pop culture, pittsburgh, and potpouri

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Pittsburgh's got a Fever... A Penguins Fever!!


The city is a buzz with excitement over the Penguins. Hockey hasn't got attention like this inPittsburgh since the early 90's. You can feel the energy walking downtown, which is not a normal thing in downtown Pittsburgh. The feeling is really something special, and is different than Steelers season. This is a new young movement that Pittsburgh is in desperate need of. This isn't the old Steel City vibe of the 70's that kind of gives the Steelers its charcter. Rather this is a fresh modern feel led by a young Penguins team that the whole country is behind. (At least agree with me for the sake of people stuck in Pittsburgh). The Penguins won their first play off game tonight shutting out the Ottawa Senators. Mark-Andre Fluery had his first post season shut out, and Gary Roberts established himself as Pittsburgh's new favorite player with an incredible game scoring two goals and kicking some ass (literally). Roberts and the Sens' Bass had been going at each other all game long. Roberts sent Bass shoulder first into the low boards, and got exactly the response that he expected. The Sens all conjoined around Gary Roberts and the face-washing and trash talking flew. Roberts literally had to be physically removed from the ice by two officials. It took a solid two minutes for the officials to force the 41-year old down the ramp and off the ice. Pittsburgh fell in love, he had them at Fuck You. It was the first home playoff win for the Penguins since a 3-2 victory over Buffalo in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on May 8, 2001, a game in which Mario Lemieux tied the game with the goaltender pulled at the end of regulation and Martin Straka won it in overtime. This game felt more exciting than that win, and I think people are more excited about the Pens than ever before. Game two is on Friday, and its going to be fucking awesome. Just for fun here is a video of Gary Roberts kicking some ass.

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