Shotgun

Let's see how many completely unrelated things I can get into one post...

I've been taking care of my friend's little boy (Owen - he's three) this week as my buddy has been sent out of state for work and his wife had late class a couple times this week. Owen is adorable, but he's in that "Why?" phase so he just keeps asking "Why" everything. Thinking about it right now, it's cute. After a couple hours of it, though, not always so much. ;) Nonetheless, he's a good kid so I've enjoyed taking care of him.

Thanks to Leo, I've found a new distraction on the web: Tiki Bar TV. They're basically little comedy skits produced by a couple guys in Canada. They're just plain funny. Personally, I like the Drink Bot episode.

And, lest I go an entire post without mentioning hockey (I'm constantly reminded how much everyone loves reading about it), the Pens topped the Bruins last night, 4-2, moving into first place in the Atlantic division and, for the time being, claiming the number 2 seed in the East. The Pens are just the 5th team in the league to reach the 100 point plateau. The Pens have just 4 games left in their regular season schedule.

Spring?

Apparently, there are some out there that believe I should post about something besides hockey every once in a while. What you have to realize is that the current sports scene consists of an NCAA tournament that contains only teams that I actively dislike, Cactus League baseall, and NBA basketball, in which the last article I saw was discussion whether or not Kobe is better than MJ (seriously?). So, for now, anyway, hockey is what gets me by.

That said, I realize that it's been a while since I've posted about anything else, so here goes.

It would certainly seem to be graduation time. I know of three close friends that are all graduating from one program or another in the next couple months. Nate, of course, is graduating from FVTC (mad props, Tron). I also have a buddy here in Rochester that is graduating from U of M and another friend that is graduating from nursing school. So congrats to all of 'em. I know that they've all put in a lot of time and effort to get through it and I think it's great.

Of course, with all those folks finishing school, everyone is looking to move. The two friends in Rochester are moving to North Carolina and Oregon, respectively. Who knows where Nate'll end up, but I'm guessing it won't be any closer to me. So, in the end, as happy as I am for everyone to be graduating, I'm going to be dang lonely, pretty soon.

This weekend, of course, was gorgeous. It was a bit rainy on Saturday, but Sunday was great so I was outside to take it in. I got some fertilizer down on the lawn and garden, and tried to clean up the garage a little. In a completely ironic note, however, now that things are warming up, I'm coming down with a cold. Blech. I've gone through about a box of kleenex today, alone.

Last night, I got some guys to come out to my place to play some cards. As we had five people, we obviously had to play sheephead. And, also obvious, I was the only one there that knew how to play. So I should rephrase and say that I spent the bulk of the night trying to teach everyone else how to play sheephead. I just never get to play any more - living in Minnesota will do that to you. Next time they come over to play cards, we're playing sheephead and I'm making them all old-fashioneds. It'll be like being back home.

Anyway, that's what I got going on. And, just because I can't resist putting in a little hockey, this goal, scored by Blake Wheeler in overtime lifted Minnesota over North Dakota in the WCHA championship game. This one'll be remembered for a long time.

Pens Roll

The Pens latest run just got better over the weekend. The Pens won two more over the weekend, besting both Montreal and Ottawa. With those two victories, Pittsburgh has pulled to within just 1 game of division leading New Jersey. With their win over Ottawa, which went to a shootout, the Penguins pulled even with Ottawa in the points race for 4th place in the East, with 1 game in hand. The Penguins have now gone 8-1-1 over their last 10 games, dating back to March 1st.

Their next matchup will be tonight against a desperate Rangers club. While the Penguins are jockeying for position atop the East conference standings, the Rangers are just trying to make the playoffs. Coming into tonight's set, the Rangers hold the 8th and final playoff spot in the East. However, there are three teams (Islanders, Maple Leafs, and Bruins) just one point back.

Sidney Crosby has definitely helped the Penguins' cause of late. In their last 6 games, Crosby has 5 goals and 5 assists, including this one, in which he scored against 4 defenders, against Montreal.




Crosby leads the NHL in points by 12. He currently has 108. In second place is Vincent Lecavalier, with 96.

March of the Penguins

It's been a good March for Pens fans. Since the start of the month, the Pens have played 8 games. They've gone 6-1-1 during that stretch, claiming 13 of the 16 possible points and only once failing to earn a point. Barring some catastrophe, the Pens are a lock for the playoffs.

Their latest accomplishment includes victories in two back-to-back games. It's hard enough to win 2 games in a row with no rest in beween. Now throw in the fact that Tuesday's game was against conference leading Buffalo and Wednesday's game against division leading New Jersey (in New Jersey) and you've got a moderately heroic feat. The Pens continue to threaten to steal the lead in the Atlantic division from the Devils, but they've still got their work cut out for them. New Jersey leads Pittsburgh by just 4 points (thanks to last night's 3-0 win by Pittsburgh), but they have only 12 games left on the schedule and 11 of those are against teams with winning records. The Pens and Devils will not face each other again this season (The Devil's won the season series 3-4-1.) However, if the Pens can manage to catch the Devils, they'd vault from being the #4 seed in the East to a #2 seed. It's a tall order, but not out of the reach of a hot club.

Add to their winning ways the fact that owner Mario Lemieux just signed an agreement with the city of Pittsburgh to build a new stadium and keep the Pens in Pittsburgh for the next 30 years, and you've got a good couple weeks going in Steel Town. Here's wishing the Pens some good fortune down the playoff stretch.

Of Note: Of the 8 games Pittsburgh has played in the month of March, 6 have gone to overtime - 5 of those to shootouts - Pittsburgh is 5-1 in those games. Goaltender Joceluyn Thibault got the starting nod against Jersey last night, over embattled goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury; Thibault put in a stellar performance, outdueling perennial all-star Martin Brodeur by making 24 saves and recording his first shoutout of the season.

The Onion Said So...

The NHL is headed to the food network.



Now that I have your attention, you can read about it here.

Pens Update

The Pens pulled off a rather improbable victory last night in what was a huge game for them, coming down the playoff stretch. They took on the Ottowa Senators, who led the Pens by just 2 points in the Eastern Conference standings coming into the game.

Down 4-1 in the third, rookie Jordan Staal scored an unassisted shorthanded goal with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game.





With the shorthanded goal sparking the Pens, they struck again just a minute and a half later. The new recruit, Gary Roberts (acquired on 2/27, just before the trade deadline) scored a goal to bring the lead down to 1 and a minute after that, Ryan Malone tied the game. Sidney Crosby finally sealed the deal in an overtime shootout to cap off the Pens comeback and victory.

The Senators earned a point for making it to overtime, but the Pens picked up a big point in that game and still have one game in hand over the Sens.

Of Note: Jordan Staal, who was not expected to be on the Pens roster this season, but sent to Wilkes-Barre, now leads the league in shorthanded goals, with 7. Gary Roberts has played just 3 games with the Pens, but has contributed 2 goals and 2 assists in those three games. Sidney Crosby has been shut out in 4 of the Pens last 5 games - he has 1 goal and 0 assists since 2/25 - but he still leads the NHL points race by 9. Despite being 6th in the NHL with 31 wins, goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has been struggling in net, as of late - in his last 10 games, he has allowed 35 goals on 260 shots for a save percentage of a paltry 86.5%. Fleury was pulled from last night's game at the end of the first period, after allowing 3 goals on just 7 shots. Serving as his backup, netminder Jocelyn Thibault has allowed 10 goals on 121 shots, for a save percentage of 91.7% since the start of February.

Up Next: The Pens take on the division leading Devils New Jersey Devils on Thusday night. If the Pens have any hopes of wrenching the division title away from the Devils this season, they absolutely must take advantage of their two remaining meetings, including this tilt.