A Time For Everything

 

This guy is my favorite hockey player. You regulars probably know that. :0)

By all accounts he's a fantastic human being as well as being one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

I'd love to meet him some day, somehow and get a picture taken with him. (I might need to Photoshop an image and put it on my vision board!)

For now, I'm happy to wish him happy birthday with this little Sidney Crosby appreciation post.

Hope you're having a great day, Sid--one filled with family, friends, and fun.

Have a great week!

 

As mentioned last Wednesday, I took my sign first ever sign to a hockey game and stood on the glass during warmup hoping that Sidney Crosby would see me and my sign and toss me a puck. Did that happen? Well, no.

Here I am standing on the glass with my sign, waiting for warmup to begin. I entered the arena as soon as the let me and went straight to the glass. Good thing I did, because there ended up being A LOT of other Crosby / Penguins fans. Which I kinda figured there would be , so I planned ahead. :0)



Even though I didn't get a puck, I did get enshrined forever on the Penguins Twitter and possibly their Instagram accounts.

This is Twitter...


DD saw this and sent it to me...I couldn't find the original post on either account myself--such is the frustration of social media algorithms.


And what was I doing there? Filming this little tidbit of puck play!!



All in all, a fun evening even though I didn't get a puck from Sidney and the Stars lost.

In Monday's post, and many others, I said I was rooting for the Pens to win their third straight Stanley Cup.

Unfortunately, the Pens lost to the Capitals on Monday evening.



So Alexander Ovechkin (Ovi) finally gets his chance to play on for the Stanley Cup. This is the first time in the Ovi era (since 2004, when he was signed to the team) that the Washington Capitals have made it past the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Of course, they have to win the best of seven against the Tampa Bay Lightning and then against whoever wins in the West: the Vegas Golden Knights, the Winnipeg Jets, or the Nashville Predators. The Jets and the Preds play each for the change to play Vegas in the Western Conference Final.

In equally exciting news, the Capitals became the first Washington D.C. based sports team representative since 1998 to reach the conference finals in one of the four major North American sports. Congrats to them!

Time for some hockey talk. We haven't done that in a while. :0)

Over the weekend, the Dallas Stars had an opportunity to move out of the Wild Card slot for the playoffs and into an actual playoffs berth. True, they'll have to hold onto it, but they've had the Wild Card slot for a good month or so, so chances look promising.

One point separated the Stars and the team ahead of them in their division, the St. Louis Blues, going into the weekend with two games on the schedule for both teams. Did they make it??

Well, the Stars won Friday's game earning them two points, but so did the Blues, so there was no change as of Saturday.

On Sunday, the Blues played early and lost. The Stars had to have known this going into their own game. So what did they do? They lost in spectacular fashion to one of the five worst teams in the league. Ugh.

Granted, there were a couple of factors going against them, but they played like crap, even for them and even with the things they had to deal with.

Anyway, the answer is no, they didn't pull it off. They're no better off, but, on the other hand, they're no worse off. The team now has four days off to get their act together. On Friday, they play...guess who?...the St. Louis Blues. Someone's going down.

Now onto my dilemma.

I have three favorite teams, all in different divisions. The Stars can play both of the other two teams at various levels of the playoffs. While the Stars are my home team, the other two have very compelling story lines for why I would want them to win--

The Pittsburgh Penguins are going for a third Stanley Cup in a row. Due to changes in the league over the last dozen years, two in a row is difficult enough. Three would just be phenomenal. And as the saying goes, "If any team can pull it off, the Penguins can." Collectively, those boys have played a lot of hockey in the past three years--not just NHL, but other competitions as well--and they're tired. But after a questionable start back in October, they're lighting it up now in the last thirty or so games heading toward the post season. So, yeah, go Pens!


The Vegas Golden Knights are going for their very first playoff run in their very first year as a team. They've already broken numerous records for a franchise in its first season. They are, to pretty much everyone's surprise, first in their division at the moment and they've hovered near the top for most of the season despite a spate of injuries to their goalies--of which every team only keeps two on the active team roster. They've had three goalies come in this year from their minor league teams who've all done a yeoman's job of guarding the net. They could actually pull this off. What's not to love about this narrative? So, yeah, go Knights!


And then, of course, are the Stars--they've been to the playoffs only twice in the last eight years, losing once in the first round and once in the second. They've made it the Stanley Cup playoffs twice since moving to Dallas twenty-five years ago, winning only once in 1999. Would I love to see my hometown boys (I say hometown, but only four players are even American!!) get to the playoffs and win the Cup. Just because they're my team and it'd be super cool to have hockey eclipse every other sport in this state for a while. So, yeah, GO STARS!


What I discovered in watching Friday night's Stars game against the Penguins is that I definitely want the Stars to win right now, during regular season play. Why? Because they need to make it to the playoffs before my Sophie's choice can even be a choice. They need the points to climb the standings.

Any suggestions on how to choose when the time comes?

The Pittsburgh Penguins won back to back Stanley Cups. The Stanley Cup is probably the hardest trophy in sports to win. Doing it two years in a row is feat that hasn't happened in nineteen years for various reasons, but mostly because hockey is a very fast and very physical sport. Hockey hits are generally speaking, 17% harder than football hits. As a result of being hit, a player may end up in the boards (the sides of the rink) or hitting the ice. Whether that's factored into that "17% harder"I don't know, but regardless... And I digress.

This year the Penguins overcame injury after injury of player after player, bringing in guys from the lower leagues to fill in. They brought in rookies who showed up and played big games.

This morning I watched the Penguins parade through downtown Pittsburgh, and what an event!!

Can they go for three in a row? Why can't they? But we'll see, won't we?

Some screen grabs of the parade, because why not? I can!



Some of then Pens on stage at the end of the presentation after the parade. Holding the Cup is the best forward duo in the NHL, #87 Sidney Crosby, considered by most to be the greatest player in the world, and #71 Evgeni Malkin.

I hope that someday soon, the Dallas Stars will win the Cup. I look forward to celebrating a little more up close at that point and in person and attending their parade. *fingers crossed*

And if the Stars don't make it next year, I'll be rooting for the Penguins for sure.

For the first time since 2009, an NHL team has returned to the Stanley Cup finals for a second year in a row. In fact, in 2009, both teams were repeat finalists. The Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins played each other both in 2008 and 2009. The Red Wings won the Cup in 2008, the Penguins in 2009.

Now that The Penguins have made it to the Stanley Cup finals for the second year in a row once again, they're trying for back-to-back wins. The last time that happened was in 1997 and 1998 by none other than...the Detroit Red Wings!

As a side note, for the first time in twenty-five years, the Red Wings did not even make into the playoffs this year. That's kinda sad.

My second favorite player, Justin Schultz, got a goal and an assist in his first game back after missing several games with a shoulder injury... Now I really need that shirt I ordered. :0)


The Stanley Cup Final starts Monday night. Can't wait...

As of Wednesday night, they made it to the Eastern Conference Final-- There's a Western Conference Final too, and the winners of each play each other for penultimate hockey award: the Stanley Cup.


So this last series the Pens played against the Washington Capitals was a tough one and it took all seven games to result in a winner. (All playoff rounds are best of seven.)

During the regular season, I watched only Stars games. They didn't do so great and every game was a nail biter, hoping one of two things would occur: they could hold onto the lead they had or they could rally enough in the time left in the game and win it.

Since the Stars didn't make it to the playoffs and my second and third favorite teams did, I've continued to watch hockey. In the first round, said second and third favorite teams played one another, so it didn't matter much who won. I did have a preference, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Watching the games wasn't stressful. It was just fun to watch.

Once the Pens won that series and took on the Washington Capitals...well...it was a whole new ball game and every minute of play seemed to take three times as long. The last half of every third period felt like half an hour instead of ten minutes. This time for similar reasons to Stars games.

These two teams are long-time rivals. Last year, the Pens beat the Caps in the second round in six games. This year, the Capitals wanted redemption, the Penguins want a repeat.

I know that one minute takes sixty seconds, one hour takes sixty minutes and so one, no matter what's going on in life or on TV. It's just interesting how it seems to bend depending on what's going on...

Time expands when (maybe) you're watching an important game of some random sport. Alternately, time contacts when you're spending time with a cherished guest or family member. Like when Sonshine comes home on leave. His ten days go by in a flash.

Is there a point to this post? Maybe to cherish every moment, because you can't get back time.

Have a great weekend.

In April before the trade deadline, the Stars lost four players in trades. Good players. Producing players. But we got draft picks in exchange for a couple of them, so...we'll see how that plays out in June.

But Saturday after the last game of the season came the news that the coach (!!) was let go. At first I wasn't sure why, but after some article reading I figured out that while this coach is one of winningest coaches in the NHL, this season was the Stars second worst season record since they moved to Dallas. Since the coach's contract expired, I guess the higher ups figured that shaking things up might -- um -- shake things up.

I guess we'll see how the summer and training camp plays out. *fingers crossed*

In other Jen-related hockey news, my two second favorite teams both made it to the playoffs. The problem is, they're in the same division--meaning they play each other in that first round, so somebody's going home...someone's going to the second round.



I'll be happy and sad at the same time either way it shakes out.

Yeah, taking a break from the trials and tribulations of thinking like and becoming a publisher to congratulate my home team DALLAS STARS in their win over one of the best teams in the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the greatest hockey player ever Sidney Crosby. I could have gone, and I'd love to watch my two teams play someday, but had I gone, the boys probably would have lost--my track record isn't great.

I hope your week has been a good one. Mine has been pretty productive. I have no complaints. That being said, I'm glad it's Friday. Tomorrow is writers group day and I'm looking forward to spending a day with my peeps.

On a completely unrelated topic, let's celebrate today being Friday by talking about HOCKEY! Specifically, the greatest hockey player in the world right now. The Pittsburgh Penguins own Sidney Crosby. Last night, Sid scored his 1000th career point. That's what they celebrate in hockey--points. Players earn points by scoring goals or by assisting others in scoring goals.

A couple of pics...


And that's it folks. Have a super weekend. See you Monday.

Who knew listening to or watching a hockey game could be so stressful??

I mean, I know for the players it is, obviously, because they're trying to win the game and keep the opposing team from scoring. It is for the coaches when the team is taking a few on the chin...

But for a fan--or perhaps I should say a fan for any given team...it can be nerve-racking too.


So I'm fan-girling the Stars because they're my home team and because the two faces of the franchise, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, are some pretty nice faces (and bodies) indeed.


I also follow the Pittsburgh Penguins because that's Sonshine's team, so, you know. And Sidney Crosby isn't hard on the eyes either.


So let's take the Stars. Now they've been having a rough season, no rhyme or reason to their wins or losses. They beat teams they shouldn't and lose to teams whose asses they should have kicked. So, yeah, it's hard to know while you're watching or listening which way it's going to go. I know they feel way worse about the losses than I do, but man, as a fan, you just can't predict when they're gonna start falling apart. So you sit clenched, waiting for it all to implode because usually it's just a matter of time...

Now let's talk about the Pens--the 2016 Stanley Cup winning Pens. Yeah, them.


When I watch or listen to a game, all is fine. I don't get stressed out or freaked out even if they give up a goal or two, because they've proven over and over this season (and previous one's I'm sure) that they can come back--and they do. Just the other night, they were down by 2 going into the second period. Then Washington scored making the deficit 3-0. And guess what happened? They answered back with five goals before the Capitols could score again. They won the game 34 seconds into overtime.

So yeah big difference in how I feel watching these teams. Go Stars! (They did pull out a win last night...)

Anyway, Happy Hump Day!