Penguins at Red Wings - Pregame - Game 1 - 5-30-09
PREGAME
-Hey, guess we we are:
-Detroit Rock City. It's really surreal for us to be here. We've never lied about the fact that we're not beat writers. We do a lot of this out of fun. We're very much still fans. And road trips are still something we get a charge out of. So coming back to this grand old hockey barn less than a year later is something we're ridiculously lucky to do.
-Lots of sights like this on the ride up:
-Lots of sights like this outside JLA:
-There are plenty of extra air conditioning units out JLA as well:
-Windsor:
(We so wish we had a passport right now.)
-Annnnnd a press credential!!!!!
-To say the least, they're still getting some last minute preparations in order:
-We've already gotten more ice time than Chris Chelios will this entire series:
-Better late than never, Mike Lange's goal calls from Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final:
-Kudos to Gareth Langley for the heads up.
-Mario Lemieux is holding a press conference at 6:45 p.m. What should we ask? Serious suggestions only. Nothing like... "When you firing Yeo n'at?"
-Lemieux's press conference wasn't anything special other than the fact that he actually spoke. He said Sidney Crosby is better than he was at 21.
-As we showed you last year, the names of every one of Detroit's Stanley Cup winning rosters are painted on the walls down below in Joe Louis Arena:
-The names of the 2008 team are down by the Red Wings' locker room and that area is off limits before a game. We'll get it later so you can curse at it.
-Joe Louis Arena:
-The banners here are still the coolest thing about this place:
-Some sights around the arena:
-We're suspending jersey fouls in regards to Steelers jerseys for the game:
-They've caught the Winter Classic fever up here too:
-Mark Recchi:
-The long-lost Roberto Clemente jersey:
-Jarkko Ruutu's exploits in the 2008 Winter Classic are still appreciated by one person:
-An interesting combo of jerseys:
-Some Marian Hossa... fans:
-More Penguins fans:
-Ron Francis has a fan here:
-There's at least one reader of The PensBlog here:
-Terrible Ted Lindsay is in the house:
-Some people just don't like change:
-A pretty sweet replica of the Stanley Cup:
-Barf:
-Say... do you think the Panthers would re-do that one trade....:
-Our favorite all-time Red Wing, Sergei Fedorov:
-The Malkins are here and they're sitting among the regular fans once again:
-Warm ups:
-The Penguins' scratches are Chris Minard, Alex Goligoski, Pascal Dupuis, Petr Sykora, Jeff Taffe, Eric Godard, Dustin Jeffrey, Ben Lovejoy and John Curry.
-Detroit has scratched Pavel Datsyuk, Derek Meech, Chris Chelios, Darren McCarty, Kris Draper, Aaron Downey, Jakub Kindl, Tomas Kopecky and Jimmy Howard.
-Marc-Andre Fleury and Chris Osgood are your starting goaltenders.
-It just got hot in here:
-And it just got seafoody in here:
-The team's take the ice. We're happy to report Marc-Andre Fleury stayed on his skates while running out onto the ice. They're off to a better start.
-The national anthem:
-Tons of Penguins fans here. We're not going to guess at a percentage, but there's far more black, white and blue jerseys here than any of the games we saw in person in Washington.
-Lindsay and Gordie Howe drop the ceremonial first pucks:
