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.

Insert Batman/Joker reference here:

Ok, they've got a silly logo, a goofy name, they're in no way affiliated with Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson, and they're basically the equivalent of whooping the Wheeling Nailers butts. But hey, a win is a win. The mighty Penguins have defeated the Helsinki Jokers (Jokerit) 4-1.

Sykora and Mad Max didn't suit today, Syko with a sore groin and Max with a bruised leg they really don't want to talk about yet. Malkin, and Fedotenko scored in the first, Malkin scored on a power play slap shot at 9:00 of the first, off feeds from Alex Goligoski and Crosby. Fedotenko then struck with nine seconds left in the period, as line mates Crosby and Miroslav Satan got the assists. Marc-Andre Fleury blanked the Jokerit attack, including one power play chance, and that's the way it would stay through Danny Sabourin taking over with just over 6 minutes left in the second until 5 minutes into the third when some Joker with an unpronounceable name ( Janne Lahti) scored on a penalty shot. Kennedy with help from Pesonen and Le-tank scored a few minutes later and with 9 seconds to go Dupuis scored on an empty net with help from Crosby (third assist) and Gill.

What does it mean? Virtually nothing stats-wise, but from what I was able to gather the crowd was decidedly pro-Penguin, pro-NHL, and one luxury section was entirely pro-Sid, as they were all wearing Crosby jerseys. (As a side note: Whoever is doing the reporting for PP.com is strangely obsessed with the song 'Cotton Eyed Joe' and feels the need to mention every time it was played.) What it means to me, is that in less than 48 hours the season starts and we can all actually see all the rest of the games, and I can get some relief from this Pens-jones. What some people don't see is that the whole NHL Europe excursion isn't for you, or me, or even for most of the people that are going to the games this week. It's to keep the ideal of the NHL burning in the brains of all those players, the ones that played and the ones that watched, so that for some of them the dream will continue. To grow up and be good enough to one day play in 'The Big League'. And hey, as long as it continues to bring the Janne Pesonens over to wear the Skating Penguin, it's a good thing.

Late info: Speaking of Janne, the Janblogger has some pics from the game that someone sent him. They're not great, there aren't too many, but hey, they're pics.

Holey Abba underwear Batman!

Question: Take a bunch of kids who regularly play with sticks, let them loose in a foreign country on a photo/scavenger hunt, and what do you get? Well, according to Shelly Anderson over at PPG you get.... Penguins in underwear posing in front of female moose! The guys were broken up into 4 man teams and turned loose on the unsuspecting populace. The team unity building idea was to find various icons around the city and take pictures with a goofy viking helmet and a Finnish flag. What happened skirted the boundaries of 'International incident' at times as the guards at the Stockholm Palace were not let in on the joke, and were somewhat less than amused. But team H&M (MAF, Bill Thomas, Dupuis, Sydor) Where undaunted even after missing the ferry that was supposed to take them to 'Zoo island' and what happened next? I'll let Shelly tell that part:

Team H&M let the others get ahead and ducked into a men's room to plan a surprise. After the others had visited the moose enclosure, Team H&M lined up in front of the two resting moose and stripped for a photo.
There they were -- Fleury, Thomas and Dupuis posing in their Swedish skivvies. But they had only bought three pair, so Sydor was left to strategically place the team's Viking helmet for the picture.
They quickly dressed, left the zoo and caught up with the other two groups of players who had been at the zoo with them. .

She goes on to say that the moose were unimpressed with the effort if not the equipment of the four Pensflashers, and a good time was had by all... I'm not sure the moose or the Palace Guard would agree. In other hockey news Rob Rossi seems to have recovered from his summer coma and is answering questions over at Penguins Q&A, and seems to have the same opinion as your humble yet all knowing Flower Reporter:

I wonder who is under more pressure right now – second-year defenseman Kris Letang, whose natural offensive talent needs to shine bright without Gonchar and Whitney, or goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who needs to start very strong due to the offensive hit by the loss of those players?

We shall see, fellow Flower Children, we shall see...

Edit: NHL network online has the new series of promotional adds up on their NHL Presents: banner. First up, some Kid you may have heard of once or twice, Sidney something.

Travel Blog from Sweden:

If you look over at Pittsburghpenguins.com they've got a teaser travel blog going. Kind of light on information, but they've put some of the usual post-practice interviews up so the truly addicted can pretend their beloved Penguins aren't thousands of miles away. The Fleury interview is the second one down on day 1. It may be just me, but considering the nearly complete lack of pre-season coverage by PP.com or FSN this is yet another desperate attempt to avoid rioting in the streets, like the jumbotron coverage of the Lightning game. The fans I've been in contact with and the other blogs I monitor remind me of heroin addicts waiting for the next shipment to come in. I just hope that when the season (and the coverage) finally starts we don't have any OD's. Try explaining that one to your HMO... "Uh... you see,... it was a.... Penguin overdose!" Yeah, they'll pony up for that one.

edit: The link now directs you to the premier overview page, you can access each blog and all the interviews there.

LATE EDIT: It seems as though someone, somewhere listened to someone's whining about their Pensjones and the first Ottowa game will be shown on the jumbotron in the same way the Detroit (must go wash fingers for typing that) Finals games were shown. Along with some free skating and tours of the arena it's all part of the Pittsburgh Birthday celebration. PS. No pucks or sticks allowed on the ice during the skates so no pick up games!