Think things are partisan in the yellow sports journalist world? It would be interesting to see how the Media Day questioning in Dallas would have gone for Mark Sanchez had the Jets won the AFC Championship.

For those who don’t know, pretty boy Mark was accused of rape in 2006 as a freshman at USC. That he was cleared is curious especially since similar conditions pertain to Ben. But since he’s the New York Boy, the New York Press and evidently most of the sports world came down with collective apathy.

The following is just for your edification. The first two articles are interesting snips of longer ones. Especially the part about being able as a 19 year old college freshman being able to post $200,000 for bail! But the third is quite revealing. And make sure you note the person to email at  the end of the last article at deadspin.

USC QB arrested for alleged sexual assault

...LOS ANGELES - Southern California backup quarterback Mark Sanchez was released from jail early Thursday following his arrest for investigation of sexually assaulting a female student, police said.

Sanchez, 19, was arrested around 4 p.m. at an apartment complex near campus. He was released shortly after midnight after posting $200,000 bail, sheriff’s deputy Ban Nguyen said.

Police took DNA and hair samples from Sanchez, the Los Angeles Daily News reported, citing unnamed source 

…Sanchez touches all topics

...FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — There is a police matter in Mark Sanchez’s past. But Sanchez, the Jets’ latest hope for a franchise quarterback after his first-round selection Saturday, was willing to tackle the subject on Sunday during his first face-to-face meeting with the New York news media.

He was arrested as a 19-year-old sophomore at Southern California in 2006 after being accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman who was a fellow student. But Los Angeles County prosecutors decided not to file charges, citing insufficient evidence.

“It was simply false allegations, but in that kind of situation, you’re in a huge media spotlight just like here with the Jets,” Sanchez said. “People know where you go, where you go to eat, who you are dating, and things like that. To be in a situation like that, it taught me so much, especially without having any of the consequences because they weren’t deserved. It was crazy.

“But you learn the kind of spotlight, the kind of pressure you are under, how important it is to be in the right situations and to trust the people around you. I can tell that I can trust the people here, and I’ve learned quite a lot to bring family back into that process.”

He added: “It’s really been the only blemish on my record, and you talk to character references and nobody believed it. It was crazy. So it was great to come out of that. I have a strong family around me, and nothing like that has happened or will happen again.

Why No One Remembers the Mark Sanchez Rape Case

...For all we know, Sanchez really was innocent and totally deserves the public image being crafted for him. But it's hard not to think that the fact he is a young, good-looking quarterback — one with a young Namath's charm and a gentle ancestral immigration story at a time of great anti-immigrant unease — made it all too easy to ignore the uglier stuff. There's a story everyone wants to tell about Sanchez, and his getting popped on a rape accusation doesn't fit.

 Send an email to the author of this post at emma@deadspin.com.

Roger the Emperor is guiltless as he didn’t steal the crown until August 2006, so anything Sanchez did didn’t besmirch the NFL.

If you were ever confused by the Abbott and Costello routine of "Who's on First" go to the

NFL Site

and try to make heads or tails of the new overtime rule the geniuses came up with.

The video is enough to make you scratch your head and go "Huh?"

Maybe they can make the field a little wider, too or deepen the end zones like Canadian Football, just to give teams like New England more of a chance to score that touchdown.

Comments?

Very interesting read at Huffington Post  on the email sent to "millions" of NFL fans by Goodell.

The link is here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-zirin/roger-goodells-message-to_b_803766.html

It's a long read but worth it to get some idea of the position from the  management side in the NFL negotiations. Goodell tries the age-old trick of playing on the emotions of the fans to garner support for his side.

The author, Dave Zirin makes some interesting points and the comments are as diverse as in National Politics.

But it looks as though it does boil down to blaming the players and fans for the trouble and need for more money. Huh?

Forget the fact that  a number of years ago the owners (through a well orchestrated media blitz and other BS) cried that football was too long! Heavens! Some games even went after 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time! So they changed the clock and plays to shorten the game. Did it work? Nope! The late game now starts at 4:15 (as it did with runovers) but now they get more commercials and poor "60 Minutes" has to start later, but that's ok. The extra time has been graciously taken up by even more repetitive, inane commercials. We already have the infamous breaks after kickoffs and punts, reviews and injury time outs.. What's next? After incompletions?  Between touchdowns and extra point tries? Sooner or later we're going to hear and see on the screen, "This snap is brought to you by..." Yeah. Football has been shortened but not the commercial time to bring you the broadcast. Some might argue that helps pay more for players, not to mention the extra revenue the owners get. I guess that extra commercial financial time is worth it to the fans when parity is achieved in Goodell's League; like when we have to sit through watching a 7 and 9 team not only  make the playoffs but WIN a division yet teams with 10 and 6 records stay home. So much for parity.

There's also the added Game Days. Started with Monday Night. That added big bucks for the owners. Then Thursday Night Games AND Sunday Night Games and with the exception of this year, when the college season is through, Saturday games and even a Christmas Game (is this the NBA?)  All of this to add revenue by adding more commercial time to a game already too long?

A 60 minute game which takes 3 hours with the ball actually moving for less than 5 total minutes. Less action time than watching Mike Rowe push Ford's or Jim Nance and Peyton Manning  and Tommy Boy Brady plug whatever time after time.  But the owners could lose money unless players and fans sacrifice more...so we can see more commercials. Yeah! Shortening the game has made football a lot more interesting...for the owners and advertisers.

Of course, all of this is because the game IS popular and fans want to see it. And the owners know this and are exploiting the fans by using the game and the players more and more and giving back less and less (did I mention the 7 and 9 Western NFC Champs? Can't wait to watch that! Hell, high school football is more interesting than those teams!))

Zirin makes a good point about paying rookies atrocious salaries and bonuses before they play a single down. Gooddell tries to infer the rookies are to blame (or their agents), yet doesn't mention the fact that the rookies are holding guns to the heads of the owners to give them all that cash! And we all know the owners don't try to outdo each other signing the "best" players. Right! Because owners don't make any money. I imagine that's why they pay their people so much to get to the playoffs and Superbowl...not for the money those bring in for the owners you understand, but for the glory. Uh HUH!

There's the quote from Ward about Goodel being concerned about safety then wants to add two more games even though that's not exactly true. They just shorten training camp to two less games. Playing in sport's most physical and dangerous game, reducing prep time ain't a good thing.

Read the article and decide for yourself who's zooming who.  Just remember what Goodell has done for the fans and players (Ben and Brett especially) and what he's trying to do for the owners.

There have been a lot of questions concerning the non-calls in the Steeler-Ravens game. Steeler fans were outraged as how those obvious calls could have been missed.
One explanation pertains to “pay-back.” In hockey, there are obviously blown calls. It happens a lot more in hockey than football. But when a hockey player calls out a ref for a boneheaded miss as happened last year, and the media confirms it with the player being correct, it makes the ref look bad. The referees in hockey, and I imagine the NFL as well as umpires in the NL are a close bunch. They don’t like to look bad in front of the sports world. (Everyone knows the baseball umpires never make mistakes and are always perfect…well except for one instance in 100 years during what should have been a perfect game!) So what can they do, grin and accept the criticism? Hardly!
The point is that the officials in football have been under extreme scrutiny lately and embarrassed by their ineptitude (which was foisted on them by Godell’s biased interference over rule’s changes in the middle of a season) over calls mainly (mostly?) around James Harrison AND the Steelers.
When the officials have been so thoroughly embarrassed as some of the current NFL officiating group has they can’t bitch at their League Bosses, the natural tendency is to take it out on the players.
No, they won’t go after the players by calling penalties on those who haven’t complained but rather attention or in this case, IN-attention will be paid to the overall team who made them look foolish.
To call every little hit on the Steelers, Harrison, Ward and company would attract more attention. So, to get “even” they “miss” an obvious call (or two..or three), such as the one on Miller. Excuses? Judgment call; looking at another player; they’re only human; “just missed that one!”  Face it. It was pay back time for the officials against the Steelers, even though those guys in Baltimore weren’t the officials that were involved in the much publicized incidents.
They stick together and make sure their cohorts are taken care of. Anyone who thinks differently hasn’t played sports. And Anderson and the League can rationalize and make all the excuses in the world for the missed calls and expect it to go away. And of course, the officials would NEVER do anything on purpose. Just ask the League. The League has such high standards to uphold, like suspending a player who was never charged of a crime but doing nothing or next to nothing about DUIs, drugs or domestic abuse. Gotta keep the integrity of the game intact...but only for a few. Will we have "League Thought Officials" next to penalize a player for thinking he wants to nail someone?
The more the Steelers complain, the more officials may miss calls against them, especially by those officials who know they won’t be doing the post season games. They have little to lose, and humans make mistakes, right? That’s why the League calls the clubs on Mondays to apologize for Sunday's blown calls. But of course, they do nothing about it other than very cheap lip service. And you know what? The teams can’t do a damn thing about it.

Sunday night we saw a prime example of a group of NFL Officials coming to the defense of their buddies who screwed up.

(insert "Three Blind Mice" song here)

Agree or disagree?

As a side note; does anyone think Ron Levy can or will ever work a Steeler home game after his comments about the Super Bowl? And would the League ever assign him to do a Steeler's game? Just wondering@

Terrible...DRESS?

Continue reading this post »

If you’d like to have your own wall size picture of Mellon or the CEC or Sid or Geno or anyone or anything (including signs and posters, etc.) to decorate your place or display outside the Center, all you need is this program (free),

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

Adobe Reader (also free - but UNCHECK the Free McAfee Security Scan Plus or you'll get all kinds of email)

and a printer with lots of ink and lots of paper. You’ll also need dotnet Framework version 1.1 or later from Microsoft (Again, free. The latest version is 4) from here:

Microsoft dotnet Framework

The program is called Rasterbator and tiles any picture you want to any size you want from a couple of sheets to hundreds! But unlike other tile programs it doesn’t distort the picture the bigger it gets. Paste them together and you get your own personal mural.
You can do it in Black and White or Full Color. Check out some of the pictures at the site. There are ones that cover an entire wall, ceiling and even the outside of a house! You can put a wider picture on one wall and continue it on the next...or ceiling.
Cover the wall behind your TV with a huge picture of Mellon, the new CEC or the Cup. It’s easy and will impress the heck out of your friends!

Try it out.
You can also make huge pictures of your favorite girl, car, bike or whatever.
Enjoy.

We're in the tweens right now. "tween a lousy baseball team and 'tween the long awaited Pens Training camp and start of Hockey. Oh yeah, there's a so-so football team starting in a couple of weeks.

The Pirates would have more luck if they got the members of the '91, '92 teams together and signed them to one year contracts. Bonds, Bonilla, Van Slyke, Drabek and Smiley couldn't do ANY worse than the Keysone Kops at PNC right now.

The Stillers, well, just wait til next year...or 2012...or...

But we all can't wait for Pens Training camp and the first game especially in the new barn.

So what are we to do until then? Well, if you want some pretty good entertainment, even for a short while and a chance to learn something about the history of hockey, visit this site:

puckhistory

(that's

http://puckhistory.blogspot.com/   

in case the link doesn't  work)

It ain't the best video in the world but it's damned interesting.

After reading Frank's column at tPB about becoming a hockey fan I wondered how many other "old timers" go back to the Hornets. Here's my story.

How I became a (hockey) Pens fan.

Listening to all you guys talking about becoming a Pittsburgh Hockey Fan makes me wonder if there are any other “old timers” like myself. My first hockey game was watching the Pittsburgh Hornets at the Duquesne gardens in 1955 at the age of 7 with my father and uncle. We got to see a few games that season, a season that turned out to be their last. Well, technically not their last but the last as the official Hornets. They came back in 1961 as a farm team of Detroit but it was still Pittsburgh Hockey.

Over the next 3 years I got to see more games but living 25 miles away and not old enough to drive made it tough to be there in person.

I got to enjoy their Division Championship in 1964 but missed the Calder Cup in ’67.

When I learned Pittsburgh was granted an NHL franchise in 1966, I was thrilled. Didn’t make the first game but went to a few in ‘67 –’68.

The seats in what is now behind the bench cost us about 5 bucks. It may have been a little more but that’s what I paid then. There wasn’t as much traffic as we have today but there also weren’t as many ways to the Arena, either.

Looking back, my biggest thrill, until Mario and Company, was getting the chance to watch “the Kid.”  No, not Sidney, Michele Briere. The kid was as good as Mario for the time and would have been the biggest superstar in the NHL. Forget Esposito or even Orr (sorry, my opinion). He had a great playoff but died in a car accident in 1970. That was devastating.

I lived through the miserable Islander series and rivalry and fights with the hated Flyers even though we were in the Norris Division until our move to the Patrick. Anyone who thinks the rivalry between Pittsburgh and Washington today is the nastiest can’t understand the abject hatred we had for the Flyers. And bench clearing brawls were commonplace.

The mid 70s to the early 80s brought some good playoff hockey to Pittsburgh including one of the first European players, a Finnish guy named Veiko Jarvaninen. Didn’t last long. Probably homesick, couldn’t speak English very well.

Things fell apart after the early 80s. That is until Eddie drafted a kid that would make a lot of fans forget Michele for while.

Edmonton owned the rinks in hockey then and Mario didn’t get the recognition he deserved. I often wondered what would have happened had Gretzky played for the Pens and Mario for the Oilers. Probably no one would have heard of Gretzky and Mario would have all the records!

Then came Jags and the glorious 90s. Those teams were legendary and maybe history will show, arguably, they were the best overall teams ever to play in the NHL.

After the debacle of the early 2000s we were treated to Sid and Geno.

Pittsburgh is lucky to have had such picks over the years and to have had two sets of superstars, Mario and Jags, then Sid and Geno literally back to back is nearly unparalleled in hockey.

You guys today are able to watch a couple of players that were like the guys who excited us in the past. They’re going to make mistakes and have bad games and maybe a bad season, but there’s too much talent to hold them down.

This team will be one you can tell your kids about in 35 years like I did mine, who are both avid Pens fans. Enjoy them while you can. You’re watching hockey history and may not know it.

Jon Press of Japers Rink posted a Eulogy of the Penguins over at Puck Daddy. I recommend going there and reading it. It was funny. But I’d like to offer some responses to his HI-larious comments.  And don’t forget to read the erudite comments left by those articulate Caps Fans. They ARE worth the price of admission,


By Jon "J.P." Press
Oh, hey there. Forgive me, but I wasn't expecting you so soon. I mean, the defending Stanley Cup champions facing the playoffs' 16-seed coming off an emotionally draining seven-game series against the Presidents' Trophy winner? I thought I had another couple of weeks, at least, to compose my thoughts on the end of the Penguins 2009-10 season, but it wasn't to be.
Yeah. Losing to number 16 is much, much worse than the President’s Trophy Winner, number 1 losing to number 16! And we’re glad you could pry yourself away from the numerous (mini) golf courses you Caps Fans frequent each May the last couple of decades to write this. We appreciate your sacrifice. By the way, is Ovie there or is he still taking that Dale Carnegie Course? Did he really take 368 shots on the last windmill hole…and lose?

…The Penguins' two-year run of consecutive finals appearances is over and there's nothing left but the crying, which, in Pittsburgh, never ends, thanks to the kid they call captain.

Most of the crying seems to have come from Caps and Detroit fans; crying because they think they are the ONLY ones in hockey ever jobbed by the officials. Don’t recall hearing as many Pens fans crying.

“..By the way, have you ever seen anything more immature, lackluster, or wholly disappointing before?”
Well, if you include the pathetic defensive abilities, the egotistical puck grabbing, the horrendous off ice attitude (push that little girl down!) of what Caps fans think passes as a Superstar, then yeah, I have.  That would be the last two seasons of the Washington Capital Team.

…Critics (if they are brave enough to go against mainstream hockey thinking, and if the first 6.99 games of this year's Olympics are any indication, they're not) will point to Crosby's one even-strength point in the series and awful performance in the decisive game and claim he "disappeared" or "choked" or "failed to provide much of any leadership to his team against a vastly inferior opponent."
Not sure which is worse, scoring one point in losing or seven or e and losing. Tough call. And how was that second series that the Caps Pseudostar played…oh, my bad!? He only played in one. How’d the Caps do in that one anyway? But Jon’s focusing on one game rather than the series. Got to forgive him since he has no other point of view this year concerning more than 7 games.

…"disappeared" or "choked" or "failed to provide much of any leadership to his team against a vastly inferior opponent."
…”that no matter what kind of weak game you bring to Montreal, everyone scores at least once.”
You are talking about Ovechkin, aren’t you? And all those points by the Caps Pseudostar got them…where?

…“But the fact of the matter is that Crosby deserves praise -- unlike last June, Sid the Kid was at least able to withstand the rigors of a Game 7, play the entire game and shake his opponents' hands after the game. That kind of leadership is rare.”
See the above comment about the Caps Pseudostar and his tact off ice, representing hockey. The “rare” would be having an egotistical, obnoxious Caps Pseudostar represent the NHL.

…But just because Sidney is gone from these playoffs, he won't be forgotten. He's sure to appear regularly shooting pucks into a dryer (one wonders if Mrs. Lemieux allows him to take target practice in their basement)…
Sid had how many shots on goal as opposed to the Caps Pseudostar? Yet Sid had one more goal than Alex? Now to be fail the Caps Pseudostar was injured otherwise he might have had 2 or 3 thousand more shots. Even Stevie Wonder, if he took 500 shots in a game, statistics say he’d probably score some goals. So maybe Alex should look into a used Maytag for the back of his car or Bruce, the team and Cap’s Fans could pitch in and buy him at least a used one. I’m sure Max (Talbot) would come over and shoot a few with Ovie.

…Just don't expect him to stoop to an appearance on Leno, Letterman, The Daily Show, or anything else that would promote the sport and not a brand that pays him handsomely require him to exhibit an ounce of charisma distract from his preparation for next season.
I don’t expect him to appear on Good Morning Moscow, either. Judging from his season stats and post season record, I don’t think Crosby is the one that needs to prepare for the next season.  Is that why the Caps Pseudostar is in Germany…for practice?  And about those Olympics…how about that Russian (Caps) Pseudostar? He sure showed them.  And the promotion thing? Did Ovie ever get that contract to do commercials for BALCO?

Malkin didn’t do well. Hard to be the best every year, right Ovie?

Same with Staal. Just a reminder, Jon, The Selke is for the regular season, has nothing to do with the playoffs. We’ll see what others think.

…Sergei Gonchar playing well for a 42-year-old ... but he's only 36.
Yep, you’re right. After missing one or two games (months!) with a shoulder injury, he didn’t play as well.  But isn’t it curious that the Caps Pseudostar tanked right after that “Nationals” steroid report came out? Now, I’m not saying anything, but I’m sure it was simply concern on his part for the reputation of the team for any bad press. Anyway, after the league said everything was okey-dokey, Alex started playing better.

…Marc-Andre Fleury. Yep. He’s been inconsistent. But he played most of the games and got the Pens to the playoffs. How’s that Varlamov guy doing? And which goalie will the Caps use next year? You still might be able to run to catch Ollie if he’s around! I’d hurry if I were Bruce. Ollie got a good head start and Bruce isn’t so…young anymore.

…The list goes on, and it all serves to remind us that there's a reason they talk about Crosby as the type of player who makes everyone around him better. Wait, no there isn't -- they just say that and continue to search for the ideal wingers for The Kid.
Yeah. You’re right about that. Maybe he needs something like a “Semin” in hand to make him play like Ovie.

Your comment about Cooke reminds me of all the Lady Bing play by such Caps greats as Hunter and Turgeon.

…“[the CONSOL CENTER]… will be christened by something almost as unlistenable as Pual Steigerwald and Bob Errey calling a Pens game…”
Have you listened to Joe and Craig? Joe may be the worst homer in the world and Craig’s voice is the male equivalent of Sarah Palin’s screech that only dogs and Caps fans can hear or stomach.

Fun Igloo fact: The only time the Stanley Cup was ever presented in the building, it was to the 2007-08 Detroit Redwings.
Kinda like the ‘97-‘98 Caps?

The comment about the CONSOL CENTER and the same color shirts of the fans is marginal at best. I’m certainly glad the sheep in D.C. didn’t all wear red...oh, wait.  You must not have watched those games (dang black and white radios!). Here I thought Craig was your “Color” man. Guess he forgot to mention those red shirts. And the cowbells! Enough to drive Quasimodo even crazier! Don’t even get me started on your foghorn.

…About McGuire. I’m pretty sure his first love is anyone from Detroit. Then you may have to pry his lips from Philly Flyer Richard’s…Stick before you espouse McGuire’s love for Sid.

…“Already sent home for the summer were the Capitals and Devils, who were a combined 10-0-0 against the Pens this season…”
That record sure did those teams a lot of good, eh, hoser? Maybe if the Caps finished 3rd or 4th, they might still be in it. Sorry. Too funny to even comment there.

…“Instead, Pens fans have to sit back and watch the Keystone State's last best hope at a hockey championship in 2010 -- the Philadelphia Flyers Hershey Bears.”
Maybe your rotund coach or somewhat confused owner should consider switching the Caps for the Bears. At least the Bears can win something.

The implied shot at Rothlesberger was cheaper than anything you ever took at Sidney. I thought this was a eulogy for the Pens. Do you really want to open any closets of former, present or future Washington Sports Players or broadcasters?

Your eulogy was funny, sometimes apropos and for the most part enjoyable, as much as was my attempt at ripping into it. Your sense of humor could use some polishing. But the comment about Ben was beneath contempt. Stick to hockey. You have a great blog with many decent fans. Don’t turn it into a yellow sports tabloid. 

Opie got kicked out last night.

AO boarded Buffalo's Kaleta last night.  The video is at NHL.com.  In fact there is also an interview with Opie where he claims it was not as bad as they made it out. Kaleta might have a different opinion.

Watch the video, vintage Opie.  He starts near center ice toward Kaleta.  Kaleta has the puck.  Opie is gaining speed, stick "up", not near the ice. It appears that there was no intent by Opie to play the puck, just to smash the guy as hard as he could. It also looks as though an elbow came up at the last second to Kaleta's head.

Opie got a fiver and kicked out. Hopefully a hefty fine, but we all know that won't amount to a hill of beans. BGL got 5 games for a knee ( remember that,Opie , on Gonchar)? Opie should get at least the same, but of course, he won't.

Kaleta had his back turned to him and was boarded, no question. Was it a cheap shot? The video shows typical Opie; running a guy as fast as he can from a good distance with no intent to try to play the puck.

I wonder how Colin would have responded if he were the recipient of a hit like that when he played?

Kudos to the Ref for a change and having the guts to dump Opie, in D.C. no less, although he'll probably be relegated to covering high school hockey for the rest of his career starting next year.

Thoughts?

It seems the (2) Pittsburgh Hockey Teams have more than a casual association with Detroit if you count last year and this year’s Stanley Cup Finals…then go way back to the1920s and the formative years of Hockey in America.

The original hockey team that would end in the ‘Burgh’ started as the Detroit Olympics (ironic, eh?), a team based in Detroit from 1927 until 1936 when they moved to Pittsburgh and became the Pittsburgh Hornets. The Hornets were then a minor league affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings. 

Then from 1940 through 1956 the Hornets were members of the AHL until the franchise was dissolved after 1956.
However, the Hornets returned in 1961 in the “State of the Art” Civic Arena.  As an aside, the city ran a couple of short-lived commercials when the idea for a “domed” stadium was earlier proposed for Pittsburgh.  It showed a man in the rain holding a (wet) newspaper over his head listening to a voice-over saying that if he were in Pittsburgh, he would never get wet at a ball game again because there would never be a rainout in Pittsburgh! The guy asked, “What?” and the voice-over proclaimed the coming Pittsburgh domed “Baseball(!)” Stadium!  Of course that never panned out because the capability (mechanical and more than likely, financial) to produce an open-able, rotate-able roof that could enclose a baseball field didn’t exist. (The Astrodome, built the next year, was simply a “large”, closed building). So the proposed project was designed smaller as an Arena or Convention Center that could also provide a hockey rink.
The reborn Hornets didn’t do so well that year, but ploughed on. They did, however get better and even played some exhibition games against the original six…and did quite well against them. 
Not surprisingly, probably because of prior association, they became a farm club of the Detroit Red Wings (here we go again!). And in 1967 the Hornets won the last of their 3 Calder Cups by sweeping the Rochester Americans who, ironically, started in Pittsburgh the year the Hornets dissolved (1956) then moved to New York.

The current Pittsburgh Hockey Team, the Penguins were “born” February 8th, 1966 and sadly, I guess, signaled the end of the Pittsburgh Hornets.
The rest of Hockey History in Pittsburgh belongs to the Penguins.

One additional item deserves mention. The Pens have had 20 coaches during their 42 year history; some good, some not so good. Many were chastised mightily by the fans here (as were some players). Regardless of your thoughts about recent coach Michel Thierrien, credit should go to him as only the third coach in 40 years to get the Pens to a Stanley Cup Final, along with Bob Johnson and Scotty Bowman.  Whatever his shortcomings were, he deserves credit for that.
For those of you interested, here is a list of Penguin's Coaches from 1967 to the present:


1  George "Red" Sullivan 1967–1969 
2  Red Kelly* 1969–1973 
3  Ken Schinkel 1973–1974 1976–1977 
4  Marc Boileau 1974–1976 
5  Johnny Wilson 1977–1980 
6  Eddie Johnston 1980–1983 1993–1997
7  Lou Angotti 1983–1984
8  Bob Berry 1984–1987
9  Pierre Creamer 1987–1988
10 Gene Ubriaco 1988–1990
11 Craig Patrick† 1989–1990 
12 Bob Johnson† 1990–1991 1991 Stanley Cup championship
13 Scotty Bowman† 1991–1993 1992 Stanley Cup championship
14 Kevin Constantine 1997–1999
15 Herb Brooks† 1999–2000 
16 Ivan Hlinka 2000–2001
17 Rick Kehoe 2001–2003
18 Ed Olczyk 2003–2005
19 Michel Therrien 2005–2009[f] 2008 Prince of Wales Trophy championship 
20 Dan Bylsma 2009 Stanley Cup championship

A lot of this information comes from a couple of rather excellent articles on Wikipedia (Which isn’t exactly known for its track record of facts).  However, in this case, they are pretty  much right on.
Here are two links that will provide you with more information and some nostalgia.  There’s a lot of history here and many links.  Spend some time.  You’ll enjoy it.


Pittsburgh Hornets


Pittsburgh Penguins

Does anyone remember our hockey quisling Bill Cowher being interviewed during the Carolina series? And more to the point, his comment about being a hockey fan and GROWING UP watching the Pittsburgh Hornets?

Bill was born in 1957! The Hornets first disappeared in 1956 because they tore down Duquesne Gardens. They re-formed in 1961 when Billy was a whopping, hockey aware 4 year old.

The new Hornets played until 1967 when they won the Calder Cup and skated off into the midnight sun. That would make a rabid football fan a little less that 10 when he “grew up” watching the Hornets.

Now there are some of us older than Billy who do remember watching the Hornets and maybe grew up with them (although the team everyone in Pittsburgh watched was the Pirates).

And if you lived north of the border, you may have laced the skates up when you were 5 or 6 (then)… but in Pittsburgh? I ain’t saying that Billy is telling tales, but, you might be able to name the Hornet’s “young” hockey fans on one hand (or at least a school bus worth) who followed them.

But a 4 to 10 year old Pittsburgh kid…not only following an AHL Hockey Team, but GROWING UP with one? Please!

Yeah, there are other things going on in hockey than the finals, maybe not as interesting but maybe just as important.

The Coyotes declared bankruptcy and the vultures are circling the carcass.

Remember Jimmy Balsillie? You know, the guy who was going to buy the Pens a few years back and everything looked just peachy, ‘cause he had billions to throw around, then for some reason decided to pull his offer?  What was the “official” reason he backed out?  Doesn’t matter. It was a good decision…for us.

With his trying to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario (a town within the territorial rights of the Leafs and Sabres) he brings an interesting comment to the table.  When he was asked in the Burgh about his intentions to keep the Pens here, his comments were along the lines of, “they have a million year lease and we can’t move them and they should stay and this is a great hockey town and yadda, yadda , yadda.”

Well, it seems he doesn’t care about leases or the town he’s ploying so long as he gets his way. Damn the league and their laws!

From cbcsports.ca (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2009/06/05/sp-leagues-coyotes-fight.html):

…”Moyes (Coyotes owner and person who stands to get Jimmy’s cash) and Balsillie argue that the NHL's opposition to the sale and move represent an unreasonable restraint of trade under U.S. antitrust law. Moyes and Balsillie also want the judge to allow the team out of its lease with the City of Glendale without penalty.”

That last part may be why the local group decided not to sell to Jimmy.  Maybe his word of keeping the Pens here wasn’t believed.  Judging from the recent comments in this power struggle, the Pens did the right thing in quashing the sale (if it was they who did it), regardless of the excuses given the press.

A lot of fans in the Hamilton Area and nearby Toronto, are continually disappointed in the performance of the Leafs and have complained for quite a while (kinda like us and the Pirates – they still are in Pittsburgh, right?) One of the best lines about the fuss to get a team to Hamilton (which has been on their Christmas lists since the Cup was found floating in Hudson Bay) is that maybe the Leafs should field a contender then the “desire” to put  another team a few miles (or kilometers) away wouldn’t be so great. Imagine placing another Pro Hockey team at South Point! I’m sure Mario and company wouldn’t mind the (financial) competition!

Just a thought…now back to the finals.