Shooting Blackbirds:

It's not very often you can look at a 5-4 game and say what a good job your goalie has done. But this is one of those times. Marc Andre Fleury made some absolutely sick saves, especially in the third period when he faced 20 out of the 45 shots he'd see for the game, to give the Pens the chance to win in overtime.

By the way, these guys are driving me insane and add to that the tremendous amount of money I'm blowing on Pepto and you can see the problem I'm having. 2 goals in the first period, Staal with a bottle rattler and then my new friend Chris Kunitz slips one underneath Huet, and where was he? Parked in front of the net. Add to that 2 pretty good short handed chances and a couple of classic cases of Flower puck robbery, and I just had such a warm glow going into the first intermission Error and Stogie's babbling just faded to a muted background noise. Then the second period..... enough said... blind, biased refs and weird bounces leading to another power play goal by Towes (how is that Taves anyway?) and I was reaching for my Phillips Screwdriver (Milk of Magnesia and vodka) when Toew's high sticked a puck into the net, (that Error and Stogie were quite willing to give him). After it was disallowed Miro showed the Midwest the Power of Satan and then Mad Maximus was lifted and plastered into the glass by Dupuis after he dinked one off of the defenseman's skate 45 seconds later. So I put my disgusting drink down but then picked it right back up when the Pens seemed to have a mid-season flashback allowing the Darkbirds 20 shots in the third period and then allowing 2 more goals. Toews scored the Power Play hat trick and I nearly puked into mine... but managed to hang on to my doublestack cheeseburger long enough for Geno to blast a no-look pass from the Sarge right into the net over Neimi's shoulder. I salute the Sarge, that pass was a thing of beauty.

Things that are still good: Geno is still tops in the League in scoring and assists, Sarge has a 6 game scoring streak, the Pens are only 2 points (68) behind 6th place Florida (70 with 2 games in hand) They're still sitting in 10th but the rest are coming back toward us. All four teams (9th-6th) play tomorrow, so we shall see how that plays out.

Well, time for the Ratt to fire up the Zamboni and travel on to Dallas where the Pens will meet the Stars on Sunday (oh crap! another Sunday afternoon game).

Movie Heaven and old Goalies:

The big screens and the kielbasa will be blazing at the Igloo for the first 4 home games. The Trib is sponsoring the 'Face-off Festival' and there will be 'various food vendors' until the beginning of the third period, I guess to allow the heavy beer drinkers 1 hour to sober up before heading home. The Trib seems to want to be in the forefront of the part-time fan crying contest by saying that the next 10 games will be 'less than perfect' for the Pens. Call me crazy, but what 10 games ever are? Are the Penguins the only team 'doomed' by the trip to Europe?

Stephanie, over at The Steel City Sports Fan, has some pleasant musings over the incessant cheerfulness of The Flower. All I know is this: Every time I see that goofy grin, I just gotta smile.

It seems that the old Federal League has reared its head once again. They're putting on the foil in Syracuse NY to raise Reg Dunlop's no.7 to the rafters of the War Memorial arena. Parts of the movie were filmed there, and the team is the AHL affiliate of the Johnstown Chiefs on whom the movie was based. No one from the movie is actually going to be there, but they've got their own 'Hanson brothers'; two brothers and a sister who've been playing Hanson dress up since '94. So where's Ogie Oglethorp? Where's Dr Hook McCracken, where's the Steven Spielberg look-alike playing the organ in a helmet? Couldn't any of those guys show up?

Speaking of thugs playing sub-par hockey in old arenas, the Philthy Phlyers were soundly defeated in their last game at the old Speculum... uh Spectrum Arena. The newsy part of that is goaltender Niittymaki, who helped the Phantoms beat the Phlyers 4-2, has recovered from his surgery and will be the Flyers (see? I do know their name) backup for the season.

And where's the love for the 'Bulin Wall? After trying to dump him for the last week the CBC announced that Khabibulin would be on the roster this season for the Blackhawks. Kind of like the last kid picked in a football game, don't ya think? "Ok we'll take the asthmatic kid with crutches and you guys take Nikky." "Aww man!"

Good news. Martin Brodeur will not be breaking any of the 3 records he's going for this year at the Igloo Saturday. With some classy stats stolen (uhh I mean borrowed) from the Ottawa Sun, 'Uncle Daddy' needs 14 wins to get past Roy's 551, 3028 played minutes (B averages over 4k a year) to pass St Patrick's 60,235, and 8 shutouts to down Sawchuck's 103. That's a lot of number's for a guy that's been playing in the NHL since he was 12. There's little doubt, unless someone chops off one or both of his arms (hmmmm...) at least two of those three are going into Marty's pocket this year.

Release the whining Canadian hounds: Someone who will remain nameless over at the Vancouver Sun has begun the, now traditional, whining about Canadia not winning a Cup for the last 15 years. This has gotten pathetic to the point that even the Canadian reporters won't put their name to the story. Yes, Canadia, we get it, Hockey was invented there, but it's now a North American game, get over it.

Later News: Off the PPG wire. Taffe on waivers, Curry and Pesonen back to the Baby Pens, and Chris Beech is still pissed about being sent to WBS. If he doesn't show up soon, it's Life's a Beech and then your Fired. Speculations are that he's looking for a job over the pond.