Good Work is Good to Find:

Diving save for a weird bounce:

There are things about the Canadiens game (they're from Canadia, remember?) that bother me. The effort and the heart of the team are not among them. Despite the 3-2 loss (my wall schedule is using entirely too much purple ink) and the fact that the Pens simply cannot win either two games in a row, or any game on a Saturday (check it yourself) there were very few times during the game where I was thinking 'What the hell are you guys doing?'. Such has not been the case in losses past. Shots were taken, most of the power plays you could see actual effort, there were some breakdowns but the defense looked like it was coming together, and despite allowing three goals Marc Andre Fleury looked pretty solid in the net. And how did Flower look at the loss? "It was not good, but I think we could see that tonight (sat) was different. We definitely played better than the last couple (of home games). We're close. We're close." I think he's right, but it's still going to drive me crazy until 'We're there. We're there'

So, what bothers me about the game, you might ask? Our stalwart FSN reporters are roaming ever so much further from the game actually being played on the ice every time they show up in my living room. Error seems to develop a new man-crush every game or so. Saturday Whitney was the target of his man-lust, describing his body as 'thick' before rambling into a series of unintelligible grunting sounds that I assume were complimentary. He also seems to be something of a man-slut as he hasn't yet given up his crush on Tim Wallace, of the polar bear eating the baby moose fame, mentioning him, his hockey-body and polar bear story several times during one period. Stogie gets my 'Class-less Son Award'.(trademark pending) While I understand his pride in having a mother who both didn't drown him at birth, and has reached a truly honorable age, it's kind of tacky to admit the extent of your mother's time on the planet to the entire viewing public while admiting she told you not to. (I hope she beats him with her cane). Hasn't this woman suffered enough just living with the shame of being Mama Stogie?

On a side-note, Tim Wallace should just never unpack when he's sent back to WBS. He's just getting there when he's called back to da'Burgh because of Godard's bruised leg, or Maximum's hurt tootsies, or Therrien's hangnail or something. Ok, enough of my ranting, let's get on to some news-type stuff.

News Type Stuff: Hal Gill, the human Sequoia, is projecting his return to the line-up for Tues. night's game against the Beantown Bears. I'm not sure as I can believe this, as none of the current line-up as come down with an 'undisclosed' or the Black Plague, or anything. Isn't there some rule this year that there can't be an extra blue liner on the bench?

Scoring Race: El Capitan hasn't quite surrendered the scoring title to Geno yet (after all there are 46 games left in the season) but I don't think it would bother him much if Malkin did beat him out for the title. When asked about The Malk's chances to win Crosby chuckled and said, "They're looking pretty good right now." I would just like someone with a Skating Bird on his chest to win. Selfish of me, I know, but.... so what?

Snow Game?: While I agree that last year's Winter Classic was an absolutely wonderful game, I find myself wondering why someone (Joe Starkey of the Trib) is starting speculation that a Pittsburgh Winter Classic is even a possibility this soon. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool idea. And if the Hockey Gods would smile with the correct weather (cold, but not too cold, and a bit of snow, but never in the eyes), it would be a game to make for Pensaddict stories for ages to come. The NHL (Bettman) hasn't finished riding the wave of last year's WC. It seems highly unlikely that they would even consider giving another outdoor game to Pittsburgh with 26 other teams still looking for their first sniff of the action. But it's still a cool idea, right?

Just Shut Up: Hopefully soon to be mute Cheap Wallpaper Poster-child, Don Cherry, who knows so much about what it takes to win hockey games that he can't get a job actually coaching a team, once again has the perfect answer to any hockey question. The 'Walking Tacky Couch' has deemed that the only thing Sidney Crosby needs to get out of his scoring slump is to quit doing anything else. Evidently he should just give up all his media and fan commitments and that will fix everything. I'm sure Bettman wanted to reach through the screen and strangle him. I know he must be right, because just after he finished speaking El Sid scored a goal and an assist and racked up shot after shot against the Canadiens. I think all that bad dye is going to his brain.

Until next time....