Morning Dump, Pens Edition

"I'll meet you in the schoolyard... for all the marbles on Friday night in Detroit!" - Mike Lange after Game 6

The Pirates lost again yesterday, but the big Pirates news yesterday was the draft. I was at the hockey game last night, so I didn't delve into it too much, perhaps another author here can write more, but my initial thought is that we may have went back to Dave Littlefield-esque drafts...

The Steelers got their rings yesterday, and goddamn that's a gaudy ring. I may not be able to lift my arm while wearing that.

On to the Pens though, and whoa boy what a game.

First, the links.

- Laziness and no coffee yet today make for simply a link to Seth at the P-G and his link dump for the majority of today's fodder.

Quickly, one link that stuck out to me was this one quoting Zetterberg:

"You can't ask for anything better than Game 7 at home." - Detroit forward Henrik Zetterberg.

Really?

How about a sweep, or a win in 5 or 6?

The way it was made to sound this series, we shoulda been done after the first 2 games, and then easily we were supposed to roll over in Game 6 last night after that horrible Game 5.

Henrik is talking out his wazoo there. That there's scare talk. He's stunned they lost. Be afraid...

- Speaking again of Seth at the P-G, he does a great recap.

And now for my recap, which will consist of random junk.

Leaving work, we head down and there's really not much backed up traffic, a rarity for 6:30ish in Pittsburgh. After parking Uptown, we made our way to our favorite dive bar, Shale's Cafe on 5th. Who knew it was a person? A few Miller Lites and a great grilled hot dog later, we're heading to the arena. We see one minor celebrity, well, I recognize him because I'm a sports junkie, but we see Coach Izzo. A couple people here and there walk up to take his pic. Walking by, I simply tell him to "take it easy on my Lions this year". He chuckles and tells me that "they need to do the same to him". Good joking around kinda guy.

Like others have said in their recaps and listening to the morning radio shows, there were more Wings' fans there than I thought there'd be. Although, I guess when you're jobless, you have free time to do these kinds of things. I suggest they try this though.

So we go in, get our towels and shirts, sit down. Lo and behold, in the 2 seats next to us, 10 minutes or so after we're there, 2 Red Wings' fans sit down. Now this isn't our first trip to this rodeo, we had Ravens fans that sat next to us at the AFC Championship in January, but this just made me miserable.

I consulted my friend Muss who said I should fight them, but this is coming from a guy who's been in stadium fights in at least 4 different states. I decided to pass for now. They were 20-somethings who had dyed their hair red for the game. Carson Kressley would've been proud.

Pregame, intros, game start. Place is the loudest I've heard it. Guy behind me has some awesome chants. His throat will feel like it has razorblades in it after the game.

We score, finally, after dominating the game, in the second. Place goes nuts. Guys next to me stay seated like they just saw a trainwreck.

Guy behind me still screaming his ass off. We score in the 3rd to go up by two. Beer was dumped on the guys next to me. Classless? Sure. Funny? You betcha. Just as I tell them that "if they leave now, they'll be home in time to get in the unemployment line" (lots of mileage from that joke), they score. Vomit.

So now things are tight, my wife dug holes in my arm at one point. I'm not very manly so it kinda hurt. A penalty, shit. Killed it. Another penalty, I'm gonna die. Killed it. The Wings are coming in waves. The only other thing to see waves like this is the Superdome.

A breakaway chance, Fleury stones it. A scrum in front of the net, I puke on myself like Stan. The Wings' fans are trying to say it's a goal and/or (they couldn't make up their mind) there should be a penalty shot. Sure guys.

No goal, we kill the last seconds and it's game over. Like a thief in the night, the Wings' fans next to us leave.

We wait for the three stars, then leave. Lots of horn honking and random awkward hi-fives walking to the car.

The night was topped off by Sheetz breakfast burritos.

A couple days off, Game 7 on Friday.