Preparing for the Winter Classic

That's my wardrobe for tomorrow's Winter Classic in Buffalo.

I look like a goalie wearing it all. Hopefully it will keep me warm enough!

I'm hitting the road at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning for the trip. Let's go Pens!

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hockey: Penguins hang on to beat the Islanders

Phew. That was a close one. For five minutes there, I though the Penguins decided that they didn't want to win that game.

On a five-minute power play with a one-goal lead and 5:54 left in the game, you would have that that the Pittsburgh Penguins would have no problem putting away the New York Islanders. Instead, they tried their best to let the home team tie it up. I guess maybe they wanted to give Kris Letang a chance at another shootout goal.

But they did hold on to win, 3-2, and the Penguins' Tyler Kennedy was the story of the night, scoring the game-winning goal and two assists. Letang, showing off his defensive strength with a couple of great hits, impressed me as well.

Officials ejected the Islanders Chris Simon from the game after he intentionally stomped on Jarkko Ruutu's foot while Ruutu was down on the ice near the benches. That led to the five-minute power play disaster, which according to the Post-Gazette, led the Penguins to hold a players-only meeting after the game.

Next up for the Penguins, another division game against the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden. Division wins are important for the Penguins right now, as they try to climb in both the division and conference standings.

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hockey: Penguins fall to Senators, 4-1

In their first game at home since a four-game road trip and a highly emotional game in Philadelphia, the Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Ottawa Senators by a score of 4-1.

Tyler Kennedy scored the lone Penguins goal, and Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza each scored two for the Sens.

The Penguins played pretty evenly, if not better than, the Senators through the first and second periods, though their power play looked pretty awful.But they came out flat in the third period and gave up two goals before Spezza put the game away with an empty netter with less than a minute to play.

The Penguins have proved lately that they thrive in coming from behind in games, but last night, they couldn't find that spark. I do wonder why Therrien didn't pull Dany Sabourin out of the net sooner if he wanted to put the extra attacker on. He could taken him out a good 30 seconds or more before he did (play was whistled dead just as he did take him out and then called timeout). It's not likely that you'll score two goals once you pull the goalie, but you have a better chance of it the more time you have on the clock.

The Penguins hit the road again starting Saturday, with games against the Islanders, Rangers and Bruins. Since their road record (8-7-0) is better than their home record (7-7-2), hopefully they'll be able to regroup and head back to Pittsburgh for some home wins over the holidays.

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hockey: Boo you, ignorant fans

Dear handful of Penguins fans--er, idiots:

Do not "boo" the Canadian national anthem. Surely you learned from last year's playoff series against the Ottawa Senators that booing the national anthem is not akin to booing the team. So I can only imagine that, last night, you were booing either:

a) Jeff Jimmerson
b) Sidney Crosby

We all know you weren't booing Jimmerson. So, Crosby then? Or maybe it was Colby Armstrong, Jordan Staal or Georges Laraque.

When you boo a national anthem, you're insulting any and all citizens of that country. And that includes more than half of the Penguins roster. Do you think Crosby wants to hear his country's anthem booed by his own fans before a game?

For that matter, you're not offending the eight members of the Senators roster who are not Canadian. If you really want to get under their skin, pay Jeff Jimmerson to sing the Swedish, German, Russian and Czech Republic anthems as well for a completely comprehensive show of disrespect. Of course, you'll need to boo the U.S. anthem as well.

Get the picture? Stop booing "O Canada."

(For the record, if the song was "O Philadelphia," I'd be 100 percent in support of your booing.)

Sincerely,
Lady Penguin

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hockey: Penguins fall apart against the Flyers

I don't get Versus, so I couldn't watch last night's game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. I play basketball on Tuesday nights (when I'm not at Pens games, of course), so I couldn't even listen to the second half of the game.

I think I'm glad.

The Flyers routed the Pens by a score of 8-2. Losing this game, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't that big of a deal. If the Penguins had won, they would have matched a franchise record by winning all four games on a road trip. That's a pretty tall order. They could use some more wins within their own division (the Pens' Atlantic division record now stands at 3-8-1), and will need to figure out a way to avoid going 0-8 against the Flyers in the clubs' next five games against each other.

The story today isn't about the score, or about the two hat tricks by the Flyers Joffrey Lupul and R.J. Umberger. The story today is about the out-of-control mayhem that ensued in the last half of the game (apparently shortly after I walked out the door).

156 minutes of penalties. The Pens received 81 of those in the third period alone. This mess of a game heated up even more afterward, with both teams taking stabs at each other.

The Flyers' coach John Steven was quoted as calling the Penguins "undisciplined." This from a man whose players have received 52 games worth of suspensions for dirty hits this year. I agree with Coach Therrien's response. The man's in no place to criticize.

Yes, the Penguins may have been undisciplined and frustrated last night, but overall, I don't think they're an undisciplined team. This game was out of character for them, though you always expect tempers to flare in a game against the rival Flyers. Therrien blamed the Flyers for the mess, accusing them of being disrespectful by using their fist-team power play until with a five goal lead in the third period.

Certainly, it seems the Flyers are intent on paying back the Pens for the 0-8 record against them last season. And so far, the Flyers are in control.

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football: Steelers embarassed by Patriots

Yeah, the Steelers could have beaten the Patriots. But they didn't. Not even close.
Things didn't look hopeless in the first half, which the Steelers left trailing only by four points. But the second half was another story. The Patriots doubled their points total, while the Steelers failed to score at all.

It definitely seemed that Patriots were taking it to Steelers safety Anthony Smith (he of the infamous "guarantee"), especially on a 63-yd touchdown pass to Randy Moss and a Brady-Moss-Brady-Gaffney flea flicker play for a touchdown.

And so the Pats are still unbeaten. And with their next two game against the Jets and Miami (seriously??? do the football gods hate the rest of us), they've got a great chance to go for their perfect regular season in week 17 against the Giants.

(I'm crossing my fingers that the Colts can knock them out in the playoffs!)

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hockey: Shootout take two

"Ruutu, Ruutu, Rocks 'em like you do..." Sorry, I don't think I'll ever get that song out of my head now.

In Vancouver on the last of three straight games in Western Canada, the Pittsburgh Penguins went to the shootout once again, and beat the Canucks on, you guessed it, a Kris Letang goal.

Followed by a shot of coach Michel Therrien wondering why on earth he waited until the sixth shooter to give Letang a chance.

The game started out a little sloppy on both ends and was definitely a struggle for everyone but the goalies throughout. Penalty minutes totaled 38 minutes, and we saw a lot of four-on-four hockey (Sidney Crosby drew three penalties in the fist seven minutes). But the goalies were the stars tonight: both Roberto Luongo and former Canuck Dany Sabourin played great. Sabourin actually ended up making more saves than the man he backed up last season.

The Penguins lone goal cam from a sick pass by Evgeni Malkin to Petr Sykora he buried it behind Luongo. The Canucks' Ryan Kesler tied it in the third.

In overtime, Crosby had a chance to win on a penalty shot after being hauled to the ice on a breakaway. Personally, I'd rather see the two-minute power play (players have only scored on 18 percent of penalty shots in the league this year, and the last 15 attempts have missed). Plus, if Crosby has a weakness it's the penalty shot/shootout goal. Yes, he'll come through with a big one every once and again, but percentage-wise, he's not there. He missed both a penalty shot and shootout attempt last night.

The shootout went six rounds before Letang's goal won it by a score of 2-1. The other shootout goals came from the Penguins' own shootout specialist, Erik Christensen, and the Canucks' Trevor Linden.

Three road wins and four in a row overall--the Pens are on a roll. Let's hope they can bring it back east when they wrap up their road trip at Philadelphia on Tuesday.

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football: Are the Patriots their own league now?

Has anyone else noticed, on ESPN, that the New England Patriots now have their own category on the ticker at the bottom of the screen?

You know, the categories that usually say "NFL" or "MLB."

As much as I personally dislike the Patriots, I understand that they're the biggest story in sports right now. So I can understand showing ticker stories with the latest updates about their season.

But those updates should still appear under "NFL," like ever other NFL story, score and update on the ticker.

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hockey: Pens beat the Flames in shootout

Holy fake on the shootout. . .



Thank you, Kris Letang. May you now be promoted to one of our top three shootout shooters permanently.

In Calgary last night against the Flames, the Pittsburgh Penguins once again had to come from behind for the victory, but this time they had to do it twice, scoring goals while losing 1-0 and 2-1. They also needed more than regulation to do it, but were victorious in the shootout thanks to goals by Petr Sykora and Letang.

On a more disappointing note, Marc-Andre Fleury was injured early in the first period after a bad fall on the ice. His goaltending had been much more solid lately, even though that's partly because the Pens defense had been playing much better in front of him. Luckily, Dany Sabourin came in and played a solid game as well, allowing the Penguins to earn the victory.

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hockey: Penguins explode in the third

The Comeback Kids are back, folks. That's right, the make you suffer for two periods of underwhelming hockey, you might as well just turn off the TV but wait, maybe we can actually win this kids.

At the hottest ticket in Edmonton, fans who paid top dollar to witness Sidney Crosby's Western Canada debut spent the first two periods wondering what all of the hype was about. The Pittsburgh Penguins came out strong against the Oilers early in the first period, but were unable to tally a goal. The Pens seems to lose most of their muster after that, and the Oilers scored a goal of their own in each of the first two periods. Sid the Kid was virtually nonexistent. I seriously wondered if he might be feeling under the weather.

Honestly, by the end of the second period, I convinced myself we'd be seeing a shutout. The Pens weren't playing that poorly and the Oilers weren't playing that well, but Oilers goalie Roloson didn't look like he could be beat. He stopped everything thrown at him.

In the third period, however, Max Talbot scored the Penguins first goal for a second game in a row. Thanks to Therein's game of musical lines (with just 11 forwards dressed last night, he moved things around every shift), Talbot found himself in front of the net and able to dive to put away a rebound from Evgeni Malkin's shot. (Let me say it now: I think Talbot should be on the No. 2 line instead of Erik Christensen. I said it before he came back to the lineup, and he proved me right last night. Malkin's points have been down since Christensen joined his line.)

As we know with the Pens scoring this season, when it rains, it pours. Three more goals, all assisted by The Next One himself, came in the next 7:25, from Kris Letang, Colby Armstrong and Ryan Whitney. Mark Eaton also got an well-deserved two assists--as one of the Pens most valuable players defensively, he doesn't often get a chance to show up on the scoresheet.

Marc-Andre Fleury tried to make it 5-2 by shooting the puck the length of the ice for an empty netter at the end of the game. He would have had his first NHL goal if an Oiler hadn't managed to get a hand on it.

And so, the Penguins showed they still have the magic they had last year, when a come from behind victory was the norm rather than the exception. Last year, they didn't find that magic until the second half of the season. I hope this boasts well for their efforts in upcoming games.

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football: College bowl games on NFL Network?

My alma mater, Indiana University, will be playing in its first college football bowl game since 1993 this year. The IU Hoosiers are scheduled to take on Oklahoma State at the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., on Dec. 31.

Unfortunately, many of its alumni across the country will be unable to watch the game, which, for some unknown reason, will air on the NFL Network.

There's been a lot of talk this year debating the NFL's decision to air some of its own games on the NFL Network, because of the limited and costly availability of the premium station. At least in case of those games, I think the NFL saves itself by airing the games on local networks in the cities of the two teams involved.

I'm not sure if these college bowl games will be shown in local market networks or not, but I really hope so. Meanwhile, sports leagues and conferences around the country continue to push their own networks more and more. The Big Ten Network presents the same issues to IU fans.

The league-specific networks may be great for the leagues, but not for the fans. If your cable or satellite provider even offers the network, you have to purchase it as part of a premium package with a bunch of other stations that you probably don't want. In an age where information is becoming more and more accessible, the league executives are making games harder and more expensive to watch.

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hockey: Recchi on waivers

TSN reports that the Pittsburgh Penguins have placed Penguins right winger Mark Recchi on waivers.

I expected that Recchi would go; he's been a healthy scratch in seven of the last eight games. I also suspected it might happen today, since last night was Mark Recchi Bobblehead night, and as silly as it sounds, the team wouldn't want to trade him before that.

I am surprised, however, that they chose to place him on waivers instead of trade him. Waivers means that we could lose him for nothing, when a trade could have brought either a player for the current roster or a prospect. Is it possible that no one wants him?

Recchi's been with the Penguins off and on since the team drafted him in 1988. They've traded him twice, to the Flyers during the 1991-1992 season and most recently for a short stay with the Hurricanes in 2006. His home and family are in Pittsburgh, and I admire that he wants to be a part of this team. I thought the Penguins made a mistake by resigning him for the 2006-2007 season, but I'm happy that he proved me wrong.

But he's been struggling this season, and coach Michel Therrien has made the right decision by scratching him. I understand, as a veteran player, that he wants to be on a team where he's going to get some playing time. I wish he could retire as a Penguin, but if that can't happen, I hope he finds a fit with another team.

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football: Unbeaten but not unbeatable

Can you believe how close the Baltimore Ravens came to knocking off the undefeated New England Patriots last night? I don't know which is more unbelievable: that they were that close to beating them and held a lead, or that they manged not beat them in the last minute of the game.

Of course, I'm one to talk. I never believed Pitt could beat WVU this weekend either (should have kept my mouth shut on that one!).

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hockey: Penguins get third in a row at home

After playing two-thirds of a pathetic game in Toronto on Saturday, the Pittsburgh Penguins bounced backed Monday night with a convincing win against the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-1.

Max Talbot, in his first game back from an injury, scored the first goal off a pass from the incredible Georges Laraque, who certainly seemed up for a game against his old team. Kris Letang and Tyler Kennedy (who I am quickly falling in love with!) put the other two goals in the net.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin looked like hey were both trying their hardest to impress The Great One, aka Wayne Gretsky and coach of the Coyotes. Neither got a goal, though they had the two assists on Letang's power play tally.

BUT, I really think it's a good thing that they didn't score. For most of the season, the Penguin's biggest problem has been that no one other than Sid and Geno could score. Winning games without those two scoring goals means that everyone else is picking up their game--something we've finally started to see the last couple of weeks.

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football: Pitt's chance to beat WVU? Non-existent

I've laughed several time this week while reading the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's pregame coverage of today's Backyard Brawl (Pitt Panthers vs. West Virginia Mountaineers). Much of the coverage suggested that Pitt actually has a chance to beat their biggest rival.

No way. West Virginia, ranked No. 2 in the BCS Standings and the AP pool, and No. 1 in the USA Today poll, simply needs to win this game to make it the national championship. Pitt stopped dreaming about being ranked a long time ago, and their 2-4 Big East record can't even send shivers of fear to WVU. The game's in Morgantown, and I'd bet money on couches being burned in a victory celebration tonight.

Meanwhile, Pitt seems to favor rewarding failure. They've extended football coach Dave Wannstedt's contract, and rehired former athletic director Steve Pederson (yeah, that's right, the man who tried to change Pitt to Pittsburgh).

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hockey: Penguins streak continues

Just a short post on last night's game, since the Pens play again tonight against the Maple Leafs in Toronto.

Last night, the Pittsburgh Penguins extended their winning streak to three games, beating the Dallas Stars 4-1. I had worried that almost a week off between games might cause them to lose their momentum, but they looked great once again, and against a good team (the Stars currently lead the Pacific division).

I unfortunately missed the first Penguins goal, as people in front of me were still trying to get to their seats. Let me say this to anyone who attends a hockey game: if you can't make it to your seat before the game starts or can't manage to stay their during the period, at least have the courtesy to wait until a stop in action before blocking everyone else's view of the ice. Or stay home.

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football: Late Field Goal Earns Steelers a "Thrilling" Victory

Oh. My. Goodness. Could that game have been any more painful to watch? The Pittsburgh Steelers avoided setting the record for the first NFL game to go into overtime scoreless by kicking a field goal with seconds left to beat the still winless Miami Dolphins 3-0. The score came on the first drive of the game to make it inside of the red zone (the Dolphins made it to the 20 yd line once, only to take a delay of game penalty on their field goal attempt).



Granted, you can't really blame the awfulness of this game on either team. The heavy rains and a layer of new sod (put in place after Friday's four WPIAL high school championship games and a Pitt football game on Saturday) coupled to create laughable field conditions. And Heinz Field isn't exactly known for its great field. Most of the paint came off with the tarp, so players probably just didn't know exactly where that red zone was anyway. Mud and divots covered the field, and the grounds crew apparently used what Joey Porter (back in Pittsburgh in a Dolphins uniform) described as "cat litter" to attempt to absorb some of the moisture.



I think my favorite part of the game was when a ball, punted by the Dolphins in the thrid quarter, plopped down into the mud and went no where. Kind of like the game.

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hockey: Penguins dominate the Thrashers for an important win

Wow. I'm out of town right now, so I could only listen to tonight's game over the Internet, but it certainly sounded like the Pittsburgh Penguins played 60 minutes of solid hockey to beat the Thrashers 5-0 at Mellon Arena. The score matches the best margin of victory this year for the Penguins, who beat New Jersey 5-0 on Nov. 5.

This was a big win for the Penguins, who earned back-to-back wins for the first time in more than a month (they won three in a row Oct. 19-23), and did it against a team that won 11 of its last 15 games.

The Penguins came out strong and leaped to a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period. It looks like Jordan Staal and Colby Armstrong may finally break out of their slumps, as each scored a goal tonight (in both cases, their second of the season). Ryan Malone was the other first period scorer, and Sidney Crosby and Ryan Whitney added a goal each during the second and third periods to round out the scoring.

It didn't sound to me like Marc-Andre Fleury was challenged in net too much tonight, but still an important milestone for him, as he has, to put it mildly, struggled this season. Let's hope he can string together several solid performances in a row now.

With such an impressive performance, it's hard to believe that Evgeni Malkin didn't earn a goal or an assist tonight. His 15-game point streak came to end; although Mike Lange mentioned tonight that it was the longest point streak for a Russian player.

Of course, I think it's important that the Penguins learn to score when Crosby and Malkin aren't involved. . .or maybe even on the ice. In the last two games, they have finally started to do just that, and have earned wins for their troubles.

The Penguins don't play again until Friday, Nov. 30, against the Dallas Stars. That gives them five days off, which hopefully will be a good opportunity to build on what they did tonight and be prepared for the next 3/4 of the season.

If we had lost these last two games, it wouldn't have surprised me if the Penguins would have fired head coach Michel Therrien during the time off. But now that they enter this break with two consecutive victories, I don't see them pulling the trigger.

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Welcome to Sports Bird!

Check back soon to see new posts on Sports Bird, a blog for women to share their views on their favorite sports teams.

Interested in becoming a Sports Bird blogger? Email Lady Penguin for more details!

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