Comments on: Knee-jerks: vs. Tampa, 12/19/06

By: OrderedChaos

OrderedChaos — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 06:03:05 +0000

Coach Hanlon seems to agree with the impact of Brashear’s and Erskine’s absence:
“I honesty believed we missed Erskine and Brashear. It’s not than anyone took liberties with us, or that we were afraid. Those are just two big, mature NHL guys who weren’t in our room.”

By: pepper

pepper — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 08:12:24 +0000

Totally not related to the game but -
though I hate the Pens with a passion, and love to beat them, I’d be sad if the team moved. Honestly. They’ve broken our hearts a lot, but their fans (at least in assessing the very few times I’ve been to Pitt, and those with whom I chatted there between periods, etc.) have been knowledgeable and excitable, but not jackasses, like we all can say we’ve seen and heard from various teams’ supporters parking themselves in Capital Cent(re) / Verizon Cent(er).
The rivalry, and thus the edge-of-your-seat, extraordinary build-up, for us Caps fans, at least as far as I’m concerned, is based on the Pens qua Pens. For me, I think it would be muted if the team moved. So, would you be upset if the Pens moved to Kansas City, Oklahoma City (I guess not Kitchener-Waterloo anymore), Hamilton, Winnipeg, or anywhere else? I would be.
As an aside, I’ve been to the MTS arena in Winnipeg, and its a really cool space, all interior-passage connected, if a tad small seat-wise. And they seriously support the AHL team there. Heck, they even have a ONE HOUR pre-game on the radio.

By: TG

TG — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 01:33:07 +0000

Lord help us, has Erskine become Reekie to Emminger’s Gonchar? Remember, Gonchar looked completely lost whenever Reekie wasn’t out there. I certainly hope that’s not the case, but good God he looked bad last night.
And OrderedChaos, just start singing, “Kansas City. Kansas City here I come.”

By: OrderedChaos

OrderedChaos — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 22:39:29 +0000

Good points Pepper & Victor. Vic, you’re right, the booing was quite noticable. I, like you, refrained from booing but did seriously consider it.
More fun than the Pens’ butt-whooping last night was today’s news that the casino deal has fallen through… Maximum Schadenfreude!

By: Victor

Victor — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:45:03 +0000

I think you are remiss in not mentioning the fact the Caps were *soundly* booed at the end of the second period, and, IIRC, during the first PP of the third. I am hoping the booing woke them up somewhat. (For the record: I wasn’t one of the booers. I make it a point not to boo my favorite teams…but I was thinking about it last night.)

By: pepper

pepper — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:29:56 +0000

Definitely missed the physical play of Erskine and Brashear. I’d imagine the lack of energy during the first 50 minutes of play was in large part due to them being absent from the bench and the ice.
Still, despite playing such an ugly game, they came within a post and a defenseman’s boot at the goal line from a “lightning” fast comeback, which indeed is a shocker. From an entertainment perspective, its a breath of fresh air that we have the offensive talent to threaten a comeback – in years past I would have started switching to watch other games, deeming it a certainty that things could only get worse.
Speaking of other games, how sweet was it to watch Andy Murray get his cellar-dwelling Blues to whip up on the Pens on “national” tv?