7:00PM

 

Air Canada Centre

 

There's something about this team that gives the Penguins a hard time at least once a season.

 

Maybe it's the business people on their cell phones in the first few rows of the ACC.

Maybe it's the fact that the Leafs usually wear white at home for HNIC games.

Maybe it's the extra media attention or the overpriced beer.

Whatever it is, the Leafs give the Penguins problems, especially in Toronto.

 

In the last five seasons the Penguins are 3-5-2 when playing in the Air Canada Centre.

They've been outscored 43-34.

Their only two regulation wins are a 6-4 victory on October 13th, 2007 and a 3-2 win on March 11th, 2004.

The also beat the Leafs 6-5 in overtime on February 10th, 2007.

 

And Brian Burke's Leafs are like the Flyers of Canada, so this might not be pretty, but it likely will be high scoring,

 

The Leafs have yet to win a game this season, so they'll be desperate and have something to prove.

 

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From TSN:

Due to a lack of evidence, Philadelphia Flyers winger Scott Hartnell will not face any supplementary discipline for an alleged biting incident in Thursday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hartnell took part in a conference call with NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell on Friday morning but will face no suspension or fine. Sources say the referees and linesmen did not see the alleged incident and as such, there was insufficient evidence to further penalize Hartnell.

Clearly Gary Bettman and the NHL are once again favoring the Penguins and trying to.... wait... what?

 

Whatev.... after the jump: Photoshops.

 

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24 hours later, the Pens were good again.

Beating the Flyers just puts a bounce in your step. Never gets old.

 

What a nail-biter. Not really.

But you just have to make a cannibalism joke right out of the gate.

 

How great is it for Pens fans from the '80s

not being the least bit worried anymore about playing in Philadelphia?

 

On a night where the Flyers' organist prompted the CROSBY SUCKS chant

every time he was about to take a faceoff...

...Bing answered by winning 21 out of 24 -- that's 87.5%.

 

Hard to be a beast on a night where you give up 4 goals, but MAF was beast city.

 

How do you feel if you're the Flyers right now?

You make some splashes in the offseason.

Then you test the new acquisitions in back-to-back games against the Caps and Pens.

 

You barely beat the Capitals.

Whoops. Meh.

 

You lose to the Penguins.

Whoops.

 

And your goalie that was supposed to push the team to another level?

That's 10 goals against in 2 games versus Eastern elite. Ouch.

 

 

All of the aforementioned storylines are rendered null, however,

 

due to Hannibal Hartnell trying to eat Kris Letang.

 

He bit Letang on his ring finger.

Closest Hartnell will get to a Stanley Cup ring.

 

 

If you think there's more Hartnell photoshops after clicking "Read More,"

you are right.

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Pensblog [AP]

 

Scott Hartnell took a bite out of Kris Letang's finger.

 

Recap coming later this morning, but we want to confirm what everyone already knows.

Late in the game Letang and Hartnell got tied up. You cannot get a clear angle, but FSN showed Letang going to the Pens runway.

 

 

 

Per [Empty Netters] Letangs quote to the FSN crew:

"He knows what he did. Go ask Hartnell."

"It's a first for me. I want to be certain that you ask him and make sure you get the right answer."

"Just go ask him. I want to know the answer."

 

7:00

 

Wachovia Center

 

Here's the video the Flyers played before their home opener:

 

What that video tells us is that Flyers hockey is...

Determined

Ferocious

Punishing

Ruthless

Merciless

Vicious

Relentless

 

We don't see the words "Talented," "Successful," "Skilled," "Victorious," or surprisingly "Leadership" anywhere in there.

But it does tell you a few things about what the Flyers, and their fans, want out of their team.

They want violence.  They want fights.  They want brutality.

And, if after all of the bloodshed, the Flyers manage to win that's good too.

 

We don't have to sit here and give you reasons to hate the Flyers.

You hate them already.

 

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Dave Molinari, in all of his toolness, kicked off his recap of the game with this:

 

"If the Penguins played football -- and there had to be times last night when they wished they did --

this would have been described as a trap game."

 

And that's why we started a blog.

There had to be times in this game when the Pens wished they play football?

What does that even mean?

 

Football's the only schedule with trap games? Bizarre.

He had to reach his Steeler-allusion quota somewhere.

Might as well be in the first sentence.

 

 

The Pens lost.

 

The Coyotes won. What a solid team.

If you don't have Malkins, Crosby, Gonchars, etc., this is how you win games.

 

 

If the Pens weren't mentally in this game, for whatever reason,

you might as well look behind the bench.

 

 

If the schedule-makers had the Pens play Chicago last night and Philly tonight,

Brent Johnson wouldn't had even seen warmups.

 

Did Disco send a message to his players to take the night off

by starting the backup goalie against what is a perceived to be a perennial doormat?

 

Does MAF need a break two games into the season, regardless of games on the horizon?

 

No, no, we're not throwing anyone under the bus.

Don't remember doing it after Game 5 of the SCF.

 

We just can't wait for people to start flipping out on Bylsma.

Because people get bored and feel they got to do it.

Disco is a beast. He has a five-year pass in our book.

 

People the least bit upset who are posting unreal condescending blog- and message-board posts

forget what an 82-game NHL season entails.

 

Did everyone think the Pens were gonna go undefeated? Man.

We're still glad that hockey's back, period.

 

As RAGE posted in C-Blog, bridge-jumping is just a way of life in NHL fandom, anway.

 

Going to the House That Crosby Destroys tonight.

Get the minds right.

 

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7:30PM

Mellon Arena

 

It would be pretty easy for the Pittsburgh Penguins to overlook tonight's game.

The Coyotes are a Western Conference team that may not even exist after this season.

The Pens are playing in Philadelphia tomorrow and it's tempting to focus on that game and let tonight's contest slip away.

But two points are two points, no matter where they come from.

 

The Coyotes website is hyping this game as "A BATTLE OF THE UNBEATENS" even though both teams have played a combined total of three games.

 

We're calling it "The Battle of Teams Jim Balsille Couldn't Buy."

Throw in the Predators somehow and it becomes RIM Jim's worst nightmare come alive.

 

***

 

CALL TO ARMS

Effective immediately, when you send in a photoshop, put "PHOTOSHOP" into the subject line.
This isn't just for our own organizational purposes.  There is a greater goal we're trying to achieve here and we need everyone's help.

Plus, if you send in an anthem pic, if you have the capacity, put "anthem" in the subject line.

Some of you may have been a part of the testing we had for this thing earlier on Wednesday, so you know what's up.
But we'll unleash this little beast in the recap of the game on Thursday morning.

 

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PENS UNIVERSE wants your Mellon Arena stories.

At least go there to see their header picture. Unreal.

 

Pens ain't wearing their Powders tonight.

They'll wear them for the first time this year on October 17th.

 

Pens won the Cup.

We really don't care about a uniform curse anymore.

But to each his/her own.

 

*****

 

Via Bar Stool Sports comes this:

A couple boobs rubbed against each other at a Bruins game recently.

 

 

After the jump are some NSFW/SFW pics.

 

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