The Puck Drops Soon, Right?!

We've only got a little over a month left until the puck finally drops on a new season, and if we stick together, we'll make it through... ;) Until then, I've got a bunch of things for you to help pass the time for today.

Sid's on another ballot. Click here to vote for him in the AskMen.com Top 49 Men of 2008. (OMG, I nearly hurled when I saw that they included IFHSA™ in the running.)


Good Friend of The Show Frank D. needs our help. His blog, Pensburgh.com, is in a blog battle with a Senators blog called Sens Army. PENSBURGH MUST WIN!!! You can vote for Pensburgh over at the NHLArena.com. Log in and VOTE FOR PENSBURGH!!! (If you haven't already signed up, you should because it's free!)

Another good Friend of The Show, Tony F. of The Confluence of the Three Rivers, scored an interview with Penguins’ Director of Content/Publication Joe Sager. Click here to check it out.

Yesterday, I posted a picture of Sid goofing off at a party. It was mentioned that it could have been a photoshopped picture. Friend of The Show Bud located the original picture:

LOL, it's Paris, Britney, and Andy Samburg!!! (Click their names to view the source photos.)

I'm sure most of you have seen this already. Friend of The Show Lauren H. sent this link to travel packages to check out the Pens in Stockholm, Sweden. If you want to go by yourself, you'll need more than $3,000!!! But if you take a friend, the two of you only have to pony up $2,250 each. (My apologies to Lauren, who actually sent this to me a while ago - I kept forgetting to add it to a post!) Check out these pictures of the Globe Arena in which the Pens will face the Sens:



Friend of The Show Melissa G. sent in an article about a PGA FedEx Cup commercial in which Wayne Gretzky offers some advice to golfer and fellow Canadian Mike Weir. Evidently, Gretzky told Weir he should grow a playoff beard - so he did! (Neither one of us could locate the actual commercial, so if anyone finds it, please let us know!)

Friend of The Show AustinLovesCrosby sent in this article that details why Big Georges Laraque chose to accept a deal in Montreal:

Daryl Katz so wanted Georges Laraque here as the Edmonton Oilers' nightly beat cop, the new owner offered the big guy a four-year contract -- one more year than the Montreal Canadiens were pitching the right winger.

Laraque still took the Habs' $4.5-million offer -- mainly because his mother in Montreal wanted to see him play games in the flesh, not on TV.

Aww, that's really nice! I'm definitely not looking forward to seeing him on the opposite bench this season. :(

AustinLovesCrosby also sent in this article written by John Steigerwald (brother of Penguins play-by-play announcer Paul Steigerwald) telling people to get off Mario's back about that ridiculous "Lemieux's Ruse" nonsense. When we discussed it here last week, not one of the responses in the comments or emails that I got were negative towards Mario. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I think Mario could have robbed a bank to pay for the new arena and still be forgiven for it. I don't know who these naysayers are, but evidently they're not Pens fans.


We've got a new member of our Roaming Penguins team making his debut on The Show. Petr Penguin left the home of Stephanie S. in Nashville and arrived in Pittsburgh's South Side...


...where he showed up on Stephanie C.'s doorstep. Her captions tell us what Petr Penguin was up to while they visited:

photo #1: Petr and my books for grad school

photo #2: Petr and his favorite website [snoop: I LOVE IT!!! :D]

photo #3: Petr and a couple of my favorite shirts

Time for another edition of TSCS's Quote of The Day:

"We know that hockey is where we live, where we can best meet and overcome pain and wrong and death. Life is just a place where we spend time between games."

~ Former Philadelphia Flyers Coach (and father of the current Penguins General Manager) Fred Shero

Big thanks go out to Bud, Lauren, Melissa, AustinLovesCrosby, & Stephanie for helping with today's post! :)

Geno's Not Going To Russia

Poor Geno. Everyone in the media seems ready to put him on the next train and ship him out of Pittsburgh. This morning, I was greeted by emails with links to this article from Sportsnet.ca:

Russia's Continental Hockey League is hoping to make Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin the world's highest-paid hockey player to the tune of $15 million per season according to a Toronto newspaper.

That's a lot of freaking cash!!!

According to the Toronto Star, several teams in Russia's revamped hockey league are prepared to offer Malkin a multi-year deal worth $12.5 million a season. The offer would be equivalent to at least a $15 million per year in the NHL, where players have to pay state (or provincial) and federal taxes.

$15 million a year?!! I don't think any one of us would have blamed him if he'd chosen to go after that kind of cash. But there's one problem: The IIHL has just released a statement saying, in short, that the offer was NOT made to Geno and this story is just B.S. (from the Pens' website):

Although the International Ice Hockey Federation does not usually issue statements following unsubstantiated media reports, the IIHF finds it principally important to address the newspaper story (Toronto Star, June 20) that reports about the Russian league allegedly preparing an offer to Pittsburgh Penguin player Evgeni Malkin, who is under contract with the NHL-club.

Geno scores in Russia. Imagine actually seeing this in person. AMAZING!

...we are confident that the report is not substantiated.

There you have it. No matter what anyone in the media says, I continue to believe that Geno won't be going anywhere. If - I said IF, people! - a trade was in Geno's future, I can't possibly imagine a good enough reason why Ray Shero would do it this summer. I find it extraordinarily difficult to believe that Shero would give up one of the best players in the world while he still costs under $1 million per year.

Where you goin'? Nowhere!

I'm not trying to poke any bears here, but I would think if Shero was looking for a way to save some room in the salary cap by unloading a center, he might want to look at trading Jordan Staal. (See? This is why I'm glad I'm not Mr. Shero!) Don't get me wrong - I like Staal well enough and he's a freaking beast on the penalty kill, but if money is going to be an issue, I'd MUCH rather part with the Gronk than Geno. Staal is good - good enough to demand millions. But Geno is elite. Without Geno and Ty Conklin, the Pens wouldn't have had a snowball's chance at even getting into the playoffs. And up until the Stanley Cup Finals, Geno along with the dynamic duo of Sid and Marian Hossa were the team's offensive one-two punch. If I was Shero, I'd be doing everything in my power to keep both Hossa and Malkin right now. And my bet is that he's doing just that.

I took this at the 04-02-08 Pens v Flyers game.

Now to lighten the mood a bit, our main man finds himself in TWO top 10 lists today! :) He came in at number 6 in the Wall Street Journal's Top 10 Athletes of 2008. (Noticeably absent - one hockey-hating golfer named Tiger.) The Saint earned the top spot in AskMen.com's Top 10: Athletes Under 21. Another great thing about the AskMen list: three spots are occupied by NHL'ers! :)

He tops our list!

Thanks go out to Friends of The Show Aisha V. and Vanny V. for the Sportsnet link, Daily Su for the Pens' website link, and to commenter Alyssa for the WSJ link.