Guest Column: An Unlikely Friendship

by Marie Miesel
I am fairly active on the Nashville Predators message boards. There is a poster who goes by the screen name 29Dryden29 from London, Ontario. Bet you can’t guess who his favorite team is? Yep, he is a diehard 3rd generation Montreal Canadiens fan. And yes, he is the classic obnoxious Canadiens fan. He was one of the folks who put down a deposit on the Hamilton Predators. So he could see his beloved Habs, of course. But despite this elitist front, he has a human side. He cares deeply about his children and it shows when he occasionally posts about them.

In reviewing the Predators schedule last season, I noted that the Canadiens were coming to Nashville for the one game we play them a year. It was also on a Saturday night. I decided to reach out to this mysterious 29Dryden and asked if he would like to come to Nashville and see his team play. After all, seeing them in Nashville would be very cheap compared to a game at the Bell Centre.

He was quite amused by my diplomatic efforts. After making the necessary arrangements, he and his father made the trip for the November date with the Canadiens. We even had a wager between us. Loser wears winner’s jersey around town that night.

Dryden and his father did the tourist thing downtown on Friday. Friday evening some folks gathered at a local pub called The Flying Saucer. We had a nice evening of hockey talk along with the obligatory razzing from the two Habs fans with us. Saturday they went out to a shooting range with another board member while I worked. Saturday evening was the game. They were unimpressed by our arena, our crowd (unfortunately it was not a sell out) and our team.
However, “I like it, I love it” echoed twice during the game and we won 2-0. Kudos to Carey Price for 45 saves in a losing effort. And so the proud Habs fan had to exchange his Vezina Habs jersey for a Bonk Predators one for the rest of the evening. It was quite comical. Sunday I took them out to the pre-flood Opryland Hotel. It’s a sprawling complex with indoor gardens and even a tiny river. And then they hit the road back to London, Ontario.

And that might have been the end of it. Dryden continues to post on our message boards. He and I have talk regularly about our teams, the state of the NHL and other hockey related topics. I was able to visit him this summer and went to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto (swoon). And yes he still gives me grief about being a Predators fan but that is to be expected; after all he is The Pompous Habs fan.

- Marie is a long time hockey fan, a Nashville Predators season ticket holder and an occasional guest columnist at Lisa's Lounge

Pens/ Habs Game Three: Geno’s Back!

Pens Take Game 3 by a Score of 2-0
Pens lead the series 2-1

by Jan Snyder
What a game! The atmosphere in Montreal was just as we thought it would be. Sometimes I think the crowd is just one big fan – they react as one all the time, good or bad. They are awesome.

Four Pens players were “at home” – Dupuis, Talbot, Fleury and Letang are all from the area and had to be charged up to be at home for a playoff game in Montreal. They all played well, but Fleury was outstanding.

The Penguins were wounded, without a wing, as Bill Guerin couldn’t play. In the first period, each team had a power play chance with no results. For a period with no scoring, it was quite exciting! Lots of action, blocked shots, hard hits – a real playoff game.

Right at the end of the second, the Pens were buzzing and we sensed something might happen, but even with a power play, nothing came the Pens way. And still the Montreal “fan” kept up its constant chants and singing, urging their team on.

Just as the second period ended, Hal Gill was called for holding on Crosby! Yay!! No score in the second, but with almost the entire power play left in the third, Geno made the difference. He had promised to play “100%” better and he was true to his word. The Pens got set up, Gonchar slapped a pass to Geno, and with Sid screening Halak, the puck found its way into the net! Whew! That was a relief. Still lots of time left, but we’d broken through and broken the tie. This really felt like a 1-0 game and I was so happy that it was the Pens that had the 1 on their side of the scoreboard.

As long as Fleury continued to play the way he had for two periods, the Pens had no worries. Fleury seemed determined to stop everybody and every puck tonight and he did get the shutout, but not before Pens’ fans stood as Cammalleri fired a shot that seemed like it would get through – but no, the brick wall go in the way and the heart-pounding save was made!

All that was left was for Dupuis to score an empty net goal very close to the end of the game. The Pens are now up 2-1 in the series and will have to do much more of the same on Thursday night to contain those pesky Canadians.

Fleury won the Battle of the Goalies tonight, stopping 18 shots, while Halak stopped 23. The Pens found a way to win, had the will to win, and showed everyone they learned a lot from bringing home the Cup last season.

Tonight I realized that I really don’t “enjoy” these games while they are in progress! I can’t sit still, I get heartburn, I scream at the TV – doesn’t that sound like fun? And yet I wouldn’t miss a game for the world and after they are over, I realize I did have a good time, despite myself!

A very bright spot today was the news that Jordan Staal skated with the team. He wasn’t really participating, but the very fact that he can get a skate on so soon after surgery seems like good news to me.

I’m ready for more heartburn and another headache on Thursday night – whatever it takes, I’m ready!

LET’S GO, PENS!!



Random Thoughts

• San Jose has the series 3-0 against Detroit. How is that happening? I still won’t count the Red Wings out, but 3-0 is hard to come back from for any team, including them.

• Boston has two games on Philly, heading into Philadelphia for the next game. I’m enjoying this series too, and I hope it goes seven games, overtime each game, so that if the Pens get through to the next round, their opponent is exhausted!

• Lisa and I have talked about the parallel playoffs the Pens and Canucks are having. According to the “pattern”, Vancouver will win tomorrow!

Game Two Pens/ Habs: Hal Gill Gives Sid His Fill

Pens lose Game Two by a score of 3-1

by Jan Snyder

Last year at this time, we Pens’ fans were praising Hal Gill and his shutdown abilities against opponents. This year - not so much. Last season, Gill kept Ovechkin under wraps to some extent and did the same to other forwards in other series. This season, he kept Ovechkin under wraps again, so well, in fact, that Montreal was able to knock Washington out of the playoffs.

Now Crosby gets his turn to play against the much bigger defenseman. In this game, Gill did his job well, getting Crosby ticked off in the process and keeping him off the scoreboard. Not that Sid didn’t give as good as he got, but the battles with Gill didn’t help him score or set up plays.

Maybe that’s not all that went wrong today. The power play was sorely missing Jordan Staal. A new group has to learn to work together without his big physical presence in the mix. Staal is so big on the penalty kill too, and his absence might have played into the power play goal Montreal scored. He’s missed not just on the power play and penalty kill, but on the third line. That didn’t go too well today either. And Geno, although active, wasn’t able to contribute any goals nor much defense.

Could it be some kind of passive aggressive movement by the Pens against playing in the afternoon on NBC? The Pens don’t do well in these games, although they came out strong this particular afternoon, but that intensity didn’t last even through the first period.

Well, no excuses. The Pens lost and the Canadiens won.

The returns of Jordan Leopold and Tyler Kennedy boded well it seemed, but although each player did his job, there was no scoring from them. The line that did produce the Pens single tally was the determined trio of Cooke, Talbot and Dupuis, who worked like little demons throughout the game.

As the second period ended, the Pens finally saw their first power play chance, closely followed by two more in the third period, but all three looked disjointed and yielded nothing but frustration.

Let’s talk Halak. He looks like he is getting back on the road to being the goalie he was against Washington. He made some big stops today, as did Fleury, but so much is riding on Halak’s play that Montreal has to be thrilled with what he did in today’s game.

Mike Cammellari was the biggest difference maker for Montreal on the scoreboard, as he netted two goals. Their first went to Brian Gionta.

So now the Pens jet to the craziness that is the Bell Centre. I love the fans’ enthusiasm, their singing, and their “refereeing”, but I like it a lot more when we aren’t the opponent. Will they still feel any goodwill for Sid who just earned Canada a Gold Medal a few short months ago? Will they remember he played juniors in Quebec? Will they recall that he taught himself French to be able to communicate there? Will any of that make a hill of beans difference to them? Oh, no, no, no! They will sing-song Fleury’s name, furiously cheer on their team, and raucously sing Ole, Ole, Ole.

The Pens won’t let all that get to them though and will be ready for Game Three.

Let’s Go, Pens!!

Random Thoughts:

• Well, the Canucks made themselves unwelcome guests in Chicago, didn’t they? The blowout was a surprise. We’ll see how the rest of the series plays out.

• Good for Marc Savard! After missing two months or so because of a concussion suffered at the hands (or shoulder) of Matt Cooke, Savard played in his first game yesterday. All he did was win the game for the Bruins in OT! Great way to come back. That overtime period was intense and frenetic with both teams having great scoring chances before it ended.

• Last week, three of my good friends, none of whom would know a hockey puck it if hit them in the head, and I were trying to find a day to get together for dinner this upcoming week. One of them couldn’t do Monday or Friday, one couldn’t do Wednesday. I was hanging back on the emails to see what would happen. I finally had to weigh in and ask if they could wait until I saw the Pens’ schedule for the second round. The last email said, “If the Pens don’t play, we can go Tuesday or Thursday.” Of course, the Pens play both of those days this week. When I found out, I told them to go ahead without me; I’d miss them, but would catch up next time. Being great friends, they changed plans to lunch, which of course I could do! Even though they don’t “get it”, they put up with me and my hockeymania!