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.
Behind The Photoshop: The Talented Mr. Fitz.
If you hung around cblog last season during the playoffs,
you know that a monster photoshopper arrived on the scene.
The talented Mr. Fitz brought some of the sickest shit we've seen.
Our only regret since leaving blogspot is that so many classic 'shops are hidden now. Google had a program that saved all our old photoshops on blogspot to some album. We have over 7,000 shops in our archives there. [Shops]
So we encourage you to make a photo album of your photoshops. If you have one. Please send them.
After the jump, a look into the sick shops of Fitz.
Comings and Goings
Paul "Biz Nasty" Bissonnette was been picked up off of waivers by the Phoenix Coyotes.
The Pens also added to their line-up, claiming former Washington Capital Chris Bourque.
Chris is the son of Ray Bourque.
"I'm excited to get a chance with Pittsburgh. They won the Stanley Cup last year and they'll be raising the banner Friday night. That will be fun. Hopefully, I can stick with the big club the whole season"
-- Chris Bourque
Bissonnette will likely get a chance to play in the desert, something he couldn't get in Pittsburgh.
You'd have to think their line-up is slightly easier to crack.
WEST PREVIEW 2009-2010
The Western Conference is like that homo who is in your unofficial parking spot at work on random days. We would look back at our Western Conference preview last year and see how we did, but we didn't even do one. Most of our knowledge for this preview revolves around watching NHL Network's preview show and, you know, sort of being immersed in everything NHL for 8 months out of the year.
Rings
Pens championship rings.
They got them last night in some ceremony.
[Courtesy of Penguins.com]
[penzer in cblog]
Also, Rick mentioned the Pens signed former wild dman Martin Skoula to a contract earlier on Tuesday.
Minnesota blogger [Deuce by Definition] gave us his thoughts.
For the masses who don't know of Martin Skoula, aside from the "puck poise" jokes, he was terrific for us (the Minnesota Wild) last year, and has become a real solid, defensive defenseman. He's also a guy who can step into a top 4 role in a pinch and not look out of place, and the more minutes he gets the better he is. He's not Bobby Orr, but he'll chip in occasionally on offense. Real strong on his skates, and very durable. Dude is a rock, he just doesn't get hurt.
Exactly the kind of guy you need on your blueline, because injuries/illness/etc. is bound to happen.
We have to agree. A vintage Shero move. We like it even more because it means that Bayda dude probably ain't making the team now even though Shero signed him. He probably did it on the behest of Letang to pay Bayda back for that throat shot in the ECF.
Go Pens
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You Know It's Coming...
There was a time, in the middle of the summer, when a wire story about a Maple Leaf prospect and a fake trade rumor were the only hockey stories you could read in a day.
Those days are over.
You can tell the NHL season is around the corner because there is now something to read in the "Hockey" sections of most major websites.
It's no longer all about Dany Heatley, Jim Balsillie and the mismanagement of the Chicago Blackhawks.
No, now people are actually talking about what is going to happen on the ice.
It's refreshing.
After the jump we'll give you a few things to read.
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