Wear Your Colors, Ladies!

      Women's Sideline Henley "Touch" by Alyssa Milano

        US $34.99  CDN $36.99 shopping link at bottom

by Jan Snyder



One of the many good things about taking a couple of days off from work is that I get to watch all of NHL Live on the NHL Network. I usually see about half an hour of the show if I’m able to have lunch at home. The show is always good with plenty of interviews, opinions, calls from fans and tweets.

Today Don LaGreca and E.J. Hradek welcomed Alyssa Milano to the program to discuss her sports clothing line called Touch by Alyssa Milano. If you are a female hockey fan, be her fan, she is pushing affordable sports garb that women can actually wear and feel comfortable wearing. I’ve checked out her designs and they are really nice.

                                 Women's Rivalry Hoody "Touch" by Alyssa Milano
                                          on sale! US/CDN $ 39.97 reg.price $64.99

 Alyssa began designing clothes for female fans of Major League Baseball. She is a season ticket holder for the Los Angeles Dodgers and she remarked that when she looked around in the stadium stores for women’s clothing it was hard to find. She said she coined the phrase “pink and shrink” to describe what was being done to clothes for ladies. The prevailing thought seemed to be just color it pink and make it smaller. Unfortunately, women were buying that awful stuff because not too many other choices existed.

Now Alyssa has a female line of clothing for MLB, NFL, MLS, NBA and NHL teams – hurray!

Tonight she is in Pittsburgh to cut the ribbon for the new Pens Gear store, which is, of course, selling her Touch line. On the show, she told the guys that her fashions are things that she would be comfortable wearing if she went out to dinner after a game, but she stressed that jerseys are very important to women, who want to look like the team they support. According to her, and she should know, that will never change.

While she was talking, she mentioned that when she walks around cities, she rarely sees women in clothes that support a team. Because she is in Pittsburgh, she used the example of not seeing women on the streets of Pittsburgh wearing hoodies or hats supporting the Steelers or Penguins. Whoa, Alyssa, you obviously haven’t been in the right parts of the city! I promise you, a great many Pittsburgh women proudly support their teams by wearing all kinds of Pens and Steelers gear. I live in Houston but I have two Penguin hoodies and more shirts than I can count. Jump on a bus or trolley, heck, even the incline, Alyssa, and mingle with the “real Pittsburghers”. You’ll see plenty of team support.

But, hey, I’m sure not putting down the Touch line of clothing or Alyssa. It’s so great to have a real female sports fan on our side. She was able to talk quite capably about the Dodgers and the Kings, and even threw into the conversation that she had Kings season tickets during Luc Robaitaille’s rookie season! You go, girl!

Alyssa claimed to follow several female hockey blogs, so if you’re out there reading this, Alyssa, give us a shout! Look me up if you attend the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh –I’ll be the one in the Penguin jacket!

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The Long, Hot Summer is Over

                   Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh Lake Fong/Post-Gazette

by Jan Snyder

Hockey season is finally back! After a particularly long, hot summer here in Texas, I couldn’t be happier to have October arrive and hockey begin. Already the memory of the Blackhawks hoisting the Cup is fading and I’m clearing out space in my mind to find places to pile up the 2010-11 memories.

What better place to begin than by seeing the brand spanking new Consol Arena in Pittsburgh on opening night! Taking on the Flyers in the first game would be special enough but doing it at Mario’s place will be twice as nice. I’ll stay for game two against Montreal and then report back to those of you who haven’t seen the new arena in person yet. Can’t wait.

The Pens will make an appearance in Dallas in November – sounds like a mid-week road trip for me! Can’t wait.

As visions of sugar plums dance in my head, all I want for Christmas is the Winter Classic! And classic it will be at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The wind coming in off the river will make for a chilly day that will see the rivalry between the Pens and the Caps heat up. Having played in late December, the two teams will already be in a feisty mood on January 1. Caps fans aren’t far away – they will be there in droves to cheer on Ovechkin and company. Can’t wait.

Dreaming

We’ll all enjoy watching the season play out for all the teams. Who will be better than we thought they’d be? Who will fall apart, maybe because of injuries? What rookie will play like a ten year veteran? Most importantly, who will be playing for the Cup in June?

While perusing my three favorite sports magazines, The Hockey News, The Sporting News, and ESPN the Magazine, I couldn’t help but see a theme – picks to win the Stanley Cup include the Caps, the Pens and the Canucks. Here is the breakdown per magazine:

The Hockey News

Media Picks: Penguins, followed by the Sharks and Caps in a tie
Fan Picks: Canucks, Caps and Pens

The Sporting News

Canucks over the Red Wings; Caps over the Pens; Canucks to win the Cup

ESPN the Magazine

E. J. Hradek: Pens vs. Blackhawks; Pens win the Cup
Barry Melrose: Caps vs. Canucks; Canucks win the Cup
Mathew Barnaby: Pens vs. Red Wings; Pens win the Cup

Verrrrrrry interesting….

And the Winner Is...

Let’s flash forward to June – the Pens have won their second Winter Classic, eliminated the Caps in the playoffs and are playing for the Stanley Cup. Out west, the Canucks have taken out the Red Wings and are playing for the Stanley Cup.

Wait…..

The Pens vs. the Canucks for the Stanley Cup? I gather that many hockey people see this as a likely scenario, and I have to agree but here at Hockey and High Heels, this could mean BIG TROUBLE! You see, Lisa Ovens lives in Vancouver and the Canucks are her team. I, on the other hand, although living in Texas, am a Pittsburgher and the Pens are my team! Are you beginning to see the potential problems here?

Can a friendship between two female hockey writers who root for opposing teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs make it through a seven games series?? Will I go to Pittsburgh or Vancouver to see games in person? Will Lisa go to Pittsburgh to see games in person? Will we still be speaking??

Will the Canadian Canuck fans turn on their Olympic hero, Sidney Crosby? Yes, I think they will in a heartbeat if it means winning the Cup. Will they also turn on the likes of other Canadians like Max Talbot, Marc-Andre Fluery, Pascal Dupuis, and Kris Letang? What about their long lost pest, Matt Cooke? And native son, Mario Lemieux? You betcha!

And Pens’ fans won’t enjoy seeing the double-trouble the Sedin twins bring nor the highly talented Roberto Luongo invading the crease in the Consol Arena.

But there are still other problems. Can we stay awake for a coast-to-coast series?? Will we have to call in sick after games played in Vancouver??

Can Lisa be broadminded enough to publish my columns after a Pens win? Can I pretend not to be a sore loser after a Canucks win?

No matter how many problems this situation could potentially create, wouldn’t it be fun? Maybe for Pens and Canucks fans, but this is the time of year when every team and their fans think they will win the Cup and I don’t want to rain on that parade at all, so…

Let’s Slow it Down

Back to present day – just a few days before the drop of the puck for real. The Pens have come through their exhibition season 5-1, off to a good start. No Jordan Staal for 10 or more games will hurt, but we know he’s coming back soon. Can’t wait to see the two new defensemen in action. Can’t wait to see Geno and Max rebound from so-so seasons. Can’t wait to see how Sid reacts without Guerin’s counsel. Can’t wait to see Mario welcome us to the new place.

So much to hope for, so many dreams all around the league. Whatever team you root for and whatever you can’t wait for, I hope you get your chance to see it all start to unfold at a rink near you really soon!

Good luck, NHL!

Another Winter Classic Under Our Belts....

by Lisa Ovens

Well how was your first day of 2010? For me, I woke up on my cousin Jen's sofa at 10:50am, reached for the remote and turned on the NHL's Winter Classic game in Boston at the legendary Fenway Park. It was only mid first period, but I was disappointed I missed the pre-game chat, and the hockey pomp and ceremony that goes along with these special outdoor hockey events. This seems to happen to me every year since they started this New Year's Day tradition. If they could just start it a tad later, like 11am or 11:30am PST that would be so" Hockey politically correct!"

It was soooo easy to cheer for the Boston Bruins (and not because they were playing the Philadelphia Flyers). It just seems natural that you want the home team to win in an outdoor game spectacle. You want to see the home team fans revel in a win, too. Plus I know how my friend, and Pens writer, Jan Snyder feels about the Flyers at times ;o)

Although hockey fans in Canada wonder when another outdoor game will be staged here, I do believe the NHL should continue with a two US based team game every New Year's Day: it's good for the game. Plus, we have our Hockey Day in Canada coming up on January 30th, 2010, and that's one serious day of hockey celebration that our American hockey friends would kill to have down there. Maybe the Winter Classic could morph into a Hockey Day in the USA celebration somehow...it's just a thought.

Like most everyone else watching earlier today, I really didn't jump off the couch until the Bruins Mark Recchi tied up the game with less than three minutes left in the third. Having an overtime period is just what the die hard hockey fans in the stands deserved. I was almost expecting a shoot out until Marco Sturm scored the game winner for the Boston Bruins.

Now the talk is about where and who will be playing in the next Winter Classic. And if the NHL did want to appease Canadian hockey fans, then a double header Winter Classic (early game in the USA, late game in Canada) would be the obvious solution.