Hey guys.  My apologies for not posting a write up for the Flyers game.  One of my best friends was over Saturday night for a few drinks and stayed to watch the game the next day.  He likes his Flyers and his booze and is quite the mouth piece about his team (no surprise) so I had lots to endure over that 24 hour period, let alone having to listen to him chirping if I attempted to write about someone on his team.  Anyways, this game's drawing drew a player that I have always admired in Craig Conroy.  Thank god I never drew Jokinen for if I had, I wouldn't be so eager to write anything about a guy who is notorious for lighting us up from his days in the sunshine state.

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Craig Conroy

1.  He posted 164 pts in 140 games over 4 seasons with the Clarkson Golden Knights of the ECAC

2.  He grew up cheering for the Montreal Canadiens, the same team that would eventually draft him 123rd overall in the 6th Rd of 1990.  This was also the same year of our first Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh.

3.  He only played in 13 games over his first 2 NHL seasons with the Canadiens before they sent him packing for St. Louis in Oct 96.  He played 5+ yrs in St. Lou before being traded to the Flames in 2001.  His first full yr in CGY, he put up career highs in G,A and Pts.  (27,48 and 75)  He hasn't matched or eclipsed this total since.

4.  His favorite player to play against in the league was former Red Wing Captain Stevie Y.....love that guy too.

5.  An interesting story I found here about Conroy's first day on the ice as a rookie for the Canadiens, and how he supposedly ticked off Patrick Roy which ultimately led to his demotion to the juniors shortly after.

This is from Steve MacFarlane of the Calgary Sun,

    Craig Conroy twice experienced the wrath of Patrick Roy.

    On his first day on the ice as a rookie with the Montreal Canadiens, a high shot in warmup brought about a confrontation with the Hall-of-Fame goaltender…

    “It was actually my very first day on the ice. Patrick was on my team for the scrimmage,” said Conroy, who was a little excited in warmup and watched his first shot at Roy get away from him.

    “It kept rising and hit him in the head. He kind of stopped everything, cleared off his crease, then he came out and actually punched me in the head with his blocker.

    “I thought, ‘What do I do?’ He’s Patrick Roy. I’m just nobody. I didn’t throw any punches or anything. I just kind of took it and they broke it up. I was sent down (to the AHL Fredericton Canadiens) pretty soon after that.”

Funny stuff I must say.

6.  He was a finalist for the Lady Byng and Selke Awards in 97/98 and lost out to Ronnie Franchise and Jere Lehtinen respectively.

7.  He is good friends with current MLB free agent Jim Edmonds from his days of playing with the Blues.

8.  Poor guy must have a heck of a time at home in the off-season raising his 3 daughters.  His oldest daughter Taylor is almost 12 and he is gonna be 38......does this mean he is gonna retire just in time to raise 3 teenage daughters??  Good Luck with that buddy.

9.  I had to throw in this beauty of a goal that he scored in Gm 7 of the Finals against Tampa.  Top Shelf. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKZApk

10.  And finally, Conroy is a +1 with 4 pts (3+1) in 13 career games against us.

There you have it, edition number 5.  I'm really enjoying doing this not to mention all the good, and sometimes bad, feedback. Thx Guys

Sources:  NHL.com, Legendsofhockey.com, calgaryherald.com, youtube.com

I took some time to do a lil write up of the 3 best players NOW in the NHL after their first 3-4 yrs and compared them to how Super Mario and The Great One did after their first 3 full seasons in the NHL. 

Sidney Crosby Career  (3+ yrs including 08/09 stats to this date)

GP   G       A      P        +/-      PIM   PP   SH  GW    S       S%      PtPG
282  127  262  389    34      276   38    0    15      909   14.0    1.379


Evgeni Malkin Career  (2+ yrs including 08/09 stats to this date)

GP    G      A       P        +/-      PIM    PP    SH    GW      S         S%      PtPG
234  113  183   296    37      230   46     2        15       780    14.5     1.265


Alex Ovechkin Career  (3+ yrs including 08/09 stats to this date)

GP     G        A       P        +/-     PIM     PP      SH   GW      S          S%      PtPG
316    213   191   404    21     212     75      4       34      1731    12.3    1.278




Mario Lemieux's first 3 full yrs in the NHL stats

GP     G       A       P       +/-     PIM     PP     SH   GW    S          S%      PtPG   
215   145   203   348   -28   154     47      0      10      752     19.4     1.619


Wayne Gretzky's first 3 full yrs in the NHL stats

GP     G        A         P       +/-        PIM     PP     SH      GW     S         S%       PtPG       
239    198   315     513   137     75       46      11       21       914     21.3     2.146   


There are many thing to take from this but the ones that stand out are the Shots for Ovie compared to everyone else and Mario's +/- compared to Gretzky's....WOW......Because these stats are taken with all the players playing a different amount of games, the only one that can give a legitimate tell would be their Pts. Per Game Average.  What do you guys think??

Hey guys, today's player write-up was tough as I had many things going on throughout the day.  Some work is getting done on my house, so the constant banging of a hammer mixed with my loud music as an attempt to counter the banging, has made it difficult to concentrate while writing this. Oh well, it's gameday so it's only gonna get better from here.

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Kyle Calder

1.  He used to play for the Cleveland Lumberjacks in the now defunct IHL that seized operations in 2001

2.  Scored his first NHL goal against Mike Vernon of the San Jose Sharks.

3.  In the first season after the 04/05 lock-out, he led the Blackhawks in Goals, Assists, Points, Short Handed Goals, Game Winners and OT goals.  All this with only 59 pts., also a career high.  (Note: Gonch was 2nd in pts on the Pens that year with 58 behind Sid's rookie total of 102)

4.  He scored on his first shot of his first shift while with the Red Wings. Not quite as good as Mario's trifecta of scoring on your fist shot of your first shift of your first game, but still worth noting.

5.  He is cousins with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

6.  He was a career worst -31 for the Flyers in 06/07.

7.  As a child, his nick name was "Chuckie."  Upon joining the Hawks, they started calling him "Kid Chaos" because of his ability to "stir things up."  He was not too fond of this name so he must have been happier to acquire his current nick name "Grease."

8.  He recently took place in a hockey-themed showcase on The Price Is Right.  Pretty funny clip as well. Here is the link.       

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvEuKYw2038

9.  While I was at YouTube, I stumbled upon this clip of an interview with him when something unexpected happens. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7uoznAPY0E

10.  He has 5 points and is a -13 in 16 games against the Pens for his career.  Let's hope he is on the ice while we pot a few tonight. 

There you have it.  I made it through the whole thing, and as a reward to myself for the distractions I've dealt with, ICE COLD BEER.

Sources: NHL.com, Youtube.com, legendsofhockey.com, hockeydb.com

Hey guys, today's drawing is going to be the first D-man that I have done and a rookie one at that.  And he happens to be the 3rd overall pick from last year's draft. I really enjoyed researching this guy as there were many things that I was not aware of and honestly, that's to be expected because he hasn't had much of an opportunity to make a name for himself with this being his first year in the bigs.

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Zach Bogosian

1.  He played his junior hockey for the Peterborough Pete's, a team that once boasted such players as our own Jordan Staal and big bro Eric. Ex-pen, and an integral part of our 2 Stanley Cups, Larry Murphy, Chris Pronger, Cory Stillman, Mike Ricci and Lemieux's buddy Tie Domi.

2.  He was tutored by Ray Bourque at Cushing Academy in Boston, MA

3.  He chose a different route than his father and uncle (both captains of their football teams at Syracuse and Army) because of his lack of size. Surprising because he now sits at 6'2 200 lbs.

4.  He was basically neighbors with Jesse Winchester of the Ottawa Sens if you consider that the only thing separating their hometown's was the St. Lawrence River.  (They played against each other for the first time professionally earlier this year)

5.  He was a Sens fan growing up and in the summer before his first OHL season at 15 yrs of age, he got to work out with....ugh.....Daniel Alfredsson and Wade Redden.

6.  As a kid, he routinely made the 3 and a half hour round trip to Ottawa during the summer to play hockey and train as there was not much hockey in Massena, NY at that time of year.

7.  Every single site I have searched while doing this has made mention of how great this kid's hockey IQ is so I felt that the trend should continue by mentioning it here as well.

8. He's only played 35 games this rookie year because he sustained a broken leg in a 7-0 beating at the hands of the Flyers on Oct 28th/08.  Darroll Powe was the culprit responsible for the hit that put him out until the last day of 2008.

9.  He is currently riding a 4 game point streak (2 Gs 2 As) that have him sitting at 12 points on the year. (1/3 of his points this year have come in the last 4 games just so you know.)

10.  He is part Armenian and recently took place in a game against the :LA Kings that would be deemed "Armenian Heritage Night" due to the high Armenian populous of Southern Cal.  He got 3 As in a 4-3 Thrashers SO victory.

There you have it, thx for coming out, have a T-shirt..... directly from the T-shirt cannon in FrankD's hands....kaboom.

Sources: NHL.com, faceoff.com, insidesocal.com, hockeydb.com

For today's edition, I figured I would get my 4 yr old son Tyler to help with the drawing so I put the numbers into a hat and he drew #12 Chuck Kobasew.  I think that I need to mention that the second he saw #12 come out, he said "Daddy I got Ryan Malone"....to which I laughed and said, "That's funny buddy but Malone doesn't play for the Penguins anymore."  He responded with, "That's O.K. daddy, he'll come back soon and play with Sinney Crosby."  That's right.....he can pronounce Ryan Malone no problem but still says Sinney.....kids....what r u gonna do??

Anyways here we go.......

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Chuck Kobasew

1.  He played one year at Boston College and made the Hockey East 2nd Team All Star squad, and clinched the Hockey East Rookie of the Year Award.  Along with this, he played for the NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team and clinched the MVP Award while winning the 2001 Championship.  All this in the same yr.  Impressive.

2.  He won a silver medal on Canada's 02 World Junior Team where he registered 6 pts in 7 games including 5 goals.

3.  Every yr in the NHL he alternates from having more G's than A's to more A's than G's the next yr.

4. Along with Crosby's first dance partner Andrew Ference, he was traded to Boston from CGY for Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau.

5.  He was drafted 14th overall in 2001 in a draft class that included the likes of Kovalpuke (1st), Spezza(2nd), Momisarek(7),LeClaire(8) Hamhuis(12), Hemsky(13) and ex-Pen Colby Armstrong(21).

6. He has only missed 14 games due to injury in his whole NHL career. Pretty durable if you ask me.

7. During the off-season he is neighbors with Andrew Ference in British Columbia

8. He enjoys golf and takes part in lots of charity events during the season and off-season.

9. He is a -3 in his career against the Pens and has posted 3 As in 8 gms against us.

10. I found a site that reports he is a racist with former ties to the KKK and it was a San Jose Sharks forum or something but I've found nothing that relates to this so I have no idea what the guy who posted it was thinking or it just may have nothing to do with him whatsoever or I just need to do some better research.

There you have it.......and like I said, the further I go down the depth chart when the drawings come up, the harder it is to find facts that no one knows.  Hope this one is as informative as yesterday's but I'll understand if you all know this stuff already.

Let's Go Pens

Sources: NHL.com, Wikipedia.com,Hockeydb.com

Hey guys, a few things here from me.  I've always believed that since the 04/05 lock-out, the NHL has done a sub-par job (at best) of marketing the league and it's players to us fans.  I think they owe us alot for making us miss a whole year for something on the business side of it.  Being Pens fans and having Sid as the face of the NHL, it's tough for us to complain about having Sid jammed down our throats 24/7.  But surely you can at least respect where everyone who is sick of him is coming from.  I'm sure we're all hockey fans first and Pens fans second, so in order for the league to get the most "bang for their buck" I believe they need to showcase other players in the league at every position or role that they might play cause let's face it....you need all sorts of players to be a Cup winning team.  You don't win with all O and no D and vice versa. You also don't win without gritty role players or enforcers at that.  So why does the league only showcase offensive talent?  I tell you this, if Gary Roberts doesn't dress for those 2 games against the Sens last yr in the play-offs, we may not have had the same outcome.  If Conklin played the way that all Oilers fans said he would for us, we don't necessarily stay afloat until MAF gets back.  If we don't dress a guy like Laraque or Godard against a highly physical team, they take runs at our skill guys and ultimately affect their offensive productivity.  Do you see where I'm going with this??  I'm gonna do my part, or at least try, to help inform us fans of some things we probably didn't know about one player on the team we play against on gamedays.  Through a random drawing of players numbers in a hat, I'll choose one person and write approxiamately 10 things you probably didn't know about them.  I have no idea how this is gonna turn out but I think it will do wonders when we get involved in chats with other people and we have a few facts or stats to spit out about someone on their team.  I'll include skilled offensive players in the drawing as well because there is lots of talent in the league that goes unnoticed.  The drawing is completely random so if I draw a 4th liner or a call-up, I apologize if I don't get to 10 things.  K......without further ado.....

Heater's house

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10 Things you didn't know about......Dany Heatley....figures it's a skilled guy first.

1.  He was born in Germany and moved to Calgary after his dad retired from playing hockey for the German league.

2. He has a dual citizenship (German-Canadian) but chose to play for Team Canada and the IIHF prohibits you from switching teams once you play for one.  He could dress for Germany at a World Cup of Hockey cause it's not sanctioned by the IIHF but I doubt he's leaving Team Canada any time soon.

3. Won the Calder Trophy in 01/02 with 67 points that led all rookies.

4. He was seriously injured in a car accident that ultimately cost his teammate Dan Snyder his life on Sept 29, 2003.  He was charged with vehicular homicide and sentenced to 3 yrs probation which later dropped to a guilty plea of 2nd degree vehicular homicide.  He also had to have the court approve his vehicle which was not allowed to have 6 cylinders or exceed 70mph.

5. The permanent dilation in the pupil of his left eye is a result of a shot he took to the face while playing for SC Bern during the lock-out.

6. He, along with the guy I detest most in the league (Alfredsson), were the first 2 guys to score a goal in the shoot-out and their sticks currently sit at the HHOF.

7. He has the 2nd longest pts. streak in history when starting for a new team. (22 behind Gretzky's 23)

8. He tied an NHL-record with 4 goals in his first All-Star game that still stands today.

9. He was selected as the cover guy for the 04 version of EA Hockey but because of the fall out from the car accident, they switched him for Joe Sakic.  Some copies still made it out with Heater on the cover so hold on to it if you have one.  I just checked and I have the Sakic one which is fine with me cause he's my 2nd fave all-time.

10. And finally a little tidbit I didn't know but I'm sure more than just Dany does it........He has a nap from 2-4pm on gamedays.

There you have it.  Hope you enjoyed it and now hopefully you  have at least one fact here about Dany Heatley that you probably didn't know prior to reading.

Not sure about how to cite where i got my info or what i need to cite, so I'll just say it here.  NHL.com, wikipedia.com, youtube.com.

...I hope this worked.  These are some pics of my current Pens shrine that I will have to take down in like 2-3 months when I move out so at least I'll always have these pics.  What do you guys think?

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com

via s5.tinypic.com