There is one thing I’d like to let you in on, though. The honeymoon is over. As they say, welcome to Pittsburgh, aka, the most pessimistic and critical sports town on earth, with one of the most uneducated fan bases this side of the Siberia golf league.
On the drive to work today, I could just hear it in the radio DJ’s voice. It was all they could do to not criticize the Pens for losing one game. One asked, "Sooo, how many points does Crosby have in this series?" His question was laced with judgment, but fortunately, the sports guy on the other end sat in silence until muttering, "Uhhh, I don’t have it in front of me, but quite a few."
The answer is four, and you would think a person getting paid to absorb the sports knowledge of the day would have an answer to how many points hockey’s biggest star would have in this series.
That’s the problem with bandwagon Pittsburgh hockey fans. Admittedly, I’m a bandwagon Penguins fan. No question about it. But, as I’ve said before, I only know two people who were fans while the team sucked. Bandwagon fans, regardless of the sport, should be prohibited from publicly or privately offering any sort of negative or critical opinion on the state of the team.
Pittsburgh is a town that feels connected to its teams. It all goes back to the 1970s and the steel bust and the blah blah blah story we’ve heard ten thousand times before. So with the Steelers it is expected. Steeler Nation is incredibly vocal in their support (or disdain) of their team. Despite 70% of the fans not knowing a damn thing about the game, they still feel entitled to scream their opinion from the nearest sports talk show.
With hockey it’s a completely different story. I’m figuring roughly 95% of current Penguins ‘fans’ know nothing more about hockey than goals, assists, offsides and icing. These are the same people that will diagnose the Penguins’ loss, or why they aren’t playing nearly as well as they should be. I don't believe for one second that anyone aside from Scott or Cory can tell me anything about hockey that can be considered educated.
So for now, Penguins, you remain the sootiest city’s darlings. But if this whole ‘losing games’ thing continues, expect to be lambasted, insulted, and generally discredited as athletes humans by people who have absolutely no right to do so.
6 comments:
HAHA, good post.
Admittedly, the Pens looked somewhat lethargic at times last night, but (Verne) Lundquist really played awesome. Game 3 was the only game they won in Madison Square Garden all year (1-5 now). Now they'll get a good chance to regroup and hopefully finish it off on Sunday.
On a side note, am I the only one who would rather jam HIV into my ear rather than listen to Mike "Doc" Emrick announce another game? He's no Dan Potash, that's for sure.
dear scott,
remember the other day when i said the pens would blow a 3-0 series lead to the rangers...well, here we go.
love,
ron hextall
just kiddiing, its brett
Eat shit, G. Bring on the Flyers.
hm, i like how you wrote that after the pens snuck by the rangers in overtime.
haha, worried?
Not worried, considering the Flyers barely beat in 7 games the Capitals, a team which, if they hadn't won their shitty division, would have had an 8 seed with their wopping 94 points in the regular season. Then they got to play a Canadiens team with a rookie goalie who let in a ton of soft goals.
At least the Rangers were a good team. Definitely looking forward to this series.
So, I see we have the Pens-Flyers rivalry about to really heat up. G, I know you'll say this is biased, because I'm Pens fan, but honestly, name me one area of the game, other than thuggery, where Filthadelphia is better than us. I know anything can happen in the playoffs and the fact that the Flyers went from a doormat to a team in the Eastern Conference Finals is impressive. This is not going to be an easy series to win, but more often that not, especially in a seven-game series, talent just wins out. No offense to Marty Biron, but I think Henrik Lundqvist is a much better goaltender and even though he played a great series, we still were able to put a fair amount of pucks behind him. I'm not saying you guys don't have weapons. In fact, the guy that scares me right now is Pittsburgh native R.J. Umberger. The line of him with Mike Richards and Joffrey Lupul took over that last game against the Canadiens. In addition, Umberger scored about half his regular season goals against us(6 of 13). You have some gritty players, who can get under your skin(Scottie Upshall), but who also play dirty(Scott Hartnell, Steve Downie, and Derian Hatcher). Although, I doubt we will see Downie in this series. Your defense is good. That is probably the closest you come to beating the Pens in an area. You have a big gun and quarterback on the power play in Kimmo Timmonen, a young stud in Braydon Coburn, and some savvy veterans in Jason Smith and Hatcher. It's just going to be too much for them to shut down all the weapons we the Pens have. I think Hossa will continue his hot play and then what can I say about Crosby and Malkin that hasn't been said already. Also, look for Ryan Malone to have a big series(4+ goals). Quite possibly the biggest factor in this series will be discipline. It will be a hard-hitting, in-your-face match-up. However, if the Flyers get caught up trying to make Crosby's and Malkin's lives miserable, they are bound to take stupid penalties that could cause them to deconstruct. The Flyers played well against us early in the year, but I think the turning point in the season series was that game in December. Philly rubbed it in and started taking cheap shots, forcing us to come together as a team and fight back and not want to get embarrassed like that again. Even thought we lost the next game in Philly, we won 3 of the last 4, including the drubbing of you guys in March. Coincidentally, I don't remember any Pens taking cheap shots with a big lead in that game. Anyways, back to my point about playing under control. Both of these teams have had great power play units in the playoffs(Philly 24%, Pit, 23.4%), so the team that takes more penalties is bound to pay a bigger price. So, in the end with all things considered, my prediction is, Pens in six. And I'll take the Red Wings in six out West.
P.S. Boyd, this was an exceptional and truthful post. I'm by no means an expert on the Pens, but it does annoy me when you hear bitter criticism of a team that has, A.) Lost one fucking game so far this post-season and B.)Most of these people started following about mid-March. You were pretty much dead-on with what these idiots bitch about. I'm not bothered by people who show up to the party late, but do those of us who have watched for years a favor and shut the fuck up and enjoy the ride.
P.P.S Scott, I agree, Mike "Dick" Emrick, is awful. It makes me yearn for the days of ESPN and Gary Thorne. Of course, that meant having to listen to one of the biggest jerk-offs of all-time, ex-Flyer, current prick, and Pittsburgh basher, Bill Clement.
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