The Boys of Winter

I'm still on west coast time, and out of Lunesta, so I'm not ready to sleep yet...

I think nearly every team in the NHL was playing tonight, and while cruising my digital cable menu, I made the happily accidental discovery that Time Warner is either running a free promotion or -- gloria in exelsius! -- I actually have the NHL Network.


Woo-hoo, right?

Well, it was a pretty "woo-hoo" moment for me -- I thought I was going to have to either go the entire season watching the Rangers, Islanders, or (God help me) the Devils, wait until the playoffs to see my favorite team in action, or become a high-functioning alcoholic cruising the sports bars of the West Side in search of Penguins hockey. You die-hard football fans only have to worry about one night a week for your sports fix; do you know how many hockey games there are in a season? Jesus wept.

Tonight the Penguins played at the Maple Leafs (Toronto). It was a rout by the Pens, of course, who have brought forward most of their Cup-winning line from last year (minus Cup-clincher Max Talbot who is out recuperating from shoulder surgery -- better now than later, I say -- big Hal Gill, and Miroslav Satan, who is in free agency now and has yet to be picked up by another franchise...I'm a little bummed about that, but mostly because now I won't be able to get a T-shirt with SATAN written across the back).

Coach Dan Bylsma seemed to be working his different lines, mixing and matching throughout the whole game, so we saw all the key guys getting plenty of ice time. The Pens played hustle hockey tonight, which is good to see after they were surprised by Phoenix last week ("what the -- ?") and then had a struggle to beat the Flyers.

Honestly, it wasn't much of a challenge for my boys, it looked like a pre-season scrimmage at times, with a lot of blue jerseys standing around while the Pens shot past them. At the end of the first period the Pens were 14-2 shots on goal. And after both goals scored by Toronto, the Pens came back to score within 30 seconds. Two goals for Crosby.

It was like watching one of those old Harlem Globetrotters games, and the Leafs were the Washington Generals. I kept waiting for Sidney "Meadowlark" Crosby to pants someone and Evgeni "Curly" Malkin to toss a bucket of confetti into the audience.

Colton Orr (Toronto) lived up to his goon rep and was up to his old tricks, starting not one, but two fights -- on two different face-offs! -- and spending a good chunk of time in the box.

Nice to see Billy Guerin putting in his shifts when it was optional tonight. He admitted he was going to sit this one out but got shamed into playing by his teammates. He's a former NJ Devil, but I don't hold that against him.

We didn't get to see much of badass Brooks Orpik because he took a hit that put his face into the glass and sat him down for the rest of the game. After he got himself up on all fours with his eyes spinning in his head, you could practically see the birds tweeting around his head all the way back to the bench.

I'll be watching big Jordan Staal this season -- the kid is just growing and growing, and is a superstar in the making.

Penguins, 5-2

Afterthought; How will the loss of Johan Franzen affect the Red Wings this year? He's out for at LEAST four months with a torn ACL.

Well, the Little Cat is giving me her bedroom eyes, so I think I shall retire with Dr. HS Thompson and his bitter musings on sports and life in post-9/11 America.