Maple Leafs at Penguins - Pregame - 12-27-09
PREGAME
-Greetings from a cool/mild day in late December in Pittsburgh. It's been sunny and hovering in the low 40s for most of the day. It's been spectacular weather for late in the year.
-Other than the opening car chase scene from "Striking Distance," we don't think we've ever seen in the Armstrong Tunnels. We changed that today:
-Consol Energy Center:
-Mellon Arena:
-The moon peaking through the clouds over Mellon Arena:
-Downtown:
-The ceiling and scoreboard:
-The ice:
-Craig Adams is on the cover of perhaps the most colorful IceTime ever:
-This is an update from a note we had earlier today. Vesa Toskala (5-7-2, 3.81 GAA, .869 SV%) and not Jonas Gustavsson is expected to start in net for Toronto. Toskala is 6-2-0 all-time against the Penguins with a 3.14 goals against average and .898 save percentage.
-Some sights from around the arena. As always, the Maple Leafs travel well. An Alexander Mogilny fan:
(-1 for the pink Tomas Kaberle jersey.)
-Phil Kessel with a jersey foul:
-Here's a good one. Brendan Shanahan Whalers:
-Holy Curtis Leschyshyn! A Quebec Nordiques touque!
(All of the deceased Adams Division teams are accounted for.)
-Kevin Stevens:
-This is rare. A Randy Robitiaille jersey:
-Sean Collins Wheeling Nailers:
-Either this fan is really into the Penguins-Islanders rivalry our he's here to torment Maple Leafs fans who felt they "deserved" John Tavares:
-Borje Salming:
-What's the only thing worse than an Eric Lindros Flyers jersey? An Eric Lindros Maple Leafs jersey:
-We've seen an outbreak of Ken Wregget jerseys:
-There isn't enough vulgarity in enough languages to convey our feelings on this:
-Doug Gilmour:
-Warm ups:
-Some surprising news here as Tyler Kennedy is announced as a scratch. He hasn't done much since he came back from his injury earlier this month.
-Mark Eaton is the Penguins' other scratch.
-Toronto's scratches are Jeff Finger and Viktor Stalberg.
-Marc-Andre Fleury and Vesa Toskala are your starting goaltenders.
-Who else you going to trust with two national anthems other than Jeff Jimerson?
