Take a deep breath...

It seems like everyone (including me) has just about taken Monday off. Oh, there were some actual paid performers out there cranking some stories out, ya know, gotta pay the bills and all that, but most of the Net-fanatical were seemingly snoozing at their keyboards. It's like when you've just started to dig a long ditch, and you stop and look up, think 'Damn, this is going to take a while', and then take a deep breath and get back to work. (wow, did that sound blue-collar zen, or what?). Well, I've looked up, seen a long season, taken a deep breath and decided I can only hold my incessant babbling in so long.


It seems that our revered (?) Hockey-fuhrer, Bettman, is not a big fan of spanning the globe to bring the NHL to the Olympic world beyond 2010. Unless, of course the North American Hockey-money paying public can get into the action. I'm of two minds about this. Yes, it puts a big hole in the middle of the season, but it's only once every 4 years, and who wouldn't want to represent their country in the Olympics? Am I crass and selfish enough to deny that to someone just so I can watch uninterrupted hockey every year? (yeah, I know, that's a tough one) Buried at the bottom of that article is MAF's take: Freeing its players to participate in the Olympics is completely necessary, said Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
"We have to go," Fleury said. "This trip shows how big hockey is everywhere. The Olympics is the biggest (stage), wherever (the games) are. I think any player wants to go." Ok, the Flower should not be denied. Go, play hockey, win medals, you have our blessing. BTW: Two of the Pens seriously considered for the Canadian team at the Vancouver games are Flower and The Kid, and that's still a ways down the road.
Found a podcast interview Flower gave at 105.9 The X where he seems to be warning Ryan Malone that he'd better bring a cup with his camping gear if he intends on setting up shop in front of any net that Fleury's in charge of.

Say what you will about Ruuuuutuuuu (I know, I keep doing that), I know he went from 'honored agitator' to 'cheapshot artist' in less time than it takes for a 50 dollar bill to disappear at a homeless convention, but he has some really nice things to say about Da Burgh in the middle of a different article about Bettman not liking the whole international competition thing.
One more thing about Dur Hockey Fuhrer, he seems to have developed an almost stalker-like fascination with El Sid. And plans on continuing to ride him like a money making horse for the foreseable future, foresaking all others.


Michael Dell over at LCS hockey has some nasty things to say about Marian Hossa at the bottom of a list of the coolest underrated players in the league. Hint: Hoss didn't make the list. I used to think that this kind of thing would get old pretty quick, but it hasn't happened yet.

Add on: This is just a sick, sick save that Carey Price made against the Redrags during this year's pre-season game on 8/30


All in all a fairly off-topic day, but I'll continue randomly inserting even more random things. I've looked up, seen how long the season is, and now I'm ready to go.

Bad Day at Black Rock:

As if you needed me to tell you, Pens fall to the Sens 3-1. Flower had a solid performance, allowing 3-27 with two quirky goals and a laser of a shot by Heatley on a power play (from the slot again, doesn't anyone listen?). Flower's puck handling was still a bit suspect at times, but with some good saves and a bit of luck kept the game from really getting out of hand. He did end up under about 35 guys at one point, but a poke with the hatchet and some defensive help the puck was hauled out of the danger zone.

Someone forgot to pack the bolt cutters to free the guys from the anchors they were dragging around all night (except for TK, who was doing his Energizer Bunny imitation and Malkin who was a beast). The only bright spot offensively was the defenseman Alex Goligoski scoring from Crosby and Malkin with less than 2 seconds left in the game, giving Crosby one more step toward 300 points (296). Other than that, 5 on 5 didn't work, 5 on 4 didn't work, 1 for 7 for a whopping 1 for 14 for the first two games. Just a case of 'a bad day was had by all'. I'd break it all down for ya, but I'm afraid that would put into a fetal position, sucking my thumb, waiting for the defensive snooze fest that is Devil hockey.

For those of you grasping at straws I will dribble out this one little factiod to keep you away from the sharp instruments this early in the season: According to Bob and the Stiegway over at FSN (and I suppose their able research dude) the Flightless Birds have run Ubergoalie Martin Brodeur out of the net more than any other opponent.

Humble, yet all knowing opinion: Flat, flat, flat, flat. The extra snow up against the boards seemed to disrupt the Penguin's game more than the Redshirts. We all know one of the favored tactics of the Pen's game is to ride the cycle on the boards then chip it out in front and bury it. That just wasn't going to happen with the puck doing its best Weeble imitation against the dashers. Crosby took a couple of classic Ruuuutuuu cheap extra jabs including an elbow to the back of the cranium during a body-slam that had him grimacing on the bench for most of the first. Goddard stepped up when Also: Mucho difficulte' to get anything going with all the line change fiddling going on. I imagine a possible reason could be El Jefe' (real Spanish this time) Therrien's idea for the three over the pond games was to treat them as a continuation of a shortened pre-season. I don't like it, but I can understand it.

Flower Protection League Report: First period Brooksie was a monster, laying out Ruuutuuu (I can't help myself) up against the boards with the Finnish Fling trying to sell a penalty, but the refs not buying any. Then, at the end of the period he belts Alfredson to the ice and attracts a bit of unfriendly attention. Letang also did some crash on the boards, but seemed to be out of step for most everything else. Gill was huge (he just is), he was also very solid on defense though he did let one pass by him that lead to one of the goals. Eaton is just not looking comfortable yet, though Go-Go looked pretty good minus a few rookie bobbles. Scuds had a very average game, but took a couple of shots just in case lightning really could strike twice.

All in all, the only good news for the day would be if reports were true that Brian Engblom over at TSN has finally become the last man on the planet to shave his mullet (probably on orders from Melrose).