The bustling metropolis of Washington, PA. (pronounced War-shin-ton by the locals.
)About 25 miles south of the 'burgh. Lived there until I was 19 (except for my 7th grade year in Ft Myers, Fla.)
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NHL Season 2019-20
- Thread starter MJ5150
- Start date
)About 25 miles south of the 'burgh. Lived there until I was 19 (except for my 7th grade year in Ft Myers, Fla.)
Altoona here.
We steered clear of those crazies from Johnstown.
-Mike
We steered clear of those crazies from Johnstown.
-Mike
The bustling metropolis of Washington, PA. (pronounced War-shin-ton by the locals.
About 25 miles south of the 'burgh. Lived there until I was 19 (except for my 7th grade year in Ft Myers, Fla.)
It's like our own little "Golden Triangle" of Western PA. Yeah, Altoona was one of our rivals in high school. Y'know Mike, when I was in 'Nam, I met another K-9 handler from Altoona. (Didn't know him prior.) Turned out to be one of my best friends...Altoona here.
We steered clear of those crazies from Johnstown.
-Mike
dwm74, Mike already knows this about me; but I grew up a huge Pirates & Steelers fan. This was long before the Steelers were any good, and were the perennial laughingstock of the league. John Henry Johnson, et.al. But I bled Pirates blood, and fantasized as a kid about one day slipping on a Pirates uniform.
Fast-forward to after my military discharge. I was living in Harrisburg. The cable TV station carried the Flyers away games. That's how I became a Flyers fan in the early '70s...
Ditto here...as a kid I wanted to change my name to Manny after the Pirates' Manny Sanguillen. Still vividly remember the Steelers turning the corner from 5-9, 6-8, then 11-3 and starting their SB run in the 70s.
But you talk about being a diehard fan of a laughingstock of a team, try being a Pens fan in the 70s to early 80s. Mid-70s they actually were an average team with a lot of scoring (NINE 20-goal scorers in '74-75), but they had such a porous defense (despite one of the best in Dave Burrows) that they rarely advanced in the playoffs, and the notorious feat of letting the Islanders come back from being down 0-3 to beat them was the beginning of the downfall. Bad trades, bad drafts, bad coaching, patchwork goaltending, etc, led to the steady slide which eventually allowed them to draft a skinny kid from Quebec named Mario. Still, it took a handful of years to reach respectability and then a few more before the Cups came. Unfortunately for me I was long gone from PA by that time, so seeing the Pens become champs was awesome on one hand, but bittersweet on the other as I had endured the crappy years but wasn't around for the good times. Kind of like seeing your ex-wife win the lottery right after your divorce is final.
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Ditto here...as a kid I wanted to change my name to Manny after the Pirates' Manny Sanguillen. Still vividly remember the Steelers turning the corner from 5-9, 6-8, then 11-3 and starting their SB run in the 70s.
But you talk about being a diehard fan of a laughingstock of a team, try being a Pens fan in the 70s to early 80s. Mid-70s they actually were an average team with a lot of scoring (NINE 20-goal scorers in '74-75), but they had such a porous defense (despite one of the best in Dave Burrows) that they rarely advanced in the playoffs, and the notorious feat of letting the Islanders come back from being down 0-3 to beat them was the beginning of the downfall. Bad trades, bad drafts, bad coaching, patchwork goaltending, etc, led to the steady slide which eventually allowed them to draft a skinny kid from Quebec named Mario. Still, it took a handful of years to reach respectability and then a few more before the Cups came. Unfortunately for me I was long gone from PA by that time, so seeing the Pens become champs was awesome on one hand, but bittersweet on the other as I had endured the crappy years but wasn't around for the good times. Kind of like seeing your ex-wife win the lottery right after your divorce is final.
I just realized last night it's the All Star break, and I have to sit on that loss to the crummy Flyers for 10 days. Blah.
-Mike
-Mike
I played amateur league hockey for 4 years in Ashland, Wisconsin and it amazed me that the players would bring cases of beer into the players benches so they could drink between shifts.
I tried drinking 2 beers at the beginning of a game once and almost threw up on the ice during the next couple of shifts.
Perhaps I shoulda specified watching hockey-live or on TV-and beer go together.
Well, they get to host the crummy Flyers after the break...
Back when the bars here closed at 1:00AM, a group of us would rent out the ice at 2:00am for an hour. Beer cases on the bench and a trip to Howard Johnson's afterwards as it was just about the only place open back then.
Good times...
Fishheadjoe
All-Star Weekend. Maybe it's just me but these festivities are already old hat, and the attempts to 'improve' them fall short. The digital targets were nowhere near the fun as watching the styrofoam ones get obliterated. Some of the other events were same old same old. I gotta admit, though, I did like the last event where they shot pucks form a platform in the stands. Something different at least, even it did seem to go on too long. (Did not need to see Keith Tkachuk's 300 lbs taking a shot! Man, you talk about letting yourself go after hanging up the skates!)
The game itself was decent...I actually like the 3-on-3 format better than the old 5-on-5. Since nobody plays defense anyway why not give the skilled players some room to operate?
Not sure how many caught this, but I thought the coolest thing was in the closing seconds of the final game, McDavid passed the puck back to Calgary goalie Rittich in an attempt for him to score an empty-netter. Rittich passed on that chance but I thought it was classy for McDavid to do that. Especially with the Oilers/Flames rivalry as fiery as it is.
Biggest joke of the day? Media darling Pastrnak winning the MVP. Judging by the way he was fawned over all weekend it had to have been pre-ordained as long as he showed up. Don't get me wrong, he's a heck of a good player, but he was in no way the MVP of the game. Hertl overwhelmingly deserved it, IMHO.
The game itself was decent...I actually like the 3-on-3 format better than the old 5-on-5. Since nobody plays defense anyway why not give the skilled players some room to operate?
Not sure how many caught this, but I thought the coolest thing was in the closing seconds of the final game, McDavid passed the puck back to Calgary goalie Rittich in an attempt for him to score an empty-netter. Rittich passed on that chance but I thought it was classy for McDavid to do that. Especially with the Oilers/Flames rivalry as fiery as it is.
Biggest joke of the day? Media darling Pastrnak winning the MVP. Judging by the way he was fawned over all weekend it had to have been pre-ordained as long as he showed up. Don't get me wrong, he's a heck of a good player, but he was in no way the MVP of the game. Hertl overwhelmingly deserved it, IMHO.
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Woulda liked to have seen it-gigs Friday and Saturday nights. I'm sure it'll be replayed a lot.
Wormtown Brewery in Worcester recently released a new beer that is perfect for me and many other Bruins fans. Great redesign of the state seal.
Now the 'second half' gets underway, getting down to business of playoff spots. More divisional games, more intensity and then there's the trading deadline approaching. Lots of teams still in the hunt...just waiting to see which ones realize that they're not really at the contending stage just yet and start dealing away rentals.
Pens GM JR usually is one of the early traders, not waiting until the deadline to make some moves. Not sure if he'll continue that strategy this year, as tradable assets are not plentiful nor are future picks to be dealt. Good news is he just re-signed Dman Marcus Petterson to a new 5-yr extension, at a reasonable cap hit for a solid player that churns out the minutes he does.
PS...Anyone see the Brady Tkachuk-PK Subban fight last night? The young guy more than held his own against Subban.
Pens GM JR usually is one of the early traders, not waiting until the deadline to make some moves. Not sure if he'll continue that strategy this year, as tradable assets are not plentiful nor are future picks to be dealt. Good news is he just re-signed Dman Marcus Petterson to a new 5-yr extension, at a reasonable cap hit for a solid player that churns out the minutes he does.
PS...Anyone see the Brady Tkachuk-PK Subban fight last night? The young guy more than held his own against Subban.
Solid move to sign Pettersson. Now if he's smart he'll sign Marino and Riikola too.
If he's the smart guy everyone says he is, he'll get rid of Murray and Johnson. Until then in my book he's just a guy who throws a lot of darts at the trade wall and has had the fortune of a few hitting the bulls eye or close to it.
-Mike
LOL. You gotta admit though, over his tenure there's been more good deals/signings the likes of Bonino, Kessel, Petterson, Schultz, Cullen, Bjugstad, etc , than the stinkbombs of Brassard, JJ, Oleksiak, Pearson, and Gudbranson. Unfortunately the positive ones happened a few years ago, and the majority of the flops were relatively recent. Hope that trend reverses itself quickly.
I dunno if I can agree.
I like the Marino trade he pulled off. Other than that, those stinkbombs loom large. Large enough to cost playoff wins.
I'll tell you what though, Sullivan deserves the credit more than Rutherford. He keeps winning despite Rutherford goofing around with the roster. I want to be big and physical, no wait let's be small and fast, er yeah, big and tough sounds good, actually the fast and small sounds better.
There's Sullivan this whole time piecing together a roster to win games as best he can. It sure helps having two of the best players in the world on the ice when they aren't injured.
-Mike
You bring up some good points. Can't argue with what you say about Sullivan and how he's handled the changes in the gameplan you mention.
