again, start from scratch and try to get the win."___________________________________________________________________________________12:08 PM:The Penguins finished their morning skate with little new developments. The lines haven't changed and nothing of note occurred on the ice. Just another playoff morning skate. ___________________________________________________________________________________11:49 AM:Here are some quick notes from Babcock's press conference:On Datsyuk: "But, two things, in the morning skate or in the practice, you never know what adrenaline's going to do. He seems to be that he's tolerating it now. I watched him in the skate, I mean, he doesn't look like Pavel. And yet in saying that, when the puck's dropped, tonight I've seen a lot of that over the years. So we're excited that he's excited."On playing Datsyuk on wing:"We're going to start him that way, and we're going to see how he does. If he looks like himself, he'll be in the middle. We need that checking center back, I think somebody called him that the other day."On Cleary and Rafalski missing the morning skate:"Cleary and Raf didn't skate, both are supposed to play. Abby (Justin Abdelkader) had a bit of the flu, so I think those guys are all available here for tonight. And we'll make decisions at game time."On if his team is nervous for tonight's game:"No, I think they've been through it. But before the game tonight like any athlete, there's always a little bit of nerves. I don't think that's a bad thing, I think that's a great thing. If you didn't have that, number one, it wouldn't be as much fun to play. And number two, you wouldn't be as good as you're capable of being. I think those things all help you a little bit."The other thing is the reason you play these games and the reason I think you cover sport is to be involved in the big events. Well, here's a big event right here today. You want to be good, be good." ____________________________________________________________________________________11:35 AM:The Penguins are on the ice for their morning skate at Joe Louis Arena. ____________________________________________________________________________________11:32 AM:First it was Bill Cowher in the Carolina series. Now another former Pittsburgh coach/manager is being pulled into the NHL playoffs. Former Pirates manager Jim Leyland is being pulled into the Stanley Cup Final. But unlike Cowher, he is a little more diplomatic in his approach. "That's a no-win situation," Leyland told the Detroit News. "I hope the best team wins. Whoever plays the best deserves to win. If it's the Red Wings, fine. If it's the Penguins, fine."____________________________________________________________________________________11:23 AM:Babcock said that Cleary and Rafalski are OK and available to play in tonight's Game 5 showdown, despite that both missed the team's morning skate. He also said that he may play Pavel Datsyuk at wing for some of the game. ____________________________________________________________________________________11:20 AM:Rob Rossi wrote a good article today in the Tribune-Review on Evgeni Malkin's parents. ____________________________________________________________________________________11:12 AM: The Red Wings finished their morning skate at Joe Louis Arena Saturday morning. The team has left the ice and the media have entered their locker room for pre-game availability. Coach Mike Babcock will be holding his post-skate press conference shortly. Dan Cleary and Brian Rafalski were the only Detroit players of note that did not skate. The zambonis are cleaning the ice for the Penguins, who will hold their morning skate today at 11:30 a.m.


-Hey, 5 more points until MmmMalkin is up to Gretzky and Le Magnifique's playoff points of 40 total. Hat trick and 2 assists would do it. Git Er Done, Geno!

Mama & Papa Malkin Question of the week!
Q: If "The Genos" were a band, who would play what instrument?
NM: "Geno" would play the drums. That's him, definitely.
VM: I would watch, maybe play piano. She would make the food.
NM: Our other son, Denis, could play guitar.
VM: There is no singer. We're not The Beatles. If somebody at home heard us saying this, they'd never believe it.

Wow. I love this!

Post Game (Games 3 AND 4)

Game 3 (6-2-09):

What a game! It was Dead Wings at Pens.

Great shots, great saves, great game.

Pens Goals by:

1) Max Talbot (5)
2) Kris Letang (4)
3) Sergei Gonchar (3)
4) Max Talbot (6)

The stars were chosen as:
3- Hans Zetterberg (no)
2- Evgeni Malkin (yes yes yes jesus, yes!)
1- Maxime Talbot (chicka-chicka yeah!)

Final Score: PENGUINS 4, RED WINGS 2.
Series at 1-2, Red Wings lead.

Sorry it wasn't updated until now. I went to the big screen last night and left at 4:00. I couldn't get on the computer until today.

Game 4: (6-4-09)
ANOTHER amazing game! (although I missed 18 minutes from the second period in the 35 minute line for the port-a-potties. I missed 3 Pens goals. THREE! And it was the best period in the entire game.
Pens Goals by:

1) Evgeni Malkin (14)
2) Jordan Staal (3)
3) Sidney Crosby (15)
4) Tyler Kennedy (4)

The stars were chosen as:
3- Evgeni Malkin (yes yes yes jesus yes!)
2- Sidney Crosby (does NOT have the "whine flu")
1- Marc- Andre Fleury (Flower Power!)

Chris Kunitz missed an empty netter. WTF, where was the Kunikaze?!?
Oh well. We still pwned the Dead Wings. Keep it up for the Cup!

Jordan Staal scored a shortie (short-handed goal) to get things fired up for the Pens. I missed it. It was a penalty on Brooks Orpik (I think. It's usually him, so I'll go with that).

<-------------- Look at that man go! Did that hurt much, Osbad?

Final Score: PENGUINS 4, RED WINGS 2.
Series TIED at 2-2.

Next games: Game 5 @ DET, Game 6 @ PIT.

Notes:
-Red Wings' top scorer, Pavel Datsyuk, still did not play. Let's keep it that way!
-Red Wings scratched Abelkader (thank god) for game 4.
-Penguins scratched Petr Sykora, Eric Godard, Phillipe Boucher, Alex Goligoski, and Mike Zigomanis (who recently recovered from a December injury).

6-2-09 (Morning before game 3)

So. We're down 2. Again!

Gone are the days of this:

For now. I have a feeling Danny B's not going to put up with this much longer.

Put Boo in for Pascal. Sorry PD, Boucher helps a lot more. Put Sykkie in, too! We all know how well he plays in the finals! (And if you don't know, you're a fairweathered- second time around fan!)

<--------------- Now THIS was amazing! (Keep cooking Mama Malkin!) I loved Geno the moment I.... hmm I have no idea! I just saw him and BAM! Seriously! *awkward Geno fangirl moment* But look at that wimp HOssa. Needs to be held back by *gorgeously older* Mark Eaton. You know HOssa's like wow I wish I hadn't left. Not. Let's just show Judas-- I mean..... HOssa what a winning team is. We don't need him!!!!

Do it for the fans.

Do it for Danny B.

Do it for you.

Do it for the 'Burgh.

Do it for Lord Stanley!

fans: Keep doing funny stuff like this!--

Remember:

Penguins DON'T taste like chicken!