This conversation is based off of real events. It was not fabricated for Prah 2.0, and if it was, do you think I’d tell you?
Mom: Isn’t there a hockey game tonight?
Me: Yep, it’s the start of the season.
Mom: Who do we [the Pens] play?
Me: Philadelphia
Mom: Oooooooooohhhhhh…
That “Oooooooohhh” is everything you know about the Flyers. It’s everything you hate about the Flyers. It’s everything you love about waiting for a Pens/Flyers game. It’s everything you love about watching a Pens/Flyers game. It’s everything you’re excited for tonight.
It’s like circling the game on your calendar and counting down the days until it’s here, but this time there’s no waiting. The calendar game is the first game of the season and it’s got the state of Pennsylvania giddy and euphoric.
That’s right, Phillies fans, I said euphoric. About hockey.
No wonder babies drink in the City of Brotherly love…
This isn’t the place for a season preview. Head over to thePensblog, Puck Daddy, Kukla’s Korner and Empty Netters for that.
But this is the place to find photos of General Manager Ray Shero bringing donuts to the masses outside of CONSOL Energy Center. (Style mandates I capitalize all of CONSOL. Spell it like you say it. Imagine God is saying it.)
Girl in the foreground is all about Shero.
So tonight we christen CONSOL Energy Center. And with that christening, the birth of another lame team slogan. This year’s fail is “Destiny has a new home.”
Ugh.
My problem with this slogan goes hand in hand with what worries me about the Pens this year in general: We’ve got all this talent. Practically a whole new blue line worth $50+ million. Sid. Geno. Kunitz. Asham. What if our roster is so stacked it implodes itself?
Courtesy of Three Rivers Stadium. Literally.
On paper we are SICK. Will that translate? What’s the locker room like? What’s the IR look like? But getting back to the slogan, it might all beg this question: Are they taking themselves too seriously?
Too seriously? Who am I kidding, Max Talbot is on this team.
With Bylsma at the helm, I think it’s safe to say the fun train won’t leave CONSOL any time soon. But how much does exterior talk affect players? They say they block it out, but really? They’re human. Do they have an equation for how much they allow in and how much they dismiss? How much they take with a grain of salt, and how much they sit down and react to?
This is all to say, I sure hope the Pittsburgh Penguins have fun this year. It should be like Christmas all year round in their new home, and I’m sure the fans will help spur that. Even the losses won’t be as bad as before because remember, the Pens could be in Kansas City…
GO PENS! DO IT. (P.S. Keep an eye out for finger noshing. WOO.)
Courtesy Getty Images
Prah 2.0 
Sorry we spoiled the opening of your venue.
Posted by Terry | October 11, 2010, 10:49 amit happens. lost the first game in the mellon too and still won some nice hardware.
Posted by erinprah | October 11, 2010, 10:59 pm