Pens open the season with a win

The Pens took one last look back at their Stanley Cup Championship and then it was time to drop the puck on a brand new season with the same goal in mind. Dan Bylsma told his team that when they watched the banner being raised that they needed to remember that the banner symbolizes how they play and what they needed to continue to do. It was time to stop looking back on last season and drop the puck on the new season. The Pens didn't seem to have any trouble doing just that when they beat the New York Rangers 3-2 in the last opening night at Mellon Arena.

Not taking too long to score their first goal, with 12:12 left to go in the first period the Pens were on a power play when Gonchar let a shot go from the point that Malkin tipped in to make the game 1-0 Pens. Alex Goligoski and Gonchar had the assists.

It wouldn't take too long for us to see the first fight of the season either when Eric Godard and Donald Brashear would go at it with 8:05 left in the first. They didn't let the crowd down by putting on a good show. You can watch it here:

With 3:59 left in the period the Rangers would tie the score at one with a goal from Chris Drury. Sidney Crosby would take a slashing penalty with almost three minutes left but the Pens' penalty kill would be up to the task to keep the score tied at one.

Not long into the second period Marc-Andre Fleury would make a huge glove save on Vaclav Prospal. You know the type, think similar to his save in game 7 of the Capitals series on Alexander Ovechkin. What a way to start out the season for Fleury.

The Pens paid him back by scoring two goals in the second, one from Crosby and one from Tyler Kennedy. With 7:35 left in the second period Crosby would be parked in front of the net to take a feed from Kris Letang who gathered up a rebound from a Bill Guerin shot to make the score 2-1. But Goligoski and TK didn't think that was enough. Shortly after, with 6:27 left in the second period Gogo would take a shot at the net that Kennedy would tip in for another Pens goal and make the game 3-1. Staal would get the other assist. The Pens would also kill two more penalties that period.

The third period would see a goal from new Ranger Marian Gaborik to cut the Pens lead 3-2 but that's all the Pens would allow for the rest of the period, killing another penalty and beating the Rangers 3-2 to start out the season 1-0.

Part 1 of the Pens' banner raising ceremony:

Part 2:

Game recap

Boxscore

Aftermath: Penguins 3, Rangers 2

Overall the Pens looked pretty good. The penalty killing unit did not allow a power play goal, Marc-Andre Fleury looked great after a somewhat questionable preseason, Sid and Geno each scored, Alex Goligoski looks like he has all the confidence in the world, the power play scored a goal, Jordan Staal had some great chances, Tyler Kennedy is starting the season out great, Godard is in fighting shape, and Dan Bylsma looks like he's ready to defend the Cup.

The Pens get the chance to go 2-0 tonight against the New York Islanders in NY. The Pens can welcome first round draft pick John Tavares to the NHL. Maybe some Free Candy? What a way to enter the league, playing against the Stanley Cup Champions. Should be a memorable one. The game starts at 7:00 p.m.

Let's Go Pens!

NHL Awards

No surprises here, Ovie took the Hart and Lester B. Pearson awards. Geno got the best of them all though in the Stanley Cup so we don't think he's too bummed. He was presented last night with the Art Ross trophy for leading the league in scoring. His thank yous (and Ovie's amazing humor):

What's up with Ovie's pants?!

If you didn't watch the awards or couldn't, don't feel bad. We sat through the whole thing and well...not too exciting. Especially the so-called musical performances. The best parts of the night were by far Geno's fabulous English and an Ovie advertisement for NHL 2K10. We tried to find the latter on YouTube but no one else thought it was as funny as we did for some reason. Basically he says something along the lines of "NHL 2K10 on the Wii is a party, that's why I'm on the cover." Only in broken English. We laughed for a good couple minutes on that one. Probably because of the lack of entertainment of the awards, but we still laughed. You take what you can get.

Big Ben even made an appearance in the form of a pre-taped video. Kinda sucked:

Max Talbot and Dan Bylsma joined Geno at the awards, including bringing in the Stanley Cup. Where was Sidney Crosby?

Geno and who we're assuming is his woman:

(All photos by Getty)

Post-Gazette coverage on the awards, including a few quotes from Geno on the awards and his summer plans.

Dan Bylsma got a congratulatory phone call from President Barack Obama. Sounds pretty awesome to answer the phone and hear "please hold for the President."

Greetings from Pittsburgh

We were in Pittsburgh last week and took a few pictures along the way that we thought we'd share and they are now all resized for your viewing pleasure. The disclaimer here is that we are definitely not professional photographers by any means and we did just get a new camera that we'd only used for a few days so please be kind. There are also a few shots we took from a semi-moving vehicle and it's hard to line up a good shot when there's traffic around.

If you're anything like us and don't have the pleasure of living in Pittsburgh, you like any pictures that take you there. Whether you had to leave, have never been there but feel connected somehow, or you're like us and always feel more at home there than your real home, these pictures are for you. Enjoy.

Some young Carolina Panthers fan and his friend were calling Art Colonel Sanders. Eh.

The banners on Consol Energy Center

Consol Energy Center from Mellon Arena

Spray painted on the pavement all around Mellon Arena

We had an appointment in the city last Monday and our way back out of town we were going to stop at the store at Mellon Arena, PenStation. We turned up the road to get there and saw a bunch of people and a fancy BMW leaving the player's parking lot. It was Max Talbot. We didn't know the schedule for the morning skate, which wouldn't have mattered because we had to be at the appointment, but just as we got there Max was leaving. We finally got to get out and just missed Sidney Crosby. Ahhh! We guess Marc-Andre Fleury had been right before that as well. Ahhh! If the lady at the office just would've have hurried it up and the doctor wasn't late we would have had an even better experience. We did manage to get a few pictures of players leaving. We didn't have the best location but it was still a fun experience anyway.

The back of Jordan Staal

Jordan's ride

Pascal Dupuis and some nice Tom Clark Auto employees picking up his ride

Mike Zigomanis

Flip flops were a popular footwear item, most of the guys had them on

Petr Sykora

We actually said hi to him and he was very polite and smiled while he responded

Kris Letang

We also spoke to Kris and told him good luck. He was also nice and waved and smiled. Even though the Pens didn't win that night, he did score a goal. You'll see in the picture below that he got out to sign autographs for everyone and take pictures. All other guys stopped and signed autographs as well except Jordan Staal.

Dan Bylsma and Ray Shero waving at the fans who were cheering. They walked right down the street and over to the hotel pictured at the bottom. Lunch maybe?

And a woodchuck for good measure.

Hockey stuff later. Can't wait for the game.

Go Pens!