Stanley Cup Final: Game Five, Wings vs. Pens

Turn the Page – Metallica

by Jan Snyder

Now here I am, on the road again. There I am, up on the stage.
Here I go, playing star again.
There I go, turn the page.
Here I am, on the road again. There I am, up on the stage.
Ah here I go, playing star again.
There I go, there I go.

After a game like this, we need some heavy metal to pound in our ears so we can forget this night ever happened. We can dance to this song and do just what it says – turn the page. Get this whoopin’ out of our system and concentrate on Game Six back home.

Kunitz, Gonchar, Malkin, Crosby, Talbot, Dupuis, Adams – on another night this might be the list of goal scorers. But tonight these guys wore a path to the penalty box. Just as in Game Four when the Pens played a most outstanding second period, tonight it was the Wings turn. Before the second ended, it was 5-0 and frustration on the part of the Pens was at an all-time high.

What can we say that was positive about this game? Well, Garon didn’t give up any goals, no one on our team seemed to get hurt, and the guys started out just like the last game. After that, there isn’t much to say except - turn the page! The road has not been a kind place to the Pens during this series. But, home sweet home, that’s where everything is good.

The crowds inside Mellon Arena have been spectacular but those outside have been every bit as good and as loud. But now because of NBC, our terrific fans are shut out of watching the game on the big screen outside. Does that make you angry? Are you, like me, tired of network TV running our sports leagues and demanding when games are played? If so, click here and find out how you can make your voice heard and get our fans their fun back!

Not only do they have a blast outside the Arena, they collect money for the Mario Lemieux Foundation during each game. The fans have fun, are well-behaved, and add so much to the post-game experience as people head for the parking lots. If Versus can let us have the screen, why can’t NBC? Mr. Bettman, speak up for the hockey fans of Pittsburgh!

Okay, now we have two days to regroup and get ready for a raucous, rowdy rumble at the Arena on Tuesday. After that, we can turn the page again and get ready for Game Seven! Stanley will be in the house, but just to watch!

Let’s Go, Pens!!

The Other Summer Movie: Flight of the Penguin Meets the Wing Dynasty

by Lisa Ovens

It’s a blockbuster, plot filled Stanley Cup Final and it all begins Saturday may 30th in Detroit. The plot thickens almost immediately because game two of the possible seven game series occurs on Sunday May 31st. Oooh, back to back thrills: stock up on your favorite beverages everybody! They'll have to last you all weekend.

It wasn’t too long ago the hockey world learned the finals might have begun on June 5th causing a lengthy delay and a late end to the season. And boy did everyone complain. Personally I was hoping for a delayed start because it would give the American sports media an opportunity to hype up what should be a thrilling end to the season. Because that’s what hockey needs more of in the United States: Hype with a capital H.

The Hype...

Sea of tranquility by Lisa Ovens

Rematch

We have a rematch of last year’s Final: defending Cup champs Detroit Red Wings vs. last year’s runner up team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This hasn’t happened since 1984 with the Oilers and the Islanders Final. It's safe to say that hockey now is just as exciting as it was then, with the added bonus of better hair styles and more tattoos!

Karma

We have a serious Karma issue with Marion Hossa. He lost the Stanley Cup last year when playing with the Pens. He signs for millions with the Detroit Red Wings thinking they are his best hope for a Cup. Now he has to play the Pens for the Cup. That Hossa, he’s sitting on a red, hot seat.

Superstition

The Pens touched the Prince of Wales trophy when they won the Eastern Conference, whereas the Wings didn’t touch the Campbell Bowl when they won the West. Will the “Don’t touch the Conference Trophy” superstition prevail??

The Bosses

A Freshie coach vs. a Seasoned coach. It’s a Bylsma vs. a Babcock. A Dan vs. a Mike. The Wings Mike Babcock has been here before, and he obviously reall knows how to prepare his troups for battle. Injuries? No problem. Stupid calls from officials? No problem. Losing a Cup Final (with the Ducks) no problem. Winning a Cup Final with the Wings? No problem.

Dan Bylsma stepped in after the Pens fired coach Michel Therrien back in February. He turned the team around, brought them this far, and now has to push it a little more. He's young, a former player himself, so you have to wonder if he's pulling pranks on the road with the boys still. However, he did write a book about about hockey with his father, and you all know what they say about us authors...we're winners!

Elder Statesman

Every post season there is a token old guy people root for to win the Cup because he hasn’t won one yet. I guess this time around it would be the Pens Sergei Gonchar? He’s 35 years old. Please, if there is another old guy I'm missing, let me know.

Two REALLY Classy Guys Behind the Scenes

Steve Yzerman vs. Mario Lemieux. Who can forget these former superstar players performing the ceremonial puck drop during last year’s final. That’s about all I got here. Just like thinking about these fine specimens sauntering out from the benches in their nice suits...
Smile, pose, drop puck, smile and pose again, shake hands...Ahhhhhh.....

We can expect more stories will bubble to the surface. But for now let’s get ready for some serious hockey this weekend. Go teams GO!!!!

Eastern Conference Final: Game Three Pens/ Canes

Drive My Car – The Beatles

by Jan Snyder

Another Saturday night and time to do another happy dance! The Pens are up 3-0 in the series and they are certainly in the driver’s seat. “Beep beep and beep beep – yeah!”

As the team traveled to a city that is a NASCAR stronghold, they were met by a raucous crowd in Raleigh who certainly were intent on having a good time. I liked the way Max Talbot described the Hurricane fans. He said they create a great atmosphere, and unlike some other teams’ fans, they don’t say much to the opposition – they cheer for their own team and encourage them in every way. Good for them! They brought their cowbells and did their part.

That encouragement helped as the Canes’ Cullen tallied the first goal and ramped up the noise level in the building even more than it was before the game started. Having the Canes score the first goal was a change from the past games, so we had to wonder if this entire game would take a different turn.

But when the Pens went on the power play shortly after that goal, Geno and Sid, our beloved two-headed monster, steered things back on course. Geno scored, assisted by Sid and Gonchar. As the rapid first period moved along and with a mere 42 seconds left in it, Sid decided to make extra sure that they were traveling along the right road, and made it 2-1with a pretty goal. Geno’s half of the monster wanted to get in on the act too, so 31 seconds later, with only 11 seconds left in the period, he potted another and the first period ended with the Pens up 3-1.

*Time out for a U-Turn: How cool is it to see the terrific Ron Francis behind Carolina’s bench? Seeing him sure brings back great memories from the Cup years when he was such a huge part of the team, especially on the power play.

Although there was no scoring in the second period, there sure could have been, except that Cam Ward and Marc-Andre Fleury were both excellent. The lack of goals was not from any lack of trying on the part of either team. Each had the pedal to the metal!

The score was close going into the third and anything could still happen. As if to prove that true, Samsonov scored a nice, desperate goal while he was prone on the ice. Here they came, right on our bumper! We could see them closing in from our rearview mirror.

Not much later, Max sprung himself free and Geno hit him with a long, long pass. Max drove to the net with speed, but Ward veered the puck off in another direction. Nice try, anyway. Of course, Geno wasn’t finished yet. He made a nice pass over to Fedotenko who made sure it crossed the line and put the Pens up 4-2 making Geno’s point total three for the evening.

*Another U-Turn: Help me understand why the announcers on Versus and NHL Network are saying that Carolina had a lot taken out of them by playing two seven game series. Hello? The Pens played six tough games against the Flyers, followed by seven rugged ones against the Caps. My math skills aren’t great, but that seems to be only a one-game difference between the two teams.

Doing again what they do often, the Pens scored two more goals, just 40 seconds apart, and were now on cruise control. Adams won a faceoff and scored on an empty net from his own end. Then Guerin made a nice shot close in and made the final score 6-2. “Beep beep and beep beep, yeah!”

And now the Pens will spend two days in Carolina, resting and practicing, before the next game on Tuesday. The two Ferraris, Sid and Geno, can stay put in the garage for a couple of days and get tuned up and ready for Tuesday.

*U-Turns: Eric Cole’s beard is so full, so dark and so even that it almost looks like his face is covered in bees! Do you think Cam Ward will see Sid and Geno driving towards him in his dreams (or nightmares) tonight?

How absolutely fitting that Geno is playing in Pittsburgh. Maybe the Hockey Gods realized what an injustice was predicated on Mario Lemieux when his career was so often interrupted by injuries and serious illness. Maybe they thought to make up for that, they would send this great guy from Russia to be this generation’s Mario – at least in part because there will never be another Mario. But Geno’s flashes of brilliance, his loping style of skating, and his eye-popping goals, sure bring Mario to mind.

Let’s keep that motor tuned up and running like a champion for the next race on Tuesday.

Let’s Go, Pens!!

The Playroom Project

by Jan Snyder



Every year, Nathalie Lemieux speaks at a fund-raising luncheon for The Playroom Project, part of the work lovingly done by the Mario Lemieux Foundation. Every year, Nathalie is brought to tears as she relates the story of how The Playroom Project came to be.

The Lemieux’s son, Austin, weighed only two pounds when he was born at Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh. He subsequently spent 71 days in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit. Her husband was playing hockey for the Pittsburgh Penguins, her family was back in Canada, and she already had two daughters to care for while Austin was hospitalized.

On Mother’s Day, she went to visit Austin. She asked the nurses to look after the little girls so she could have time with her baby son. Of course, that’s not the nurses’ job, so this brand new little baby and his mother only had 15 minutes to spend together on Mother’s Day.

Austin and friends

Austin has grown into a perfectly normal 13-year-old but that experience during the first months of his life led Nathalie to devise the idea to raise money for playrooms at Pittsburgh area hospitals where siblings of other sick children had a place to engage their lively minds and provide a comfortable, calming environment for them. By the end of this year, 20 Austin’s Playrooms will be in full service for local families.

“Besides having them in Neo-natal Intensive Care and Oncology Departments, we’ve now started playrooms in ERs, too,” said Nancy Angus, Executive Director of The Mario Lemieux Foundation. “Austin goes to every ribbon-cutting for each of them. His parents are such normal people and they want to teach the kids the value of helping others.”

The newest to open are two playrooms in the brand new Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. One is on the first floor for well children and another is for in-patients on the sixth floor.

A fun place to be!

“Each playroom is decorated in primary colors. We try to include an aquarium, TVs, DVDs, and a computer kiosk with a Carnegie Mellon University-designed touch screen,” Angus said. “The kids seem to like the sand table. Magnets hold boats and cars in the sand and they can be moved around. This really is Nathalie’s pet project and she is involved in all aspects of the design of the room.”

The foundation was created in 1993. Mario was enjoying the greatest season of his brilliant career when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. After waging a successful battle against the disease, Mario has remained cancer free, but his experience led him to focus on ways to assist those not so fortunate. He devotes much of his time to the Foundation, raising funds to help reach the ultimate goal: a cure for cancer.

“Mario makes phone calls to children afflicted with cancer and does all he can to lift their spirits,” Angus said. “Whatever he can do, he wants to do. He meets and talks with cancer patients often.”

As Foundation Director, Angus is busy right now with preparations for the Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational to be held in June. The golf tournament annually draws sports stars from across all sports. The Steelers are always well represented, as are the Penguins. “Sidney Crosby always comes to play in the tournament.”

************

I want to thank Nancy Angus for her time and for talking about The Mario Lemieux Foundation with me. None of us is spared from the pain of the disease.


My brother, Paul, suffered from colon cancer. He was battling and we all hoped for a miracle. We were able to get Paul to a celebration for Penguins’ broadcaster, Mike Lange through the kindness of radio personality, Jim Krenn. Paul loved hockey and Mario was by far his favorite player. Mr. Lange knew of Paul’s illness and was so gracious to my brother and to all our family. At one point in the evening, he came over to Paul and said, “I want you to come with me for a few minutes.”

When Paul returned about 20 minutes later, I asked where he’d been. “I just met Mario Lemieux,” he said. Knowing how my brother liked to tease me, I replied, “Oh, sure, you did.” He looked at me; I saw how his eyes were lit up like they were on Christmas mornings when we were kids. He said, “I’m not kidding, I just met Mario.” I realized he was serious. Mike Lange had taken him to an upstairs room where Mario stopped in to offer his congratulations to Mike. So in character, Mario didn’t want to “appear” and steal the evening from the guest of honor, so he stopped by quietly.




Thanks to the kindness of Mike and Jim, one of my brother’s dreams came true that evening. Mario and Paul had a nice chat. Mario gave him encouragement, told him to be strong for his family, and to fight the cancer. They talked a little hockey too. That was in February 2002. Paul lost his battle on June 22, 2002, but none of us will ever forget what Mario did for him that night with just a brief conversation. For what he did, Mario will always be my hero. And just imagine how many times he has done something like that and touched people all over the city.

If you have a few minutes, visit http://www.mariolemieux.org/ and learn more about the good work they do.

We all thank Mario for great hockey memories but if you are too young to remember his playing days, also remember that this fantastic team we have probably wouldn’t be in Pittsburgh now nor would they have a new arena under construction if it weren’t for Mario. Maybe you can pay it forward with a donation to a cause that is so close to him, Nathalie and all their family.