Apparently the key to a beautiful sunny day is for me to complain about the rain first thing in the morning. It turned out to be great today, and I had a real summery dinner- a blackened burger with blue cheese, asparagus, sliced tomatoes, and kale.
At any rate, go Pens.
shoutingattherain
Lets. Go. Pens!
Woo. Hoo!
The Cat Who Would Be Tunch
Screw the Pens.
lamh31
Another “anonymous” blogger from Obsidian Wings moderate blog “outted” because the conservative critic, did not like being criticised. First Hilzoy, now publius: Stay Classy Ed Whelan
The Saff
The best way to watch hockey is “Hockey Night in Canada.” I learned the words to “O Canada” years ago by watching these broadcasts. It’s one of the benefits of living in southeast lower Michigan.
And Steve Yzerman is one of the coolest guys evah, not to mention cute.
freelancer
Game of lowball, huh?
Martin
Jesus, make Obama look like a fucking caveman, why don’t you?
gwangung
@lamh31: Wouldn’t this belong in the Complete Moron thread?
Ked
…dude. That’s a hell of a way to start a game. I only wish I had some alcohol to go with it.
Is kale elitist, also?
asiangrrlMN
@lamh31: Prick. Whelan, that is. The same thing happened on my other fave political blog, The Mudflats (about Alaskan politics), only it was done by a congressman with anger issues. When your shit is weak, though, this is what you do.
kid bitzer
whelan sure knows how to show the world that he worked in the bush administration.
the stink of mediocrity, cowardice, mendacity and brown-shirted thuggery just never leaves those guys.
heckuva job, eddie.
Death By Mosquito Truck
I’d be pretty pissed off if anyone ever outed me.
Death By Mosquito Truck
Fuck, I think I just outed myself.
Dennis Doubleday
Pretty weak goalie interference call–Zetterberg hit him more than Kunitz. Fleury has been knocked down in identical manner several times in the series.
Nicole
Beautiful day at Belmont- especially when you pick the winner and that winner is 11-1 odds. Bummer for Borel, though.
Kathy
Stay classy wing-nuts, on to other matters, Wings 1-0 Yea! This series is going to be tough. John’s comment from last year “they (the Wings) look uhmm, better than us” no longer applies with the same force.
P.S. does anyone else think that the NHL commercial with all the different player’s hoisting the cup is as cool as I do?
Laura W
Appalachian elitist. We’re the snottiest kind.
Notorious P.A.T.
Go Wings! Please? I have nothing else in my life.
kid bitzer
12–
wait, you mean “death by mosquito truck” is not your real name?
just who *am* i talking to on this blog?
Laura W
@Notorious P.A.T.: We are all deeply hurt by that statement.
@Kathy: Too much clothing.
Death By Mosquito Truck
If the Pens lose, it’s gonna doublesuck for me because I’ve had to watch Terry Fucking McAuliffe invoking the ever-relevant JFK and the 60s space program every commercial break.
Shoot me.
Laura W
@Death By Mosquito Truck: So mute the commercials and go weigh in on the dog thread. There’s not enough advice over there quite yet.
John Cole
@lamh31: Charming.
For those of you keeping score at home, the current President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center not only worked for the Bush administration OLC while they were creating the legal justification for torture, but is now using their email address to send juvenile emails while outing anonymous bloggers because they pointed out he was wrong.
Also, the only bloggers who have retained their anonymity at ObWi are the two conservatives. Coincidence?
I swear, it is like the Republicans are trying to drive me away from the party for life.
John Cole
@Nicole: Sorry I forgot a thread for you Nicole, but you didn’t remind me.
John Cole
Apparently we only got one period of the awesome version of the Pens, and that was used up in game 4.
Ecks
For those who don’t get it on TV or just want different commercials, you can find multiple streams online:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hockey-live
(unless the score gets too far out of hand, in which case it might get too depressing).
UPDATE: Like, e.g,, for instance, THAT. krap.
John Cole
Excellent. Another Wings power play. Nothing bad can happen here.
John Cole
Soooo. Anything good on tv tonight? HBO is airing the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II, and I think I would prefer chemical castration over watching that.
Ked
I know things are bad in Detroit right now, but look at all those empty rinkside seats!
Also, do you suppose that the Wings are spiking the visitors Gatorade? I’m cheering for Detroit, but it’s like Pittsburgh just is a totally different team on this ice and I want a closer game. Oh, well…
kwAwk
I’m thinking what in the world did that poor burger do to you?
Death By Mosquito Truck
Jesus, this is a fucking massacre.
Ked
If you get Palladia, there’s a docu-concert premiere of the recent Iron Maiden tour that looks interesting. I’m DVRing, anyway.
Palladia seems to be the latest iteration of Viacom’s MTV family, this time dedicated HD programming. So far, it’s all concerts and movies and music videos as interstitial fillers, and no animation or reality in sight. We’ll see how long that lasts, but so far it rocks hard, though repeats material often.
And if you get Showtime (I don’t) there’s a decent EliteXC card. Arlovski comes in for a fight, and Lawler/Shields oughta be good.
Laura W
@John Cole: The Player is on in 10 min on 550 here. I have no idea what it is. IFC? Talented Mr. Ripley on SHO at 10. Larry King has Dr. Drew on right now discussing Susan Boyle’s breakdown and the tragic demise of John and Kate’s marriage. That might be promising.
gwangung
@John Cole: John, I am awe in your ability to distill this down into a nugget of pure, concentrated snarkage without having to use one hint of sarcasm or one cross word. That’s exactly it.
gex
@Laura W: Appalachian elitists? My God, Real America ™ is disappearing rapidly. No wonder the wingnuts are in freak out mode.
gex
@John Cole: Time for a blogging ethics panel!
shoutingattherain
Will the Pens ever show up for a 2nd period?
Joe Lisboa
Hey, John: semi-(not really)-funny story. I was just about to post a pre-game, good-natured “Good luck to your team, but I’m still sticking my by pre-series ‘Wings in 6′ prediction”-type post when my laptop inexplicably died. Like, literally as I was about to strike the “Post” button, it up and died. Despite my sense that this was a bad, bad omen about the fate of my Wings, lo-and-behold, when I finally get it working again (albeit after a period-and-a-half of hockey) it appears that simply reposting my original comment could now come across as smug and self-satisfied, so I’ll reword it. So:
While I am still sticking with my pre-series prediction of Wings in 6, and while it appears this may turn into a Motor City bloodbath, I can only give your beloved Pens a hearty “well done,” insofar as they’ve most certainly improved since last (post-)season and have made many a Wings fan here in Detroit take to nail-biting and anxiety, especially after that 2nd period in that last game. Oy vey!
Whatever the outcome, best of luck to your team and thanks for playing host for such a motley e-crue of folks whose opinions (BOB not withstanding) I generally respect and enjoy reading. That said, I just saw a Wings defenseman stop a one-on-one whilst stickless. Just sayin’ :)
Kathy
Ok, for those of you who are finished with the game, there is a pretty good auto race on the Speed Channel. (My hubby keeps insisting on flipping the channel to it anyway.)
Also, to Laura W. the drivers are difficult to see in their cars but when interviewed are among the hottest athletes ever. Just turn the sound down and enjoy.
Ooooh 5-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joe Lisboa
Okay, “screw that political correctness” [asterisk] — Wings 5-0!!! Whoo-hoo!
[asterisk] … quoth the leading intellectual light of the current GOP. And, shite, but pulling Fleury? Really?!
Joe Lisboa
[ this space intentionally left blank ]
Kathy
5 on 3 and they can’t score?
John Cole
@Kathy: What are you talking about? Is there a game on or something? Aren’t we all watching D-Day on the History channel?
Morbo
@Kathy: Considerate of them, no?
Joe Lisboa
I know, right? I’m sure this makes me a sore winner or something, but man there’s nothing quite like watching the home team set-up and execute a blowout in a Finals playoff series. Save for the first two home games in last year’s Stanley Cup series, I haven’t beamed this much (in a sports-related way) since the Pistons-Lakers Finals series in ’04. Go Wings!
J. Michael Neal
Last change, goofy boards, and Datsyuk is back.
Osgood has an assist.
john@mm
@ J. Michael Neal “And Datsyuk is back”
That says it all.
Joe Lisboa
(Sorry, John: gotta address this continued slaughter.)
“Last change, goofy boards, and Datsyuk is back.”
Haha, Mr. J Michael Neal, I swear I read your above comment at least 3 or 4 times (compulsively hitting “re-load” because I’m stuck at home in full-on Saturday night loser mode) and each and every time I could’ve sworn it read “goofy beards” instead of, you know, what you actually wrote. What’s worse is, so far as playoff hockey is concerned, my alternate reading parses quite well, too. Anyways, sorry John, but if the Wings have the penalty-kill back — which we appear to have, based on that ill-advised Hossa-checking-goalie penalty we just killed — then the Pens are toast.
One cannot underestimate the role played by Datsyuk on this particular team. Holy crap, they’re gonna make it 6-0, aren’t they? No real signs of letting off the gas just yet.
Nicole
@John Cole: S’okay- had I actually attempted to post a comment on a Belmont thread it would have read something like:
“Is really prettyand thae dirnt kthis strong thisy ear with gin in it. Horses are noice.”
(This year the “Belmont Breeze” was replaced by the “White Carnation” which was wicked strong. Gin, white cranberry juice and Fresca)
It was a beautiful day and all the horses came back safe. And I am now sober again and feeling smug for having bet on Summer Bird. And also wussy for not being confident enough to bet more than $2.00.
Comrade Kevin
@John Cole: I’m watching the A’s put a pasting on the Orioles.
Gary Farber
“Also, the only bloggers who have retained their anonymity at ObWi are the two conservatives. ”
Does anyone know who “Eric Martin” really is?
In a deep, to the depths of his soul, way, I mean.
Also, if you haven’t seen The Player, you really should.
Yutsano
OT: Shouldn’t Pamela and her scandaluth jubleys have cycled through their ad time by now?
Kathy
John-sorry actually I am watching the IRL race and I should have added “just sayin” to my 5 on 3 comment.
D-Day show looks interesting but I would prefer “Deadliest Catch” :)
Nicole, I so want to go drinking with you!
Left Coast Tom
@The Saff:
The fact that their cameramen know how to follow the puck is another benefit.
grimc
@The Saff:
Just out of curiosity–wasn’t there some issue about Hockey Night In Canada’s theme song a while back? IIRC, and I’m not sure I do, the contract for song usage was up, the CBC or whomever opted to pay for a composer to come up with a different theme song instead of continuing to pay royalties to the original composer, and it was blasphemy in the Canadian hockey world.
What ever happened with that?
Andy K
@Left Coast Tom:
They’re using the same cameramen. It’s the directors in the truck that make the difference.
Andy K
I’m losing respect for Malkin by the minute. That chippy shit he does when the Pens are in the hole is really immature. If you’re going to pull that, do it from the second the puck is dropped at the beginning of the game, like Claude LeMieux used to do.
Yutsano
Oh yeah, that caused a HUGE stink. (I used to date a Canadian so I check on Canadian news every now and again.) CBC ran a contest to have a new theme song composed but the old one is still very much beloved by Canadians across the country. The new theme isn’t nearly as popular, but yeah, CBC couldn’t get the royalty issue straightened out and made a pretty tone-deaf move to resolve it. It wasn’t like the original rights holders wanted a fortune or anything, just seemed more like the CBC was being a bunch of dumbdoneys about it. I THINK CTV ended up buying the rights to it but don’t quote me on that as it’s pretty much faded from memory now.
Joe Lisboa
(Flagged for non-John consumption)
Go Wings!!! 5-0! Another playoff shut-out for Osgood — who, exactly, is left denying his HOF bona fides now, I’d like to know? — and the sort of blow-out that even the homer die-hards didn’t call for, much less see coming. Detroit’s gonna hoist that Cup for back-to-back seasons.
Datsyuk was the (oft-silent, admittedly) difference maker in this one, I suspect. See you back in Pittsburgh.
Dave
Regarding the HNIC theme song, a competition was held and one of over 5,000 entries was chosen.
some guy named comrade mattski
Woot
Nicole
@Kathy: Awww… Smiley icon.
tom
@Yutsano Yes, CTV bought the rights to the original HNIC theme song. I grew up in suburban Detroit and now live in Ann Arbor (either of which probably puts me in John Cole’s doghouse), and am very happy that I can watch the finals on CBC. Amazingly, this evening Don Cherry is wearing a conservative (for him) suit.
Great game for the Wings! The Pens completely lost it – stupid penalties throughout the 2nd and 3rd periods.
asiangrrlMN
@Andy K: Shit, when I saw Malkin….well, you can guess what I thought. What a sucky game.
John Cole
So they are interviewing yinzers after the game, and one lady said “You shouldn’t pull Fleurry, you should stick with the guy who got you there.”
She was apparently under the impression that pulling him was punishment, when it was actually done to save him from being further humiliated and from losing all confidence before the now really important game 6. People are just morons.
Yutsano
Ahh for the days I used to live in Western Washington and CBC was part of the basic cable package. Now I live in the hickish desert part and get the typical American crap. Man I can’t move back to Seattle fast enough!
tom
@John Cole – never heard of “yinzers” before.
J. Michael Neal
That would be me. I’m a huge Osgood fan, but he’s not a Hall of Fame quality goalie. He’s a good, but not great, goalie who is a perfect fit for this team. He works cheap, delivers an adequate performance most nights, doesn’t let the bad games get into his head, and is well liked in the dressing room.
He might get into the Hall of Fame, but it would be a testament to the voters using the wrong numbers. Wins is about as useful a stat for goalies as it is for pitchers. It’s far too dependent upon how the rest of the team plays.
All that said, one more win, and Ozzie will be hoisting the Conn Smythe, and deservedly so. No one else has really stood out for the Wings these playoffs. Franzen was huge early, but not so much now. Cleary has scored some big goals, and would probably be my second choice. Hank and Pavel have played fantastic defense, but not enough to win MVP. For the first time in this run, the Wings might win the Cup without Nick Lidstrom being their best player. Honestly, he should have won the Conn Smythe each of the last four times they won, but that would be boring.
J. Michael Neal
@tom: Just got home from visiting my parents in Ann Arbor yesterday.
Andy K
@asiangrrlMN:
Didn’t want to look up the spelling of his first name- hey, it’s the gogo ’90’s, who has time for that?- but I foresaw the misunderstanding. Sorry.
John Cole
@tom: Go here. A yinzer is someone from Pittbburgh who speaks with the thick Pittsburgh accent and says “yinz” for “you all” or what not.
“Yinz guys goin’ donntonn ta watch the Stillers?
Andy K
@J. Michael Neal:
I’m not so sure it isn’t one of those Roger Crozier years, where someone from the losing side wins the award. As pissy as he’s been at times in this series, I think there might be a case for Malkin to win it- unlike Crosby, he seems to have shown up for this series, and he was playing great earlier, too.
burnspbesq
Well, the first 7 1/2 minutes should be youtube’d and sent to anyone who thinks they don’t like hockey. That was teh real stuff.
At that point, I switched over to the US-Honduras match, which the US won, 2-1.
Apparently things didn’t go well for the Pens.
Sad day for older hockey fans. The Aud was demolished today.
J. Michael Neal
@Andy K: Malkin is all of +1 in the playoffs, and -2 in this series. Of his 35 points, 16 have come on the power play. Power play goals count as much as any others, but he hasn’t been a standout at even strength. That’s with the Wings keying completely on Crosby.
Andy K
@burnspbesq:
How did the US look tonight? They were horrible in Costa Rica earlier in the week.
Andy K
@J. Michael Neal:
Yeah, not so great. I’ve been too busy to scour the stat sheets to have noticed that. You’re probably right about Ozzie, then. No one on the Wings has stood out consistently throughout the playoffs.
burnspbesq
@Andy K:
Good enough to win, but hardly dominant.
They gave up another early goal: Dempsey was dicking around with the ball in the middle of the park and got stripped, and Carlos Costly ripped one from the top of the box that went about two inches inside the post. No keeper on earth could have done anything about it.
The US scored on a Donovan PK late in the first half, and on a header by Bocanegra off a goalmouth scramble after a corner in the 68th.
Feilhaber came on at the half for Mastroeni and was really good. Bornstein and Spector were a huge improvement over Beasley and Wynne on the outside of the defense. I have no idea why Spector doesn’t get 100 percent of the playing time at right back when healthy.
Dempsey blew. All night. He botched a setup from Feilhaber that I would convert 80 percent of the time.
Altidore and Casey were a waste of time. Boca and Gooch were rocks. Timmeh did what needed to be done.
Andy K
@burnspbesq:
The USMNT is best when Hejduk is at left back. Hope he’s healthy in time for the game at the Azteca. I agree with you on Spector. I don’t know if DMB and Wynne even deserve invites to camp in the future.
So….Was Jozy getting any service tonight? Do you think Bradley would have helped if he hadn’t taken that stupid yellow earler this week? And, most importantly: How long did Landycakes take to set up for the PK? Guy makes Mike “The Human Rain Delay” Hargrove look like Speedy Gonzales.
burnspbesq
@Andy K:
Jozy was getting into decent positions, and he was getting service, but his first touch was pretty bad most of the night. I don’t think they really missed Bradley all that much, because Ricardo Clark played the best match I’ve seen him play in a long time.
Mexico lost to El Salvador. WTF is going on down there?
Andy K
@burnspbesq:
I just saw that about Mexico. Shambles. We might actually pull points from that game.
KG
No, I’m pretty sure you’re mistaken about that. The NBA didn’t play the Finals in 2004. I remember thinking how strange it was, but yeah, no, there were no NBA Finals in 2004.
Notorious P.A.T.
@KG:
I beg to differ.
There was no presidential election in 2004. I think that’s where this confusion comes from.
Ditch Digger
Ken Holland is the greatest GM the sport has ever known. To do what he has done in the modern day 30 team NHL is really unbelievable. And that pisses me off as a guy that lives a 30 minute drive away from his hometown and 4 hours from the Canucks.
I’m not surprised at the outcome, if you believed the whispers Mike Ilitch might have been fired if they lost this game!
Andy K
@Ditch Digger:
FIFY
Until the lockout, I thought of Holland as merely the successor to Jimmy Devellano, able to reach into the Ilitch’s pockets any time he wanted to. But what Holland has done under the salary cap amazes me.
southpaw
Pity Ed Whelan wasn’t around for the revolution or the founding. George III could have really used his services.
rs
Osgood deserves the Conn Smythe this year. He’s been the difference in games against the Ducks, the Blackhawks, and early in the series against the Penguins.
Datsyuk might be the most invisible premier player in all of sports, not only to many fans, but sadly to much of the media as well. Malkin or Crosby missing from the Penguins lineup would be the overarching story of these finals, yet Datsyuks absence from the Wings lineup is hardly noticed until he returns and, oh yeah, by the way, he’s one of the finalists for the Hart Trophy and the best two-way forward in the game (if Zetteberg isn’t) and gee-whiz, the Red Wings are a better team when he’s on the ice. Talbot’s cheap-ass slash at Datsyuk’s (injured?) foot, reminiscent of the cheap shot that Roberts took at Franzen’s concussed head last year, almost makes me wish they dress Joe Kocur for Game Six.
No way Babcock is gone, regardless of outcome.
Ditch Digger
Nah Andy K, i meant Ilitch, was just being an ass regarding how the reporters are so desparate for a storyline they’ll report almost anything.
Joe
Uh, not to hijack a thread or anything, but why are there ads for 9/11 conspiracy theorists on the front-page sidebar now?
Points to this:http://www.lulu.com/content/7233385
Andy K
@rs:
McCarty is still under contract, iirc. Played here in Grand Rapids this year.
@Ditch Digger:
Thanks for the clarification. I do wonder how badly this economy is effecting Ilitch, though. They were closing Little Cesar’s shops in Michigan before the recession hit the state in ’01. I’d hate to see him have to sell the Wings and Tigers.
Ripley
Gods, this community can stay on topic. Is there an award for that? BJFTW.
Ecks
@Andy K: He’s done some pretty amazing things, but it sure helps when you have people like Franzen show up, turn into stars, and then sign 10 year contracts to play for almost nothing. Any other team and Franzen would have played 2 years, wracked up a big market value and walked. And he’s Swedish so not even a home team discount. It’s frickin’ unfair is what it is :(((((
J. Michael Neal
@Ecks: The Red Wings get players cheaply for two reasons. The first is obvious: they win. The other isn’t to a lot of people: they treat their players better than just about any other organization in sports. Once you’re a part of the Wings’ family, you have a home. Don’t think it goes unnoticed that Vladimir Konstantinov and Jiri Fischer are still valued members of the team. Don’t think it goes unnoticed that Darren McCarty was resigned mostly to help him find structure in his life after depression, a relapse into alcoholism and a bankruptcy.
Also, you have to understand what the ridiculously long contracts Zetterberg and Franzen signed are: exploitation of a loophole in the salary cap. Those are really seven and five year contracts respectively, with extra years at really low salaries tacked on. The cap hit is the average annual salary of the contract, so those extra years serve to bring down the hit. Expect them to get renegotiated before anyone is playing for the lower figures.
Johnny Pez
As long as we’re talking about 2004, I’d just like to say this: ALCS.
That is all.
Bostondreams
@Johnny Pez:
Ah, the 2004 ALCS. Yes, now that was, simply put, wicked awesome.
If my Bruins can’t do it…go Pens!
HyperIon
@Andy K: you were right about the canucks. and appear to be right about the red wings.
detroit, detroit, got a hell of a hockey team.
got a left-handed way of making a man sign up for that automotive dream….
bago
In addition to a sarcasm tag, I think the next HTML expansion should have some way of expressing the “Zorak Blink”. For that moment when you need to express laughter/incredulity and confusion in the same second. For those of you not up on your Space Ghost, it’s the sound that you make when someone pulls a rhetorical 180 inside of two sentences. This is pretty much implied whenever a Colbert script has a period. It’s the go-to weapon in tragicomedy.
DonnaInMichigan
3 down, 1 to go…
Go Wings!!!!!…