The view from F

2010-10-27T10:41:00.001-04:00

What a new post I've made.

New Sidney Crosby Gatorade commercial

2008-03-22T19:28:00.002-04:00

Pens beat Lightning

2008-03-22T15:13:00.004-04:00

Looking to bounce back from a defensive meltdown against the New York Rangers two nights earlier, the Pens defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 tuesday night in front of the 50th consecutive sell-out crowd at Mellon Arena. Lets take a look at some key moments that led to the Pens victory.

The first period goal by Jarkko RUUUUUUUUUUTU was awesome. Not only did he power his way to the net, he also scored while taking a stick to the face, compliments of Dan Boyle. Ruutu left the game briefly to get stitched up but returned at the start of the 2nd period.

Jordan Staal's play. After Evgeni Malkin scored to put the Pens up 2-1 in the second, Jordan Staal scored 35 seconds into the 3rd period to make it 3-1. Staal has been criticized this year for lacking the offensive flair he displayed last year while scoring 29 goals as a rookie. I felt Staal played an amazing game in both the offensive and defensive zone, especially his defense against Vinny Lecavalier. I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but Staal on a few occasions seemed to get under Vinny's skin, once taking a slash from Vinny to the back of the leg.

Once again, Jarko Ruutu amazed us with another play he created. While losing his stick in the Pens zone, Ruutu displayed his best David Beckham impersonation and literally kicked the puck all the way down into the Lightning zone, then made a perfect kick pass right on the stick of Max Talbot, who barely missed scoring on the play. The play even made it on SportsCenter later that night. Let's watch it again.
Marc-Andre Fleury was solid in the net. He limited his rebounds and made a few key saves in order to preserve the win for the Pens. During the trade deadline, many people were discussing trading Fleury due to the play of Ty Conklin. While I think that nothing should be taken away from Conklin, since he literally kept the Pens playoff hopes alive while Sidney Crosby was hurt, I believe that Fleury is the future. Alot of people were ready to write Fleury off, but he was a big reason we made the playoffs last year. Also, he is only 23 yrs old. Goalies don't seem to peak until their late 20's or early 30's. We will see in a few years when the Pens win the Stanley Cup and Marc-Andre Fleury will be a big piece of the puzzle.

Well this ends our recap of the Pens/Lightning game, but check back later today for analysis and recap of the Pens vs. Devils in a must win game for the Pens.

Penguins vs. Rangers

2008-03-18T11:13:00.005-04:00

vs.

The Pens travel to NY to take on the Blueshirts tonight. Conklin will be in net because of the Fathers Trip. Solid. Empty Netters has a good preview of the game tonight.

I still hate Jagr, and I always will. He really messed up a good thing we had going on in Pittsburgh. The only retribution I can get is to post this picture of him dressed up like a girl. Ha.

~~~~~

There's so much cool stuff going on over at ThePensBlog right now that I can't even list it all individually. One of the coolest things is that we got linked, but alas, the URL in the link is wrong. Still, thanks for the link.

~~~~~

Petr Sykora has been pretty good lately. I've got to admit, earlier in the year I wondered if getting Sykora and Sydor was a good thing. Turns out, it has been. What an idiot.

~~~~~

The "OFFICIAL" list of man games lost. What the Pens have done with all those injuries is just fantastic. You all know that though.

~~~~~~

See you all tonight for live coverage of the Pens game.

Pens goon Flyers

2008-03-17T11:55:00.003-04:00

Hossa serving up "fresh, hot poop" to the Flyers courtesy of ThePensBlog.

Post-Gazette | Empty Netters

The game was great. Like the picture says, we served up some fresh, hot poop for Stevens and Co. If you want a blow by blow recap, check the links above or ThePensBlog. Some observations:

Missed the Richards thing with Malkin, because once again I was watching the puck. That said, Richards is trash in my book. Some tool on the TSN wall wrote that Richards would be the captain of Team Canada some day. Sorry pal, not as long as that Sidney Crosby character is around.
Riley Cote, also trash.
That no name that hit Letang on the icing call, he's... well, you know what he is.
The entire Flyers organization = TRASH.

Malkin is only 2 points off the NHL scoring lead.

Tyler Kennedy is still 81 points behind Ovechkin and the scoring lead. He'll catch up.

ESPN has an article about Hackshow Pronger and the NHL's disciplinary woes.

Code Red continues quest to defend title

2008-03-16T23:13:00.004-04:00

Despite playing with a short bench, Code Red (3-0-0) of the Warrendale Adult Hockey League defeated the Icers 5-1 tonight at Blade Runners Ice Complex. With a new power line formed consisting of Nick "Picklestabber" Fromlak, Matt "Twink" Kendall, and Evan "Warencek" Wawrykow, Code Red played a defensive minded game to get their third win of the season. With an eleven day layoff between their last game, it took almost until the second period to shake the rust off, especially for Kendall, whose passing wasn't as crisp as he would have liked it to be, fanning on an errant pass to a wide open Wawrykow in front of the net. You could see on the bench Wawrykow's displeasure, but soon the two teammates were back in sync, cycling as they do best behind the opposing team's goal. Sniper Matty got Code Red on the board first with a twisted wrister to put Code Red up 1-0 in the first. End of the 1st period: Code Red 1 Icers 0.

In the second period, Code Red's offense caught fire, first with a rebound tap-in goal that barely slid past the goalie by Kendall in front of the net. Towards the end of the period, Code Red got back on the board with a lazer slapshot from the point by Elliot Robinson. End of the 2nd period: Code Red 3 Icers 0.

Early in the 3rd period, the Icers finally got on the board with an odd man rush that developed into goal scored from between the circles in the Code Red zone. After getting caught sleeping on that one play, Code Red settled down defensively and limited the Icers scoring chances. The play of the game occured when the Icers had a clear breakaway, however Robinson back-checked and without penalty, managed to strip the Icers forward of the puck. Shortly thereafter, Code Red got back on the board with a pass from behind the net right to a breaking Fromlak, who wristed the puck past the goalie from the slot. There was a brief stoppage in play, when Wawrykow inadvently hit the referee in the nuts with the puck, while attempting to clear the zone on a penalty kill. A few minutes after play resumed, Code Red scored the final goal of the game with another wrister from Matty from the slot. Final Score: Code Red 5 Icers 1.

*Note: Due to failure to obtain proper media credentials, recap for Code Red's first 2 games of the season unavailable.

Previous Games: Code Red 4 Green Machine 1
Code Red 7 Nordiques 4

Next game Monday 3/24/08 at 11:00 PM Location: World Rink

Pronger sent to bed without dinner

2008-03-15T16:29:00.002-04:00

Pronger gets what he deserves (8 games) for this:

Read it at NHL.com

He's a tool.

Penguins Enforcers: Georges Laraque

2008-03-15T15:58:00.003-04:00

I figured this would be a good topic for our first major feature. I'm going to cover each of the "enforcers" each of the Pens have had since 2000, one at a time, starting today. If you don't like it, comment.

2007-2008

Georges Laraque

Wikipedia | Hockeyfights.com | Career Stats

The Penguins acquired Laraque from the Phoenix Coyotes on February 27th, 2007 for Daniel Carcillo and a 3rd round pick. George basically did nothing last year, and virtually dissapeared in the playoffs. This season, he's been on and off. For a few weeks he'll be a force behind the net and actually get into a few fights. Then for a month or so, he will disappear and ride the pine. Recently,Therrien was pretty pissed at Georges and called him out during a practice. My favorite fight this year:

Nothing spectacular, but I hate Riley Cote and the Cryers, so anytime one of them gets pummeled is a good thing.

When Georges is on his game, he can be a great fourth liner/fighter, if not the best in the league. When he isn't playing well, he looks like he is skating in quick sand for the 3 minutes a game he's on the ice.

Video of the day

2008-03-14T22:31:00.002-04:00

You gotta respect Barbaro. The PA announcer, not the horse.

"Number 66, Mario LEMIEEEEUUUUUXXXXXXX"

Every memory that you have of Mellon Arena will include John Barbaro in some capacity. Just think about it, he essentially narrates the Penguins to people who attend games. And he sits beneath a leaky roof while doing this. I always thought he lived inside the scoreboard, but that's a story for another post. He's the man.

Pens Practice

2008-03-14T21:45:00.004-04:00

Today TVFF attended the Penguins practice at Southpointe. For some reason, our press passes weren't honored when we tried to get into the locker room before practice started. I can't imagine why.

I, being the TVFF photographer, brought my nifty camera with me to take wonderful pictures of Penguins. Well, our staff secretary forgot to put the SD card back in, so we don't have pictures. Thankfully, a friend of a friend of a cousin of Kendall's dogs groomer brought a camera and we should have some pictures within a few days.

To start out, Conklin and Sabourin were out along with Stone, Taffe, TK, Minard, and James. Basically, it was the AHL portion of our team. Andre Savard was regulating.
The real team came out around 11, with the notable absences of Crosby and Sykora. That should have been a warning of things to come.
The team did some regular hockey warm-up drills before moving on to stetching.
The team did a short ice 3 on 3 scrimmage, with the nets positioned right behind the blue lines. The white team (Letand, Hossa, Laraque, Stall, Dupuis, and Talbot + some more I don't remember) destroyed the black team (Malkin and some bums). Therrien didn't look pleased with the black teams effort, so he made them do laps. The white team sat on the bench and smirked.
Gonchar, Whitney, Malkin, Hossa, and Malone broke off to work on the power play with Mike Yeo. They were looking pretty good, and doing some pretty interesting things.
Some little kids in front of me kept trying to get Gonchars attention during this by pounding on the glass and demanding autographs. I guess they want him to Incredible Hulk himself through the glass during practice to sign their hockey cards.

That was pretty much it, so we went outside and waited for autographs. Got Laraque again. Then we got hit with this;

"Penguins Crosby to sit out more games because of ankle"

LGP Shenanigans

Boo. It starts raining, TVFF signs off. Kendall is going again tomorrow, hopefully he'll type up a post about it.

38 hours:

vs

F the Flyers.

Pens fan of the Month

2008-03-13T22:09:00.005-04:00

Heather from Ambridge

Heather is our "Pens fan of the month" for March. She has truly shown her dedication by loving TK and wearing a Penguins hard hat. She also hangs out with MTKEN, and you can see how hard that would be with him looking like he does.

Preview of Sunday

2008-03-13T21:28:00.004-04:00

For my first post ever on TVFF, I figured that I would give everyone a small preview of the Pens vs. Flyers game on Sunday. As we all know, earlier this year, Gary Roberts aka G.R. broke his leg and is still recovering from his injury. Hopefully, he will return to the Pens in time for the playoffs since we all know what kind of impact he still brings to the game, even at 41 yrs old.In his honor, I post this video of the man kicking the biggest twink of all-time, former Philly Flyer Ben Eager. In this clip, Ben did the typical Flyer antic, hit BGL (Big Georges Laraque) from behind, then ran away because he was scared to fight. He then challenges G.R. who gladly accepts and proceeds to send Eager back to Twinkville to join his buddies, Steve Downie and Joffrey Lupul, both who are afraid to take their visors off while engaging in fisticuffs. I'm sure this same energy and bad blood will carry over to Sundayt's game, where the Pens will continue to march their way back to the top of the Eastern Conference standings. I hope all of you enjoy and Let's Go Pens!!!

Exclusive TVFF coverage: Pens Practice

2008-03-13T21:03:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow, TVFF will be bringing you exclusive coverage of Penguins practice, where we hope to not kill any small children, take a few pictures, and come home with a few autographs. Accompanying me will be MTKEN:

Yeah, him and Slick have something going on where they take each others pictures in the same place or something.

Laraque sent to his room without dinner

2008-03-13T20:32:00.003-04:00

Story on NHL.com

What a creepy picture. Why in the hell is he biting that? Yeah, Georges got suspended. That's too bad, I wanted him to take another run at that pussy Biron on Sunday.

What's with Biron challenging everyone to fight? He did that too Crosby too, and I'm sure Crosby could have kicked his French Canadian ass.

Video of the day

2008-03-13T09:57:00.003-04:00

Tyler Kennedy shows why you don't mess with the bull:

YOU GET THE HORNS!

TK is the man

2008-03-13T00:30:00.006-04:00

Only 81 points off the NHL scoring lead.

I'm starting the "TK for the Hart Trophy" campaign early. As mentioned before, he is only 81 points off the scoring lead, but clearly is the MVP of the NHL. How can you not love this guy?

On a side note, those jerseys are awesome. Simple, yet effective.

Today's video of the day (later) will be an awesome TK video. Bet you can't wait.

Video of the day

2008-03-13T00:17:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Empty Netters via ThePensBlog for this gem.

Mario would have kicked Kerry Frasers hair's ass.

First post: March 12th Pens vs Sabres

2008-03-12T23:33:00.002-04:00

Welcome to "The view from F". I guess that's a lame name, but it's the best we could come up with on short notice, which was the walk back to the car from the game. So it's me and Slick working on this, and we sit in F. We've been STH's for 3 years now, and we've had some pretty interesting moments at the games. So we're going to blog about the Pens and hockey in general. So let's see how this goes.

Todays Game Jersey:

Crosby Jersey: 1-0-0

The Pens are playing the Sabres, who are fighting just to make the playoffs.
Slick ate at McDonalds before the game. I had a vanilla shake.
The Pens will be without Sid and Talbot. Sykora was supposed to be out, but once he heard about Sid being out, he decided to play and dedicate his performance to the memory of Sid.
Conks in net.
Sarah Marince sings the anthem. While she's a looker, shes no JJ (Yes, that's really JJ in Airborne before it was called Airborne. Wow.".
Tyler Kennedy (TK) scores the first goal of the game. It was a breakaway. He made Ryan Miller look stupid. Sweet.

Shit, do I really want to recap the whole game this late at night? Hell no. To make a long story short, it got infected and I died. No wait, that's not it. We scored 6 more goals and the Sabres got 3. Quick thoughs follow.

Georges Laraque apparently almost killed a guy. I didn't see it because I was watching the play, but I don't understand how the refs give him a 5 and a 10, because they didn't even realize Paetsch was injured until he wasn't moving. They clearly didn't see the play.
I missed a lot in this game by watching the play instead of watching the side show. I almost missed a goal because I was remarking on how 17,132 didn't look like much when a lot of seats are empty.
Googly moogly and the guy I call "super genius" were there. I dislike them.
TK is only 81 points off the scoring lead.
Minard got his first after riding the pine the last few games. Good for him

I leave you with a nice preview of Slick.

He's single. He's quiet. He wears the same lame jersey every game. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

On draft day.

In our section, wearing said lame jersey.

And the best: In his natural habitat.

Have a good one. See you tomorrow with links, and maybe more pics of Slick.