Senators' Captain Jumps Ship

The Penguins dominated the Senators tonight 7-3 on the way to taking a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup.  After the game, 40 year old Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson's reaction to the media was less than inspiring to his team.  When asked if the Senators were capable of making a comeback in the series, Alfredsson responded with "probably not," and then quipped that the Pens "have too much depth."

I'm sorry, but no matter what the state of the series is, a captain has to be more positive than that.  The captain is, obviously, the leader and representative of the team  and its players on and off the ice.  Can you imagine what Alfredsson's teammates thought when they heard that he said that?  It had to be absolutely deflating.  The dude was nominated for the Mark Messier Leadership award  a few days ago, which is presented to the player who "exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice during the regular season."  He has to have something better to say than that in the face of adversity.  Come on.

Just my $0.02.

Being a GM

     I started playing Be A GM mode in NHL 12 for the first time yesterday with a fantasy draft.  I turned the salary cap off as well just so I could get the hang of it and I really like it so far.  Generally, I've been simming most of the games and have just been doing the management aspects of the mode.  Yesterday I finally pulled off a big trade flipping Steve Ott and a 2nd round draft pick for Milan Lucic.  I was pretty impressed that I pulled that off and now my team has a young stud that will hopefully sign for the rest of his career.  He's currently on a top line consisting of Lucic-Pavel Datsyuk-Marian Hossa, a line most teams would kill for (but is impossible most likely due to the aforementioned salary cap).  I'm interested to see what happenes to my team after a few years, and if anything happens I'll let my adoring public know.

....In other news, I just listened to this song and I really like it.

Zach Parise: The Decision

I and many other fans around the National Hockey League are STILL waiting for Zach Parise to decide where he's taking his talents.  Instead of going to every credible hockey website on the face of the Earth every five minutes and hitting refresh, I found one that performs the same task much more effectively.

I present http://haszachparisedecidedwherehesplayingnext.com/

It's worth a look, trust me.

UPDATE:

Taylor Swift and the Penguins Curse

     This image has been making the rounds... well, around the internet the past couple days, so I thought I'd give some insight into what the big deal here is for those of you who haven't been spending the better part of each of the last few days hitting refresh on all of the major hockey sites (like myself).

     This picture was taken in 2009, in the fall following our third Stanley Cup victory.  Since then each Penguin that took part in this iconic picture has died a slow, painful death.  One by one.  Or they each left the Pens by various means one by one.  Not sure which.

Alex Goligoski (2nd from the right) was the first to make his leave from the Penguins, being part of the deal that sent Matt Niskanen and, more importantly, my homeboy James Neal from the Dallas Stars to Pittsburgh, PA.  No complaints there.

What else is going on in this image??  Better continue reading to find out...

How to Make Some Noise at the NHL Draft, Lesson 1

Skip to about the 3 minute mark for the fireworks.

The aftermath of said fireworks.

     I'll start posting actual content again soon, but for now, WOW.  The Penguins made the biggest splash at the draft that they were hosting with this announcement, and with this trade, there is potential that the team could become, very, very good come next week when free agency comes around, not to mention the fact that we are now LOADED with defensive prospects (enough to field an entire team, actually).  If and/or when that happens, you will be hearing about it from me.  Without going into detail, I've read this particular article several times and it still makes me giddy thinking about the possibilities.  With this trade and dealing Michalek to Phoenix for peanuts, expect something BIG to be happening in Pittsburgh July 1st.  Mark my words.

For now though, I'd like to welcome to Pittsburgh the newest immediate member of our hockey family, Brandon Sutter, and wish farewell to Jordan Staal.  May both of you continue to have excellent careers.

Brandon Sutter, the Pens' newest player.  For now, anyways.

Crowning the Kings

     Prior to the commencement of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, I was about 90% that this year the Cup belonged to my beloved Penguins.  I guess I should have taken those two botched games against the Islanders late in the season as a forewarning.  Anywho, in my anticipation of the Penguins impending dominance, I ran a single simulation of the entire playoffs using NHL 12.  Who won that simulation?

The LA Kings.

    

     Apparently the game knew something that I, nor every other fan of the NHL didn't.  It said that the LA Kings, an eighth seed (the lowest seed in the NHL playoffs) were to triumph over the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team one point outside of 1st place in the Eastern Conference.  At the time, I laughed it off.  The notion that an eighth seed would win the Cup, regardless of opponent, was utterly ridiculous.  Yet here we are, a month and a half later, and the Kings have defeated the New Jersey Devils in 6 games to win their first Stanley Cup, an event 45 years in the making.  But they did more than win the Stanley Cup; they made history.

In a Perfect World...

... ESPN would treat coverage of the NHL and NBA more like the Canadian version of SportsCenter (titled SportsCentre, eh).  A man can dream.

Captain's Log Part III: Will It Blend?

     I really want to get done with this introduction so I can start posting pictures of cats like the rest of the internet.

Now that's more like it.

     While I am surely not the first person to notice this, it has recently occurred to me that all of my interests tend to "blend" into each other in one manner or another.  Let's run through an example, shall we?

     When I was in the 7th grade, I saw the film Saving Private Ryan for the first time.  This affected my life in a profound way and today I consider it to be my favorite movie.  The opening scene on Omaha Beach was the most intense scene I had ever seen in a movie, and arguably to this day still holds that regard.  The rest of the movie was a harrowing tale of men just trying to do their job as part of a larger picture, with most of them never making it home.  For those who are completely oblivious, this movie takes place in France following the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 (which is, coincidentally, the day on which I am typing this).  That movie profoundly opened my eyes to World War II and these unreal experiences that very real people lived through.