The Time Is Nearly Upon Us

I stayed home on doctor's orders today. I am supposed to relax and let this medicine kick in so my lungs will get better. I actually did sleep okay until around 11am when I got up. I've been coughing since then.

But my brain was not so out of it that I didn't subconsciously hear the UPS man go down the street and suddenly stop. I didn't think anything of it for a few minutes until I heard the truck start back up again and continue on its way.

MY TICKETS ARE HERE!!!

Sure enough there was a little white envelope on my porch contains 9 months of joyous hockey pleasure in a brand new arena (in which they totally screwed us on our seats).

Buh-Bye Civic Arena

I'm not sure what these people are talking about when they say we need to save and reuse the old Civic Arena. We have a brand new arena now and anything that you might use the old one for can now be moved over. The fact is there will be a lot of new things coming now that we wouldn't have seen before because the crappiness of the Civic Arena was keeping them away. Don't these people realize that to keep the old arena you will need to pay to maintain it? I've been there and I see how badly that place is falling apart.

I know we all have memories there, etc but the time has come to move on. I've heard someone say previously 'If they demolished Yankee Stadium then they can demolish the Civic Arena' and I find that to be true. All these other cities aren't keeping their old arenas around when the new ones get built. Not even ones with as much history as Yankee Stadium (FYI, I am not a Yankee fan) It just doesn't seem like a viable option. Just because it COULD be used for such and such a purpose doesn't mean that it SHOULD. Just because it might be a cool idea to do this and that and the other thing to it to make it useful doesn't mean that someone is going to pony up the money to make that happen, especially when there is going to be very little return from it.

When grandma dies we don't prop her up in the corner and use her for other purposes. We look at our old photos, remember the good times and move on. That is what we need to do here. Sure it'll be hard to see it go but something new and cool will go in its place and we'll all grow to love that just as much and maybe even more.

Consol Energy Center First Look

Today I got to see the arena for the first time. It's definitely new and nice. I don't know how happy we are with our seats. I understand the upper bowl is UP more rather than BACK the way the old arena was but it seems like we are slightly more right than we were before too and that ain't cool. Plus we're 4 rows from the very back? Where the heck did all the section E & F people go? They stuffed them all behind us? I don't think so.

Since is was a free tour everything was open to us. We got to walk around in all the clubs and stuff that we will probably never have access to during a regular event so that was neat to see that.

They also have these screens at the entrance that they call the 'Interactive Hall Of Fame'. You can pick a player and touch the screen and see all their stats and videos of their greatest plays, etc. It's all pretty neat stuff.

There is also this one machine at the end with a circle on the ground that once you touch the screen it displays a countdown. You stand in the circle and pose and it will take your picture when it hits 0. You can then type in your email and it will send it to you. That is cool. I think I am going to try and do that for every game and make a collection. Here is the pic from the tour.


All in all I was very impressed. Definitely better than the poor old, falling apart Civic Arena. I can't wait to see some games here!! :D

Winter Classic 2011 Announced: Official Now

Well now it's officially official.

The NHL and Gary Bettman announced today at a press conference at Heinz Field the 2011 Winter Classic.

Supposedly us Penguin season ticket holders will get a letter sent next week that details our window of opportunity to get tickets for this event. I wonder how many we are allowed to get? This is going to be so kick ass. I can't wait.

More Details:
ESPN.com
ESPN blog
NHL.com

LET'S GO PENS!!!

Only 71 days till hockey!!

World Cup 2010

This is just a quick recap because like most Americans I didn't pay too much attention to this.

I know that the US made it out of qualifying but lost to Ghana which shouldn't have happened. I switched teams at that point and started rooting for Argentina but they ended up getting pounded by Germany 4-0. The next round had Germany losing to Spain which set up the final - Spain v Netherlands.

Spain ended up winning 1-0 in a bunch of extra time. Congrats to them. It was their first World Cup Championship ever.

The real winner was me because my gf brought me up a vuvuzela from Buenos Aires. :D

2010 NHL Playoff Tracker - Round 4

2010 STANLEY CUP FINALS!!

#7 Philadelphia Flyers v #2 Chicago Blackhawks
Game 1 Flyers 5, Blackhawks 6
Game 2 Flyers 1, Blackhawks 2
Game 3 Blackhawks 3, Flyers 4 OT
Game 4 Blackhawks 3, Flyers 5
Game 5 Flyers 4, Blackhawks 7
Game 6 Blackhawks 4, Flyers 3 OT
#2 Chicago Blackhawks WIN 4-2

2010/06/11
It's over! The end of the world has been averted. The CRYERS have lost!! All hail the 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks!!

2010/05/27
I cannot believe this is who is playing for the Stanley Cup this year. Ok the Blackhawks I have no problem with but the Flyers? What in the hell has gone on with the Eastern Conference? After the first round it looks like the Pens were good to go. Both of the teams we couldn't beat in the regular season (Devils, Caps) were out. Everyone sort of expected the Flyers to be a good match up with Devils. They were the one team the Devils couldn't beat all year but who would have predicted the Caps going down like that. They were up 3-1 and Montreal just caught fire and came back. I know I was cheering for them at that point. That was one of the greatest upsets to ever happen in sports. Little did we know that was just the start of the craziness in the Eastern Conference.

When the 2nd round started we all seemed to be confident that OMG the Pens got this. Easy road back to the Finals. Take out the upstart Habs and whichever team limps out of the other series and we're in. When depleted Boston went up 3 games to none of the Flyers that one seemed like it was a no-brainer, we'd play them, but the Flyers fought back. Just like the Habs in the first round they found their game and won one game at a game, eroding Boston's confidence and posting only the 3rd series win when down 3-0 in NHL history. I didn't get to see every game in that series but the difference from Game 1 to Game 7 was like nothing I've ever seen.

Well good for them but it didn't matter. The Pens took out the Flyers in the 2 previous years we went to the Cup Finals. It's no thing to do it again but first take care of these Habs and that was proving problematic. Just like the Caps before them the Pens dominated play for large stretches of time and pounded them with shots. We should have won every game 5-1 but it wasn't happening like that. They were just taking our punishment just like they did with the Caps and holding strong. Then one little turnover or slip up and they would charge back and put a shot past Fleury. I don't put all the blame on Fleury. He had to sit there for long stretches of time and not see any play then all of a sudden a guy would be barreling all alone on him and that's not exactly fair but still, you got to make those key saves. No doubt the Habs were in Fleury's mind and had his number for this series. We were still able to eke out some wins and Fleury did play exceptional in a few games (had 1 shutout, should of had 2) but the series still went win-loss up until Game 7 when it would have been our turn to win. However this was not to be. It was 4-0 at one point and we lost sending the Habs on to the next round and our dreams of repeating as Champions crashing down.

The Habs took out the (arguably) two best teams in the conference. Was this their year of destiny? Alas it was not to be. The Flyers much as they easily handled the Devils trapping style took care of Montreal in 5 games and punched their ticket to the Finals.

No matter what happens. I strongly dislike the Flyers and their fans. They are our hated rivals and they probably want us to win as much as I want them to: NOT AT ALL!! I would have been okay with the Habs winning. To lose to the eventual winner is one thing but the stinkin' Flyers? They didn't even make the playoffs until the last day of the regular season. They had to win in a shootout versus the Rangers to get in. I'll accept that they have played their best games at the best times but I will not accept that they will win this year.

The problem is if the Blackhawks win then Marian Hossa will finally get his Cup. This will be the 3rd year in a row he made it to the Finals. Amazing! Three years in a row on three different teams even. First player to ever do that. Boy would it suck to lose all three times. Now I know some people in Pittsburgh have a huge problem with him. He made some regrettable comments when he left Pittsburgh to go to Detroit and yeah so what? He may be a douchebag but he's suffered enough. Losing in the Finals is bad enough but two years in a row is worse. It's not like he is the reason the Blackhawks are doing so well anyway. He was mainly a passenger on all his Finals trips except for when he was a Penguin. Crosby made him better and he's not contributed that much at all this year either but him winning doesn't matter to me at all. Good for him.

Much as I can't imagine how my sporting life as a Steelers fan would have gone on if the Patroits would have completed that undefeated season I don't know how I'd cope having to call the Cryers the Stanley Cup Champs!! Not going to happen. Chicago in 6!

Winter Classic 2011 Announced

The Winter Classic has been announced for next year. Source

Apparently there will be a more formal announcement tomorrow than I will link here then.

The game will be played on JANUARY 1, 2011 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

between our hometown PITTSBURGH PENGUINS and our hated rivals the WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Luckily Matt and I have season tickets. There better be no way that we get screwed out of this like how we couldn't get tickets for when it was in Buffalo. I was on the website and the phone from 30 min before ticket sales started to 15 after and they could not get us 6 tickets. Needless to say I was not happy about that. I have faith though that since it's in Pittsburgh this time we will find a way to hook up with tickets. We'll have to book a room down Pittsburgh that night and have ourselves a New Year's party for the ages!!

LET'S GO PENS!!