Winners and Whiners:

The Save


With due respect to Frank Pietrangelo the one I'll remember as 'The Save' will always be with less than 3 seconds to go in game 7 of the 2009 SCF when the Tower of Flower Power dove to his right to block Lidstrom's rebound chance with whatever part of his body he could get in front of it. Then with all seconds gone Marc Andre Fleury hesitantly half-raised his hands, looked around to make sure, then flipped the gloves off just in time to catch

his entire team. Staal and Orpik first then a rush. Geno jumps in after the on-ice 5 gather around and Le-tank, jumping from the top of the turnbuckle, lands on top of the pile. (man can that guy fly through the air) Then the rest of the gang climb on, including Syko, who didn't play the game, but suited up to make the celebration, and Zigomanis, who hasn't played in months.

Pop that cork! Stanley's coming home!

Like most Pens-addicts I spent the 36 hours after the game looking for and at replays, running around trying to find the coolest SCF Champs stuff (I scored a non-locker room, champs shirt and a medallion puck so far) and scoping the NHL channel for a repeat broadcast of the game (watched it 2 more times). Also trying to figure out how sick I have to pretend to be to get Dahntahn by noon on Monday to watch the Parade. (haven't worked that one out yet) The Cup had a much more interesting night than I had, but that's as it should be.
There are all kinds of stats and figures out there to be bombarded with but Kim and Zoe (don't call them 'girls') over at Puck Huffers always have their own wonderfully skewed take on the game, and this time down at the bottom of the post they've got links to a six-part CBC broadcast of the Pens celebrating after the game. Much better than NBC or even the, (as K&Z would say) Curry-help-us, local coverage could be. Although I did like Dana Heinze saying 'They Fucking did it!' before Oxenreider could stop him.

Let the Whining Begin: Within moments of losing the SCF the excuses began and so did the whining. This guy was hurt. So and so had an operation, ran out of gas, guys didn't have a chance to play to their level, blah, blah blah. Losers say that a lot. What they'd like to gloss over is the fact that our guys were hurt too. Sarge played the last two series with a torn MCL in his knee from O'retchkin's hit in the second round. Everybody's hurt. Winners win and losers whine, and that's just the way it is. But the whining was turned up a notch by Chris Draper snivelling about El Capitan not shaking Lindstrom's hand after the game. He button-holes some starving reporter and cries about Sid not racing over and shaking Lind's hand...... Bullshit. I've seen the video. Less than 3 minutes after the line started Crosby joined in, but Draper and Lindstrom were already gone. And ya know something Nik? Those things on the bottom of your feet are called skates. If you wanted shake Sid's hand so bad, why didn't you slide on over and do it?Losing sucks, they split, and should have just STFU about it. Croz shouldn't even have to respond to this horseshit, but he did. You know they say that it's not how you win that shows how much class you have as a player, but how you lose. It's a sad state of affairs when a Nazi like Coach Baby-cock shows the most class of the team.

Dynasty?: Les Magnifique was quoted extensively in an article in the Trib saying essentially 'They'll (the young Pens) will be around for the next 10-15 years if they want to. They have a chance to do something special here in Pittsburgh if they want to stick together.' Wouldn't that just be just so nice? Well, a couple of months with that big shiny thing, and we'll see about next year.