Pens vs Thrashers

It’s always a packed house when the Penguins come to town. You have a lot of old school fans who watched Lemieux and were there from the beginning. You also have a TON of bandwagon people in their shiny new Crosby and Malkin jerseys. Hey, it’s still a paid butt in the seat and in Blueland, we have to care about that. I’ve not had any bad experiences with Pens fans. It’s not like they are Detroit or Buffalo. The only bad thing is there is just so many of them. I hate feeling like an outcast in my own arena. I’m sure the guys don’t like it, but it seems all they care about is playing in front of a bunch of people.


I’m always excited to see the Pens though. There are tons of guys I like on the team. I love Max Talbot. I like Tanger, Rupp, Staal, Orpik and TK just to name a few. Then of course there is my Flower!! It started when I made him a “Welcome Back Flower” sign in the 2008-09 season. I got my first “stick tap” for a sign. The next season (09-10) I brought him a “Congrats on the Cup” sign…another tap! Flower hasn’t been off to the best start this season. I wanted to show him some support! I want him to get his groove back…the next night of course. I always want my Thrashers to win! So I made this “I Believe In Flower” sign. Would I go 3 for 3 and get a tap for this sign, or, would Flower be a grumpy little Frenchman and ignore me?




Randy got this picture of me and my sign waiting for the Pens to come out. It was pretty early because by the time the guys came out, the area was packed. Lesson learned…NEVER put your knee or other body parts on the glass when there are pucks flying at it. I got cracked pretty good, not as good as Max Talbot though. He was yacking at someone when a puck flew at his head, he ducked and missed it. He wasn’t so lucky with the next one, it cracked him right in the face. He immediately left the ice. Marisa was by the Pens entrance portal and said there was blood everywhere. He wasn’t back out for the start of the game, but did come out later in the first period with some shiny new stitches.


I appologize (not really) but this turned into the Max Talbot show.



Awwww, there is my Flower!



Geno getting ready to do his standard warm ups.



Legs in the air!



Brent Johnson, Pittsburgh's back up who has been playing pretty well.



Flower in the net!



Chris Kunitz watching the action.



Flower getting geared up.



Hi Flower!! He's totally waiving at me.



Max Talbot loves gum. Max also loves shitty dance music. Apparently "Dynamite" from Taio Cruz is Max's JAM. He was dancing, bobbing his head and singing along.



Flower watching the action and not looking at my sign.



Enjoy playing around with the puck, Flower, but don't think about doing it in the net. A puck handler Flower AIN'T.



Flower doing tricks to impress me.



Letang deep in thought.



One of the more decent pics I've taken of Sidney. For some reason I can never take a good picture of him.



Sid the Kid putting the shot on net.



Maxime! Probably dancing to some douche-ie club song.



Super Duper surveying his former home ice.



I love the size disparity between Conner and Rupp.



Sid looking pensive as always.



Come on Max, what is it with the gum??



Swarming the goalie.

Flower cruised by a few times and I was getting nervous, no taps! Finally he cruised by, looked up and tapped the glass! WOO HOO! 3 for 3...Flower is awesome!


So the game begins! In the first period we had a fight between Rupp and Thorburn.



Thorburn has never been very good at picking dance partners.



I admire him for going though. He held his own pretty good.



Rupp getting ready to pound.



Thor takes him down.



Watching yet another one of my favorite goalies through the net sucks, but oh well.



Scary moment for Thrashers and their fans when Eager went down.



Ha! Matt Cooke in the box, just were he needs to be. I hate that dirty bastard, but boy he's been awesome for my fantasy team :)



Laddy in front of Flower.



BLAM! Bodies collide in front of the net.



Puck in the air! (Look on the board between the 24/7 and APP...that's not a hyphen it's the puck)



Buff says hello to Crosby behind the net.



Buff looks at Crosby to make sure the greeting was effective.



Pavs tracks the action behind him.

The first period saw the Thrashers get off to a good start with Sopel scoring the first goal. You never want to have a bad start, but the Thrashers don't have great stats when it comes to games that they score first in. We go into the 2nd period having outshot the Pens 10 to 12 and we are up on them 1-0.


Yay! I can finally see Flower without that stupid net.



Chaos and bodies flying everywhere in front of Flower.



Tanger took a puck to the hand and grimaces as he skates off for the bench.



It's a Laddy sandwich. I'll trade places with you, Ladd!



Flower gives up on pushing Ladd out of the way and peaks around him.



Eager got his stick up a little high on one of the Pens. Rupp takes exception to it. Max skates over.



Max is super pissed at Eager.



Buff decides to come over and see what is troubling Maxime so.



Max and Buff start pushing. Now now girls, you are both pretty! I love Pevs the peacemaker in the middle.



Adams getting in the middle. I'm sure he realizes Buff would destroy Max.

Well the 2nd period wasn't as good for the Thrashers as the first, but we were still playing well and we went into the third tied at 1-1. Then we shit the bed.


Flower back behind that stupid netting. Buff in front of the crease.



Flower turning aside a shot on goal.



Pavs is back there somewhere!



Zach getting ready to block a shot if necessary.



Fortunately Pavs blocked it, too.



Pavs: "What's going on out there?"

Pens Win. Boo!


The third period belonged to the Pens. They scored twice, putting them up 3 to 1. The Thrashers made it a one goal game again, but then Malkin put the puck in an empty net and got a hat trick.

Blah! At least I got a tap.