Happy July 4th, Friends

Greetings, my Friends!!! Happy Independence Day!



Ugh! It feels like I've been away for a year. :( The big project is finally done. Actually, it was done a few days ago, but woodstock and I found ourselves with a temporary house guest this week as a very dear friend of ours needed a place to stay following the breakup of his marriage. But he's now in an apartment of his own, and I'm all caught up at work.

Friend of The Show Jon sent in this next picture. I'll let him explain:

On Sunday June 21, there was a pro wrestling Pay-Per-View event in Detroit. The event was TNA (Total Nonstop Action) Wresting's annual Slammiversary. The main event was a "King of the Mountain" match featuring Kurt Angle. He is an Olympic gold medalist for the USA in the 1994 Summer Olympics. He then became a pro wrestler in the WWE (formerly the WWF). Anyway, he is a native of the Burgh. When he was announced, he came down the entrance ramp wearing a Crosby jersey. This obviously got a lot of boos from the Detroit crowd. It really made me laugh.

Kurt Angle knows what's up. ;)

Okay, so I missed blogging about the Free Agency Frenzy. I'll just quickly say that I'm really bummed about losing Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi. I'd just like to send out many thanks to both of them for their roles over the past few seasons which ultimately took us to the Cup. On the bright side, we've got Guerin, Adams, and Feds for at least another year and that makes me happy. But I have to tell you honestly that I'm not really worried about losing some of the guys because Shero has proven that he is absolutely brilliant when it comes to filling in the pieces of the puzzle. As long as we've got 87, 71, 29, 11, and 25, we're good to go. :)

Two quick updates for those of you who've been asking:

1. My Gram is not doing so well. She called my Mom the other day and said she needed a ride and that she was in a town that, well, she hasn't been in for a number of years. I have no idea what's going on there. The doctors said it could be an imbalance with her medication, so keep your fingers crossed. As it stands, I am now starting to believe she will likely never leave the home to return to the family farm. I hope I'm wrong.


2. Baylee is doing really, really well. :) He's going up and down stairs again, even though it takes him about 5 minutes to make the journey up. He takes a step, then takes a break. But he must be feeling better because he's following me around everywhere (even into the bathroom!) like he did when he was a puppy. Because of the medicine, he's hungry all the time. All. The. TIME. Every time we go into the kitchen he thinks he should be getting a Thanksgiving dinner. It's hilarious. We went from practically begging him to finish his supper to now having to be extremely careful not to overfeed him. I'm so happy that he's responding to the medicine so well. :)

I'll leave you with this a treat from Good Friend of The Show and Cole Harbour resident Bill ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶. He sent in a great shot of the updated "Welcome to Cole Harbour" sign:

Click to enlarge for a supersized version.

Many, many thanks to Jon and Bill ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ for sharing their photos with us. Have a great and SAFE holiday, everyone!! :)

Wanna Bet? Part Deux: Baylee's Revenge

Baylee sports my new 2009 Stanley Cup Locker Room hat to show that he, like the Pens, is a true Champion! (By the way, that is Connor's nose sniffing out the new lid, haha!)

Many, MANY, MANY thanks to Red Wings fan/good Friend of The Show KCJacoby for getting the hat for me after losing our seemingly annual Stanley Cup Finals bet. So do you think we'll be doing this again next year? ;)

Still to come - I'll post the photos of the Pens' logo posted on KCJacoby's front door once he sends them my way. Hopefully his neighbors didn't defile it TOO horribly...

An Unplanned (and Hopefully Brief) Hiatus

Hi, Friends! I just wanted to let you know that I am in the midst of a project at work that is consuming my time right now. It was one of those "Hey, can you do this big thing, and oh, I need it by the end of next week" type of things, so I'm absolutely swamped and can't get to my TSCS duties. I hope to be back to my regular schedule by this Friday, if not before. When I return, I'll finally post those Stanley Cup Game 7 and Victory Parade pictures I've been promising. And then after that, I'll start going back through the Fan Photos from this season that I haven't yet posted. I plan to keep The Show going through this summer, just as I did in the previous seasons.

Until then, enjoy this:

Haha, posting these shots will NEVER get old!! :)

Talbot Dishes About Winning The Cup

It's time once again for another installment of


Thanks to the translations graciously provided tonight by Friend of The Show Coralie R., those of us who don't speak fluent French can now get the scoop from straight from the Superstar. In the latest entry to his RDS blog, Max candidly discusses the big win, that handshake incident, shoulder surgery (!), and his plans for this summer. If you weren't a fan of Superstar's before reading this (← is that possible???), you definitely will be after. Enjoy!

Needless to say, we are on cloud nine since Friday night.

It’s like the NHL Network commercial that says: The Cup changes everything. I now realize how much truth there is in this slogan: it is really special to win the Stanley Cup.

It’s hard to believe that I am a champion. People ask us how it feels to raise the Cup on the ice. As for me, I was so pumped up by adrenalin that I barely remember how it was, it all went down so quickly. It’s afterward that we realize how huge this victory is. In the flight that brought us back to Pittsburgh, I had the Cup next to me for fifteen minutes. Such a special feeling.


It’s my first championship and the best one! I often had a shot at winning a cup in other leagues, but had never actually won. I admit, I did think about that during the final series and I didn’t want to miss it this time. I now have my Cup and I am a winner.

It’s also hard to believe that it was I who scored the two goals in our 2-1 victory in the 7th game. It’s now a part of history and these goals will be remembered. No one can take these goals away from me. The 7th game was the best of my life.


We always believed in ourselves, even when we were trailing 0-2 in the series against Washington and Detroit. There was this weird feeling in the locker room. We had just lost, but we knew that we had played well and that we could come back (in the series). We just had to keep on working and play our game well. Our head coach Dan Bylsma is an eternal optimist. In victory and in defeat, he always believes and he is always smiling. With us being 2 games down, Dan didn’t need to say much. We are a special group, and we always knew we could come back.

We won the last two games without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scoring. When the NHL’s two best players do not score, others must raise. You know, Sid did not have an easy time against Henrik Zetterberg, who did a great job covering him. He may not have scored much, but Sid did great in defense against Zetterberg.

The Last Moments

Not much was said between the second and third periods. We knew Sid was injured and it was capital for us to keep playing well like we had done in the first two periods. We knew we could win if we kept on playing our type of game.


In the last moments of the game, the Red Wings kept pressuring us. My good friend and goalie Marc-André Fleury made a spectacular save in the last few seconds. I was a little scared, of course, but it was part of our destiny. We believed in our luck and that we deserved this Cup.

Marc-André is a very good friend of mine and I wouldn’t want to go to war with any other goalie. When the Red Wings scored their only goal of the night, I went to see him and I told him: "Marc-André, it’s 2-1 and I have the winning goal. Keep on blocking the shots and we’ll win the Cup. Do it for me!"

The rest is history.


The Leaders

The series enabled me to get to know the leaders of our team. Bill Guerin has been a fantastic acquisition for us. He is a real leader as well as a warrior. My friend Bruno Gervais, who had played with him for the Islanders, had talked to me about him. I’m so happy for Bill.

Philippe Boucher did not take part in every single game, but he still had a positive attitude. It’s yet another way of being a leader. He was courageous and was always there for us. Phil was cheering us on instead of complaining. The same applies for Pascal Dupuis, who played so well when he was in the line-up.

A guy like Marc-André Fleury is a leader as well, because of the way he played.


The Handshake

Kris Draper has accused Sidney of missing the traditional handshake with some players. When I heard this story, I just laughed; it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Sid is the guy who has the most respect for the game and the people.


Moreover, when the Stanley Cup finals are coming to an end, there are so many people on the ice and all the medias want a piece of you. If he missed a couple of handshakes, I’m sure it was not his fault and that he didn’t mean it.

Hmmm... Perhaps THIS ↑ is why Siddo missed the first part of the handshake? :P

Big Emotions for My Family

I’m so happy that my family got to experience those precious moments. It was so special for my family members, who were invited at Mario Lemieux’s house on Sunday night. I had been at Mario’s before, but it was a first for them. It was an unique moment and my family is so happy to be a part of it. My brothers even drove from Detroit to Pittsburgh to be sure not to miss anything.


Sunday afternoon, we all went to the PNC Park, where the Pirates were playing, to celebrate our victory. Bill Guerin threw the first pitch and we got to visit the Pirates’ locker room.

The family also celebrated on the ice and in our locker room in the Joe Louis Arena after the match. When we got back to Pittsburgh early Saturday morning, we immediately went to Mario’s to resume celebrating. I’ll never forget those moments. [snoop: In case you haven't already seen them, I have some photos from that party at Mario's that I'll post in the next day or so. I changed my mind about this. After I published this post, I realized that these pictures were likely stolen from someone, so I'm not going to post them. I explained why in The Friends' Zone below...]

A Busy Summer

My holidays will be spent for the most part in the province of Quebec, but they will sure be busy. When you are a Stanley Cup champion, there are quite a few things that you must add to your agenda. First of all, I’ll need to have a shoulder surgery in two weeks’ time. I have a golf tournament on the third of July and I’ll also get to spend a day with the Cup.


I have a fishing weekend planned with my family that I am looking forward to. And I’m going to Las Vegas, along with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, to represent the Penguins at the NHL awards.

A Big Thank You

Before I wrap this up, I would like to thank the hockey fans in Quebec who supported us in this final series. There are six Quebecers in the team and I can tell you, we really felt your support. We also won that Cup for all of you.

See you in the fall.


Yes, Max, you will see us in the fall... And we can't WAIT!! :)

Go raibh míle maith agat, Coralie!! [May you have a thousand good things, Coralie!!] Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for providing the translation for us.

2009 Stanley Cup Champions Team Photo

I had a LOT of requests for this. I literally just found it and decided to get it posted right away since I imagine it will be popular. Here is a high quality shot of the team photo with the Cup on the ice (click to enlarge):


I also found a few other ones you might be interested in having. First, here's Sid kissing the Cup before presenting it to his teammates (click to enlarge):


Here's Geno with the Conn Smythe trophy (click to enlarge):


Here's a shot of the bench at the exact moment the clock hit 00:0 and they realized they were the 2009 Stanley Cup champions (click to enlarge):

Check out the look on Siddo's face (he's seated far right) as he learns that he has just achieved his life's goal. This shot is undoubtedly awesome, but...

And here is a stunning overhead shot of the celebration on the ice that came moments later (click to enlarge):

...I still think this one is my favorite. Look at that elation. It's beautiful. :)

My inbox is FULL of great Fan Photos from Game 7 and Monday's Victory Parade. I am trying to make my way through them all and get a post together. I know I said I'd have it done by today, but I need a little more time. Just know that I've made it my top TSCS priority.

What an amazing summer this is going to be! ;)

Parade Pictures!!!

Fact of the day: Pittsburgh is the only city to win a Lombardi Trophy and a Stanley Cup in the same calendar year. Those two championships came 131 days apart (4 months, 11 days). It took 6,220 days (17 years, 11 days) for the Penguins to win their third Stanley Cup. (Source: The Examiner)

Good Friend of The Show Jaime has made a special Stanley Cup Winning Captain wallpaper for us. She also made an icon, too. The quote on the wallpaper came from Sid's postgame interview following the big victory. [ wallpaper | icon ]

A quick note about the handshake flap that just won't go away - the guy on XM Radio's Hockey This Morning said it best this morning (closely paraphrased except where quoted):

There were about 30 to 40 family members and about 100 reporters on the ice for the celebratory chaos. The kid was being shuffled from interview to interview. A couple Penguins started the handshake line before the majority of the team was ready, and as soon as Crosby realized it was happening, he stopped what he was doing and bolted over to get in the line with everyone else.

He didn't miss shaking everyone's hand.

Why did Draper and Zetterberg even say anything? It's petty, it's a non-issue, and "I honestly can't believe reporters are wasting their breath on it."

A-freaking-MEN!

Now back to happier things. Good Friend of The Show Gina S. was one of the thousands (and I mean thousands - Stan Savran estimated that were 375,000 people there as compared to the 350,000 on hand for February's Super Bowl Victory Parade) of Pens fans to make it to today's Victory Parade. She graciously shared some of her awesome pictures with us:










And because more is always better, here are a few of the Getty shots (P.S. - I want Dapper Dan's shoes):












Many, MANY thank yous to Gina for sharing her pictures with us! It looks like it was a day to remember. I wish I could have been there. (I can't complain, though - I got to watch it in its entirety online!) And thanks also go out to Jaime for another great wallpaper. Also - I just got a BUNCH more fan photos from Game 7 in my inbox from a Friend as I was putting this post together. Expect them to be posted no later than Wednesday. :)

Fan Photos of the Peng-WINS Game 7 Stanley Cup Victory!!!!

Oh yes. Wait 'til you see them...

First though, I wanted to let you know that ThePittsburghChannel.com will be streaming tomorrow's victory parade online. Also, the site is offering an updated 2009 fight song you can download. To get it, right click the following link and choose "Save link as..." if you use Firefox or "Save target as..." if you use Internet Explorer. [ Download "Let's Go Pens!" ]

I just love this shot of Geno dousing Sir Mario with champagne and had to post it. :)

Now, about those pics: A dear Friend of The Show was actually in the Joe Louis Arena to witness and photograph Sidney Crosby's first Stanley Cup win. Be prepared to be insanely jealous of Friend Dave S. (in a good way, of course!). He sent me TONS of pictures from Friday's Game 7 Stanley Cup victory. He also sent some from Games 5 and 6, which I'll be sharing in the near future. Of his experience, he said:

After the buzzer and everyone started clearing out, we got to head down to ice-level and celebrate w/the team for almost 90 minutes before they were all heading to the locker room. What a time! ... After all the traveling and tickets to see this I would've been so bummed if I didn't cap it off with them winning the Cup. :)

This year was amazing! Go Champs!

I'm SO glad Dave had such a wonderful time. His photos are absolutely amazing. Click the thumbnails to enlarge. Enjoy!!



Another good Friend, DayWalk3r, uploaded some of the montage videos from Game 7 for us to enjoy. (By the way, his YouTube channel is listed under HockeyWebCast
now if you're interested in following his postings.)

First we've got Hockey Night In Canada's Game #7 Opening Intro 2009:



TSN's Stanley Cup Playoffs 2009 Tribute:



HNIC's Stanley Cup Playoffs 2009 Tribute:



The Boys returned to the Igloo today for the Pens' final media availability of the season after winning the Stanley Cup Friday night in Detroit, and then they took in a ball game:

Welcome back, Champs! :)

A hundred thousand thank yous go out to Dave for sharing those fantastic pictures with us. And many thanks also go out to DayWalk3r for hooking us up with the videos again. :)

Stanley Cup Finals Game 7: Pens v Red Wings (W 2-1) 2009 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe this? Let's pause for a second to take it all in... Our Boys are playing in a Stanley Cup Final Game 7 - their 106^th game of the 2008-09 season. It is without a doubt the best time to be a Pens fan.

Oh, what a feeling!!

Now let's talk GAME 7s: The away team hasn't won a Game 7 in any sport that has best of seven series (baseball, basketball, or hockey) since 1979 when the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles. History suggests that the Red Wings are the favored team, but the law of averages suggests it's about high time an away team pulls off a Game 7 win. So which one is right? Which one is an accurate prediction of tonight's outcome? The reality is that in a Game 7, all bets are off. (Haha, except the one I have with KCJacoby...)

It all comes down to tonight. Winner takes all.

---

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! OUR TITLE MAN HAS BECOME THE YOUNGEST CAPTAIN EVER TO RAISE THE CUP!!! :D

First Period
You had to know that the hockey gods were smiling upon us - Game 7 was the 87^th game of the 2009 postseason. Muhammad Ali was in the Joe to watch the game wearing a Red Wings jersey. The refs barely called anything. Detroit came on strong early, but our Boys kept cool heads and weathered the initial storm. The first penalty came when Stuart was called for slashing Geno's stick, but the Pens didn't score on their power play. I can't say enough about how each member of the Pens pitched in and played spectacular hockey tonight. The period ended with a 0-0 draw.


Second Period
An early turnover by Stuart went right to Geno, who quickly got the puck to Superstar (← and HOW!) for the first goal of the night. [Pens 1, Wings 0]


A dreadfully weak penalty to Staal was negated by a coincidental penalty to Holmstrom. Neither team scored on the ensuing 4-on-4. Sid then took a monster hit from Franzen. His leg was pinched up against the board, and it was clear right away that something went horribly wrong. He slowly left the ice hunched over and headed for the dressing room. We didn't see him for the remainder of the second period.


Kuni made a great play to take the puck and clear it out of the Pens' zone up to Superstar for a 2-on-1. Superstar = CLUTCH. In other words, he patiently waited for his opportunity and shot that puck up and over Osgood for his second goal of the night. [Pens 2, Wings 0]


The Wings came back at us with a late period surge, but they didn't make a mark on the board.

Third Period
Siddo was back on the bench! Eaton took a penalty. An icing call against the Red Wings was ignored, but they still didn't score on their advantage. Siddo evidently bargained with the coaches to let him go out for a faceoff (which he won), but he didn't stay out long. He was clearly not doing well. It would be the last shift of the game for our young Captain. Later, Ericsson scored the Red Wings' lone goal. [Pens 2, Wings 1] At that time, though, there were just over 6 loooooong minutes left on the clock - plenty of time for things to go horribly wrong. They didn't, but they came awfully close when a Wing hit the crossbar behind Flower. But, as they say, "almost" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. With 1:17 separating our Boys from the Cup, Detroit called a timeout then pulled Osgood in favor of the extra attacker.

Every second felt like an eternity. To their credit, Detroit didn't quit until the clock told them they had to. They came at us with everything they had, but it wasn't good enough. The clock finally made it to 00:00 and the Pens realized they had just become the 2009 Stanley Cup Champions!!!


Geno was named as the 2009 Conn Smythe trophy winner!!


Commissioner Gary Bettman (who was booed mightily by the fans at the Joe) presented our Captain with Lord Stanley's mug.










Then the beautiful trophy made the rounds:






Someone special got his hands on it for a third time, this time in a suit rather than a sweater:






And the man that guided the way finally hoisted the ultimate prize:


Siddo shared a priceless moment with his little sister Taylor, his mom Trina, and his father Troy:


Then the Boys had some fun with the Cup:




Meanwhile...

Hossa = STUNNED

What a season. What a team. What a feeling. I am honestly so elated right now that I don't even feel like I've been up for more than 20 hours. I don't know if I'll ever sleep again!! This is so, so, so amazing.


We wanted it soooooo badly last year, and after that crushing loss, we wanted it all that much more this year. Now that we've got it, I just don't even think there are words in the English language to describe how good this feels and how thankful I am. Sidney with that Cup in his arms, skating and cheering and kissing it... Geno, Guerin, and Jordan crying... Flower and Tanger hugging... Superstar shining... WOW. We have been blessed.


Congratulations, Boys. You've earned it!!!!!!!!!!!!