Fantasia 2011 on Exhibition

Fantasy hockey is here again!  My league has been assigned and my team has been drafted.  I've made a few changes, but I was super lucky with being assigned to a league without other Penguins fans!  Woohoo!


So for my forwards:

The one, the only, Cappy.  Mr. Sidney Crosby.

Patrice Bergeron, newly inducted member of the Cup Club.  Lucky bastard.

My personal favorite and the best Staal brother, Jordan Staal.  (I would write more about him, except I think my adoration is completely self-explanatory.  And I'm pretty sure there's plenty of gushing in past posts.  And more to come.)  Also available for use at left wing.

Alexandre Burrows, whom I have a lot of love for, despite the fact that he is not a member of the Penguins.  Solid.  Also, now the K-Wings are a member of the Canucks organization.  Woot.  His winningness?  Ball hockey.  That's right.  He's a champion ball hockey player.  Perfectly acceptable consolation for not winning Lord Stanley last season.

James Neal.  Nealer.  Hugs!  He's had the misfortune (no offense intended) to play for the Stars the majority of his career and as a result does not have a Stanley Cup ring.  He DID win the Memorial Cup with the Plymouth Whalers in juniors (also the junior team of Babyface, may his K-Wings career RIP).  Even Penguins fans don't have a whole lot of love for him (unacceptable!), as evidenced by the Pens fan who sat behind me in Detroit and tried to tell me he wasn't very good.  HOWEVER, I believe that he's going to fit in stellarly (yes, I know, not a word...) and his out-of-character shootout goals only bode well for his career as a Penguin.

For my right wingers, I gambled a bit.  I originally had Teemu Selanne, but dropped him in favor of picking up an extra D-man.  I had it narrowed down to him and Jagr.  While it was a tough decision and I aDORE Selanne (see previous posts for my dream of a Selanne-Crosby-Kariya line), I felt Jagr had a better shot. So...

Jaromir Jagr.  Traitor extraordinaire.  And fantastic winger.  Just pretend he's back playing wing for God and it'll feel better.  Flyers don't exist in this magical world.

(If you haven't noticed, I'm trying to put together a team with the most hardware.  Not including Red Wings.  Amazing as this is, it was done completely unintentionally.)

Next up...El Presidente!!!  Oh, TK, how we all adore thee...  Pretty sure his hardware is self-explanatory or you shouldn't be reading this blog.

This was obviously the winningest picture of him.  More so than the Stanley Cup picture.  I should also mention I can use him on either wing.  He's just that cool.  (He also kicked ass in the Wings-Pens preseason game, which I ATTENDED!)

Last, but not least, of my forwards, Osh-kosh-be-gosh.  AKA T.J. Oshie.  I have no idea when I developed such a fondness for watching him play.  (One of the few non-Penguins whom I like and have seen play in person.  Happy birthday to me!)  I just had a feeling that he's going to have a good season.  Poor guy has only played a total of FOUR playoff games.  And he's got two penalty minutes to show for it.  So an improvement would be much appreciated by my fantasy team.  Preferably before the playoffs.

I hope this is a picture of him scoring a goal, not one of him being denied.  If it isn't, it is NOW.

D-MEN!!!  This is mostly a Pens-fest (current and former) with one exception.  The exception makes it a PenNs-fest.

First up, Tanger.  Kristopher.  Epicness.  Both in hair and play.  I refuse to believe that acknowledgement of his sex hair is a sign of puck-bunny-ness.  It's a fact of life.

Side note: No, that is NOT Max Talbot standing behind him.  That is a sibling of Max Talbot.  Creepy.
I felt that it was time for Tanger to break out the booze.

My PenN, AKA Flyer (which we've already agreed don't exist, so just pretend for a moment, please), is Andrej Meszaros.  I needed a 5th D-man, and I needed a scoring D-man.  Out of who I had available, he was really the best choice.  With a breakout season last year and with the new players in Philly this year, I have a good feeling about him.  We'll see how it works out.  Hopefully he'll live up to expectations.  A little bit about the new boy (since I've obviously talked about most all of the rest of the guys at length before): He was born the day after my childhood best friend, on October 13th.  Although he has never won a Stanley Cup, he has played in the Finals before.  In 2007 for the Senators (lost in 5 games...).  He's played numerous times for Slovakia's world teams, both at the junior and senior level and in the Olympics.  Also, never won.  I'd like for him to continue that streak.  But, play well while losing.  :D

Like I said, no Flyers.  Go Slovakia!?

The return of GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSEEE!!!  That's right, folks!  He's back!  I want to bring back these days:

I'd like to take this moment to mention that I did not change the name of my stuffed penguin from Goose to something else.  His memory lives on!

Back to the real (?), live Penguins avec Paul Martin (Is it weird that I want to pronounce "Martin" the French way?).  Poor, poor man had the bad luck to be drafted by the Devils, where he missed the Cup by a year.  (Obviously not too bad, as he had the good fortune to play alongside American hockey player extraordinaire, Jamie Langenbrunner.)  He has been named to two Olympic teams (2006 and 2010), but has yet to see any ice time during the Olympics (no action in '06 and a broken arm in '10).  Sochi, here he comes!  The things he HAS won?  Two National Championships with the University of Minnesota in 2002 and 2003.

Where's Paul?

And last, but certainly not least, MISTERBENLOVEJOY.  Did you really think I could resist putting him on my team?  Aside from the fact that I have a serious obsession, I also have a HUGE feeling about his season.  Epic.  (I swear, I don't use this word very often...)  What DON'T we already know about Monsieur Lovejoy?  Umm...
...
...
His favorite movie of all time is (apparently) The Count of Monte Cristo.  Props.  If only he'd read the book.  And his favorite hockey movie is NOT Slapshot!  Shocker.  It's The Mighty Ducks.  A man after my own heart.  Classic.

In the words of Geno: "Look awesome.  Girls love."  Hopefully cup love.

GOALIE, GOALIE, GOALIE!

Monsieur Marc-Andre Fleury.  MAF.  Flower.  WALL.

WINNER.  THIS is the real reward when you win the Stanley Cup.  I'm not really sure what to say about the Flower.  He makes me speechless.  ;)  He's just that good.  (Shame on all you doubters out there!)

My first back-up (I opted for three goalies instead of having another skater.) is Jose Theodore, one of the prettiest hockey players ever (obviously important).  Never won a Stanley Cup, but he has won a gold medal for Canada at the 1996 World Junior Championships, going 4-0-0.  Sweetness.  Off the ice, the guy's family life is a little tragic.  He's now with the Florida Panthers, who are now the hosts of the Blackhawks-Flyers-Capitals Convention.  They made a LOT of off-season changes.  If they work well as a team, they're going to be a team to beat.  But they're coming off like, a billion years of losing, so who know...

I have a theory that goalies are pre-disposed to be pretty.  If goal-scoring doesn't work for the Panthers, maybe they can use this to distract the opposing teams.  (1 in 10, folks...there WILL be interested parties...)  This picture was chosen specifically for the fact that I'm a girl and this is a winner.  Lolz.

My third goalie should be a familiar face.  Johan Hedberg.  MOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE.  Him and Goose should be BESTIES!  Poor guy is stuck with a nickname like this just because they couldn't get him a Penguins helmet in time...  I believe he STILL plays with a moose on his helmet, though.  Apparently he prefers Jo-Jo (like yo-yo).  I would, too.  Maybe.

I do have a logical reason for choosing Jo-Jo.  He's playing for the Devils (again) this year and after last year and how Brodeur is looking for this year...I have a feeling that he's going to be playing a lot.  I have a completely (mostly) unresearched opinion that this will be Brodeur's last season.  If, for some reason, Hedberg doesn't get the kind of playing time I forsee, or if Theodore fucks up, I'm dropping one or the other for BJ!!!  (Who is BALLER.)

The season starts tonight, so get excited!!!

Music moment of the day!:
This has absolutely nothing to do with hockey season starting today and entirely everything to do with the fact that everyone should be educated about my all-time favorite classical piano pieces to play.
Firstly, Frederic Chopin's Nocturne in e minor (Op. 72, No. 1)

If anyone has seen The Secret Garden (1987), you would recognize it from that.  (Yes, one of my favorite movies as a child.  Brilliance.)

Secondly, Enrique Granados' Spanish Dances.  I first played these after my freshman year of high school at summer music camp (three of the movements, anyway) and have since learned the rest.  Gorgeous.  A pain in the ass for my tiny hands in some places, but so are most things that I love to play.  These are the "Orientale" and the "Andaluza" (Nos. 2 and 5, respectively).

Thirdly, moving into a bit more modern (relatively): GERSHWIN!  Not Rhapsody In Blue, although that is on my to-do list.  Prelude No. 1.  It took a bit of listening to find an interpretation I liked.  SOO many of the other students playing this did the opening measures at the same tempo as the rest of the piece...  Ugh.

Last, and ALSO not least, Mussourgsky's Pictures At an Exhibition.  All of the previously mentioned pieces are pieces I've been playing for a number of years.  THIS one is the my work-in-progress.  By work-in-progress, I mean I've managed my way through "Baba Yaga" only a couple times.  Slooooowly.  It's getting closer all the time.  Woo!  This is where I encourage you to do your GOOD DEED OF THE DAY and listen to it in it's entirety.  Also, Evgeny Kissin...MMM.  I get more weak in the knees hearing him play than I would meeting the entire Penguins team.

Education time over.  Let's go Pens!!!