Author Archives: Chaiwoman

Lifelong hockey lover who was raised on the uppermost northeast point of NY State on the big St. Lawrence River. The Montreal Canadiens were my team when I was a little girl sitting on my dad's lap watching Hockey Night in Canada on one of four TV stations we could get!! (Picture 1 out of Plattsburgh-Burlington, 2 English-speaking Canadian channels, and 1 French-Canadian). Go Guy LaFleur! Three-sport h.s. school athlete. Two-sport college athlete (St. Lawrence University '89, Lady Saint basketball and soccer-GOALIE!!). First personal hockey memory: I was about 5 years old, wearing my red CCM helmet, in figure skates, holding a tiny wooden hockey stick in the corner of my neighbors' big, homemade backyard ice rink (like the Staals'), and the big kids told me to stay there and when the puck came my way, I was to shoot it toward the net, which looked VERY far away. They didn't want to run me over!!

Concussed

The topic of concussions in the NHL seems no more prevalent and pervasive than it has this season, and for Penguins fans of recent memory, has had little impact (pardon the pun) until it happened to Sidney Crosby. Just in the past two seasons, more Penguins players than I remember before have either been diagnosed…

Equilibrium

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Each of the first five games with the re-entry of Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has shown a very natural process when trying to fit a highly skilled anchor player back into a lineup that has had to maintain and sustain for nearly 10 months without him. The fact that it has only taken a handful…

The First Baker’s Dozen

The first thirteen games reveal the Pittsburgh Penguins sitting on top of the Eastern Conference and the League (8-3-2, 18 points) after a grueling opening schedule without Sidney Crosby and a still somewhat fragile Evgeni Malkin, but there is no panic in this team. They’ve been down this road many times before, and if anything can…

What We Have Here…

In the wake of a stunning Game 6 and on the brink of a decisive Game 7, this is familiar territory. The Penguins have never done anything the easy way. They impress with brilliance and solid focused play on one night and fall apart the next, and just when you think they are sunk, they…

A Tale of Two Teams

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It was the best of teams…It was the worst of teams. Both were the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 1 and then Game 2 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Best of Teams On April 13, a play-off seasoned Pittsburgh team skated with authority and precision, an unrelenting…

“March” of the Penguins

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Diligent, focused, tenacious, unrelenting, undaunted, inexplicable…such are the words among many more that describe this season’s Pittsburgh Penguins. If anyone had told anyone at the beginning of this season that Jordan Staal would miss nearly all the first half of it, that Sidney Crosby would be out of it after Christmas and that Evgeni Malkin…

True Grit

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This has been uncharted territory in the story of the Pittsburgh Penguins – a team without both its superstars, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Worse still, it couldn’t have come at a more critical part of the hockey season when teams are battling for the top eight spots in conference play, jockeying for positions almost…

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Evgeni?

When the Penguins are winning and dominating, the focus is on the prowess of Sidney Crosby. When the Penguins struggle, one of the biggest and most pervasive topics of focus is Evgeni Malkin. Such was the case the morning after the Penguins let a 2-0 lead against Boston implode, ending in a 4-2 loss. The…

Winter Classic a Classic with the Return of 11 on 1-1-11

Numerologists could probably have a field day with the many ways the numeral 1 was present on the day of the Bridgestone Winter Classic at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field. It was the first day of the first month of the 11th year in the 21st century; the game time was moved from 1PM to “prime” time,…

Really?…Really.

  A funny thing happened to Brent Johnson Wednesday night on the way out to the ice for the 3rd period against the Boston Bruins. When he wasn’t looking, someone completely snatched up his teammates and replaced them with hockey zombies…Really? OK, maybe not, but boy, it sure seemed like a terrifying ending to a horrifying…