The season starts tonight?
This should tell everyone how busy I've been: I had no idea that the 2007-2008 season opened tonight.
Who's up tonight:
Montreal at Carolina
Anaheim at Detroit
Ottawa at Toronto (this should be good)
Dallas at Colorado
The only two I'd really care to see are Montreal and Ottawa, and since CBC is neglecting both of them, I'm screwed (since the season opens for the Pens on Friday, that's the date I'm marking on the calender anyhow). It would be nice to see how they both come out in the beginning, especially since the Pens are going to have a bit of bad blood for both teams (Montreal a bit more deeply, which is looking like a nice up and coming rivalry).
Will I be doing a season preview? No. If you haven't seen it already, nhl.com has a cookie-cutter look at the Pens, but the best one so far has to be courtesy of the Pensblog. It captures a bit of what it's like to be a Pens fan: the nausea, the heart break, the wracking sobs, the trips to the ER after beating yourself unconscious with an empty pizza box after watching particularly stroke-inducing games. It's interesting to think about what a difference a year makes: this time last October the only news you read about the Penguins were tentative hopes about Malkin's recovery, and a recap of the dismal season past, if you could find anything at all on them. Now, Sidney, and the reported 'Big Five' (who comes up with this stuff?) in the form of Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Whitney, and Fleury, are splashed everywhere alongside words like 'contenders' and 'Stanley Cup'...not something fans have been treated to reading since the 90's (not unless it was followed by 'lacking' and 'not again for 20 years'). Someone even mentioned 'dynasty'. While I am thrilled that there is so much attention being paid to such a wonderful and deserving team, isn't that a bit premature? Let's make it past the first round of the playoffs and we'll see. There's no doubt in anyone's mind that this team is going to be something to watch in the ensuing years (and just imagine Crosby in 5 years, hell, in 2 years....if that. Screw it, imagine him now, here in this season. Euphoric), just no bragging. Yet.
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On a slightly different vein, I have scrapped my giant women's' rights in hockey rant that has been sitting on my computer for a week and a half in an effort to stop beating a slightly wobbly, if not dead, horse, but I'd still like to just say a few quick words on the Penguins upcoming 'Hockey in Heels' event scheduled for female fans.
I'm trying to keep an open mind, and the activities for the event, which range from a sitting with the author of that book, Lisa Ovens, seems genuinely interesting, and I wouldn't mind a full encompassing tour of the Igloo, but I fear it may be sending the wrong message to both male and female fans. The Capitals did something very similar earlier, and as well as tour they gave a Q and A session with a few players, a nice touch, but after that was a 'hockey 101' lecture about what icing and off-side calls mean, and then an on-ice lesson in hockey. Oh, did I mention the door prize of a cosmetic bag? It's nice that they are trying to reach out to more fans with internal genitalia, but doing so in this way seems insulting and degrading for women fans and is possibly geared more towards the stereotypical female hockey fan of today = a woman with little to no hockey knowledge that is more interested in players stretching than a play on the ice. Would you include a talk on what the neutral zone is to a room full of male hockey fans? No. If you did, I'd bet money that they would find it insulting, why should women fans feel any different? We don't need our hands held through games, thank you.
I know I'm generalizing a bit, but why assume that women would want a cosmetics bag at a hockey arena? Besides, I've seen women in heels at hockey games: they fall down. Give us more of the Q and A sessions, a look at how plays are reviewed and come up with, players and trainers routines for getting in shape or how they choose their equipment (styles, companies, that sort of thing). How do they train? What do they work on to become the top-quality players they are today? Hell, let us talk to the Zamboni driver about ice quality and thickness! But please, remember that while we do view sports in general a bit differently, that doesn't mean we don't have the ability to understand it's intricacies as men do.
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Now that I've gotten that off my chest, there is but one thing to say:
Go Pens.
