GAMEDAY 2 - ISLANDERS
7:00 PM
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
In many ways the Islanders are a lot like the Penguins a few years ago.
They had their glory years, won some Stanley Cups, and then plummeted to the bottom of the league.
Their arena is old and if they don't get a new one they may have to move.
But they do have some hope.
They just drafted a young star with the first overall pick and they hope to make him the centerpiece of their organization.
"I think it is clear, and I say this perhaps as a matter of observation, and as a matter of fact: There is probably no worse major-league facility right now in North America than the Nassau Coliseum."
-- Gary Bettman
The people of Kansas City have been licking their chops throughout the whole ordeal.
7:56. PENS WIN.
Should try to iron this picture onto your girlfriend's underwear.
Sick job. Dennis Miller stuns the world.
And then the banner goes to the roof.
Someone jobbed in Mike Lange's call.
If Steiggy never says "raise the roof" ever again, life will be all right.
Unreal choice of the theme from "Backdraft."
If Kurt Russell walks out in his fireman uniform, the pregame wins an Oscar.
We'd actually have something resembling a normal recap
if we didn't become incapacitated last night.
GAMEDAY 1 - RANGERS
7:30 PM
Mellon Arena
Here we are.
Tonight the banner goes up.
Tonight the road back to glory begins.
Tonight is the final home opener in Mellon Arena history.
And this was the first:
Almost 42 years ago the Pittsburgh Penguins played their first home opener at the Civic Arena.
Tonight they will play their last.
But this will not be a solemn occasion.
Because tonight isn't just the final home opener at the Igloo.
It's also the day the third Stanley Cup banner is raised to the rafters.
There isn't a more fitting way to begin the final season in this historic building than by raising that banner.
And there is no better way for us to salute everything the Igloo means to us than to fill it with cheers.
Jean Pronovost, Les Binkley, Andy Bathgate, Rick Kehoe, Michel Briere, Bob Johnson, Herb Brooks, Kevin Stevens, Tom Barrasso, Paul Coffey, Joe Mullen, Ron Francis, Bryan Trottier and many, many others have called this building home.
We have called this building home.
And so do they:
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Marc-Andre Fleury, Brooks Orpik, Sergei Gonchar and everyone else who steps into that arena with a skating penguin on their chest does as well.
This is their team.
This is our team.
This is our team.
When Mario Lemieux looks up at the rafters and sees his number 66, his Art Ross Trophy victories, his Hart Trophy victories and a third Stanley Cup banner he'll know what he's done for this team.
When he looks across the street and sees a beautiful new arena nearing completion, he'll know what he's done for this city.
Last night he was part of a Team Canada ceremony in Toronto, but tonight he'll feel at home.
It's the final banner raising at Mellon Arena.
It's the beginning of another season.
It's the chance to show the hockey world what this team - and this city - is made of.
We're Hours Away
Another gem from Benstonium.
Going to the game tonight?
Sitting on the lawn?
Want a shirt?
Hit the jump.
SWAGGA LIKE US. 2009-2010 PENS SEASON PREVIEW
It's been our own personal mantra around to stay the course. It's not advice for anyone.
If people followed our advice all the time, no one would be alive.
But we're keeping that mantra heading into this year.
No use grandstanding here. The Pens are defending Cup champions.
We are where every NHL fanbase wants to be.
Good thing we're not Dan Bylsma or a Pens player.
Disco has been preaching to forget about last season.
As fans, we never will; we'll keep watching Game 7 highlights every day like we've been all summer.
2008-09 was a vegeance tour. It was about righting the wrongs of years passed.
2009-2010 is a defense. A defense of the greatest title in professional sports.
It is one last defense of the only Arena we've ever known.
There's talk of giving your favorite team a grace period after they win a championship.
You can't expect them to win it every season.
F that. As a fanbase, we have the swagger now.
When Pens fans roll into Columbus, 1,000 deep, people will be pissed.
When we storm the steps down in D.C., threats will be aplently.
But they are forced to respect it.
And opposing fans coming into the Mellon? Look up in the rafters, jokes.
Here's to one last season in the Mellon Arena.
REPRISE: YES THEY COULD. PENS WIN. STANLEY CUP CHAMPS
Season preview tomorrow 8:20 am.
The following post is our recap of Game 7 posted at about 6:00 am on Saturday June 13th.
The journey that Lord Stanley's Cup took after Game 7:
Forever and ever, the last 16 seconds of this game will play in our minds.
With every passing year, as brisk fall nights turn into winter wonderlands, the Fleury save will become bigger and bigger while Talbot's goals will be replayed in driveways all across Western PA.
This Stanley Cup championship could not have come at a more glorious time for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It's only fitting that a banner will be raised in Old Lady Mellon's last season.
A banner that will read: 2008-2009 Stanley Cup Champions.
And then, two years from now, when you are relaxing in that new Consol Engery Center,
you'll put your souvenir cup in an unreal cup-holder and look to the rafters.
And that banner will still be there.
10 years from now you'll take your kids to a Penguin game.
And that banner will still be there.
And when those same kids end up taking YOU to a game when you're a 96-year-old joke,
you'll use the last ounce of energy in your life to look to the roof.
And you will remember.
You will remember...
Settling in for those back-to-back games in Sweden.
Penguins toiling in mediocrity, 6 points out of the playoffs with 25 games left.
A mid-season coaching change, bringing in some no-name coach.
Subtle trades near the trading deadline.
Not knowing which MAF would show up every night.
Facing off against your two most bitter rivals in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Exorcising demons to win the Stanley Cup in Game 7.
A mid-season coaching change, bringing in some no-name coach.
Subtle trades near the trading deadline.
Not knowing which MAF would show up every night.
Facing off against your two most bitter rivals in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Exorcising demons to win the Stanley Cup in Game 7.
Every season from here on out, you can look back at that 2008-2009 feather in your cap and realize that if you got through that season, you can face anything else the game of hockey will throw your way.
As the silver chalice was raised by Sidney Crosby, we raised our own cup and toasted general manager Ray Shero. The English language hasn't evolved enough for us to put into words what Shero's steadiness at the helm has brought to this team. We're not even going to try.
As for Game 7 itself, Max Talbot has put himself into the YouTube Hall of Fame.
The Red Wing Killer finished what he started in Game 5 in Detroit last season.
Once that second goal beat Elroy, the Wings simply fell into the Pens' hands. They started bringing all their shit; Zetterberg taking 2-minute shifts, Lidstrom logging 80 minutes of ice time. When osteoporosis had the game on his stick with 2 seconds left, all of Detroit wished he hadn't logged 27 minutes of ice time up to that point.
But it didn't really matter. Marc-Andre Fleury wasn't letting that puck in. MAF erased all doubts surrounding him being a "shaky" goaltender. Ask a Red Wing what they think of Marc-Andre Fleury now.
Better yet, just ask this guy:
Once that second goal beat Elroy, the Wings simply fell into the Pens' hands. They started bringing all their shit; Zetterberg taking 2-minute shifts, Lidstrom logging 80 minutes of ice time. When osteoporosis had the game on his stick with 2 seconds left, all of Detroit wished he hadn't logged 27 minutes of ice time up to that point.
But it didn't really matter. Marc-Andre Fleury wasn't letting that puck in. MAF erased all doubts surrounding him being a "shaky" goaltender. Ask a Red Wing what they think of Marc-Andre Fleury now.
Better yet, just ask this guy:
For us to make it this far without mentioning Marian The Magician means the Pens drinking his tears from the Cup in the post-game locker-room celebration is simply icing on the cake. Every journalist and person with a keyboard outside of Pittsburgh said the Pens could not win without Hossa. But Penguin fans who have watched these past two seasons knew what Hossa brought to the table for the three months he was here and knew he was expendable.
Gloating in the face of Detroit fans seems ridiculous at this point.
When you win the Stanley Cup, your focus shouldn't be on anything else.
They know they were beaten by the better team.
The Red Wings didn't lose this Cup. The Pens won it.
When you win the Stanley Cup, your focus shouldn't be on anything else.
They know they were beaten by the better team.
The Red Wings didn't lose this Cup. The Pens won it.
One last jump, homos.
Ten Questions Heading into the NHL Season
The NHL season is finally here.
Tonight the puck will drop in four arenas:
Montreal @ Toronto
Washington @ Boston
Vancouver @ Calgary
San Jose @ Colorado
It's great to have games that mean something once again.
One of the best things about a new hockey season is that you have no idea what's going to happen.
One of the favorites could end up in the basement because their star player breaks his leg.
A bad team could ride a hot goaltender all the way to the playoffs.
A fat guy could lean too far forward while watching from his front row seat and break the glass, stopping an important game and killing someone's momentum.
No one knows what is going to happen.
That's why it's so exciting, because anything can happen.
And just like every team starts the season with optimism, every team also starts the season with questions.
Here are ten answers we'll be looking for during the season.
EAST PREVIEW 2009-2010
It's Hockey Night in America tonight.
Great time to be alive.
We'll probably never agree with Ovechkin again.
But he's right when he says "Drop the puck" in that stupid Versus commercial.
As opposed to the West, we actually did an East Preview last season.
And we got 7 out of 8 playoff teams.
not bad
But that means nothing.
Guaranteed 90% of whoever is reading this probably got 7 out of 8 right.
So, after the jump is our look at the East for the upcoming season.
QUICK CALL TO ARMS:
If you have NHL Network, "Is This The Year?" is being looped this morning. (Thursday)
At the 40-minute mark of the show (8:40am, 9:40am, 10:40am, etc.), coming out of a commercial break, they show clips of Fitzgerald scoring on Barrasso in the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals.
If you can get those clips on YouTube, you're getting a shirt from storeblog.
Jump for the East preview.
