'Oh no.....oooooooh noooooo....'

Yes, that wailing sound you hear is my reaction to the news that Ty Conklin has been called up to be the bench counterpart to Danny Saboo. Someone hasn't been watching their knob hockey. Stay healthy, Danny! My finals-stressed nerves can't take Conks in net.

I'd like to wish a hearty 'get well soon' to Flower and hope for a speedy recovery. Right when he was getting hot! At least it doesn't sound serious. (Interesting side bit about recalling Recchi...have their been prospective buyers for #8? Although the line about 'half off' makes him sound like last week's pork chops)

In other less snarky news, it's always nice to see the families of the players get into the holiday spirit and the girlfriends/wives of the Penguins have put together stockings for this year's raffle. While I would never in a million years be able to afford spending 200+ on a stocking decorated by the local lady in Geno's life, some of them are an interesting reflection of the player (the sticker-type tattoos in Malone's), and are at least worth a look. I'm sure Sykora's is going to be a great hit with the kids.

Pens play the Canucks at the late night show on CBC (10pm EST) tomorrow night. Welcome back, Sabourin!
Go Pens!


(P.S. We at NPI tease because we care, giving equally. Just ask Steph. Happy Holidays!)

Aren't the Maple Leafs supposed to disappear about now?

I am very tired from a long day at work, pre-exam assignments, cold temperatures, artic wind, and from wasting 40 minutes of my life watching the first two periods of the Leafs/Pens game. Seriously, aside from a series of crappy calls and a constant stream to the penalty box, what else can you say? The Leafs aren't that good, there was no reason to roll over, play possum, and skate like they were sleep walking. What gives, Penguins? I actually tuned out the last 5 minutes or so of the 2nd period because I was so fed up with the play.

At least Talbot is having some fun.

Penguins Update!

Penguins are 8-10-2.

Yeah, that's just about all that's different from the last time I updated (midterms and finals are killing me), are a few added numbers, and the same old situation: can't play 60 minutes, bad passing, lack of cohesive defense, breaking down between the pipes, sitting players, not sitting questionable players, the whole nine yards. I believe in Fleury, and anyone who's watched him in the last few games can see that he's doing better and trying to not get psyched-out when he lets in a goal, especially against the Islanders last time (standing up more, getting better rebound control, although not always, sticking tighter to the sides). Goalies are always the first targets when a team doesn't do as well as expected, and the Atlantic is a beast. The Rangers are on top with 25 (against the Pens and the Devils, who are sharing space in the basement at 18). That's only a 7 point difference. The Northeast has a spread of 17 between the Sens and the Sabres, and the Southeast comes in with a difference of 14 between the Canes and the Caps. The West side is closer, with all divisions ranging under 10 points from top to bottom. That makes the Atlantic the closest division in the East (the Central has a three-way tie of 22 for the bottom portion, and a difference of 7 points total), and all of the teams (as much as it pains me to say) are good teams. The top two at the moment, the Rangers and Flyers, have good goaltending, and for the Rangers, sometimes that's all that's kept them in the game. I hope Mr. Henrik gets some love letters in his locker for how well he's kept the Rangers' collective biscuits out of the fire. The Flyers, for the most part, are playing like they always have, hard, fast (well, faster than they used to), and have a good goalie to back them up. Probably one of the most improved teams in hockey from last year, and certainly from the East (then again, when you're so far down that you can't see daylight, anything is an improvement).

What about the rest? The Islanders are, again, backed by a solid goalie in Ricky DiPi, and the rest of the team isn't too bad either, although they don't seem to have any breakout areas at the moment (Isles fans, am I way out in left field on this?). The Devils, honestly, I haven't watched enough to tell where exactly they are failing at being the dominating pain in the ass they usually are, so I'll just go with pointing to Interchangeable Parts in the sidebar.

The Penguins? Well, I won't go over it again, that horse is dead and beaten into the ground, but it's neat to look at the teams in the Atlantic and think about their strong points...and one of the major factors are some just straight-out mean goaltending. The Pens have Fleury, who can be a beast (look at last season? 40-16-9, a GAA of 2.83 and a SV%.906. So far this season: 5-7-1, a GAA 3.47 and a save percentage of .893.), but they also have a strong offense to pick up (hopefully) the slack that Fleury might have while he's getting into his grove and getting better. For a comparison, Lundqvist pulled 37-22-8, a 2.34 GAA and .917 SV% last season. This season he is a disgusting 11-8-1 with a GAA of 1.79. Both goalies ended up in the playoffs, so time will tell.

Next game for the Pens is Wednesday against another great goaltender in New Jersey who just got his 500th win. Congrats, Brodeur! Hope we can keep you from 501.

Go Pens.




On a side note, our thoughts are with Pensblog Adam and his family. Our condolences.

Remember when the Flyers sucked?

Yeah, good times. Apparently TSN also remembers, and brought me this little gem on the sidebar stats this morning:

'On Tuesday, the Flyers beat the Thrashers 4-0. The win was the Flyers fourth of the season. They didn't win their fourth game last season until November 15.'

Where are those Flyers now? First game with those jerks is on November 7th. Let's hope they bring last year's game.

---

In random Penguins news, Talbot loves his facial hair. I love his three goals so far. There is lots of love all over.

Not for Charter Cable though.


Pens v Devils (finally, a game, and a divisional game at that), home at 7:30.
Go Pens.

Yet another public service announcment

This is a little bit of a diversion from the normal hockey ranting as I am asking for help.

Yes, help.

Help with what, you might ask? Well, according to a lady at Charter, the only cable company in my area, they will not be offering Centre Ice this year. Why not order it online? Well, for some reason that the techies can't figure out, streaming online video doesn't work on my computer. The streaming radio doesn't either, so Mike Lange is out as well.

Aside from my (and Steph's, since she is also a victim of Charter) righteous anger over this (I had to wait an hour before writing this post), I am also out of options, which brings me in a long-winded manner to my point: Does anyone have any ideas/other options/mafia connections that could help a college student get hockey? For that matter, what are the ways that people watch hockey? Do you go to the bar? Are you lucky and able to watch it locally? Hockey Night in Canada?

---

In a slightly different and less frustrated and raging vein, one of my favorite bands, the Dropkick Murphys, are the NHL's band of the month.

The Murphys are great sports fans of the Boston persuasion, and if you haven't heard their hockey song, 'Time to Go', have a few incarnations of it courtesy of youtube:



To start off, the only Bruins-ish version I could find on youtube. Really, Boston fans? The only one?



A video illustrating my take on the chorus 'go go black and gold'.



Something a little different. Warning, there are a bit of spoilers in this video for Resident Evil 4 if you know what you're looking at.



I'd wear that hat.


Go Pens. Hopefully some day I'll be able to watch you play, Penguins.

The Continuing Saga

Having just gotten off the phone with the fine people at Charter Communications yet again, I've learned that the reason they are not yet offering Centre Ice is because they haven't finalized their contract with the NHL. Um, big news right, we all knew that. The girl I talked to today was actually helpful, however, and informed me that apparently the hangup is over the NHL wanting them to bundle the NHL Network with Centre Ice, thus increasing the price, and Charter doesn't like this plan. (So, do we all start blaming Bettman instead of Charter? Better yet can I blame Chris Pronger?)

Personally, hey, if they did it, I'd go for it. But as it stands, they're still arguing the details. Hang in there guys, we'll have hockey...eventually. You know. Maybe by the playoffs.

Public Service Announcent

This is a bit off the beaten track here, but I thought I'd relate a quick story so others would not be completely screwed like I was and continue to be.

I ordered Center Ice, had someone come and install the cable box today, only to turn it on at game time, Pens sweater on and Blue in hand, to find that it wasn't available. Now, I have the worst luck with it comes to things like this, so after 15 frustrating minutes of fiddling with the damn thing I called my cable company thinking that a moose fell on the transformers or something (because that is a possibility) and they told me that Center Ice wasn't available for purchase yet because they haven't signed a contract with the company. They didn't know when it would be available, and no, there would not be any notification.

So, for everyone out there with Charter cable or any other afflicted companies, don't buy it yet! I didn't see any notice on nhl.com or cable sites, so if there one, forget this notice, but don't waste your money yet!

Just on a personal note, my computer refuses to play nhl material. Nothing through the online preview, game radio, or yahoo.com, and apparently it is such a bad problem that the tech support people need to contact their reps in New York. Great. I'm going to try the Pensblog cure next. If it wasn't for the kind play-by-play of Teka, I wouldn't have gotten through tonight, although perhaps with the spanking Carolina dolled out, it might have been better to live in ignorance. Thank you, Teka!


Tomorrow is a different day.
Go Pens.

Why the Hockey Gods think they're funny: Part 274

Jason Smith, a favorite hockey personality and gritty D-man formerly of the band once known as the Edmonton Oilers, was traded this offseason, along with paper weight Jeoffrey Lupul, to the Philadelphia Flyers. Try as I might to ignore this tragic piece of news and hope to be able to blank out Smith donning the puke orange and black, fate seems to have other plans.

Meet Jason Smith, captain of the Flyers.

While I am very happy for Smith, who was an excellent captain, a little piece of me died reading that. (link, and terrible news, courtesy of my favorite bearer of bad news: Steph) Not only do I just like Smith as a player and leader, but he's actually a good leader...which means that the Flyers will now be benefiting from his leadership instead of free-falling deeper and deeper into the depths of the Eastern Conference as I prefer.

In other, less whiny news, TSN has a nice article on just some miscellaneous questions and issues put to another captain: Pittsburgh's. Very much in the style of a press-conference, but not bad. One interesting tidbit: it seems as though the NHL wants to continue on their 'let's bring the NHL to places in Europe!' kick by scenting the wind with the Pens and the Lightning in Prague next year. I hear Prague is nice (ask Steph), and they do love hockey, but does it have to be the Lightning? Just the way to start off the season: with Tampa Bay somehow beating up the Pens overseas.

It's down to the wire now: Friday is the first (Pens) game. The cable man is coming at noon to install my Center Ice. Hockey is in the air.

Go Pens.

I'm sorry.....what?

The gods are laughing at me, aren't they?