"It's hardware but it's not hard to wear"

We've got a lot to catch up on but we've got to start with the rings. The Pens received their Stanley Cup Championship rings yesterday and reverting to some annoying early 2000s slang, talk about some bling bling! At around 4.5 karats and 167 diamonds with a custom cut black onyx for the Penguins' logo, that is some serious bling. We think it looks really great. We have to say we think it's better than the Steelers' Super Bowl rings this year, although we expected the Pens' rings to be smaller and not compete with the huge rings the Steelers got. Shows what we know. What do you think?

Enough of us talking, here's the pictures:

(All photos Peter Diana/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Nice.

The rings were given out at a private ceremony Tuesday night. They were given out by number so Captain Sidney Crosby had to wait quite a while for his but didn't sneak a peak of others' before he had his own in his hands. Billy Guerin was eager to share his thoughts with the media which is where our title comes from. Guerin joked about his ring saying, "it's hardware but it's not hard to wear." We're sure it's not.

Something else arrived in Pittsburgh yesterday that has some value. The Stanley Cup was back from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto with Penguins' names inscribed. The Penguins' site provided the above picture of the newly engraved names.

- If you're in the Pittsburgh area you have a chance to see the Stanley Cup as well as the Lombardi Trophy at the City-County Building Portico from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday October 1st (today).

- You can watch the Pens raise their new Stanley Cup Champs banner as well as the game Friday night outside on the big screen. It is up and running now, showing highlights and the Penguins Stanley Cup Champs DVD. The Penguins also decided to add post-game fireworks to the festivities as long as the weather permits.

- The Penguins gained a player and lost a player Wednesday on waivers. The Pens claimed forward Chris Bourque off of waivers from the Washington Capitals. He is 23 years-old, 5'8" and 180 pounds and was drafted in the second round (33rd overall) of the 2004 NHL entry draft. He played four seasons with the Hershey Bears of the AHL and appeared in 12 NHL games. The Pens also lost Paul Bissonnette on waivers when the Phoenix Coyotes claimed him. He will be missed by a lot of people and it's a shame to see him go.

- The other players that were not kept on the roster all cleared waivers and will report to Wilkes-Barre. They are defensemen Nate Guenin and Deryk Engelland, as well as forwards Ryan Bayda and Chris Conner.

- Seth has some good stuff on new Penguin Martin Skoula.

- Sidney Crosby has practiced and feels optimistic about playing in the home opener Friday night.

- The Pens will play Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and it will be shown on NHL Network as well as FSN Pittsburgh. NHL Network should be blacked out to those in the Pittsburgh viewing area. The Pens will also play Saturday at 7:00 p.m. against the Islanders. All 30 NHL teams will be in action Saturday. The season begins today with four games on the schedule.

Looking back

We will never get tired of looking at this picture

Short post today to remind you to pick up a copy of the Post-Gazette or head over to their website. They will be featuring a look back at the Pens Stanley Cup season. The paper itself will have a special section just for this, which will be a good collector's item. Here is a link to all the of the coverage over at the Post-Gazette, just scroll down the page to see all that's included. Enjoy the look back, we know we will.

YouTube of the day, Jordan Staal's shorthanded goal in game 4 of the SCF:

It's been a week

It's been a week since the Pens won the Cup. Are you tired of hearing that yet? Didn't think so. We know we already posted the celebratory video but we'd be remiss if we didn't post it now. We know you can watch it over and over again anyway.

Even the Stanley Cup gets lost.

Gordie Howe says that Sidney Crosby is shy.

Some jerk scammed Sergei Gonchar.

City of Champions

(AP)

Amazing.

We've been completely MIA since the Pens won the Cup. No opinions, no links. We decided to let you soak it all in, there's a lot to soak in you know, and sneak in fashionably late. Okay, so that wasn't the plan. But let's face it, we could have never done this justice. We've been tearing up for days at articles, pictures, videos, highlights, and whatever else you can find that includes the Pens and the Cup. You've heard this before and you'll hear it again, we were huge Steelers fans long before we got into the Pens. We'd seen two Super Bowls in our lifetime (technically two Cups but we were way too young to even know what that was at the time) and they were amazing, but there just wasn't anything like the Stanley Cup. We don't know if it's the players, the amount of work it takes to win the Cup, the history of the Cup itself...we don't know, but there's just something special about it. For every up and down, we'd do it all over again because it was all worth it.

If we could, we'd post every picture taken in the days following the Pens' win because we can't get enough of them. We'd post every video we could find because we don't think we'll ever get tired of seeing the Pens celebrate and hoist the Cup. We know you're all like that too. We wish we could give this whole thing the justice it deserves, but we know we never could. We promise we're not just skipping out. Life gets in the way sometimes and we regret not doing more than we did. But for a while, we'll still tear up at the sight of Sidney Crosby and the Cup he so deserved. We know there's tons more out there just like us. Thank you for hanging in there, we'll still be here. Maybe to make up for our losses, we'll try to find some videos each day so you can relive this amazing season over and over again until training camp and we can do it all over again. We can't wait.

Yinz Luv 'Da Guins Game 7:

Go Pens!

Stanley Cup Champs!!!

(Getty)

That picture is perfect. Stanley Cup Champions. GO PENS!!!