Brains, Zombies, and Halloween:

On off days, you sometimes find some strange things, on off days this close to Halloween you generally find some really strange things. Like the fact that zombies have evidently taken over the Monroeville Mall. And most of the Penguins would rather not donate their brains to science although they seem to have no problem coming up with body parts of team mates they'd like to donate.

The Sports Legacy Institute is looking for sports players to donate their brains so the cumulative effects of concussive injuries can be studied. The guys had mixed reactions:

Marc Andre Fleury doesn't want to donate his brain because he thinks they might pull the plug on him too soon just to dig into his melon. But he wouldn't mind donating Ryan Whitney's calves because they're freakishly skinny. El Sid, said he would 'think about it', but in the spirit of 'skinny calves for science' he suggested they study Pascal Dupuis, although Max-imum thinks they should study PD's eyebrows instead. Mark Eaton doesn't think his brain could show anyone anything, but that Tyler Kennedy wouldn't even realize they'd taken his. Both he and Whitney seem to think Le-tank asks too many questions, Eaton thinks KL's tongue should just be removed (I'm not sure there's a scientific purpose behind that), but in the true spirit of scientific investigation Whitney wants the Institute to scoop out Le-tank's brain and find out how and why he comes up with so many questions. Scuds would just like some scientist to figure out how Crosby's butt got so big. (Some sort of genetic mutant hockey experiment probably, that kind of thing happens a lot in Canadia).

Not too weird, but interesting: Kim St-Pierre (is the hyphen a letter in Canadia?) winner of two Olympic gold medals for the Canadian Women's Hockey Team, was asked the other day if she would sit in on a Canadien's practice, subbing for starting goaltender Carey Price who has been out with the flu. She was dressing for a practice with her own squad, the Montreal Stars of the CWHL, and took about 2 seconds to say 'Oh yeah'. I doubt they're going to offer a contract, but the guys had nothing but good things to say about her.

FPL Report: Dan Molinari of PPG doesn't think we should break out the Defensive Panic Buttons quite yet. Although the Pens are paying a combined $9 mil. to the boo-booed duo, the defense as a whole is doing a damn fine job, and I agree. Speculations and 'what if's are going to plague every mistake and loss, but it's about time to admit that what we've got is pretty good, (if not the same) and learn how to win with it. Rather than trying to win with last years formula and this years players. (the offense could stand to listen to this hint too).

Speaking of formulae, Seth, over at Empty Netters, had someone send in some sort of mathematical table to explain who actually is the best player in the NHL. I'm not sure who actually won according to his math (I hate math) but it looks really well thought out.

Kris Le-Tank is going back to shoot-out school. Ok, really he's just working on new moves for his shots.

Other Stuff: Jerome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla was named #1 NHL star of the week. I'm not sure anyone cares, I've just been looking for an excuse to write his entire name on a blog. I'm easily amused.