SET OUT YOUR STAAL

Team Jordan, 2 - Team Everyone Else, 0

2009-05-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Last year, Jordan beat his big brother Marc in the conference semi-final against the Rangers. This year, Jordan beat his other brother, the one with the Stanley Cup bling, in the Eastern Conference Final.

All I have to say is WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ERIC?

He showed up to maybe three periods of this entire series. He scored ONE goal. I'd feel like I was hallucinating if I wasn't so pleased that the Penguins are heading to the Stanley Cup Final for the second year running.

So far, Eric may have the bling, but he didn't have to beat one of his brother in the playoffs to get it. So, far be it for me to criticize a Stanley Cup champion, but dude? You just got your ass handed to you by your little brother's team. And by your little brother in the face-off circle.

If there was any better way to determine a winner, it was in the face-off circle.
This moment epitomized everything we wanted to see in this series.

We were completely disappointed. We expected more from the Canes. I expected more from Eric Staal. I think EVERYONE expected a 6 game series. I know I did.

I'm weirded out. I feel a little cheated, actually. Next round better be more epic. Next Staal vs. Staal showdown better be a lot better than this one was...

Team Jordan - 2, Team Eric - Godzilla's on the Horizon

2009-05-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

There is not rational way to explain this game.

Only ridiculous ways.

And even more ridiculous ways.

We can't really compete with TSCS so we don't even try.

Between these game summaries you may actually gain some marginal insight into what this game was like and what effect it had on Pens fans. Sorry Carolina, we really don't CARE what you think. Clearly, we need some Raleigh perspective on this blog because we can't muster any during playoff season... and I'm supposed to be Acting-Captain of Team Eric... :-x

Game 3 on Saturday. If you're still drinking, we salute you! (This is no way endorses your actions, merely praises your dedication. We aren't rich enough to afford booze to last us the whole series so we're saving it for elimination games.)

If This Doesn't Make You Laugh, There's No Hope For You

2009-05-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

Seriously.

Carolina On Ice is a solid read. Head over there for your EStaal fix, Canes analyis, and general hockey fun times.

No hockey until tomorrow because Springsteen played at Mellon Arena last night.
What a joke.
Happy Wednesday!

The Forgotten Staal?

2009-05-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! Before I begin on the journey as "captain" of "Team Jared" I figured I should be honest with you about a few things... Before today, I had never once ventured on to the web page of the Phoenix Coyotes, nor had I ever typed "Jared Staal" into the search box of Google. I'm unfamiliar with the Coyotes organization other than the fact that "The Great One" is their head coach. I'm a Pens fan, a HUGE Pens fan, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to contribute to this blog. As a Pens fan, I hear about the Staal brothers a lot, I've heard all about Henry, Linda, and the sod farm. I chose to "captain" "Team Jared" because he's pretty much the underdog of the family, the youngest brother... and, he just happens to be just two days older than me. Yeah, being born in the month of August makes him that much cooler!

Eric, Marc, and Jordan all play in the NHL. This season Marc got into a "fight" with Alexander Semin of the Washington Capitals. Jordan scored a hat trick to lead the Pens to a victory over the Wings in November. Eric lead the Canes in scoring as they became one of the NHL's hottest teams in March. Eric and Jordan are currently battling it out in the Eastern Conference final. NBC and Versus fill our minds (at least those of us in the US of A) with visions of the Sod Farm in Thunder Bay, of Henry & Linda sitting on their couch watching their sons battle it out, interviews with Marc regarding the play of his brothers.... but what about Jared? Jared is usually tacked on to the end of the story, something to the tune of, "Don't forget about the youngest -- Jared -- who was a Coyotes draft pick in 2008." Is Jared becoming the forgotten Staal?

He very well could be becoming just that, and that's definitely not something, I, as captain of "Team Jared" can let happen... So, to re-introduce you to the youngest Staal brother, I've compiled:

"By the Numbers: Jared Staal"

0 - Stanley Cups won by Jared's favorite NHL player, Joe Thornton (He plays for the Sharks... enough said...)

1 - Number of fights Jared has participated in according to hockeyfights.com. It took place *way* back on October 19, 2007.

3 - Brothers of Jared who just happen to play in the NHL (Yes. We're all very surprised by this).

5 - Stanley Cup victories by Jared's favorite NHL team, the Boston Bruins.

5 - Games Jared played with the San Antonio Rampage (AHL affiliate of the Coyotes) after signing an amateur try out contract with them on April 3, 2009.

11 - Number the Sudbury Wolves selected Jared in the 2006 OHL Priority Selection Draft.

13 - Place the San Antonio Rampage came in this season in the AHL's Western Conference (only two teams ended with less points in the Conference).

18 - Age of Jared as of today, May 20, 2009.

48 - Players drafted before Jared in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. The Phoenix Coyotes selected Jared 49th - making Jared the only Staal drafted into the Western Conference, and the only Staal drafted in the 2nd round (Yay for distinction!).

52 - Points scored by Jared in his 08-09 season with the Wolves -- He compiled 19 goals and 33 assists.

104 - Points scored by Jared over his past three seasons with the OHL's Sudbury Wolves.

-------------------

Hopefully, taking a look at some of these numbers has helped you learn a little bit more about Jared -- whom I do not want to become the "forgotten Staal brother." Jared's road to the NHL might not seem as easy or quick as that of some of his brothers -- but that certainly doesn't mean it's not going to happen.

Jared's growing up, he's not going to be the "kid brother" for much longer. He's no longer the little kid he was when the Wolves drafted him back in 2006 -- it's time he gets his picture updated to something a little more... recent...

I'll be keeping my eye out for any news pertaining to my newest favorite Staal (sorry Jordan...), and I'll be sure to fill you in on anything interesting I find... and maybe some of the not so interesting stuff too...

Happy Stanley Cup Playoffs!

Team Jordan - 1, Team Eric - 0

2009-05-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

And so it begins...

Literally. The very first face-off of the series, and both teams send out their Staals. It's probably one of those things like wearing a really hot dress when you know your sister and her friends are going to be at a party, just so you look better than her (not that my sister and I ever did this, given that we never went to the same parties or wore dresses or would ever try to compete like that, but I knew sisters who did... okay maybe that was the worst analogy EVER).

It's just that both teams seem to know that this is the ONLY storyline these this series has. They've never played a playoff series against each other. They aren't in the same conference. They both have good (but not story-line worthy) goalies - No Mason, Brodeur or Ozzy here, just good, solid boys in net, who do their job well enough to get their teams to the ECF. Cam Ward is a great goalie. And so is Marc-Andre Fleury. Really, the only this series has is the Staal-factor. So really, it's the only way to frame anything we write about this series, which works pretty well for us at SOYS...

With the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals in the books, Jordan is the favorite Staal son this morning, as the Pens beat the Canes 3-2.

The Canes website is an epic fail. You'd think after Game 1 of the Staal vs. Staal Royal Rumble, they'd have a video clip of EStaal talking about hockey, the sod farm, and the fact that he may or may not be playing his brother in an important game. Not so much. Way to be on top of things, Carolina!

I'm going to venture to guess that Linda gave her second favorite son an earful after the shenanigans he pulled late in the game. Even if you steal a car and don't get caught, it's still grand theft auto. Just because it wasn't called, knocking the stick out of MAF's hand is still goalie interference. Eric, we expect more from you. Don't tarnish the family name. Oh wait...

Instead, I was able to find a gratuitous shot of the Staals in lovely menswear. That almost makes up for the lack of an EStaal presser.

Get your shot glasses ready! Game 2 is set for Thursday night at 7:30!
- Mer & Kyile

Team Eric vs. Team Jordan vs. Team Marc vs. Team Jared

2009-05-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

I usually hate those idiotic t-shirts, but I've recently realized that it's because I tend to hate the subjects of said t-shirts. Thing is, with four Staals, how can you not have a favourite?

I think part of the reason I've had some issues keeping up this blog is because, unlike, say, The Sidney Crosby Show, which has one focus (and therefor only one team) to follow, there are FOUR Staals, on FOUR teams, in FOUR states.

I've realized that, as much as I'd love to have the time to keep track of these boys all on my own, I can't. There just isn't enough TIME. Besides, I'm pretty sure there are people out there who know way more about certain Staals (and have way better access to local media in Raleigh and Pittsburgh and New York) than I do. If there were four people (or four 'teams'), however, covering all these boys, I think it would actually work, and this could be a pretty fun blog.

So, if you would like to contribute to this blog, let me know which Staal you would like to
cover and I'll make you Captain of Team X. I have no preference really, (even though I'm a pretty hardcore Pens fan, if you want Jordan, he's yours!) so I can cover whoever the least-loved Staal end up being.

There are no real expectations (I mean, I went 4 months between posts :S) so you can post whatever the heck you want, so long as it is Staal-related. Let me know if you're interested.

Yes, I did drop off the face of the planet for a few months

2009-05-18T08:37:00.001-07:00

I'm not going to make excuses. I just got distracted. Simple as that.

BUT, given that the whole reason I started this blog last summer was in anticipation of the gong show that is about to go down this afternoon, I decided that it's about time I started paying this baby a little more attention. Also, since Baby Staal made his pro debut a few weeks back with Phoenix's AHL affiliate, I feel like the prospect of having all four Staals in the NHL in the next couple years is even more likely, and that made me v. V. happy.

In any case, I hope to have something up before Game One of the Eastern Conference Final tonight. If I don't, it will be up shortly thereafter.

It may be incoherent. If it is, I have the chicks at Puck Huffers and their infamous Staal Brothers Drinking Game to blame.

Enjoy it y'all; this year's ECF is going to be a Gong Show.

#18 named to NHL Young Star Team

2009-01-10T21:04:00.000-08:00

Marc Staal will never win the Art Ross, but of the Staal brothers, he (and his team) are having the most successful season so far. As a result of all his shot-blocking, Semin-slamming, hard work, he's heading to Montreal for All-Star weekend. He'll be playing in the Young Stars game with the likes of Kris Letang and Steve Mason. (Wootwoot! Go Stevie!)

Eric Staal will, as usual, be playing on the Team East in the All-Star Game.

Jordan will have to stay home and console himself with his contract-extension.

Jordan signs with Pittsburgh; Pens named best looking team in the NHL

2009-01-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

In 2004, the phrase "Four More Years!" made me want to eviscerate my intestines with a rusty fork, but in the wake of Obama's imminent assumption of office in 13 days, those three words have become much more palatable.

So, say it with me Pens fans: FOUR MORE YEARS!

At least this is one I can get behind: Jordan Staal is (reputedly) signing a four-year, 16M$ contract extension with the Penguins. Apparently signing it now will make him the youngest UFA in NHL history (but not until 2013).

So, the Pens have Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, Orpik, Whitney and Staal through the 2012-2013 season. Now, could Shero PLEASE find Crosby a long-term winger? PLEASE? I'd settle for him finding any one of his three kick-ass centres a solid winger...

Staal Brothers Drinking Game

2009-01-05T22:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the fabulous girls who write Puck Huffers are ingenious. They make me miss my alcoholic friends from high school...

(This is word for word and if Puck Huffers reads this and wants me to take it down, just let me know and will do.)

Without further ado :

PUCK HUFFERS OFFICIAL STAAL BROTHER DRINKING GAME RULES

Drinking begins at puck drop. If there is anything during pre-game, you're just going to have to bite your tongue because you at least want to generally remember the game, don't you? Well, maybe not. It is MSG. But we kind of want to know the result without having to check NHL.com Tuesday morning.

Single shot to be taken if:
- it is mentioned that the Staals are brothers
- if it is mentioned that there are other Staals, not present, who are also in the NHL
- if a phrase such as "sibling rivalry" is used
- if it is pointed out that BOTH STAALS ARE ON THE ICE
- if anyone mentions the sod farm
- if any random facts are introduced about the present Staals or the Staal family
- if the Staal parents are mentioned
- if any Staal reference occurs that would simply not occur in a one-Staal game

Doubleshot to be taken if:
- a comparative Staal brother graphic is shown on the screen
- if they are verbally compared AT LENGTH by the announcers (use your own discretion in deciding what "length" is)
- if a video clip of the brothers/family is shown
- if an interview with a Staal brother happens at intermission (add an additional shot if the Staal brother is asked anything about playing against his brother)
- if the Staal parents are in attendance (this cancels out taking a single shot if the parents are mentioned, but not if they are mentioned separately from the fact that they are in attendance)

If you're playing an advanced version of this game, you can mix yourself a drink and keep it nearby.

You can work on the mixed drink if:
- there is an intermission feature on the Staal brothers
- there is a mention of a Staal on Staal play, such as a Staal delivering a crushing check on another Staal, or a Staal being stripped of the puck by another Staal
- if the game is over and the team you were rooting for shit its pants

Stop if you feel sick/want to stop. We will not be held responsible for any shit that happens to you playing this game. You play at your own risk, kids.

Given that I've participated in drinking games for the last two American presidential elections (and the 2006 mid-term election) it is shocking that I did not think of this. In fact, I am mildly embarrassed not to have thought of this.

Now, I'm assuming this will be MUCH more dangerous while watching Versus or ESPN than it will be on TSN of HNIC, mostly because their announcers will generally assume that we KNOW that there are four Staals, three of whom play in the NHL, and that they grew up on a sod farm. But whatever. It's still be playing next time there is a Staal vs. Staal game.

I know, I know...

2009-01-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

I should update this WAY more often, but I've been too busy.

But not too busy to link ya'll to this little gem.

Apparently Alexander Semin talks trash like a sissy girl AND fights like one (no offence to all girls out there who can actually fight, you can whoop my sorry ass ... and probably Semin's...)

I just about cried...

2008-11-20T23:37:00.000-08:00

I wonder if someone's got a thing for Jordan Staal...

Detroit = Stunned

2008-11-11T22:54:00.001-08:00

First off...

NICE HAT-TRICK JORDAN!!!!!!!

I missed it. And apparently TSN doesn't VOD the games broadcast on TSN2, so I can watch the Habs shutout the Sens, but I can't watch the Pens trounce Detroit in what is probably the single most important game of the Pens' season.

Lets face it, when two teams face off for the first time after the Stanley Cup final, it matters who wins. It's not like the Penguins beating Detroit tonight means that the Penguins are going to win the Cup, or even that the Pens are, necessarily, a better team that the Red Wings.

What it does mean is that the two teams are on an even playing field. No one has the advantage. Detroit beating Pittsburgh probably wouldn't have done much except reaffirm what Detroit already knows: they're fucking good. (Love them or hate them, you gotta respect them). But Pittsburgh beat Detroit. That one demon of self-doubt that might have nagged at them this season has been successfully disintegrated into sub-atomic particles.

After tonight, I have faith that the Pens can break the post-Stanley Cup curse of spiraling into doom the next season. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether that will mean they take the division title, the conference title or get fitted for Stanley Cup rings next spring.

Jordan Staal, you no longer have any excuse not to win a Cup before you're legally allowed to drink from it.

Hockey Day in South Western Ontario

2008-11-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this little saga for a month... life's been a bit hectic, but better late than never right? So here goes...

No. I did not go to Stockholm. I wish. I did entertain the idea for about -oh- four days in August before my family decided to have a little reuiniony gig that same weekend. (And I may have actually gone, because I'm kind of nuts... as you will see...)

Instead of heading to Sweden to watch my two favourite teams face off, I went to Toronto. To watch the Sens. Eek! If any of you are familiar with some of Toronto's less lovely Leafs fans, you'll know why I was a bit scared. Suffice to say, watching a hockey game in a Sens jersey, in Toronto, in PUBLIC... especially in a Heatley jersey... especially when the Sens win, can be a bit of a nerve-wracking experience. That said, I was just watching the regular season-opener between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators in a Sens jersey, not a playoff game in one (or worse, in a Habs jersey)... because that would have just been ASKING for it...

If I'd been in Vancouver (where no one really gives a shit if I cheer for an Eastern Conference team) I would be met with shrugs, a few (unfounded) band-wagonner comments and a few jabs about being swept by the Pens. But no, I had to be in Toronto... where Leafs fans are fairly rude to anyone not 100% behind the White and Blue. (This is not to say that all Leafs fans are awful, just some, like the ones who kicked the shit out of someone I know during the playoffs in 2004 when Ottawa beat Toronto - we didn't even win the series, just a game...) Although there were a couple of guys who gave the old nod and a couple more who seemed thrilled to see someone openly cheering for their team.

I didn't touch it . I thought I wasn't that superstitious. Turns out I am.

This little guy was not so superstitious.

A few months ago, Stephanie S. (an avid reader of TSCS) started making "Roaming Penguins". They are little stuffed penguins and she charges 10 $US (half of what she charges goes to the Mario Lemieux Foundation) and will put the numbers of any Pittsburgh Penguin you want on the back and on their wings. There are 80+ of these little guys roaming the globe (and about that many more in the works) and Jodie has been posting photos readers send in for months now. Penguins at the zoo. Penguins at hockey games. Penguins at historical monuments. Stephanie S. and Jodie (who writes TSCS) decided that the two ultimate Roaming photos would be 1) a photo of a roamer with the Cup and 2) a photo of a roamer with its human counterpart. I'd totally forgotten about this objective when I took this photo, but I sure as heck won't forget now that my new mission is to get that second photo...

Buy one. Get a Staal-Penguin. They are seriously the cutest things on earth. And they're only ten bucks.

Now, on a completely different topic...

I'm a huge fan of junior hockey. I love it. There's just something about teenagers -their drive, their energy, the fact that they aren't doing it for money but for love of sport- that makes me like it more than NHL hockey sometimes (okay, most of the time...) Plus it's cheaper to go to games :P

I'm not in Ontario too often so I don't have too many chances to see OHL games, but I thought I'd try to catch one while I was there. Obviously, my first choice would have been to see Jared Staal and the Sudbury Wolves play one of the half-dozen or so OHL teams in the Greater Toronto Area, but no such luck. Instead I booted it out to Oshawa (shudder) to see the Oshawa Generals and the Kingston Frontenacs face off on October 5th.

I missed the last ten minutes of the Sens-Pens game (missing 75% of the goals scored in that game), sprinted flat-out for six blocks and through Union Station in order to make the train, which I only made by about 45 seconds, missed the first 15 minutes of the Generals game, but it was MORE than worth it.

I'll be honest, I was there to see John Tavares. I wasn't disappointed. There's a reason this kid was being hailed as The Next One at sixteen, and there's a reason why by the time I got to watch him, he'd already tallied 16 points in 7 games (9G,7A):

He's really, REALLY good.

I don't toss around compliments lightly, especially not when I've already gone in with expectations; in fact, it's much more difficult to impress me when I'm expecting to be impressed. But Tavares is good. Really damn good. There's a chance I just saw him play a good game, but when a kid logs three points in a game the night after scoring twice and already has nearly double the points of anyone else on his team, there's a good reason to pay attention.

I'm not a scout. I don't know what they look for, but he's easily the most talented junior player I've had the chance to see play in person (ie. not on TSN during the U20 Worlds -but then, sorry, but Sidney Crosby takes the cake).

The night of the Generals game was actually pretty surreal. I went to the game alone and ended up sitting in row 4 right beside the home bench next to a couple of puck bunnies but being the social chameleon I am, I ended up chatting with them during intermission and told them about Mario-Penguin and one of the dad-types found out I wanted a photo of Mario with JT and told me he would see what he could do...

After the game, I swallowed my I-refuse-to-act-like-a-puck pride and hung around outside the arena to wait for the players. Then, aforementioned dad-type found me, and took me over and knocked on the back door and a whole bunch of girls just GLARED at me when the door opened and someone let us in.

This is the view from the players lounge in GM Centre in Oshawa. How sad it is that this view made my heart weak?

Anyways, long story short, I spent about 45 minutes up in the players lounge and met a bunch of the Gens, most notably John Tavares, Michael Del Zotto (who is going to be SO popular when he eventually starts playing for the Rangers), and Conor Stokes (who was just about the sweetest kid I've ever met). And I ended up getting this photo for Stephanie who makes the Roaming Penguins.

Rough summary of the interaction that resulted in this photo:
Mer: Hi John, sorry to bother you but -
John Tavares: You want a photo with me?
Mer: No. With the penguin.
JT: What?
Mer: The penguin -it's for this big project...- if you could hold him like *click* wicked thanks.
JT: Um, is ... that ... all?
Mer: Yup, thanks! Oh, and great game tonight.
JT: Um... okay... thanks?

In retrospect, I'm a total idiot. I didn't getting any of their autographs or photos of more of them or photos of myself with any of them, but to be honest, it just didn't occur to me at the time. Proving once and for all that I'm the most absent-minded person ever: I had a Team Canada jersey IN MY BAG that I bought earlier that day with the express purpose of it being the jersey I get autographed by any players I happen to meet who have ever represented Canada internationally...

Thing is, it was kind of nice just chatting with them.

Conor Stokes asked what I was doing wearing a Sens jersey on the Leafs' turf and was totally blown away when I told him that I was actually all the way from Vancouver AND had missed the last few minutes of the Sens-Pens game just so I could make the train to Oshawa to see their game. I went to see Tavares, but after seeing Stokes play, I'll be keeping an eye out for him too.

He's draft-eligible next summer and, despite some bad luck with injuries in his rookie season in the CHL last year, the kid's got the on-ice equivalent to stage-presence. He scored the sweetest goal of the night: I can't remember the goal, all I can remember is going "WOW" and taking note of his jersey number.

Stokes actually blushed when I congratulated him on playing such a good game. I later found out that this kid has suffered from concussions really early in each of the past two seasons, had been relegated to the fourth line on his last team and had JUST been traded from Guelph two days earlier (he was traded to Oshawa on October 3rd, I met him on the 5th). Sometimes I think we forget, especially with junior players, that these are teenagers, but talking with them really reminded me that they are just regular sixteen or eighteen year-old kids who happen to be really ace hockey players.

All in all, wicked weekend. Wish I got to watch so much hockey ALL the time.

I have a bunch of Carolina Hurricanes photos from the Hall of Fame, but I'm going to do that in a separate post.

Signs of the Apocalypse... NHL-style...

2008-11-02T15:04:00.001-08:00

Okay, that's not quite fair, but this is still freaky.

First the Leafs beat Marty Brodeur's Devils 6-5 in a shootout and then they score 5 goals in the last 5:21 of a game against the Rangers. The only reason this may not be a sign of the apocalypse is that I've seen the Leafs do it before. It wasn't five goals, it was four, but it was in the last 4 or 5 minutes of a game last season against a team that should have (and had) been completely outclassing them for the first 55 minutes of the game. Too bad for Toronto fans the Leafs can't bring it like that for a full three periods, but hey, better late than never right?

All I have to say is this: MARC ??? Where were you??? Did the Ranger's D decide they could take collective nap for the last period??? Sheesh. And Pens and Sens fans have been wondering when their teams would remember that there were three periods in a hockey game...

For the sake of Sens fans everywhere...

2008-10-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

This is totally non-Staal related, but whatever...

I may (or may not) be cursed.
I'm pretty sure I have to stop watching the Ottawa Senators if I actually want them to win. This season, in the Senators games and parts of Senators games that I have actually been watching or listening to, the Sens have scored 4 goals and have been scored upon 11 times. In basic terms, that means that so far this season, I have a -7 rating for goals, and a -2 rating for games.

Case in point #1: Yesterday - Sens v. Ducks (L 4-3)
I watched the first two periods of last night's game v. Anaheim and groaned progressively louder as the Ducks scored 4 times in the first 32 minutes of the game. During the 2nd intermission, I said f*ck-it and went to get all cute for my friend's birthday party and returned half way through the 3rd only to discover that the Sens had scored THREE times in my absence. I watched until the was 4:32 left, and went to catch my bus praying to some hockey god that my boys might score. They didn't.

Case in point #2: The Senator's 2007-2008 Season.
After dumping my boyfriend about a year ago, I started watching a lot more hockey again (he hated hockey - last time I EVER date anyone who actively dislikes the only spectator sport I can stand, but I digress). On November 6th, 2007 the Sens set a new franchise record for consecutive wins (8). They also set and NHL record for best start to a season in 14 games. The same day, six Sens were named to the All-Star ballot (the most from any single team). At Christmas, Ottawa was duking it out with someone for second in the league after Detroit. Their record on December 27th? 25-8-4, 54 points.

I started watching/listening online or catching the few games TSN and CBC actually broadcast in British Columbia. On January 11th - the CASH line (Alfie, Spezza and Heatley) were the first complete line to be named to the All-Star team since 1981. The next day Dany Heatley (my favourite player) separates his shoulder and misses 11 games. Alfie is in and out with injuries, misses 12 regular season games, and both he and Heater miss the All-Star game. In Jan&Feb, the Sens win 7 of 21 games. By the end of the season, they are 13th in the league, just barely making the playoffs before getting swept by the Penguins. Their record? 43-31-8, 94 points. Their record since I started watching RELIGIOUSLY? 18-23-4, 40 points. Don't get me wrong, it could be worse ... no wait, it couldn't: the Maple Leafs had a better record (21-21-3) in their last 45 games than Ottawa did...

Now, it would be one thing if I was cursed and every team I rooted for lost every game I watched (statistically improbable, and I'd have to call my dad and find out who the wicked witch was who cast a spell on me so that I could bludgeon her to death with a hockey stick but I digress, AGAIN), but that is not the case. When I watch the Pittsburgh Penguins, much more often than not, they win. Especially when they play the Sens. I actually haven't WATCHED the Sens beat the Pens in at least two seasons and the only reason I'm not claiming it's been longer is because I honestly can't remember watching the Sens beating Pittsburgh, except for maybe once in the 2005-2006 season... maybe? It may be a figment of my imagination.

Case in point #3: The Conference Quarter Finals 2007 & 2008
The only game I saw in the 2007 conference 1/4 final was the one game the Sens lost to Pittsburgh. Watched games 1-3 of the 2008 1/4 final. Pens won them all. (An argument can be made that I'm full of sh*t because I didn't watch game 4 and the Sens still lost, but frankly the series was lost at the end of game 3 when the Sens couldn't win on home ice with Alfie back in the line-up.)

Case in point #4: Stockholm Season Openers.
October 4th: missed the first two periods. Sens are ahead by a goal. I watched Rob Scuderi tie the game up, and then watched TK win it for the Pens in OT. October 5th: I watched the first 2.5 periods. Heatley scored the only goal in the first 50 minutes of the game. I had to leave to catch a train to go see another hockey game (incidentally I met John Tavares but that's not the point AT ALL) and I left the pub maybe 11:40 into the 3rd. Seriously. My friend Andy can back me up on this one. Heatley scored a f*cking gorgeous one-timer 37 seconds later. Then Vermette scored. Then Goligoski scored in the last 2 second. Sens still won 3-1.

I'm not usually a superstitious person, but SERIOUSLY, how messed up is that the one year I pay the LEAST attention to hockey, my team makes the STANLEY CUP FINAL. And the next season when I start watching game religiously, the Sens bomb the second half of the season and get swept in the first round?

I'm not arrogant enough to actually believe that my watching (or not watching) a hockey game somehow cosmically determines if Dany Heatley will have an off night or Evgeni Malkin will play a 4 point game. But it is weird that every time I watch a Sens game, they tend to lose, and that every time I watch a Pens game, they tend to win.

I feel some bizarre need to prove to myself that either my growing superstitions are total bullocks (and I'll just laugh at myself in April) or that I'm actually a bad luck charm and I need to stop watching Sens games for the sake of all other Sens fans... so here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to track a wins and losses in game I watch (and don't watch) over the course of the season.

And so I present...

Mer’s 2008-2009 Season +/- Experiment

I have three, somewhat inter-connected hypotheses:
1. The Sens score more when I DON’T watch.
2. The Pens score more when I DO watch.
3. The Penguins kick Senator ass every time they play each other because of 1 & 2.

So, the idea is this: any time the team in question scores or wins a game when I am watching, YAY and I get a point, every time they lose or get scored upon, BOOO and I lose a point.

The part where is gets annoying is the ‘unwitnessed’ goals and game outcomes versus missed games. ‘Unwitnessed’ goals, wins and losses… these are goals, win and losses that happen when I watch most of a game and either miss the end of the game OR when I happen to NOT be watching when the team in question actually bloody scores (trust me, it happens to me A LOT). Therefore, I lose 2 points every time I miss a goal, and I get 2 points every time I miss the opposing team scoring. This may seem messed up, but it makes a strange kind of logical sense since I’m trying to prove that my watching the Sens is a detrimental thing and that my watching the Pens is beneficial (ergo why I get points for MISSING the Pens being scored on, and I lose points whenever I’m proved wrong and they score without me.)

My theory is that I’ll end up with a really insane minus rating (on the Sens side) the more I watch the Sens, and a decent plus rating (on the Pens side) the more I watch the Penguins.

(Oh, missed games don’t count for anything, I’ve just got the numbers there so that I can keep track.)

Ottawa Senators

Pittsburgh Penguins

Games: 0

Games: +3

Goals: -12

Goals: +13

Overall: -12

Overall: +19

GOALS FOR, WITNESSED value: +1

1. Oct 5 (Heatley)

2. Oct 17 (Volchenkov)

3. Oct 17 (Ruutu)

4. Oct 17 (Spezza)

5. Oct 27 (Schubert)

6. Oct 27 (Heatley)

7. Oct 27 (Spezza)

8. Oct 27 (Spezza)

9. Oct 27 (Donovan)

10. Oct 30 (Heatley)

11. Oct 30 (Kelly)

12. Nov 6 (Volchenkov)

13. Nov 6 (Heatley)

TOTAL

+ 1

+ 2

+ 3

+ 4

+ 5

+ 6

+ 7

+ 8

+ 9

+ 10

+ 11

+13

GOALS FOR, WITNESSED value: +1

1. Oct 4 (Scuderi)

2. Oct 4 (TK)

3. Oct 20 (Satan)

4. Oct 20 – SO (Sykora)

5. Oct 20 – SO (Malkin)

6. Nov 6 (Talbot)

7. Nov 6 (Satan)

8. Nov 6 (Sykora)

9. Nov 6 (Sykora)

TOTAL

+ 1

+ 2

+ 5

GOALS AGAINST, WITNESSED value: -1

1. Oct 4 (Scuderi)

2. Oct 4 (TK)

3. Oct 17 (Doan)

4. Oct 17 (Lisin)

5. Oct 17 (Boedker)

6. Oct 24 (Sutherby)

7. Oct 24 (Marchant)

8. Oct 24 (Pahlsson)

9. Oct 24 (Getzaf)

10. Oct 25 (Moore)

11. Oct 25 (Ponikarovski)

12. Oct 27 (Mc Arthur)

13. Oct 27 (Schubert – own goal?)

TOTAL

- 1

- 2

- 3

- 4

- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

- 11

- 12

- 13

GOALS AGAINST, WITNESSED value: -1

1. Oct 5 (Heatley)

2. Oct 16 (Fleischmann)

3. Oct 16 (Semin)

4. Oct 16 (Nylander)

5. Oct 16 (Gordon)

6. Oct 20 (Kessel)

7. Oct 20 – SO (Kessel)

8. Oct 25 – SO (Sjostrom)

9. Oct 28 (Pavelski)

10. Nov 6 (Pisani)

TOTAL

- 1

- 2

- 3

- 4

- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

GOALS FOR, UNWITNESSED[i] value: -2

1. Oct 5 (Heatley)

2. Oct 5 (Vermette)

3. Oct 24 (Alfie)

4. Oct 24 (Picard)

5. Oct 24 (Neil)

6. Oct 25 (Donovan)

7. Oct 25 (McAmmond)

8. Nov 6 (Winchester)

9. Nov 6 (Neil)

TOTAL

- 2

- 4

- 6

- 8

- 10

- 12

- 14

- 18

GOALS FOR, UNWITNESSED value: -2

1. Oct 5 (Goligoski)

2. Oct 28 (Fedotenko)

3. Oct 30 (Satan)

TOTAL

- 2

- 4

- 6

GOALS AGAINST, UNWITTNESSED

value: +2

1. Oct 5 (Goligoski)

2. Oct 25 (Grabovski)

3. Nov 6 (Asham)

TOTAL

+ 2

+ 4

+ 6

GOALS AGAINST, UNWITTNESSED

value: +2

1. Oct 5 (Heatley)

2. Oct 5 (Vermette)

3. Oct 28 (Grier)

4. Oct 30 (Jokinen)

5. Oct 30 (Doan)

6. Oct 30 (Porter)

7. Oct 30 (Doan)

8. Nov 6

9. Nov 6

10. Nov 6

TOTAL

+ 2

+ 4

+ 6

+ 8

+ 10

+ 12

+ 14

+20

GOALS FOR, MISSED[ii] value: 0

1. Oct 4 (Donovan)

2. Oct 4 (Heatley)

3. Oct 4 (Spezza)

4. Oct 11 (Picard)

5. Oct 11 (Foligno)

6. Oct 17 (Ruutu)

7. Oct 17 (Spezza)

8. Oct 17 (Heatley)

9. Oct 18 (Foligno)

10. Oct 18 (Alfie)

11. Oct 22 (Alfie)

TOTAL

(11)

GOALS FOR, MISSED value: 0

1. Oct 4 (TK)

2. Oct 4 (Geno)

3. Oct 11 (Satan)

4. Oct 14 (Orpik)

5. Oct 14 (Zigomanis)

6. Oct 14 -OT- (Dupuis)

7. Oct 16 (Goligoski)

8. Oct 16 (Geno)

9. Oct 16 (Satan)

10. Oct 18 (Dupuis)

11. Oct 18 (Satan)

12. Oct 18 (Crosby)

13. Oct 18 (Sykora)

14. Oct 23 (Crosby)

15. Oct 23 (Fedotenko)

16. Oct 23 (Mad Max)

17. Oct 23 (Geno)

18. Oct 25 (Sydor)

19. Oct 25 (Crosby)

20. Nov 6 (Satan)

TOTAL

(20)

GOALS AGAINST, MISSED value: 0

1. Oct 4 (TK)

2. Oct 4 (Geno)

3. Oct 11 (Filppula)

4. Oct 11 (Franzen)

5. Oct 11 (Franzen-2)

6. Oct 18 (Sturm)

7. Oct 18 (Kessel)

8. Oct 18 (Kessel-2)

9. Oct 18 (Lucic)

10. Oct 22 (Olesz)

11. Oct 22 (Horton)

12. Oct 22 (Stillman)

13. Oct 30 (panthers)

TOTAL

(13)

GOALS AGAINST, MISSED value: 0

1. Oct 4 (Donovan)

2. Oct 4 (Heatley)

3. Oct 4 (Spezza)

4. Oct 11 (Elias)

5. Oct 11 (Parise)

6. Oct 14 (Carter)

7. Oct 14 (Gagne)

8. Oct 18 (Antropov)

9. Oct 23 (Sutter)

10. Oct 25 (Nazzy)

11. Oct 25 (Zherdev)

TOTAL

(11)

GAMES WON, WITNESSED value: +1

1. Oct 17 (v Phoenix) 6-3

2. Oct 27 (v Buffalo) 5-3

3. Oct 30 (v Panthers) 2-1

TOTAL

+ 1

+ 2

+ 3

GAMES WON, WITNESSED value: +1

1. Oct 4 (v Pens) 4-3

2. Oct 20 (v Boston) 2-1

TOTAL

+ 1

+ 2

GAMES WON, UNWITNESSED value: -1

1. Oct 5 (v Pens) 3-1

2. Nov 6 (v Flyers)

TOTAL

- 1

- 2

GAMES WON, UNWITNESSED value: -1

TOTAL

GAMES WON, MISSED value: 0

TOTAL

GAMES WON, MISSED value: 0

1. Oct 14 (v Philly) 3-2

2. Oct 18 (v Leafs) 4-1

3. Oct 23 (v Canes) 4-1

TOTAL

(3)

GAMES LOST, WITNESSED value: -1

1. Oct 4 (v Pens) 4-3

2. Oct 25 (v Leafs) 3-2

TOTAL

- 1

- 2

GAMES LOST, WITNESSED value: -1

1. Oct 16 (v Caps) 4-3

2. Oct 28 (v Sharks) 2-1

TOTAL

- 1

- 2

GAMES LOST, UNWITNESSED value: +1

1. Oct 24 (v Anaheim) 4-3

TOTAL

+ 1

GAMES LOST, UNWITNESSED value: +1

1. Oct 5 (v Sens) 3-1

2. Oct 30 (v Phoenix) 4-1

TOTAL

+ 1

+ 2

GAMES LOST, MISSED value: 0

1. Oct 11 (v Detroit) 3-2

2. Oct 18 (v Boston) 4-2

3. Oct 22 (v Panthers) 3-1

TOTAL

(3)

GAMES LOST, MISSED value: 0

1. Oct 11 (v Devils) 2-1

2. Oct 25(v Rangers) 3-2

TOTAL

(2)

COMEBACKS[iii] WITNESSED

value: (loss) +1 (win) +2

TOTAL

COMEBACKS WITNESSED

value: (loss) +1, (win) +2

TOTAL

SPIRALS OF DOOM[iv] WITNESSED

value: (loss) -2, (win) -1

TOTAL

SPIRALS OF DOOM WITNESSED

value: (loss) -2, (win) -1

TOTAL

SPIRALS OF DOOM UNWITNESSED

value: (loss) +2, (win) +1

1. Nov 6 (v Oilers) 5-4

TOTAL

And the GRAND TOTAL is …

- 12

And the GRAND TOTAL is …

+ 19

Verdict

Not so Doomy

Verdict

???

[i] An ‘UNWITNESSED’ goals are those scored after I have tuned into any game I watch at least a full period of (>20 minutes), but happen to miss because I am out of the room … ie. getting a beer, going to the bathroom, whatever. (Any goals scored before I tune in count as missed goals). An UNWITNESSED win or loss is the outcome of any game I have watched at least a full regulation period of (>20 minutes), but miss at least the last two (2) minutes. If I don’t see it live, it’s UNWITNESSED.

[ii] A ‘MISSED game’ shall be any game I missed entirely or of which I watched less than a full period (<20>

A ‘MISSED goal’ shall be any goal in a missed game, OR –in any game of which I watch at least a full regulation period– any goal scored before I tuned in to the game.

[iii] The criteria for “COMEBACK” shall be as follows:

1) If I tune in at any point in the second period, the Sens or Pens must comeback from AT LEAST a 3 goal deficit;

2) If I start watching at any point in the third point, the Sens or Pens must come back from at least a 2 goal deficit.

[iv] The criteria for ‘SPIRAL OF DOOM’ shall be as follows:

1) If I tune in before the end of the first half of the game, the team in question must lose AT LEAST a 4-goal lead by the end of regulation time.

2) If I tune in after the half-way point of the game, the team in question must lose AT LEAST a 3-goal lead by the end of regulation time.

It's entirely possible that my friend Tom was right back in high school when he said I was cursed (he actually doesn't remember saying this, but I definitely remember having to watch the gold medal game of the 2002 Olympics -which Canada WON- alone because of it...) but it's also entirely possible that this is some (BAHAHAHA) cosmic sign that I'm just supposed to cheer for the Pittsburgh Penguins like I did when I was a little kid, before Ottawa got a franchise... we shall see...

Pens v Canes - 081023

2008-10-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

What can I say?

My magic Starbucks lost its magic-mystery-internet and I missed the first Staal versus Staal game I'd planned to actually analyze. I even had my speakers, and my table in to corner where no one looks at me funny when I cheer at my laptop.

So it looks like the someone up in management finally reminded the Pens that hockey has a third period. And how. (If only someone would forward the memo to Ottawa...)

I'm pretty bummed because reading the game summary on the Pens's site and the re-cap over at TSCS has led me to believe that it was the wrong game to miss, especially that whole 3-GOALS-IN-3-MINUTES of the third period thing (okay, sue me, it was 3 minutes 36 seconds, but STILL).

After a slightly rocky start to the season, Jordan finally got back into the swing of things (did Thierrien finally put him back in center of a line? Seriously did he, cause I don't know). I heard a rumour earlier this week that after his sub-par performance so far this season on Malkin's wing, Michel Thierrien was going to bump Jordan back down to centre the third line, and I kind of hope this was the case. Jordan himself has said in the past that he's more comfortable playing centre even if it means playing on the 3rd line (with Crosby on the first and Malkin on the second that's not exactly an insult). But this also brings me back to something I brought up at the end of last season: where will Jordan be next year. So far the Pens haven't offered him jack, and part of me is pretty sure they won't and they'll wait to see what happens when he goes RFA next summer - which is kind of dumb since I have a feeling a lot of clubs will make good offers (provided #11 plays a decent season) that the Pens may not be able to match.

Also, from NHL.com: in honour of the first Staal vs. Staal match up of the season there's an article up which I don't have the time to recount in great detail. I read it quickly and it's very cute, all about how the boys were each others's biggest supporters even after Jordan kicked Marc out of the playoffs and how proud Eric was of Jordan for being such an important part of the Pens' cup-run and how Eric thinks that Jared is like Marc and just needs more time to develop in the CHL before he makes it to the NHL. Marc is quoted as saying that Jared's size (6'3" -198 lbs - seriously, where were all the 6'3" hockey players when I was 18?) will be a distinct advantage for him as a winger when he finally does get to the NHL.

I'll do my best to catch the Pens-Rangers game on Saturday.

I could make some lame-o play on the word Staal...

2008-10-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

But, frankly, my brain's too addled.

I've been SO bad about keeping this up lately. The main reason (I'd love to say it's school, but I'd be lying through my teeth) is because I've been obsessing a bit over my other blog, Welcome to the Big League, which is sort of my baby right now. Not that I should love one of my blogs more than the other, but if they were children, TBL would be the infant screaming for attention, and SOYS would be the disgruntled toddler in the corner drawing on the wall. In permanent marker.

I won't lie and say I'm working on a post. [Late edit: How sad is it that I actually FORGOT that I *am* working on a really cool post?] I'm working on two essays that are currently kicking my ass. But I will try to post some fun stuff soon.

In the mean time, some old videos that always make me smile (and want to have four kids)... Nike Bauer's Staal Family Interview, and my favourite ... OTR's Next Question.

ALSO, my plans to cover all Staal vs. Staal games have been slightly thwarted by TSN, CBC and regional blackout rules. I'll be doing what I can to Sopcast them, but it's not always reliable and I'll be pretty much critiquing by memory (anyone want to hook me up with TIVO for Christmas?).

Penguins face off against Carolina at 7:30 ET on Thursday. If all goes well, I'll post my take on it by midnight. TSN is showing Leafs-Bruins and Oilers-Avs, TSN2 isn't showing jack, same with CBC. Does anyone know if you can/how to get RDS in Canada?

Until then... which Staal would you trust with the tractor? (And why?)

LATE EDIT: This is the best joke I have heard in SOOOOOOOOOOOO long!

Q & A from Health Canada

Q: The Stanley Cup was recently on tour in my town, and I kissed it. Do I have to worry about being infected by listeria?

A: You are safe. The Stanley Cup has not been in contact with any Maple Leaf product in over 41 years.

I nearly fell off my chair laughing. Seriously.

Is this the year?

2008-10-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

Maybe.

The question is, whose year is it?

Is it Eric's ?

Is it Jordan's?

Or is it Marc's?

I've got to say I was dead-chuffed to see that all three of these boys made multiple appearances in their teams' ads this year. (I tried to figure out how to post the videos in the post... but I'm a bloody luddite - the fact that I have a blog still wigs me out a little).

36 hours, 31 minutes until the puck drops in Stockholm...

Reasons I Hate the Pre-Season

2008-09-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

This is merely a short-list because I have to write approximately 3500 words by 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.

3. Knowing there are games being played but being unable to watch and/or attend them is like an hour of foreplay only to get Conk-blocked (sorry :P had to use that at least once)
2. The pre-season games I actually WANT to see are three time-zones away and the four days I'm in that time zone, my team will be in SWEDEN.
1. TSN and CBC seem to think that broadcasting horse racing is more important than hockey.

I hear Jordan Staal's first goal of the pre-season was pretty sweet... but my profs have endeavoured to make it impossible for me to spend the time trawling youtube to find out. If anyone has a link -if it was broadcast anywhere- let me know or post a link below.

T minus 16 days...

2008-09-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

First off, I should apologize. I didn't mean to go six weeks without a post; it just sort of happens when you fly across a continent, move everything you've ever owned into storage on what *might* have been a fractured foot, cram seeing about 50 people into two weeks, then come home and sleep for a day before driving 13 hours to Alberta to go camping for four days with some very old friends before we all chain ourselves to desks for the next four months (excluding the hiking trips we'll take to keep ourselves sane...) and say goodbye to the sun until sometime next April (this is Vancouver after all, all this sunshine business is beginning to freak me out).

Secondly, I'm back in classes, which means that I'll most likely be updating on a Very regular basis as a primary means of procrastination.

Now, down to business!

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard that Eric just signed a sweet 7-year, 57.75 million dollar contract extension with the Canes, extending his time in Raleigh into his 30s. Despite the NHL initially rejecting the contract on a technicality regarding the date Eric's no-trade clause will take effect, it seems to have been resolved with some simple editing.

According to the Canes website, that shiny silver pen Jim Rutherford is holding -the one Eric used to sign his shiny new contract- will be auctioned off by the team, with the proceeds of its sale going to charity. In other charitable news, Eric will be sponsoring a suite at the RBC Center for all of the Canes' home games this season. In the past, Eric purchased a suite along with one of his teammates, but this year he will be sponsoring it alone. The suite will be used by local (usually children's) charity groups.

Also, in Raleigh-relevant news, there have been a couple of developments on the injury-front: Rod Brind'Amour underwent successful knee surgery earlier this week which may have him back in the line-up by the beginning of the regular season, but Justin Williams will be out for 4 to 6 months with a ruptured Achilles tendon -sorry but OWWWWW!!! If you don't recognize Williams' name, it's probably because he hasn't played a game so far in 2008. His 2007-2008 season ended in the first period of a Canes-Panthers game last December when he tore his ACL.

Williams' injury means that a member of a (much more) famous hockey family - THE Hockey Family if you will - may be bumped up to play with Eric Staal. I'm talking about Brandon Sutter (whose father Brent is the Head Coach of the New Jersey Devils). I don't know how he plays for the Canes, but I know he kicked some ass with the Canadian junior team last Christmas when they won gold.

In other news...
There's a lot of commentary on the Jordan-filling-the-hole-Malone-left front. To recap most of what I've read: Therrien seems to want him to prove he can do it, and Jordan seems to think he can. When training camp wraps up, we'll have a better idea if he's going to centre the 3rd line again this season or if he'll get bumped up to the second line and be one of Malkin's wingers. Personally, I'd just like to see him stay on the PK where he completely dominated last season, and I'd like to see him on the power play because I think he's definitely got what it takes to fill Malone's shoes (or skates, as the case may be). But then I'm biased... I think this kid's beyond your average bloody-talented 20 year-old.

As for the prospect of Jared playing in Phoenix this season; it looks slim. I'm guessing the only blonds from Thunder Bay I'll be watching on CBC this winter will the these three...

But, hey, it could be worse - none of them are in surgery... ;)
And now, I've got to go knock on every wooden surface in my apartment.

When does the puck drop again ???

It's my off-season too...

2008-08-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

Real life kind of blows, especially when it involves doing four years of income taxes on a holiday weekend *whistles and avoids Revenue Canada's evil glare* What? I'm a student - it's not like I OWE any taxes anyway... really, I'm the one whose missing out since they'd be sending me tax returns due to my having paid somewhere in the order of 20 grand in tuition in the past five years (and I'm in CANADA, imagine how screwed I'd be in the States...)

But, it means that I'm not able to spend my weekend scouring the internet for lovely tidbits of Staal-related news. And it's looking like the rest of the summer is going to be pretty busy, so it may be a bit uneventful here until classes start up again in September and I need something to focus all of my procrastination on...

I bet the Staals don't have to do THEIR taxes themselves... ugh...

Staal VS. Stall in 2008-2009

2008-07-19T02:47:00.000-07:00

Oi. I suck. I've been completely invisible for the past two weeks - the off-season has diverted my attention to other endeavours.

So, schedules for the 2008-2009 season are out. With the new scheduling matrix, it may actually mean LESS Staal vs. Staal games than last season, I actually haven't had a chance to check, but I am otherwise a big fan of the every-team-plays-every-other-team-in-the-league idea (and not just because it means my boy Heatley will be in Van again this December :P).

I'm not going to be insane and say I'll cover every single game the Pens, Rangers and Canes play. That would be just be barmey. But this season, I will try to catch all Staal vs. Staal games (listed below in CAPS), some Sens games which I'll be watching anyways and a few games against the Vancouver Canucks (in BOLD) which I may be able to attend. All Coyotes games are dependent on Jared making the cut in training camp.

Pens v Sens – Oct 4th (Sweden)
Pens v Sens – Oct 5th (Sweden)
Coyotes v Sens – Oct 17th (OTT)
PENS v CANES Oct 23rd (PITTS)
RANGERS v PENS Oct 25th (NY)
PENS v COYOTES Oct 30th (PHOE)

Coyotes v Canucks – Nov 6th (VAN)
Canes v Sens - Nov 7th (NC)
Rangers v Sens – Nov 17th (NY)
Rangers v Canucks – Nov 19th (NY)
CANES v COYOTES Nov 21st (NC)
Rangers v Sens – Nov 22nd (OTT)
Pens v Canucks – Nov 22nd (PITTS)
RANGERS v COYOTES Nov 24th (NY)

RANGERS v PENS Dec 3rd (NY)
PENS v CANES Dec 4th (NC)
Pens v Sens – Dec 6th (OTT)
RANGERS v CANES Dec 13th (NY)

RANGERS v PENS Jan 5th (NY)
Rangers v Sens – Jan 10th (OTT)
Canes v Sens - Jan 13th (OTT)
Coyotes v Canucks – Jan 15th (VAN)
RANGERS v PENS Jan 18th (PITTS)
PENS v CANES Jan 20th (PITTS)
RANGERS v CANES Jan 27th (NY)
RANGERS v PENS Jan 28th (PITTS)

Canes v Canucks - Feb 3rd (VAN)
CANES v COYOTES - Feb 7th (PHOE)
Coyotes v Canucks – Feb 12th (PHOE)
Canes v Sens - Feb 24th (OTT)

RANGERS v CANES March 9th (NC)
Pens v Sens – Mar 14th (PITTS)
Coyotes v Canucks – Mar 21st (PHOE)
Rangers v Sens – Mar 22nd (NY)
Canes v Sens - Mar 25th (NC)
RANGERS v PENS Mar 28th (PITTS)

RANGERS v CANES Apr 2nd (NC)
PENS v CANES Apr 4th (NC)

Also, depending on my mood and what's on CBC or TSN, I may cover or comment more games... And come to think of it, there's no way I'll be able to cover the Jan 5th Pens-Rangers game since I'm pretty sure it will be on at the same time as the gold medal game of the Junior Worlds (and frankly nothing short of death or a magnitude 8 earthquake can compel me to miss that game).

**LATE EDIT**
I've gotta give Pokecheck credit for this gem - check it out :)

It may be a while until I post again -the rest of the summer is shaping up to be a little bit insane. If anyone happens to know some good camp grounds (or cheap, but safe motels/hotels) in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, or Wisconsin, (preferably close to the I94), please let me know.

It's Open Season...

2008-07-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

I could lie and say I'll try to stay remotely close to the stated purpose of this blog, but I won't.

None of the Staals are free agents this summer. Next summer will be a different story seeing as Eric's contract with the Canes will expire (if he doesn't sign a contract extension in the interim), and Jordan will be an RFA (if he doesn't sign a contract extension with the Pens in the interim...), but right now the only Staal who might be really affected by the free agency madness is Marc. And I 'll get to that in a bit... But, first I need to rant a bit...

Players I adore:
Evgeni Malkin (5yr-43.5M contract extension w Pittsburgh, July 2)
Wade Redden, from Ottawa (6yr-39M contract w the Rangers, July 1)
Jarko Ruutu, from Pittsburgh (3yr-3.9M contract w Ottawa, July 2)
Brooks Orpik (6yr-22.5M contract extension w Pittsburgh, July 2)
Shane Donavan (2yrs - undisclosed w Ottawa, July 2)
Dany Heatley ...just cause...

Players I am currently tempted to blacklist:
Marian Hossa, from Pittsburgh (1yr-7.4M contract w Detroit, July 2)

actually, he's the only one...

At the end of each season, players have this tendency to sing the praises of the team they have been playing for *cough*malkin*cough*hossa*cough* waxing poetic about how they would love to return to the team they finished the season with... and it's more than polite do to so when that team is strong and talented and young and has a great future and MADE THE STANLEY CUP FINAL.

Sometimes this praise is genuine. Sometimes it is not. Today, Pens fans got some excellent examples of both these phenomena.

Okay, fine. Hockey is a job for these guys. I can accept that. I can also accept that hockey is a business, and that in any business there is a drive to make money and succeed and completely trounce your competitors. (Think about it, we wouldn't have ipods if Microsoft had managed to establish a monopoly over Apple.) Competition is a very good thing because it keeps us all on our toes, trying to improve ourselves. And that's good. Most of the time.

When it stops being good is when opportunistic individuals decide that they want something, and they're willing to sellout to the highest bidder in order to get it. It's no longer about being part of the team that does everything in its power to succeed, I'm talking about when an individual player is willing to pursue that prize for himself and himself only with little regard to the people who helped put him in a position to even consider getting said prize. (Yeah, I'm totally venting: I'm pissed, and if you think I'm a total idiot, you don't need to read this.) Six months ago, if someone had told me that Marian Hossa would be one of the two most wanted UFA's capable of commanding a significant raise over his 2007-2008 salary of 7M$, would I have believed it? Not really. I could have imagined a scenario in which it was possible, but as it stood, with him in Atlanta, I would have wondered what he'd done to deserve the attention.

Don't get me wrong; Hossa's an excellent player. Injury-free, he consistently has 80+ point seasons. He's also the third best Thrasher in franchise history (albeit that's only 9 years, but still). But the reason he's such a hot commodity right now, can largely be attributed to his performance with the Pittsburgh Penguins in this year's playoffs.

There has got to be something to be said for loyalty, for those willing to tough it out and work as a team (either for Steve Jobs or for Ray Shero), for those who show a degree of commitment to a goal, and are willing to take downs so they can really appreciate their eventual success.

I'm totally dancing around this, so I 'll just come out and say it: Marian Hossa is kind of a dink. He (reportedly) turned down a 7yr-49M dollar contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins (hellooo job security with a young, promising team who WILL win the Cup, possibly more than once, within those 7 years?) for a 1yr-7.4M deal with Detroit. He wants a championship ring. I have no problem with that, what I do have a problem with is that the deal he made screams "I want the goddamn Stanley Cup, and I will do whatever I need to to get it!" Which, frankly, is kind of sad.

Now, if a player's sole desire was to win the Cup, signing with Detroit is the surest bet he could make to do so. Love them or hate them, Detroit has a downright SCARY playoff record: since the 1990-1991 season the Red Wings have made SEVENTEEN consecutive playoff appearances, winning twelve division titles, five conference Championships, six Presidents' Trophies and four Stanley Cups. I dare you to find me another team who can boast anything comparable...

But Detroit just won the Cup, and winning consecutive Cups in the post-lockout NHL seems like a bit of a stretch. Sure Detroit is the last team to have won consecutive Cups (97&98), but that was before the cap, and until a team actually wins consecutive Stanley Cups in the post-lockout NHL, I reserve the right to remain skeptical as to the possibility of such a feat. End of story. The vindictive part of me wants a Pens-Wings SCF rematch next year just so I can watch Hossa lose to the Pens.

Evgeni Malkin on the other hand, I love. He has an unbelievable rookie season, wins the Calder Trophy, follows it up by rallying his team to launch them into a race for the eastern conference title, gets nominated for the Hart Trophy, and plays a solid post-season. (Yeah, he sucked in the last two rounds, but I'd love to see how well his critics could skate in a Stanley Cup Final game against the Detroit Red Wings looking like death run over twice. Just keeping it in perspective...)

For the past month, there have been more rumours circulating about Malkin than there are cells in his body. But, this afternoon, to the delight of Pens fans, Geno laid all those rumours to rest when he signed a 5 year contract extension with the Penguins worth 43.5 million bucks. The same amount Crosby signed for a year ago, which is at least a couple million a year less than Malkin is worth, and 4.8M/yr less than he could have been making had he chosen to return to Europe.

It's the taking-a-pay-cut-in-order-to-get-the-best-team-possible mentality that I have got to respect. That Crosby and Malkin, two of the best players in the NHL, are willing to give Shero such an insane discount so that the Pens can retain and/or acquire the players they need to be a winning team warms my heart. What also warms my heart, is that all the bullocks about Geno wanting to be THE star rather than just A star now seems baseless. Clearly, if Malkin wanted to be a team's big name like Ovechkin, he could be, but it appears that he'd rather share the spotlight and make it past the first round of the playoffs... just sayin'...

Now, onto more Staal-related analysis of this free-agency free for all.

The Rangers just signed UFA defensemen Wade Redden and resigned Michal Rozsival. This bodes well for the Rangers in terms of having a frighteningly evenly paired defensive pair. Both Redden and Rozsival played 80 games and got 38 points last season (a 3-way tie with Tobias Enstrom for 21st). Rozsival is was 7th (a 6-way tie) in goals amongst defensemen with 13 goals, and Redden's 32 assists put him 17th amongst defensemen. I'm no expert on Rozsival, but he from what I can recall of the Conference Semifinal against Pittsburgh, he was good. And fun fact? Redden and Roszsival tied for the NHL's +/- award in 2006.

Redden, on the other hand had a pretty weak season in Ottawa last year (for him at least): despite leading the Sens defense in points and assists, he logged his fewest points per game in five seasons and his least number of goals since his rookie season in the NHL, while playing in more regular season games than he had since before the lockout.

Redden used the no trade clause in his contract to stay in Ottawa this past February (Murray attempted to trade him to San Jose) and since then there's been a great deal of media speculation regarding his future with the Sens. He seemed to want to stay; the Sens didn't seem to want to keep him. Apparently it was time for him to move on, and the Rangers seem pleased to have signed him.

Why is this relevant? Because it can only be a good thing for Marc Staal to be playing with a guy like two-time All-Star like Redden.

LATE EDIT: Another side effect of free agency signing -this one a result of Ryan Malone's leaving Pittsburgh to accept an unreal deal from Tampa Bay- is that Jordan Staal will be playing an even bigger role for the Penguins next season, picking up Malone's ice time and replacing him on the power-play. Ray Shero has full faith in Jordan's ability to rise to the occasion, and hopes to discuss a contract extension with him sometime this summer. With Hossa, Hall, Malone, Roberts, Conklin and Ruutu out of the picture, I'm comfortable retracting any and all comments I've made concerning the Pens' inability to afford to keep Staal around past the end of next season.

I said that Jordan Staal's fate in Pittsburgh rested on how the deals with Hossa and Malkin went down... and I guess I was kind of right. Ray Shero may prove to be smarter than I thought (halleluiah!), and maybe the Pens have decided to emulate the Wings a bit by building up a core of really strong players.

I'd love to see Jordan stay in Pittsburgh until at least 2013 to keep their young core together - so far Crosby, Malkin, Whitney and Orpik have inked deals through at least the 2012-2013 season. If the Pens can sign Marc-Andre Fleury and Jordan Staal as well, the Pens will have half a dozen excellent players whose average age is only 23.

If that isn't the recipe for long term success, I don't know what is...

Coyotes Prospect Camp

2008-06-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

There's a great article detailing some of the prospect camp activities this week. There are a few interviews with propects too (although to my dismay not one with Jared).

It's been unbelievably nice out in Van this weekend so I am a bit sun-drunk and very much sun-burnt from spending two straight days at the beach instead of in front of my computer.

More later... (probably when it starts raining again)

Jared Jared Jared

2008-06-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

According to the Sudbury Star, I was never going to see the fourth in-staal-ment of my "Staal brother pulling his first NHL jersey over his head" tradition because even if Jared HAD been selected in the first round on Friday night he wouldn't have been around to pull on said NHL jersey - BECAUSE HE DIDN'T EVEN GO!

I get why he didn't go ("[the] decision was made by the Sudbury Wolves forward's family not to attend ... choosing instead to stay at home due to the uncertainty of Staal's impending selection") and in a way, it's probably for the best. I can only imagine how the media might have portrayed Jared if he and had made an appearance at Scotiabank Place: he'd have been pegged as a presumptuous ass who was banking on his name making a logic-defying move of bumping him up to the first round.

Instead Jared stayed home and watched on him computer. According to the same article in the Sudbury Star:

Even the chatter of NHL Network commentators wasn't going to stop Jared Staal from hearing his name called Saturday morning.
Repeatedly hitting refresh on his home computer and watching TV, the youngest of the Staal brothers came close to missing the biggest moment of his life -- being selected 49th overall in the NHL entry draft by the Phoenix Coyotes.
"I heard my name (in the background), I just didn't know where I was going, so I had to wait for it to pop up on the computer there," laughed Staal in a phone interview from the family farm in Thunder Bay.

Apparently "being taken in the second round doesn't faze the 17-year-old" who believes that "in a few years if I'm in the NHL, I don't think it would be too big of a deal (what round) I was actually drafted." And I have a feeling that the opportunity to play for and be coached by Wayne Gretzky is making his 49th overall selection go down pretty easily.

"What better person to learn the game from than the greatest player of all time," Staal said.

The Chronicle Journal in Thunder Bay adds that shortly after being drafted, Jared received "a phone call from Coyotes general manager Don Maloney ... where he congratulated Jared and stated he was glad to have him."

Staal says he‘s excited to be going to the desert. Last season, the Coyotes finished at 38-37-7, just eight points out of the Western Conference‘s final playoff spot. Newly acquired centre Olli Jokinen and young gun Peter Mueller will be relied upon to help turn around the franchise and get back to the playoffs.

“Obviously I was really excited,” Staal said. “I know Phoenix has a really young team, and obviously have a really bright future. I‘m just really excited to be part of an organization like that and it should be good going forward.”

And apparently the prospect of being sent out to the western conference isn't something that bothers the youngest Staal.

Jared laughed when he was asked if he was going to miss [his three brothers].

“No, I don‘t think I‘ll miss them too much,” Staal joked. “It was more of a bad thing for my mom because she said if I make the team, she‘ll have to stay up later.”

Jared is, predictably, unsure of where he'll be playing this fall. Chances are slim that Jared will make the Coyotes' roster straight out training camp like Jordan did with the Penguins two years ago. In all likelihood, Jared will return to Sudbury to play for the Wolves, the same way his brother Marc did for the two seasons after he was drafted by the Rangers.

(And, to think, some people argue that Eric and Jordan look like twins...)

For the next couple months, Jared's summer plans remain fairly straightforward.

“Train my butt off, that‘s the biggest thing now,” he said. “I have to get a lot bigger, a lot stronger and a lot quicker. Hopefully I‘ll work hard and have a good camp and see what happens.”

But first, Jared is heading out to the desert for the Coyotes' Prospect Development Camp which starts tomorrow. There, he'll join 26 other Coyotes prospects at the Desert Schools Coyotes Center in Peoria, Arizona for five days of on and off-ice coaching and instruction on everything from nutrition to speed and agility training. On-ice practices will be held Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9:15 -11 a.m. and are free for the public to attend.

If any photos or videos of the development camp are made available, I will try to post them. On the freakishly slim chance that anyone in the greater Phoenix area reads this and decides to go to one of the practices, PLEASE SEND ME PHOTOS!!! Credit will be given if I post them (and I wont use them for anything else without written permission). I'm not sure how much the Coyotes will post on their site, and I'd love some shots of them on the ice!

Wolves and Coyotes

2008-06-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

(Why do I always miss the best stuff in Ottawa?)

First off:

Congratulations Jared!

I'll admit it: I was a bit disappointed.

I think part of me was still (however illogically) harbouring some conviction that Jared Staal might be drafted in the first round. But he wasn't. And it wasn't surprising, but I am sad that I didn't get to see the littlest Staal pull an NHL jersey over his head and smile for the cameras.

According to some reports, the Carolina Hurricanes had been planning on to select Jared as their second pick (45th OA) but instead used that pick to take Zac Dalpe who had been touted as a potential first round pick (almost all the predictions I read had him going somewhere in the bottom of the first round).

Instead, Jared Staal was selected 49th overall, by the Phoenix Coyotes. Jared was their third pick after Mikkel Boedker and Viktor Tikhonov. It should also be interesting to see how things go down in training camp later this summer; after all, no one expected Jordan to get signed at 17. In all likelihood, however, Jared will probably end up back in Sudbury with the Wolves for at least one more season. But maybe Gretzky knows something we don't...

On a completely random, albeit hilarious note check this out.

Requisite "Will he or won't he" post...

2008-06-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (or possibly on Saturday) the last Staal gets drafted (for this generation at least - who knows they may become the new Sutters and just keep breeding hockey players...).

What we know:
- Steven Stamkos will go first tomorrow evening (lucky Tampa...).
- Drew Doughty, Zach Bogosian and Nikita Filatov will likely round out the top four going to L.A., Atlanta and St. Louis. No offense, but a little boring, but then the top few are usually are, being fairly predetermined and all. (Unless you believe rumours, in which case, Pens fans can go hog wild with this one.)
- Jared Staal is ranked anywhere from 31st (Hockey News) to 57th in the ISS's final rankings.
- Daddy Staal has said that his youngest son is the most talented but the least motivated. (For those of you old enough to remember, or geeky enough to know anyways, the same was said about the Brad Sutter, who decided not to play pro-hockey and then won the lottery. Seriously.)
- Jared's not a great skater. I believe the term someone used was "slow as molasses".
- But he's got great hands.

- Tomorrow, we may not be seeing something like this:

Some people are under the impression that Jared is the worst of the Staals. This sucks. Personally, I think that comparing them to each other can be misleading and dangerous. I think the smartest opinion I've heard was from a scout who claimed that he wouldn't be taking Jared's suranme into consideration.

There are two distinct possibilities: either Jared isn't as good as Eric and Jordan (it's sort of futile to compare him to Marc), or he just plays a different role. Either way, scouts have clearly seen enough from him to rank him in the top two rounds. If Jared had any other last name, he'd be just another mid-level prospect heading back to the CHL for another year of junior. And if he came from any other family, who knows, maybe he'd be going to university in the fall instead.

I wish I had some first hand evidence of his talent, his motivation, his speed, but I've never had the privilege of seeing Jared Staal play except for clips on youtube, and anyone can be portrayed as anything on youtube...

I know what I think about Jared Staal, but I operate on instinct rather than on logic most of the time (although I admit that my instincts are largely informed by reason) and I am not making any decisions tomorrow in Ottawa, so really what I think doesn't actually have any bearing on where Jared Staal will go in this weekend's draft. I'd love to know what other fans think, I'm sort of sick of the overly dramatic reports in the press.

Trade Rumours and Trash Talk

2008-06-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

Anyone who gets depressed when the playoffs end clearly didn't major in business. Or politics, for that matter. I'm not a business major, but I have taken more than my fair share of polisci classes and this time of year, the NHL could give the UN a run for it's money in terms of dysfunction and baseless rumours.

There are countless rumours surrounding the two youngest Staals these days. With the draft less than a week away and contract-signing season wholeheartedly underway, it's no surprise that Jared and Jordan are the subject of endless speculation. Today, I deal with Jordan. Tomorrow, provided it isn't gloriously sunny AGAIN, I'll deal with Jared. (I live in Vancouver people, after a while you learn to drop everything when it's actually sunny, and make up skipped/delayed work when it starts raining again.)

Jordan Staal isn't being offered a contract with the Pens. Not this year, in any case. But that doesn't mean he isn't being talked about. Pittsburgh's nucleus of talent was, until this year's trade dead-line, widely considered to consist of Crosby, Fleury, Malkin, and Staal. And rightly so. The four young guys are talented beyond reason and were all drafted either first or second overall. Not a bad core to build a team around.

Then there came Hossa.

Hossa is a great player. Pittsburgh fans want him to stick around because of the chemistry he has on the ice with Crosby, and frankly, the franchise is built around Crosby so the Pens will probably get the kid the winger as a early birthday present.

But a 49-50M deal with Hossa makes it unlikely that the Pens will be able to sign Fleury AND Malkin AND Staal, let alone the myriad of other players who need to be resigned over the next couple years. The salary cap rears it's ugly head... Pittsburghers either love or hate Malkin, I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems to be one extreme or the other. Malkin himself has said he wants to stay in Pittsburgh for 5-6 years, but some people think he's just buttering up the management.

There are two scenarios that I see playing out. 1) The Pens sign Hossa and Malkin to lucrative multi-year contracts and have two unbeatable top lines. 2) The Pens take a crash course from the Detroit Red Wings in How-To-Win-Multiple-Stanley-Cups and somehow convince Hossa and Malkin to take less money so they can have the kind of depth necessary to kick EVERYONE else's asses next year.

Unfortunately, that latter option seems like wishful thinking: as much as I wish all franchises ran like the Wings, most aren't and I am already getting the feeling that this coming season will be Staal's last as a Penguin. It's not that I want to see him go, but I don't think being traded will do him any harm. Jordan Staal is too good to stay on the 3rd line. He's told the media that he's comfortable there (behind Crosby and Malkin, he kind of has to be), but sooner than later, he's going to be too good for that third line. Unless the Pens morph into the Detroit Red Wings and figure out hypnotize their players during contract negotiations so they can afford keeping three first-line worthy centres...

Jordan Staal's fate in Pittsburgh relies almost exclusively on how the deals with Hossa and Malkin go down. Simple as that.

Gah! Life!

2008-06-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

So I meant to post on Friday after I'd gotten over my moderate disappointment that Marian Hossa's last-second goal didn't get past Osgood's pads. But then life (in the form of volunteering at an international sporting event) got in the way, in a BIG way, for five days.

I'll be posting soon, I just need to get some much needed sleep first (I spent 67 hours on my feet between Friday morning and Monday night, and only about 15 hours sleeping in that same period).

"That goal"

2008-06-04T21:07:00.001-07:00

You know the one I mean, the one that might have been the ticket into overtime.
That goal was what emotion asphyxiational feels like.

I'm going to need a couple days to get over this.

Things I Never Thought I Would Say...

2008-06-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, this one I hoped I'd get to say, but was beginning to worry I wouldn't:
BRING ON GAME 6!!!

And now, for the top 5 things I Never Thought I Would Say...

5. "Hi, I'd like to purchase a Pens jersey, please." (at least, I didn't think I'd utter these words until I already owned a Sens jersey...)
4. The Pittsburgh Penguins should not have won that game.
3. Did he put that in his out net? He just put that in his own net! - in a STANLEY CUP FINAL GAME
2. "Can you tape Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for me? I have to work that night."
(this is actually a major dilemma for me - assuming there is a Game 7, I actually AM scheduled to work that night, and it's a favour for a friend who knows me well enough to know that if I call in sick, I'll be down at the pub...)

and (drum roll)... the number one thing I never thought I'd hear myself say:

1. I have a lot of respect for Don Cherry.

Yeah. (And no, you're not hallucinating Andy.) If you spend any time with me watching hockey, one of the things you'll invariably pick up by the beginning of the second period of any given hockey game on CBC is my exasperation with Don Cherry ... most of the time. The past few days, he has risen at least 50 points in my estimation. (Points in my estimation are not percentage based, they're kind of like the NASDAQ, they just keep going up... until they crash spectacularly, and when they do - watch out!)

The Few Reasons Mer Hearts Donald S. Cherry

Reason #1: His inability to speak coherently last Saturday night about the loss of Luc Bourdon: I have never heard Cherry as quiet as he was during Coaches Corner's tribute to the young Canuck. For a man who never lacks words, he was appropriately speechless. Words really can't sum up how much it sucks to lose a kind, vivacious, talented 21 year-old - or 12 year-old - or 28 year-old. Young people dying sucks. And the fact that Don gets that made him human to me again.

Reason #2: His glowing assessment of Jordan Staal's performance on the PK in Game 4 softened my heart a little towards him. Then his repeated insistence throughout Game 5 and it's three subsequent OT periods that it was guys like Staal, Talbot, Hall, Sykora and Roberts who are the backbone of the Pens, and the main reason the team has a chance in hell of winning the Stanley Cup and the ONLY reason they were still even in the game to begin with.

Reason #3: The Penguin hand puppet he had at the beginning of Game 4.

Reason #4: The fact that he was wrong about Game 5, proving that all that hot air about him knowing the Wings would take it last night is just as infallible as my uneducated opinions about who will win the Eastern Conference Final (mind you, I was right).

I know I've been digressing from the stated purposed of this blog a bit lately, but with the news you can hardly blame me. Now, I will attempt to return to our regularly scheduled programming: so lets talk a little bit more about Reason #2, shall we?

I have to apologize for how gushy I am about to be, but HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING STAAL??? He's unbelievable, he's unflappable, he's got more poise than I thought possible (I love when these boys prove me wrong by surpassing my expectations!) and he's been unreal on the penalty kill. His defensive play has been great all season, but just as Marc-Andre Fleury really proved his elite-goalie-status last night when he made 55 saves and played all but forty seconds of a 109:57 minute long game, Jordan really brought his game to another level last night. I don't say this because he did anything differently last night, it's the fact that he didn't do anything differently. He just kept on playing like he always does, and he just kept playing that way into the 100th minute of the game.

I suppose it doesn't hurt that he's 19 and he has seemingly endless energy and a healthy store of youthful adrenaline, but some of the guys, even the really young guys seemed to be struggling a bit out there during the second and third OT. In their defense, I would never be able to do half of what they did last night, so I should really shut up, but I don't mean it as criticism of anyone so much as a compliment to Staal that he didn't seem to be struggling so much as the game wore on.

Staal is elite. I can't tell you exactly why, and a lot of people seem to be having the same difficulty. He's not an offensive powerhouse, he's not a pure goal scorer, he's not really a play-maker, but he's an amazing defensive player and the Pens are way better with him on the ice. The reasons why I think he's amazing are simple really. He just doesn't give in. He absolutely dominates in the PK. He uses his abilities well. He's pretty smart with the puck. And he's a defensive GENIUS for someone his age and with his (relative) inexperience.

Bob McKenzie from TSN points out that last night, Staal played around 30 minutes of the 110 minute game, about the same as Crosby, Hossa, and Malkin. For someone who only posted 28 points in the regular season, that's saying a lot. I'm not great with the insanely specific hockey jargon but I'll say this: every time Staal was on the ice last night, I noticed. I noticed because he was out there reaching for pucks, or he was getting physical to get or keep the puck, or he was trying to break away towards Detroit's net. He had some fantastic chances last night. None of them came to anything, unfortunately, but he was out there trying to make it happen, and that's necessary to actually MAKE it happen.

And now I'm just waiting to see what he brings to Game 6.

3OT Wins and Promises I Can't Afford to Keep (but Will, Rent Be Damned)

2008-06-03T01:05:00.000-07:00

mer said...

Dear Pittsburgh Penguins,
I have been a Pens fan since 1988. I have been a Sens fan since 1992. I have never bought a jersey for either team because rent remains a slightly bigger priority.

But I'll make you guys a deal: if you promise to win Game 5, I will -rent be damned- buy the jersey of whomever scores the game winning goal.

Love,
Mer

Jun 2, 2008 12:49:00 AM

I posted that on the wee hours of Monday morning on the comments board of The Sidney Crosby Show. I'll admit several things: it's been a pretty crappy week for me, I really needed something good to happen, the above was written in a moment of sheer desperation, and I really REALLY want a Dany Heatley jersey (and have for YEARS... which I am now even further from being able to afford).

So, I'll be honest: I was kind of hoping Geno or Crosby or Whitney or Staal or Letang would score because they're my favourite Pens, but I have every intention of keeping my word. Sykora = Clutch tonight and so I will be ordering a Pens away jersey with Sykora's name and the number 17 on the back. Because I'm just that kind of a girl. The type who keeps her word, even if it costs her 170$US that she should really be saving for tuition in September...

More tomorrow, for now I have to sleep because I can't exactly call in 'sleep-deprived-because-of-post-game-adrenaline-rush-kept-me-up' to work tomorrow and work? Well, I have to be there in 6 hours...

(Very) Late Edit: Mer keeps her promises. (Okay, so I got a home jersey. Sue me. I like black better.)

Sad News

2008-05-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

In Loving Memory
LUC BOURDON
(1987-2008)

News broke several hours ago that Luc Bourdon, 21, was killed this morning near his home-town of Shippagan, New Brunswick, when his motorcycle collided with a tractor-trailer.

From 'The Hockey News':

Bourdon was taken 10th overall by the Canucks in the 2005 draft. He turned heads in his first Canuck camp and there was talk the six-foot-three, 211-pounder could make the team as an 18-year-old.

Bourdon was returned to junior and helped Canada win back-to-back gold medals at the world junior hockey championships. He was named the tournament all-star team at the 2006 tournament played in Vancouver. At the 2007 tournament in Sweden Bourdon scored the third-period goal that tied the game and forced overtime against the U.S. in the semifinal game.

Brent Sutter, who coached Bourdon at the 2006 world juniors, called the death tragic.

"It's surreal it's happened," said Sutter. "I feel terrible for the family."

Bourdon split last season between Vancouver and the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League. He played 27 games with the Canucks, scoring two goals and collecting 20 penalty minutes. Tambellini said Bourdon had the skills to become a star in the NHL.

"His potential was incredible," said Tambellini. "All those great attributes that got him recognized as a future NHL players were just starting to emerge."

Hughes said a devastating ankle injury during the 2005-06 season slowed Bourdon's progress. He also was saddled by the huge expectations placed on him after his first Canucks training camp.

"I think that training camp created a level of expectations perhaps," said Hughes. "I really felt this year he was starting to settle into kind of worrying about only what was in his control. He was trying to simplify his game and not worry about if he was in Manitoba or Vancouver. Just enjoy the sport and not the business side of it."

Hockey officials at all levels expressed sadness over Bourdon's death.

"He was a very talented player who made a great impact on the organization in a short period of time," Craig Heisinger, the GM and vice-president of the Manitoba Moose, said in a release. "It is a big loss for the Manitoba Moose family."

The National Hockey League Players' Association extended its sympathies to Bourdon's family, teammates and friends.

"Luc had a promising life and career ahead of him and he will certainly be missed," the NHLPA said in a release. Bob Nicholson, Hockey Canada's president, said Bourbon was a "great teammate and friend."

Bourdon played for Val d'Or, Moncton and Cape Breton of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before turning pro.

I live in Vancouver. I don't really cheer for the Canucks, but I've seen this kid play for the Canucks and for the Junior National team in 2006 and 2007, and he was a great hockey player. More importantly, he was a great person. My roommate had class today with a girl who works for the Canucks and saw him on a regular basis this season as he shuttled between Vancouver and his AHL team in Manitoba; she was in tears. I can only imagine what his friends, family and former teammates must be feeling tonight.

Among those former teammates are Marc Staal, who played with Bourdon in both the 2006 and 2007 IIHF World Junior Championships, and Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who was Bourdon's teammate and roommate when they played together as teenagers in the QMJHL.

My heart goes out to all of Luc Bourdon's friends, family and former teammates.

We'll miss you Luc.

The Learning Curve of a Penguin

2008-05-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Reporter - Strategically, did Pittsburgh do anything differently tonight than they did in Detroit?
Mike Babcock - Well, they won.

Well, I just laughed my ass off...

The Penguins' performance in Games 1 and 2 against Detroit were, let's be completely honest, atrocious. There was no defense, no drive, no fire, and far too much of all the stuff they shouldn't have been doing (time in the box, turnovers, getting stuck/derailed in the neutral zone). But tonight was different. Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final was what a Stanley Cup series game should look like. (For a full recap, check out The Sidney Crosby Show: I can't compare, and what I want to say is slightly different.)

The Learning Curve of a Penguin...

Wayne Gretzky has said that there are three seasons in the NHL: the regular season, the playoffs and the Stanley Cup final. He would know. A lot of people are saying the Pens won't win the Cup this year, claiming that it takes experience in all of these levels of play before a team can master them, and win the Cup. Which implies that Pittsburgh will go home this year with a big "Sorry, Not a Winner" but with the requisite "Please Try Again" tagged on as a brutal reminder of what might have been, but wasn't. To this I say: poppycock.

Yeah, that's right. Poppycock.

Much has been made of this "youth" versus "experience" angle - I'm guilty of it myself. Most comparisons have been made between the Gretzky's 1983 Oilers and Crosby's Penguins. In some ways these comparisons are apt, and in some ways, I don't think the two teams can be compared.

The situations are frighteningly similar:
1. Struggling team drafts hockey prodigy.
2. Team struggles to rebuild under/in new NHL rules/climate.
3. Team finally has a great regular season, but gets swept in the first round of the playoffs (or very close to it).
4. The following year, having learned what it takes to survive the post-season, the team makes it all the way to the Stanley Cup final.
5. Team meets the current hockey dynasty in the Cup final.

For the Oilers, number 5 resulted in a four game sweep by the NY Islanders. Ouch. And then they came back the next year, won the Cup and took it home four more times in the six years that followed. Keep dreaming Crosby. (Sorry to be trite, but it ain't happening again folks, deal with it).

For the Pens, number 5 will not play out as it did for the Oilers, and I say this for several reasons. First, the Pens just won Game 3, so they aren't getting swept (WOOHOO!). Second, it took the Oilers five years to get from 1 to 5, the Pens have done it in three years. Thirdly, and most importantly, the learning curve the Pittsburgh Penguins have displayed is pretty unreal.

In 2006, the Pens missed the playoffs. Unfortunate, but entirely expected after the number of losses they logged in the first half of the season. But because of their somewhat dismal performance during Crosby's rookie season, they were able to draft Jordan Staal, so really, the world is fair in its own ways - sometimes it just takes a while to figure out how exactly you benefit from something seemingly negative.

In 2007, Michel Thierrien forced his incredibly young team to become stronger defensively, transforming them into a team that actually had a shot. The Pens made the playoffs but were all but swept by the Senators in the first round; the young team was taught a harsh lesson in the differences between what it takes to win a game in the regular season and what it takes to win in the post-season.

Now it's 2008.
After a summer of reflection, the Pens returned to the ice with a mission to surpass what they accomplished the previous season. After getting off to a pretty good start, they were thrown a few curve balls that threatened to derail them, but instead of balking under pressure, the Pens rallied, stepped up and shot ahead in the standings. The Pens fought for the lead in the Eastern Conference, and ended the season second in the east behind Montreal. They headed into the playoffs with confidence and soundly and (it pains me to say this) deservedly trounced Ottawa in the first round. But then they didn't stop: they took the lessons they learned last season and put them to good use as they defeated the Rangers and the Flyers in five games each. Last year they came up short, this year, they took home the Prince of Wales Trophy (figuratively at least: Sid's so superstitious he wouldn't even let it in the locker room, let alone TOUCH it).

I've been thinking for a few weeks now that Pittsburgh has shown a fairly steep learning curve the past couple seasons. Earlier today, I realized that that Pittsburgh's chances of winning the Stanley Cup next week are entirely dependant on how steep that curve proves to be. And how steep that learning curve proves to be was entirely dependent on Pittsburgh's ability to win tonight's game. Could they take the lessons from Games 1 and 2 and get back in this series? Would they be willing to change elements of their game in order to beat Detroit? Would they have the collective personal strength to overcome two goal-less games? Apparently the learning curve was steep enough for them to win tonight, hopefully that means it's steep enough for them to make the mother of all comebacks to win the Cup. I wasn't sure until a few hours ago if my theory would hold any water, but now I'm beginning to think it might!

The Pens in 6, like I've been saying for a month.

So not Staal-related, but important nevertheless...

2008-05-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

Torches and Hockeytowns

2008-05-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

Game 1 was harsh.
Game 2 was just brutal, but at least the Penguins showed up to every period. (Well, some of them did.)
I don't have the emotional energy to re-cap the game, but if you want a good re-cap, click here - Jodie's re-caps are fantastic. What I want to say is slightly different.

TORCHES - There's been a lot of talk lately about torches being passed, about the young versus old match-up for the Cup and about hockey dynasties, real, imagined or simply desired.

This final has been hailed left, right, and centre as a competition between the youth and experience. But it's more than that. Detroit has unbelievably talented players and those players have a box full of championship rings. Pittsburgh has four of the hottest young players in the game (Sid, Geno, Fleury and our boy, Jordan Staal) and there is fire in the entire team's eyes (well there was fire until the end of the first period of Game One last Saturday...)

Some are predicting a Detroit sweep. Even though the Wings have shut out the first two games, I don't think that will happen; Pittsburgh has been too good all season and all playoffs to give up that easily.

Some are predicting Detroit in 6 - More realistic, but no matter how you figure it, that means Detroit will have to win two games in Mellon Arena: the Pens haven't lost a game at home Since February 24th. (Mind you, just to be fair, they also haven't played Detroit in Mellon Arena.)

My prediction (for what it's worth, and that's not much frankly, although I have been 6-1 for my eastern conference predictions) has been and remains that the Pens will take it in six, on home ice, to the delight and jubilation of their fans. I had thought them winning would hinge on their ability to win either Game 1 or 2 (because, let's be honest, the likelihood of them winning both those games in Joe Louis Arena was slim, and clearly it didn't happen). Now, I simply want to see someone on the Pens' side score a goal. If they can score the first goal of Game 3, ESPECIALLY if it's one of the young guys like Staal or Kennedy, I think it will breathe new life into the Pens. And I think that first goal will reinvigorate them and get the adrenaline pumping. Losing is crappy and it's tough to feel optimistic or powerful when you haven't scored a goal in over 130 minutes of play, but if they can get that goal, if they can find that fire, and most importantly, if they can start getting past Detroit's defense, then hopefully we will see a couple wins in Mellon arena, and, *knocking on wood* maybe we'll be lucky enough to see the torch being passed from one Hockey Dynasty (or as close as they come post-lockout) to their successor.

There is another torch that many see being passed this year; the one from Mario Lemieux to Sidney Crosby. Yes, Mario retired (permanently) two years ago, and yes, Sid's been wearing the C all year, but really, this photo (taken the night the Pens won the Eastern Conference title) sums it all up:

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the exact moment that EVERYTHING Mario has stood for, became everything that Sid must stand for.

However, the torch that no one is discussing is this: Detroit is no longer rightfully "Hockeytown" even if they ARE leading the series 2-0.

HOCKEYTOWNS - Now, I need to make a few things clear before I continue: I live in Vancouver, I cheer for the Ottawa Senators, and I haven't been home to Ottawa since 2005.

But last spring when the Sens made the Cup final, I would have paid whatever price necessary for both the plane ticket and tickets to ANY of the Cup final games had tickets for the games in Ottawa not sold out in maybe 30 seconds. Ottawa is a city where the Mayor led a Sens pep rally before Game 3 of last year's Cup final series, it's a city where the 2002 Olympic win over the US caused celebration in the streets for HOURS, it's a city where you can still go down to the rink in the park in the winter and play a shift of shinny with people you've just met. Ottawa is a hockeytown. But I won't go so far as to say that we are THE Hockeytown, even if we DID have 29 straight sell-outs this season.

This week, while reading about the inability of die-hard Pens fans to get tickets to see their Boys of Winter, I began to wonder why it is Detroit that is considered (and may possibly hold the rights to the name?) "Hockeytown?" A city that has professional basketball, baseball and football teams, which collectively seem to trump hockey in the pro-sports hierarchy, meaning that had I had the means to get to Michigan last Saturday, I could have been at Game One of the Stanley Cup Final: as of 2 p.m. PACIFIC TIME -three hours before the puck dropped - tickets for the game were still available.

Pittsburgh is a different story: they have the Steelers (who are huge!) and the Pirates (who are... not so huge, but still have a loyal fan base) and they still managed to sell out Games 3 and 4 in less than a minute. That is a fan-base worthy of recognition.

Being "Hockeytown" is about more than the number of Stanley Cup banners hanging from the ceiling of the arena and having a successful franchise. It's about thousands of your fans filling the arena for away games; it's about thousands of people camping out in front of the jumbo screen at Mellon Arena in the pouring rain to watch playoff games they couldn't get tickets to; it's about having a WAITING list for season tickets; it's about boasting 64 straight sell-out games (I think games 3 and 4 make 66, correct me if I'm wrong).

But the biggest test in being THE "Hockeytown" is how fans react to losses - particularly in the Stanley Cup final. Being "Hockeytown" means cheering for your boys when they are down 2-0 in the series against an insanely talented team, it means leaving your doubt and your disappointment at home for Game 3, it means going to Mellon Arena on Wednesday to cheer yourself hoarse when your team needs it the most. Being "Hockeytown" means bringing the posters and the horns and the lucky jerseys and the love to Game 3.

That is what Pittsburgh needs to do on Wednesday night: they need to bring the LOVE. And if they do, they will prove that Pittsburgh is the REAL Hockeytown.

Staal #12 vs. Staal #11: An (Early) Career Comparison

2008-05-20T17:04:00.000-07:00

So the 'Short History of Staal' has been postponed until I have time to do it properly. But until then I thought a little career comparison would be fun as we waste away the five days until Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT...

For the last two years, there has been a lot of discussion about which Staal is the best hockey player. The boys themselves have said it’s Jared (but there's increasing speculation that the elder brothers may have been a bit generous in this assessment), and in 2005-2006 the hockey world's favourite seemed obvious: Eric was literally the NHL poster-boy. And after leading playoffs scoring and winning the Stanley Cup at 21, was there any competition?

But the following season (2006-2007) when Jordan had a stellar rookie season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, scoring more goals in his first season in the NHL than he had the year before in the OHL, suddenly everyone had a new favourite Staal.

This season it was Marc who quietly impressed fans in New York as he played a great rookie season with the Rangers.

Eric and Jordan made their fair share of headlines this year, but for the wrong reasons. There was understandable disappointment when Jordan didn’t come out swinging and have a 100-point season. The rest of us were wise enough to realize that he’s 19 and has plenty of years to have 100-point seasons. I, for one, began to really see the defensive prowess that had originally impressed Michel Thierrien and convinced the head coach to sign Jordan to a entry-level contract straight out of training camp.

I’ve always loved watching Jordan play and while I thought it was unfortunate that he wasn’t putting up better numbers this season, I noticed that his game had only improved since last season.

Now, suddenly, everyone is back on the Gronk-bandwagon (HOP ON EVERYONE!!!) and I couldn’t be happier that he’s receiving the attention that he really ought to have been getting all season.

(Photo by lexie101 and courtesy of The Sidney Crosby Show - lexie was at Game 5, LUCKY GIRL!!!)

Really, it’s silly to compare these brothers: they are ALL incredibly talented hockey players who will hopefully all have long NHL careers. But since Jordan is heading into the Stanley Cup finals, I couldn’t help wondering how he stacks up next to the only Staal who has touched Stanley. (If I’d started this blog before the Conference Semi final, I might have tried to do something similar for Marc and Jordan, but Eric and Jordan are easier to compare because they’re both forwards.) So without further ado…

Staal #12 vs. Staal #11:
An (Early) Career Comparison

ERIC	vs.	JORDAN
98 (in 66 games)	# points in final year of OHL	68 (in 68 games)*
62 (in 56 games)	# points in OHL at 17	68 (in 68 games)*
2^nd Overall in 2003, to the Carolina Hurricanes	NHL Draft	2^nd overall in 2006, to the Pittsburgh Penguins
18 years, 10 months	Age @ entry into NHL	17 years, 11.5 months
31 (in 81 games)	Points as NHL Rookie	42 (in 81 games)
11	Goals as NHL Rookie	29
No	Calder Trophy Nomination	Yes
100 (in 82 games)	Pts in 2^nd NHL season	28 (in 82 games)
45	Goals 2^nd NHL season	12
21⁺	Age during 2^nd NHL Season	19
28 (in 25 games)	Points during first NHL playoffs appearance	7 (in 14 games)**
9 (in 25 games)	Goals during first NHL playoffs appearance	6 (in 14 games)**
2005-2006 (sophomore season)	NHL season during which they made their first playoff appearance	2007-2008 (sophomore season)
21 years, 6 months	Age @ first Stanley Cup Final appearance	19 years, 9 months
21	Age @first Stanley Cup win	???

*Since Eric is born after the NHL Draft cut-off of Sept 15th, he played 3 years of Major Junior. Jordan, born Sept 10th only played 2 years. Because Eric was 18 for the majority of his 3rd season, it is more telling to compare their performance based on age.

⁺Due to the NHL lockout, Eric played a season of pro hockey in the AHL between his rookie and sophomore seasons in the NHL, making him 21 years old for most of his second season.

**So far!!!

No one can realistically predict which of these two brothers will end their NHL career with more goals or assists or Championship rings, and that's not really the point. When two of four brothers have made it to the Stanley Cup final before their 22nd birthdays, the real question is who will be the youngest Staal to drink from the Lord Stanley's mug? And from this year forward, how many consecutive years are there going to be Staals in the playoffs?

Beware the Grieving Gronk

2008-05-18T19:50:00.001-07:00

I would like to begin by extending my condolences to the entire Staal family for their loss on Sunday, May 11th, 2008. John Staal, the proud grandfather of our main men, passed away last week after a long illness at the age of 80. Despite their busy hockey schedules, both Jordan and Eric made it a priority to be in Thunder Bay for the funeral this past Wednesday. Eric missed Team Canada's quarter-final game against Norway at the World Championships, but thanks to the generosity of friend and former team-mate, Mark Recchi, Jordan was flown by charter plane to Thunder Bay and back to Pennsylvania so that he would not miss game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final. Jordan explain, "It's definitely a difficult situation for myself especially the way things are going for me right now. But I think there's bigger things than hockey sometimes and I'm just glad I can make it home."

Both brothers returned to their teams after the funeral. When asked about his decision to play, Jordan told reporters, "He watched all of my games growing up." Eric reiterated those sentiments saying that his grandfather, an avid hockey fan - particularly of his young grandsons - wouldn't have wanted them to miss such important games.

* * *

Now, a little less formally, I'd like to send a MASSIVE shout out to the Gronk. Dude, you rock! I mean you REALLY KICKED SOME ASS!!!

The day after learning of his grandfather's death, Jordan played hard for 14:24 of Game 3, producing another dozen or so of the strong but understated plays we've come to expect from him this season. Anyone who wants to argue that Jordan Staal has had a flop of a sophomore season clearly hasn't actually SEEN a Pens game this year - sure he didn't get 29 goals this year, but no one watching him play can argue that he hasn't been an incredible asset to the Penguins. And when he does score, he makes sure it's memorable.

The Gronk scoring the game winning goal in Game 2 of the Pens-Rangers series. (Photo: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)

The Penguins won Game 3 against the Flyers giving them a 3-0 lead in the Conference Final series. With Timonen and Coburn out, the Flyers were looking a little weak, and a lot of people expected Pittsburgh to sweep the Flyers on their home ice. It would have been gutting for Flyers fans, and vindictively sweet for their cross-state rivals (42 CONSECUTIVE losses in Philadelphia?). But after Philadelphia's 4-1 loss in Game 3, a sweep looked possible if not probable.

And then there was Game 4.

I'm pretty sure the only word to sum up this game is WOW.

WOW, because of how fiercely the Flyers came out fighting to stay in the series. WOW, because of Marc-Andre Fleury's acrobatic save (if you saw this game, you know the one I'm referring to, if you didn't, check it out! @1:45). But the biggest WOW was Jordan Staal. The Pens lost the game to Philly, but that's completely irrelevant to my point: when faced with adversity, the Gronk brings it!

A completely underrated 19 year-old returns from his grandfather's funeral and scores his team's only two goals in Game 4 of what could have been a sweep of the Conference Final? I'll say that again: his team's only two goals. And that's on a team with Crosby, Malkin, Hossa, and Sergei Gonchar (who I only mention because he's defense and he matched Jordan for goals [12] and nearly tripled him in assists [16 for Staal, 53 for Gonch] in the regular season).

If anything was bothering the Gronk, the Flyers were none the wiser. Maybe he did it for his Opa. Maybe it was pure luck. Maybe something clicked and he just had a really good game. Whatever the reason, the Gronk did it! At a time when no one would have blinked if he'd missed the game altogether, in a game where his team (full of stars, no less) couldn't seem to muster the juice to get the puck past Biron, the Gronk hit the ice in the third period and, well, reminded his team of what they had come to Philly to do... (I apologize, it's Versus... just mute it and skip ahead to 2:30).

Despite the Gronk's best efforts to lead by example, the Pens were otherwise unable to score. But to be the player who gives a team hope when they are down 3-0 in the third period? To narrow that lead and make it a one-point game with 5:49 left in the game? To play with that intensity and tenacity, particularly under the circumstances? If that's not maturity, I don't know what is. In twenty years, when Jordan Staal retires after a long and impressive career in the NHL, I hope it is goals like the pair in Game 4 that people remember, not his mere 28 points or his -5 rating in his sophomore season.

(Photo courtesy of Jodie at The Sidney Crosby Show)

(Oh, and his yet-another-nail-in-Philly's-coffin goal in Game 5 ? That was pretty sweet too!)

Now that the Pittsburgh Penguins are heading into the Stanley Cup final, it would be wise for whichever team they end up facing not to underestimate Staal. With star teammates like Marian Hossa, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and a goalie like Marc-Andre Fleury it might be tempting to focus on how to shut them down and figure out how to score on MAF, but woe be it to the team that ignores the threat posed by the Pens' supporting cast (Malone, Dupuis, Gill, Roberts, Whitney, Laraque, Rutuu, Talbot, Hall... honestly, is there a single mediocre player on this team right now?) and young talent like Tyler Kennedy, Kris Letang and, particularly Jordan Staal, who has scored 3 of his 5 playoff goals since his grandfather's passing. A team that under-estimates his contribution will suffer the consequences...

Beware the Grieving Gronk!

LATE EDIT: In an interview following Detroit's win of the Western Conference Championship, Nicklas Lindstom identified Jordan Staal specifically as an example of Pittsburgh's depth, saying that Staal is playing "unbelievable hockey" this post season.

Set Out Your Staal: A Brief Introduction and Explanation

2008-05-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

What the HECK does "Set Out Your Staal" Mean?
"Set Out Your Staal" is a play on the idiom 'set out your stall' which is thus defined:

(British & Australian idiom) to show other people that you are determined to do something. ex. We've set out our stall to win the championship and we'll be disappointed if we don't. (Mer here: This was the example the online dictionary gave me, I felt it was apt.)

Sure, it's a relatively lame play on words, but it is oddly appropriate given the circumstances.

What is "Set Out Your Staal"?
Ideally, a hub of information, news, stories, videos, links, interesting facts, et c. about all four Staal brothers and a place where fans of any or all of these young men can discuss, debate and dissect their games, goals and good deeds. Be it Pens fans wishing to discuss Jordan's UNBELIEVABLE bounce back in the series against Philadelphia or Canes fans interested in Eric's performance in the World Championship, I will endeavour to keep this a neutral and positive environment for everyone. (I will be moderating comments to ensure that there is no insulting, demeaning, or otherwise offensive trash-talk) That said, I welcome your comments, constructive criticism, suggestions, photos, and pretty much anything and everything readers would like to add to what I post.

I also recognize that these things have a tendency of taking on a life of their own, so we'll see what this becomes.

Why?
Not since the Sutters have more than 3 brothers played together in the NHL, and while there is only a slim chance that Jared will play in the NHL next fall at 18 like Jordan did, the youngest Staal IS currently ranked 43rd among North American skaters for this summer's draft and will hopefully join his brothers in the NHL in the near future. (For the record, very few people expected Jordan to play for the Penguins at 18, and he was a finalist for the 2007 Calder Trophy.)

I do not, as a rule, watch the NHL Draft but I have, by complete chance, caught the portions of the draft when Eric, Marc and Jordan pulled their first NHL jerseys over their heads (in 2003, 2005 and 2006, respectively) and I hope to see Jared do the same next month. I also have watched the three eldest brothers win a combined three international titles (Eric and Jordan in the 2007 WC and Marc in the 2006 and 2007 WJC). I am not as superstitious as -say- Sidney Crosby, but I do believe that things happen for a reason, and I've decided to put my interest in their careers to use by sharing what I know and discover with other fans, regardless of who they root for, be it the Canes, the Rangers, the Pens or the Wolves.

Plus, a little sibling rivalry always makes things interesting!

Who am I?
No one of consequence. I will, however, tell you who I am not: I am neither Eric, Marc, Jordan nor Jared Staal (honestly, do you think they have time for stuff like this?); I am not friends with any or all of the Staals or their family; I am not affiliated with the Staals in any way; I am not an employee of any hockey franchise or hockey-related company (although sometimes I wish I was); I am not interested in debating the merits of Jordan Staal's fine cheek bones or who he is rumoured to be dating; and I am not a die-hard fan of any of the teams the Staal brothers play for - in fact, I am an Ottawa Senators fan - so hopefully I will be able to provide a relatively unbiased perspective.

... okay, I'll be perfectly honest: that last one is a *bit* of a stretch. When I was a kid, Ottawa didn't have an NHL franchise and Mario Lemieux was HUGE at the time, and well, they were the PENGUINS which were pretty cool birds to a six year old, so I may - from time to time - betray some residual loyalty to the Pittsburgh Penguins... like right now when I admit that I actually cried for joy today when the Pens beat Philly 6-0 to take the Eastern Conference title! Hopefully I will be able to keep that in check ... as soon as the playoffs are over...

Until then I reserve the right to post an inordinate amount of news about Jordan and the Pens as they head into the STANLEY CUP FINAL!!!

Coming Soon: A Short(ish) History of Staal and Beware the Grieving Gronk