Bolts 3, Pens 2; Let's just face facts....

There are just some things in life that one must simply acknowledge and move on, such as;

1. No one cares about Van Halen unless David Lee Roth is in the band (and if you think otherwise, you've got serious issues)

2. I can't handle my beer as much as I used to (oh, could I tell some stories, but I'd just bore ya)

3. The Tampa Bay Lightning have cursed the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I mean, damn, talk about not matching up well.

Even in games where the team is skating well, defense is playing relatively well (considering the group we're talking about), and they jump to an early lead after ANOTHER sensational goal by Sid, the trio of Lecavalier/St. Louis/Richards uncanningly push the right buttons at the absolute right time.

The lack of goals by anyone other than Sid or Geno is getting ridiculous, outside of the rare one like was scored by Army's elbow last night. Coach Therrien was obviously pissed off, and as usual he didn't mince words, saying "our forwards are doing not such a good job of producing," Therrien said. "We rely on one line. It's pretty simple. Then, we've got three lines that give us one goal every four games. It's not normal. You have to score at least three goals to win a hockey game, and we didn't find a way to score three goals. Defensively we seem not bad, but we don't go hard enough to the net, and we don't do the little things right. It's not normal."

So now it's onto Sunrise, FL and the Panthers. Just to jog your memory, one of the worst losses of the year to date came at home vs. the Panthers with a 3-2 loss on Dec. 5th.

Let's just hope that the Pens have enough legs to be aggressive against the Panthers tonight.

LET'S GO PENS !!!!

Pens soaking in the Cali sun; Still learning about this Blog thang

Would it be too far-fetched to imagine Malkin, Armstrong, and Talbot cruising down the Sunset Strip on a Friday night in Hollywood ??

Ya know, checking out the honeys, listening to some good tunes, that sort of thing.

I'll be honest with you, I had the opportunity to cruise around L.A. for the first time in over 20 years this past June. As you have seen if you glanced at my profile, I am what you would call a Classic Van Halen fanatic. And for those of you uninitiated, Classic Van Halen has absolutely nothing to do with Sammy Hagar or Gary Cherone, it's 100% David Lee Roth-led Van Halen, rock and roll at it's very best. If you're close to my age, that is in your early 40's, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Anyway, when I cruised the Sunset Strip that day, and I came upon the Whiskey A Go-Go, it brought a big smile to my face. Van Halen ruled that bar (hell, the whole damn town) during the early to mid '70's, their tenure there is absolutely legendary. Strong rumors of a Roth-led Van Halen reunion in 2007, check out my good friends at The Roth Army for some great features, especially in the forums sections.

Anyway, back to hockey.

[[ It's my blog, dammit... ]]

Love the quote by Mike Cammalleri of the Kings, "We had to be ready because we knew none of those guys were out in the bars [Tuesday] night. They aren't old enough to get in."

As the season winds along, more and more press precede the Pens' arrival into new towns. A good article written by Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle pretty much tells it the way it is, i.e. you better see the Pens now, 'cause the way the schedule is nowadays, you may not get the chance for a few more years.

Excellent gesture by the Pens recently, who invited some Marines recently back from Iraq to the bowels of the Igloo for a meet and greet. The video shows the Devil Dogs meeting several Pens, such as Malone, Armstrong, and Crosby. Sid also made a surprise cellphone call to one Marine's girlfriend. The topper was #66 himself meeting the troops and posing for pictures.

I'll be a blubbering idiot if the day ever comes that I meet Mario, and I hope it does, not only for me, but for my sons as well.

Finally, props to Todd at Sportsblogs.org for giving me some tips about RSS feeds. I'm still playing around with the template, but I think I've got things setup now for that stuff. Pretty amazing the numerous configurations that can be done with a simple blog. As always, if you've got a suggestion, feel free to email me at theconfluence@cox.net.