The Beauty of the Puck

Pre-season: Pittsburgh Penguins 3, Buffalo Sabers 4

Friday evening J and I attended a pre-season Penguins game at Mellon Arena. Pre-season games in any sport are for hard core fans and a half-filled arena of hard core fans is very loud. By the end of the evening my ears were ringing and I was happy to leave the rink, after watching the Penguins fall to Buffalo in overtime.

Highlights:

Sometime between last May and this September, the majority of the team learned how to pass. Warm ups included passing drills and every member of the team stayed on the ice for the entire warm up period.

All players showed a marked improvement in skating and footwork.

Jocelyn Thibault has come a long way from last year. Steadier in the goal, quicker on rebounds, shaking off mistakes faster and quicker at following the puck.

Colby Armstrong will not be one of the most underrated players in the NHL for much longer and scored two of the Penguins three goals.

Jarrko Rutuu already doing what he was hired to do – agitate the opposing team. He needs to work on doing it EARLIER in the game and not drawing penalties during overtime play.

Man decides to climb over seats and gets foot stuck. Two ushers are forced to remove his shoes to free him from the seat. The crowd applauds.

Apathetic beer guy returns to the arena to ply his wares for another year. Hilarity ensues when he hears me say "Hey, it's apathetic beer guy!" and promptly goes into his routine of selling beer using the most monotone voice possible.