Depressed Road Penguins:

Qick Note; I wrestled my computer out of the clutches of Godzilla (reality translation: I fixed my 'puter) and now that I have all my links and pics back and no longer have to arm-wrestle for computer time, (she's stronger than she looks) I hope to bring you a much more psychotically varied form of posting than I've been able to for the last week or so.
Dejected Penguin on the Road:

Wake Up!: There's a show I watch called NCIS, (relax, it's pertinent) the lead character, Jethro Gibbs, is played by an actor named Mark Harmon. When any of his team get out of kilter, or unfocused, he swats them on the back of the head. Kind of a 'wake up, center, and get back into the game' kind of a thing. That's what the Penguins seem to need, a swat in the back of the skull to wake them up. They've got the talent to play with any team in the League, they just don't seem to remember that they do. There are only 4 actual rookies on the roster at any one time, but so very often it seems like 6 of them are on the ice. (I was never very good at math) Something good happens (goal, good save, player returning to the ice) and everyone just seems to relax like 'everything's cool now, this was what we needed' and then look befuddled when the other team puts the puck behind the goaltender. It's like watching the beginning of last season all over again. Waiting and waiting for the team to jell or wake the hell up..... and waiting and waiting... I'm not sure my nerves can take a landslide season like the second half of last year's season, but I'm willing to find out.

Kris Le-Tank has been chosen for the Young Stars Game which is a slightly speeder version of the All-Star game and played the same weekend. Kris will be amoung the other 'sophamores' to play against the rookies. Tanger will not be facing Alex Go-Go Gadget Goal, despite the fact that he leads all rookie defensemen in points.

When Colby Armstrong lets you hit him in the head, don't fall for it, it's a part of his Master Plan. Take a tip from Feds, just don't do it. Ruslan Fedotenko will miss 4-6 weeks after breaking his hand on Army's melon. Now I've been called hard-headed, but I've never broken anyones hand proving it. Watch out Army, or I'll get Flower to hide in your bag again. I suppose it could be worse... things could be so bad that Jagr would offer to come back and play.

Jaromir Jagr, former Star Penguin, has said that if Mario asked him, he would come back and play to help him out. Actually it seemed to be more of a tribute to his friend, as he said, "I owe Mario so much because he taught me how to play hockey. If he would want me to, I would come back for the minimum, and try to help him out. But he doesn't need me. He has good players there." Where was this kinder, gentler media approach when Jags was here? Or even with Washington or when he started in NY? With stuff like that, he'd still be playing here, or at least in the States. He did play in KHL's version of the Outdoor Classic/All-Star Game in Moscow's Red Square. He and the Foreign squad beat the Russian team 7-6. So he's got that going for him, I guess.

In the spirit of the NHL's new policy of 'Hire the Age'd' (Chelios, Sundin, C. Lemieux, Roberts, etc) Brendan Shanahan will rejoin the team that he started out with 20 years ago. Shanny has 'agreed in principle' to join the NJ Debbils at a date to be determined later..... how much more later does a 40 year old hockey player have?

The US Women's Under-18 team edged out Canadia 3-2 to win the gold in the women's hockey final in Germany, even though the Canadians out-shot the US team 40-32.