Tuesday, February 1st, 2011: Pens @ Rangers
So this is NOT the most important part of the Rangers game, but did you see Jordy's left hook??? I LOLZED a lot. Thanks for making me giggle. And panic. All in the space of about 5 seconds.
That's right. Don't mess with Mr. President (TK, Kennedy, Tyler...). Jordy's got his back! Also. Really? You got DROPPED by a punch, Prust? Lame. That's ok. There's a club for that now. "NHL players on the receiving end of one punch from a Penguin." AKA the "LOLZ" club. DiPietro is a member now too. More on that later.
This fighting thing. I don't know that I've talked much about it before. With the obvious exception of talking about the badassness of King of England. I'll be honest in saying that I don't really get super excited and pumped up when I see my boys fight. Usually I stay in my seat, smile, and shake my head a little. Especially at K-Wings games. At K-Wings games, it is rare to go and NOT see a fight. Understandably so. These guys are all playing in the ECHL and want to prove themselves. Sometimes I wish they would prove themselves more by making clean passes. Obviously not as flashy, but eh. I really just want a better reason or three. That's the difference in watching NHL hockey and ECHL hockey. Well, it's one of the differences. In the ECHL, tempers tend to be shorter and less under control, but more selfishly based and in the NHL, the players are no less passionate, just more intelligent on the ice. They pick and choose the fights based on timing. Usually. Sometimes it's just about a dirty hit and protecting your teammate even if it's not strategically the best option. But for the most part, the intelligence it takes to get to that NHL level of hockey allows for fewer fights with more impact. Now, this is not to say I don't think the K-Wings ever fight for good reasons, because they do. I just think that SOMETIMES they get a little carried away. The games going just fine and someone on the other team hooks your teammate around the net and the ref has his hand up and the whistle blown. And you fight anyway? You shove them until they drop their gloves and then you take 5 minutes for fighting and 2 for roughing or instigating and instead of a powerplay which could lead to good scoring chances, we're playing 4 on 4 hockey and you're taking a breather in the box. I just don't like it.
That was a little rant-y. Details. (Also, you're insane if you think that rant means I want fighting removed from the game. Hell no.) What was I talking about? Oh yeah. Rangers game.
Firstly, let's discuss the FSNPittsburgh commentator's obsessions with the big bodies of Jordy and Tangradi. And then they practically peed their pants with excitement when they thought about a line of Jordy, Tangradi, and Geno. It was a little adorable how much they channeled me. Eric Tangradi got the call-up in the morning to replace Letestu (still needs a nickname...the obvious is Testy, but I'm not thrilled yet) who will be out 4-6 weeks. I don't want to comment on the kind of health karma the Pens have going on right now. Anyway...Tangradi played really well and JESUS! He was much quicker than I expected from him. Me likey.
So...I suck at updating. And I realized today that I never posted this. So I'm just going to leave as is and go for it. Moving on...coming soon: An overview of the current NHL CapItans. A non-hockey related post (!?!). And perhaps some further reaction on Mr. BENLOVEJOY's goal today.
