Friends, We've Hit $1,000!!! :)

An update on the Roaming Penguin sales courtesy of R.P. Mama Stephanie S.:

WE HAVE REACHED 200 PENGUINS!! I am sooooo excited (and a little freaked out seeing as I have over 100 to make). But this means over $1,000 will go to the MLF. I was just hoping to send $500....so this totally makes my day!! Jodie, you and The Friends of The Show are just incredible....how did I get so lucky??

WOW!!! $1,000 is a lot of freaking money! Thank you so much, everyone! To Stephanie: Take your time with them and don't get overwhelmed - we're all Friends here. We understand that these creations take time. :)

To get in on the fun, click here to find out how to put your name on the list.

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My husband and I were joined in our trip to Saturday's game by two VI(R)Ps. Our Roaming Penguins sleep in style - this bag keeps them safe from dirt (and dog hair!) when they're not out and about. Sidney Penguin and Mario Penguin hopped out of their shelter, got their tickets, and were ready to hit the road!


Before we left, S.P. and M.P. helped me choose my attire. It was a toss up between my Sidney Crosby Winter Classic jersey and this old school sweater. The Roamers decided that I should go with the sweater, since it is the one I wore to the Winter Classic. It was a good choice - both times I've worn it, the Pens toppled the Sabres, so I guess it worked! (Incidentally, if anyone is interested, they are selling these sweaters at the Mellon Arena again, except the new ones feature the newer scowling skating penguin. They're a bit pricey, though - $120!)


Sidney P. and Mario P. had to sit in the backseat because my husband had already called shotgun. ;)


The Roamers were extremely excited to finally to see the Boys in action! Sidney and Mario were privileged enough to meet Pengylady's Sidney Penguin, but I thought it might cause a rip in the spacetime continuum if there was a photo of two Sidney Penguins. (Okay. Actually, I was so stoked to be at the Mellon and excited to finally meet Pengylady and put a face to the screen name that I completely forgot to set up a photo with our Roamers. I know - it was a great chance and I blew it. I'm sorry.) Here are S.P. and M.P. watching the Pens during the warmup:


S.P. and M.P. forgot to ask me to take their picture at the gate on the way into the game, so we snapped this one on the way out:


The Roamers really liked these spray painted messages on the sidewalk outside the arena:


It truly was...


Several Friends of The Show were at Saturday's game, so I'm not 100% sure which one of them sent me this beautiful shot of the Mellon Arena right after the rain before the game started (LATE EDIT: The sender was identified! It was Pens87Fan71/Lexie101!):


Saturday, of course, was the first game in which the Pens wore their "new" third jerseys. The Roaming group that lives with 1WingAngel and her twin sister Nicole G. got some fancy new duds for the occasion, courtesy of the twins' extremely talented mother:

snoop's Sidney P. and Mario P. are jealous!

Speaking of the twins, the one and only Marc-Andre Fleury actually remembered meeting Marc-Andre Penguin! Friend of The Show Lauren H. shares the story:

I got the chance to meet Marc-Andre today at a promotional appearance he made in Mount Nebo (Pittsburgh suburb) - it was at a phone store and the owner is the guy who my dad gets all his company cell phones from, so we got a bit of VIP access - we got to sort of skip the line and were one of the first people to see him - they kept saying "no posed pictures" but they let it slide with us!


He was so sweet - you could tell he was really overwhelmed when they told him there were a few hundred people standing outside in the cold, all waiting to see him. When he saw my Sidney Penguin, he smiled and said "Hey it's one of those little penguins!" so he definitely remembers meeting his miniature counterpart! Anyways, we couldn't hang around too long (which I was kind of sad about) because my awesome dad also had Steelers tickets for my siblings and I!


We froze our butts off and I think my toes are still thawing out now. When we were walking in, the snow was coming down so hard it looked like a whiteout, but it didn't snow too much throughout the game!


Anyways, Sidney Penguin spent most of the game hiding in the warmth of my jacket, but I was able to snap a couple pictures of him enjoying the game too!

Looks like the Roamers are branching out when it comes to professional sporting events. ;)

Finally tonight, I've got some exciting news about our Sid drawing Friend Jan M. A few weeks ago, she contacted the Mario Lemieux Foundation and offered to donate two of her amazing works for auction. The MLF accepted and Siddo himself signed the drawings! Here's what she had to say about it:

Jode, just be sure you check it out to the bottom because the very first one I did which YOU featured is also up for auction and signed by Sidney! I credit you with all the good vibes you and all of the Friends of the Show gave me. You guys gave me the courage to contact the MLFoundation and ask if they might like to have one. I'll always be grateful!

And yes, Sidney had his grubby little hands on MY drawings! Yee Ha!

Thanks again and again for what you did for me!

Oh, Jan! There's absolutely no need to thank me - YOU are the one with all the talent! You will probably recognize Jan's drawings that now bear number 87's signature (click the picture to go to its NHL auction page):



Sláinte mhaith, to you Friend! The drawings are beautiful. What an accomplishment! :)

Thanks so much to Stephanie, Pens87Fan71/Lexie101, 1WingAngel, Nicole, (their mom, too!), Lauren, and Jan for their contributions to today's post!!

Eye Candy

This one's for the ladies...

I haven't ever mentioned here on The Show whether or not I think any of the Penguins players are attractive for two main reasons:

1. because, as a female hockey blogger, I take more than enough crap for running a Sidney Crosby site because some people just assume that I'm only doing it to try to get close to him or because I have aspirations to marry him. Some of the bigger tools actually think NO woman can love hockey without wanting to bed a player. Anonymous cowards already have no qualms about leaving hateful comments and/or sending emails insulting everything from my writing ability to my knowledge of the game, and I really don't want to give them something else to fuel their vitriol, so I deliberately keep mum on the subject. FYI - True Friends of The Show know it's no secret that I'm already married. We've been together for more than 11 years, wed for almost 8 of them, so the odds are pretty good that I'm going to keep him around. ;)


2. because, more importantly, I really don't care what they look like so long as they can get that little black puck past a half dozen opponents and into the back of a 6'x4' net - repeatedly.

That said, I am only human, so I don't feel bad at all saying that PittGirl from TheBurghBlog.com is my new heroine. At Monday's practice, some of our Boys decided they'd rather play a game of soccer than skate. A reader of TheBurghBlog.com was in attendance and sent some photos of the soccer game to PittGirl. Oh, and did I mention it was Shirts v Skins? WOW. :D Niiiiice! (Thanks to Friends of The Show Allison Y. and Cathy F. for the links!)

And since I'm still working on editing the rest of the fan photos (there are a lot of them, they're H-U-G-E files, and they need to be cropped, color-corrected, and resized - it's a lot of work!), part 2 is not ready yet. Instead, I'm just going to put up some other great stuff I got from some of our Friends. First, we've got a wallpaper from Friend MichelleInNovaScotia that she put together with screenshots of Siddo from a CBC interview:


Next up, Friend of The Show Kayla A. took this photo...


...and used her pencil to create this lovely drawing:


And finally tonight, this next wallpaper came out of a collaboration between Friends of The Show Jaime and Lizzy. Lizzy took Jaime's favorite picture of Siddo...


...and created a drawing that Jaime then used as the centerpiece for this sweet wallpaper:

(Click to enlarge)

Thanks SO MUCH to Allison, Cathy, MichelleInNovaScotia, Kayla, Lizzy, and Jaime for helping out with today's post.

So it's been, what, 2 years since the Pens last played? They FINALLY get back into action tomorrow when they come home to face the Oilers at 7:00pm Eastern.

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LATE EDIT: Many apologies go out to Friend of The Show MichelleInNovaScotia, whom I misidentified earlier in the post. She is the one who made the red Siddo wallpaper.

The Roaming Penguins Have Begun to Land

The Penguins have started Roaming! Where did the first one land? Why, in Oklahoma...


...the new home of good Friend of The Show Cassie G.:


When I posted yesterday, I completely forgot about the Sidney Crosby/Tom Welling comparisons. So with a nod to Friend of The Show Pensgirl for mentioning this weeks ago, I've put the two of them side-by-side for you today so you can again judge for yourself:


Now for some random stuff from several Friends of The Show to help you get through another hockey-less weekend. First up, a few days ago, Seth from Empty Netters posted that the Pens' website was the tenth item in the list when the word "Pittsburgh" was searched. For funsies, I decided to see what came up on the first page when "Sidney Crosby" was Googled. I got the shock of a lifetime:

YOU HAVE TO CLICK TO ENLARGE THIS - OH. MY. GOD!!!

After reading a couple of posts on ThePensblog.com and LetsGoPens.com from last week, Friend David H. made these "inspirational" posters (I couldn't decide which I liked better so I'm posting them both):



Friend Jan M. took this photo of Sid...


...and turned it into this:


Jan also sent in a link to a gallery of Sid pictures on Canoe—Slam. Hahaha, you gotta love that grin on his face as an underage Sid signs that woman's, um, "shirt". (← Is that what they're calling them these days? :P) And make sure you check out the caption below the picture of Sid with his mouth bloodied (5^th row, 3^rd pic) - what a difference a year makes, eh???

Our Friend Tony F. of The Confluence of The Three Rivers gives us the scoop on Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony for the Pens' new arena.

Friend PensFan_87 submitted a free-handed drawing of the Pens' vintage logo that was used for their Winter Classic uniforms:


Now for TSCS's Quote of The Day:

"Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inhospitably cold, hockey is the chance of life, and an affirmation that, despite the deathly chill of winter, we are alive."

~ Stephen Leacock

Big, big thank yous to everyone who contributed to today's post!!!

This Is How You Remind Me

UGH. I hate Nickelback, but I couldn't help but immediately think of those words when I got the next two pictures in my email. We're all so desperate for hockey right now that it seems like there are signs popping up everywhere that are making us think about the Penguins, particularly the Kid.

Friend of The Show Rho M. sent in this picture for us. She said, "I just got back from NYC where I snapped this picture of another 'Crosby St.' ...but you'll notice this one is 'one way' - pointing to the right it's so 'the right way' and the little walking-man-dude is heading that direction too. Woot!"



Friend of The Show Julie M. sees this sign every day on her running route:



Switching gears a bit, Friend of The Show Jan M. sent in another drawing of our title man:


In addition to her latest drawing, Jan sent in a tip for us. Recall that we featured a clip from an upcoming DVD about the Saint called Sidney Crosby - On the Ice and Beyond. Well, you now you can preorder the DVD on Amazon.com. (As an added bonus, you save a couple dollars for preordering!)

Finally today, here is TSCS's Quote of The Day:

"American hockey players are bilingual - they speak English and profanity."

~ "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe

"F#@% YOU! Oh, wait - I'm Canadian..."

A big thanks go out to Rho, Julie, and Jan for their help with today's post!!!

You Want Fries With That?

It is a question that we hear all of the time: Who's the best player in hockey today? From some of the comments we've gotten here at TSCS over the past years, it's quite obvious that opinions vary on this subject (if you want mine, just shift your eyes up ever so slightly and read the name on the banner). Now we can add one more NHL great to the list of people who are on Team Crosby for this one. Here's an excerpt of an interview Mark Messier just did with NHL.com:

NHL.com: Putting you on the spot now, who do you think is the best player in today's game?


MM: I believe it is Sidney Crosby. Everybody has their own styles and likes and dislikes, but for me the first time I saw him play you could see he was something special. He plays with a lot of courage and in all the tough areas on the ice. He's tremendously skilled and uses the people around him unbelievably well. Not only is he an excellent playmaker, but he scores the goals, too.

Thanks to Friend of The Show David H. for the heads up about that article. :)


Good Friend Pens87Fan71 (formerly known as Lexie101) created this survey to find out what other Pens fans think about the upcoming season. It's only 5 questions, so if you have a second, fill it out and let your opinion be known.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

The drawing Friend Jan M. sent in last week was such a hit that I asked her if she had any more she was willing to share with us. She did. Here's the original photo of Sidney in his rookie year following a whack in the mouth from the stick of Flyers defenseman Darien Hatcher:

(Click to photo enlarge)

And here's her drawing of our injured title man:

(Click to super-size the drawing)

Here's a shot of the two images side by side:

(Click to enlarge)

Another great job, Jan! Finally today, I found a site full of some funny hockey quotes, so I'm going to use some of them as The Quote of The Day to end posts throughout the rest of this summer. Here is today's:

Ron Francis asked teammate Mario Lemieux what he did to stay in shape in the off season. Lemieux's response: "I don't order fries with my club sandwich."

Thanks to David, Lexie, and Jan for their help with today's post. :)

Sid in Black and White

Here's Sidney at a press conference during the Stanley Cup finals:



And here's Friend of The Show Jan M.'s interpretation of that photo (click for an extremely supersized version):



For comparison, here are the two pictures side by side:



WOW!!! NICE JOB, Jan!!! :) Thanks so much for sharing it with us!