Fire on Ice: The New 'Pittsburgh Kid'

A few days ago Sidney Crosby was 4th in the league in scoring, projected to finish at about 110 points. It was said to be an off year for the Pens Captain thus far and that he hadn't looked like he hit his stride yet. For anyone else 110 point projection and 4th in the scoring race would be an exceptional year (with exceptions to Malkin and Ovenchkin). But for Sid it was more of a letdown.

I was telling Runhigh before the Sabres game how I felt that Sid needed to pick up his scoring. Not just the points but I was dissappointed that he wasn't putting the puck in the back of the net enough and I wanted to see him taking some more shots instead of trying to set up his teammates more. I couldn't even recall the last time he had a Hat Trick. As if the new 'Pittsburgh Kid' heard me he buried two goals in the back of the net against Buffalo. While I was hoping he'd bury one more and tie the game I was still impressed with the way he just put the pressure on the Sabres defense the whole game. He had taken over and they had few answers.

Saturday night the Devils didn't have any answers to Crosby. He was everywhere. He backchecked on defense, moved the puck through the offensive zone at will and he shot the puck on net when he wanted. At the end of the game Sid was responsible for all four of the Pens goals getting a hat trick and putting an assist right on the waiting stick blade of Peter Sykora. He even came close to adding the Gordie Howe Hat Trick when he got into a scrap during the game. It never amounted into a full on fight and both men were thrown into the penalty box for roughing. Not shabby for the All-Star.

Sidney Crosby's dominance has stretched across the last 5 games. He has had goals in 4 of the last five with the exception being the defensive battle with the Canucks. Over the last five games Sid has notched 7 goals, 5 assists for 12 points. And Sid has overtaken second outright in the scoring race right behind Pens star and teammate Evgeni Malkin.

Sidney Crosby 23 games, 13 G, 21 A, 34 Points, 11 +/-

Evgeni Malkin 23 games, 10 G, 29 A, 39 Points, 11 +/-

NFL PICKS: Week 13

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 27th

Tennessee Titans (-10.5) at Detroit Lions

Don't bet on the Lions! Come on ... anyone who thought the Lions would keep this one close was retarded.

Titans -10.5

Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys (-13)

See above. The Cowboys before this game had held 3 of their last 4 opponents under 100 yards rushing. With the Romo-Owens connection re-established you had to know this would be a blowout.

Cowboys -13

Arizona Cardinals (-3) at Philadelphia Eagles

I love the Cardinals this year and I had a lot of trouble going against my sleeper but they are ineffective every time they play on the East Coast. You had to guess that 'What's a Tie' McNabb was going to come out gunning to prove to everyone that he's not the one you should be benching.

Eagles +3

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 30th

San Francisco 49er's at Buffalo Bills (-6)

Well I've been very dissappointed with the Bills as of late. They are playing in a very tough division this year but have not been strong the last couple of weeks. They caught a break last week when they played the Chiefs. Trent Edwards may have just needed that little reset to get himself going again. I like my sleeper in this game.

Bills -6

Baltimore Ravens (-5.5) at Cincinnati Bengals

The Lions of the AFC going against one of the best defenses in the league? This one seems like a no brainer. I like Joe Flacco to keep up his impressive rookie season and to pick apart the Bungals. Once again look for the Ravens to get an early lead and the Cincy crowd to start booing their team.

Ravens -5.5

Indianapolis Colts (-8.5) at Cleveland Browns

With Peyton picking apart every defense he faces lately it's hard not to imagine the Colts winning by double digits in the Dog Pound. With Brady Quinn out now it doesn't look too good for the Browns offense either. But Derek Anderson is no slouch. I think he'll have enough to keep it close.

Browns +8.5

Carolina Panthers at Green Bay Packers (even)

I like Green Bay at home. They've been struggling lately but I'm not all for picking a team from the south to go into Lambeau and win in the cold weather.

Packers win

Miami Dolphins (-10) at St. Louis Rams

The Dolphins double digit favorites??? That's crazy. Of course when the opposing team is the Rams it's less crazy. The Rams have had 11 games so far and were beaten by double digits in 8 of them. I think Chad Pennington can pass all day on this team.

Dolphins -10

New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (even)

The Saints are only 1-4 on the road this year and the Bucs haven't lost at home yet. I look for this trend to continue.

Buccaneers win

New York Giants (-4) at Washington Redskins

The Giants are beasts on the road this year with a 4-1 record. They have already beat the Redskins once this year in an earlier matchup. I've got a feeling that Manning will own the Redskins again. Especially since the Redskins haven't been impressive playing at home.

Giants -4

Atlanta Falcons (-1) at San Diego Chargers

I feel like I get burned anytime I pick for or against these two teams. My gut feeling says take the team that needs this more and I think that's the Chargers at this point.

Chargers +1

Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots (-1)

I know the Steelers don't exactly have a good track record in New England but I hope they feel insulted that they are the underdogs for this game. Matt Light isn't going to be enough to stop this defense and Cassell will eat the turf all day. Steelers 27-13

Steelers +1

Denver Broncos at New York Jets (-8.5)

I hate you Brett Favre. I hate you I hate you I hate you! I think Denver and Jay Cutler actually play better on the road than they do at home. Their Defense is terrible though and Favre has just been tearing it up lately. He should be able to put up a double digit victory at home.

Jets -8.5

Kansas City Chiefs at Oakland Raiders (-6)

Which Raiders team is going to show up today? The one that just smashed the Broncos in Denver last week or the ones who were held under 20 points 8 times this year? I'm going to expect an upset from the Chiefs.

Chiefs +6

Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings (-1.5)

In the battle for the NFC North I like the Vikings and Adrian Peterson to have a good day at home and take the lead in the division.

Vikings -1.5

MONDAY DECEMBER 1st

Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans (-2)

Jacksonville has had an extremely dissappointing season so far. They were a favorite to dethrone the Colts in the division before the season started. Now they are an underdog to the weak Houston Texans. I still think they are a better team than the Texans are and should be able to win in a weak Monday Night showdown.

Jaguars +2

Last Week: 8-8

Season Record: 94-80-1

Storm the Field

A sad trend has been sweeping the college nation recently. This trend is storming the field after your team wins. I know storming the field has been around forever but until recently it seems it was reserved for special occasions. Now it seems that anybody who goes and watches a game feels they deserve to run onto the field if their team winds up victorious. There has been way too much of it. With the help of Runhigh we've compiled rules to storming the field. As an added bonus we've thrown in the Cooler Dump rules to help the players figure out when it's appropriate to drench their coach with Gatorade.

Higher Ranked

This is probably the most important rule of them all. That's why it's listed first and it should be noted that it supersedes all other rules for storming the field. Runhigh brought it up at the end of the Pitt vs. Cincinnati game. Pitt ranked #20 was losing to Cincy who was ranked #19. Pitt was trying to score on the last play but the idiots in Cincinnati kept running onto the field and stopping play. The game finally ended and those morons ran back onto the field (for the 3rd freaking time). Meanwhile Runhigh had been shouting for the previous ten minutes "You idiots! You can't storm the field when you're ranked higher than your opponent!" Good point! No storming the field when Your opponent is a ranked lower than you!

The Damn Game's Not Over!
Let's face it. There are some dumb fans. They mostly come from Cincinnati and south of the Mason Dixon line. So please wait until the clock reads all zeros before you start going crazy.

Rivalry Game

During a rivalry game It's acceptable to Storm the field. The only exception are the previous rules. This brought up another question though. Do you storm the field on an opponents turf? I said no .... my reasons were for your own safety and because it's disrespectful. Runhigh says if you have enough fans with you why the hell not? So storm at your own discretion if you're a visiting fan.



Ranked Team vs. Ranked Team

Say two ranked opponents square off? Obviously the higher ranked team's fans can't storm the field for any reason. The lower ranked team? They can only storm the field if they are at least 10 spots below them. The only exception? If your school has never beaten a Top 5 team and you aren't ranked in the Top 5 yourself. Or if you've never beaten a Top 10 team and you're not a Top 10 team. After that you have to observe at least a difference of 10 spots in the rankings.


Significant Victory

If there is a significant victory in the school's history than it's alright to take the field. Victories include the first conference title in the school's history. Once again this rule is overridden by the Higher Ranking rule.







COOLER DUMP

Like fans storming the field the team's players need to know when it's appropriate to dump the cooler on the Coach because let's face it there's more athletes on the field than 'Student-Athletes'. All of the Storming the Field rules apply to drenching the Coach with these additions.


Milestone Victory

If your Coach has reaches a milestone in his career it's perfectly acceptable to drench his with a cooler of your favorite sports drink. Milestones include 100th victory or First Bowl win. If you're ranked higher and he achieves his milestone it's still okay to drench him but your fans have to stay in the stands.



Bowl Game Victory

Last game of the year. It's a Bowl Game. Your team wins. The coach needs to be wet. Especially if the temperature is below 40 degrees. Dump two on him if it's below 20!


Game's Not Over (Part 2)

How many times have you seen a bunch of dumb athletes throw some Gatorade on their coach when they are only up by 7 and there's over 2 minutes left in the game? I can probably count at least 5+ times that I've seen it and watched the other team come back to tie or win it outright.
-If you're up by 3 scores with under 4 minutes go ahead. The other team is almost never going to pull that off.
-If you're ahead by two scores (note to the athletes: 8 pts is not two scores) with under two minutes left then it's okay to go wild.
-Finally, if you're ahead with under a minute and you're kneeling on the ball than it's cool to throw some water on the Coach.

Let's get it right. Too many fans and players have looked pretty retarded lately.

Irish Road Head: Natalya Rudakova

If you have been living under a rock or just aren't a real man who watches MMA (where they play the trailer a hundred times) you might not know that Transporter 3 is about to come out. Again Jason Statham drives a car around really fast with a bunch of very manly action scenes where he beats the crap out of some thugs. In this film his new love interest is very new and very unknown beauty Natalya Rudakova. How unknown? Well let me put it this way. The film's writer Luc Besson walked by her in the street and made her take acting lessons so he could cast her.

"She just passed by me and I noticed her freckles and blue eyes. I was with my assistant and I said, 'Are you seeing this?' "Of course, if I said to her, 'Hey, I'm Luc Besson,' she'd probably run, so my assistant asked me if she should ask her if she's a model or something, so she'd feel more comfortable.
"So I proposed to her if she wanted to try to act and my assistant and I went back to Paris and we gave her some 25 lessons. We prepped her for about six months and then we brought her to Paris to verify if she was ready or not... We had a couple of other girls auditioning to frighten her, but, honestly, she was very good on the screentest, so we hired her."

I guess that's how the great ones are discovered.

Irish Road Trip: Links for the Day

-Some chick in Indiana is suing to be allowed to play baseball for her high school team. Seriously? Enough of this equal rights crap. You have a softball team. Enjoy. If the guys wanted to try out for the softball team would anybody fight to help them out? No. Now get back in the kitchen and shut your bitch mouth!

-This dumbass in Atlanta thinks Matt Ryan is better than Ben Rothlisberger. Yeah dude. Check the stats you gave at the end of the page. Matt Ryan is worse in the major categories. And as our friends from Mondesis House pointed out Matt hasn't taken the Falcons to the NFC title game yet. If he does that then we'll talk.

-Bruce Lee is still the man!

-One of my favorite sites, the Art of Manliness, gives us some lessons to pass down on Thanksgiving. Let's just reword 'Watch the Cowboys game' to 'Root against the Cowboys' and 'Laugh at the Lions' and we're set.

-If you haven't laughed so hard you cried yet today the Pirates are helping out. The Buccos next move? Signing the winner of Donald Trump's 'Apprentice' show to be the new GM.

-Viagara is being tested as a performance enhancer. Um ... duh!!!!

Finally, Ryan O'Byrne decided to help out the Islanders last night by putting a goal in his own net. It is the time of giving!

Alaska: Rednecks of the North

So a few days ago this Sarah Palin Turkey Pardoning clip became a little sensation. If you haven't seen it it's here for your viewing pleasure. Basically Palin goes to pardon a turkey for thanksgiving and in an interview afterwards some redneck is slaughtering turkeys behind her. It's funny.

Anyways I was talking about it with Runhigh and we decided that Alaskans are, for the most part, just northern rednecks. Let's look at the similarities.



Racing
There's nothing a redneck loves more than watching cars race for hundreds of miles. For Alaskans it's no different. Just change the long distance car race for a long distance dog race. In a few years you'll see some sponsorship stickers slapped on these malamutes.



Recreational Vehicles

Seriously. Mud or snow a Redneck is zipping through the woods on his recreational vehicle. There's few activities they love more and if they can find a way to pull something with it they will. The Redneck recreational vehicle of choice is a Quad. Meanwhile the Alaskan will take up the snowmobile. That's a little redneck in my book.

Livestock

All rednecks own some form of livestock and in Alaska it's no different. Hey Alaskans, Do you know what the difference between your livestock and a rednecks livestock is? A little fur and some horns. And we all know you've given them names like they're your pet.

Hunting and Fishing

Okay so we all know what the Alaskan governor's view on hunting is. As far as rednecks go it's not far off. In fact it's one of their favorite pastimes and it's a main source of food outside of scraping roadkill off the road. And where there's hunting there's fishing. You just have to work a little harder to get to the water in Alaska. And on that note . . .

Bass vs Salmon

Well Rednecks and Alaskans differ on their fish preference here. One likes to go after a dumb fish that will eat anything and the other likes to fish for a dumb fish that . . . well I guess there's really no difference between their choice of fish. At least the Salmon tastes better.

Beverage Choice

Well I guess there's no redneck similarities here for the Alaskans. You've escaped this round but only thanks to the Polar Bear's love of Coca-Cola.

Group Commonly Associated With

Now unfortunately the KKK is commonly associated with Rednecks. Not all of them are racist dickwads. But most of these racist dickwads are Rednecks so here's your iconic group. Eskimos? Same deal. Not all Alaskans are Eskimos. But all Eskimos are Alaskan ... except for the ones that are Canadian.

Sport They Worship

If there's one thing a redneck knows well it's how to prioritize and these rednecks know that sports are more important than even their edumacation. What better sports to play than one that are guaranteed to knock loose a few teeth and brain cells. Because you can't be a redneck with a full set of teeth or brain cells.

Hick Shelter

You can't pull off Redneck without the classic rundown shack of a house. For the southern hick it's a gotta be a shanty or a trailer. For our northern rednecks it's a house made out of snow.

Of Course ...

. . . it just wouldn't be redneck without those highly intelligent sounding accents and their high level of education as Runhigh previously helped us see. But don't leave out their high class life-style!

Finally the Babes!

Without further ado I give you the iconic hotties of the Southern and Northern Redneck!

Come on! How can you argue that Alaskans aren't Rednecks now?

Bar Rules

It has come to my attention that people are woefully informed of proper bar etiquette. What should of been a great weekend was ruined when a drunken bastard decided it would be a good idea to hit on my girl and then proceeded to follow us to 2 other bars when we tried to leave him.



While playing pool on Saturday, a semi conscious Mr. Clean wannabe knocked over Irish Road's beer and refused to pay for it, apologize, or even acknowledge he had done it. I have taken it upon myself to inform the general public proper etiquette at the bar. This may be the first in a series.



1. Hitting on girls who are with another guy and obviously taken is NEVER allowed. Examples of unacceptable behavior involve flirting, requesting phone numbers, stalking the couple to another bar and buying the lady drinks are forbidden and will often result in you picking your teeth off of the bar floor.



2. If you are responsible for spilling someone's drink, apologize and offer to buy another. Case Closed. Violations of this rule will result in the rest of my or my buddies drink being thrown in your face.



3. Call it a night and go home if you have any issues staying awake. This includes putting your head on the table, using your arm to prop up your head or having your eyes close when not blinking.



4. Cock-blocking another guy at the bar is only acceptable when he is hitting on your sister. In which you are allowed to separate him from his testicles if he puts his hands on her.



5. Or when she resembles an offensive lineman.



6. Follow the urinal etiquette rules already penned by Irish Road.

http://onirishroad.blogspot.com/2008/08/urinal-etiquette.html



7. When you are trading rounds with a fried, KEEP UP, nursing your beer will only annoy him, or just purchase 2 beers for him when its your turn to buy.



8. When trading rounds with friends, don't suddenly upgrade your liquor preference to Grey Goose or Patron.


9. While drinking with co-workers, NEVER get appreciably drunker than any of them. Failure to follow this rule will result in weeks of office gossip not in your favor and possibly affect future promotions. Note: This rule is void for blue collar workers. In that case, you are expected and is in fact a badge of honor to drink more than your co-workers.



10. Tip the bartenders. Bartenders usually make something like $2.13 per hour and depend on tips to make money. If being socially conscious isn't your thing, don't forget the bartender is going to treat you like the plague next time you want a drink.



11. If you want to dance go to a place with an established dance floor.



12. If your friend is challenged to a fight it is your duty to back him up. If your arm is in a sling, go find a bouncer to break it up.


That is all for now. I'm sure I'll have more to say after amateur night on Wednesday as all the idiots come out and disrupt the drinking of the professionals.

NFL PICKS: Week 12

After another mini-vacation, a few drunken nights and overly hungover mornings I'm back to do the NFL Picks for the week. I still did my picks the last few weeks I was just waaaay too drunk to move and post them. Forgive my love of alcohol and alcohol related products. I thought posting the picks on Thursday may save me from the intoxication I'll suffer during the weekend. We'll see. On to the picks!

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 20th

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers (-9)

The Bungals last three weeks have looked like this: Win over Jacksonville, Bye Week, Tie game vs. the Eagles. Savran called the bye week Cinncy's best week of the season. Ouch! Gotta love him. A hurt and depleted offense minus Mr. Chad Ocho Cinco will be hard pressed to keep the Steelers defense off of the score board. My prediction is the Steeler offense 28 - The Steeler Defense 14. Oh and the Bengals might score sometime in there.

Steelers -9

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23rd

Houston Texans at Cleveland Browns (-2)

The Brownies seem to have found new life the past few weeks with Gay Man heart throb Brady Quinn at the helm. A big comeback win on Monday night vs. the Bills should have shot his confidence up. Houston meanwhile blew an opportunity to beat Indy and will probably get torn up by the Cleveland fans this week.

Browns -2

San Francisco 49er's at Dallas Cowboys (-6.5)

The 49er's have been awful this year away from San Fran. I don't expect things to get any easier for them this week when they visit Big D. The Cowgirls looked resurgent last week with Mr. Jessica Simpson back behind center. I expect them to get ahead early and put it in cruise control. Marion Barber should have a big rushing game.

Cowboys -6.5

Tampa Bay Bucanneers (-7.5) at Detroit Lions

I love the way the Bucs and Jon Gruden are steering the ship right now. I love even more how the Lions are doing anything right. No I don't hate the Lions but I think my man Irish Road's bet with his friend is hilarious. Besides the Lions are shooting for perfection right now! I got to go out on a limb though and say Bucs win but Lions cover.

Lions +7.5

New York Jets at Tennessee Titans (-1.5)

The Jets love affair still astounds me. It's the Brett Favre thing. Whatever the media can do to make this team into the NFL's football darlings they will. What the eff? I really can't see them waltzing into Tennessee this week and beating the Titans. I haven't been impressed with them once this year. They lost to Oakland!

Titans -1.5

Buffalo Bills (-3.5) at Kansas City Chiefs

After breaking out to 4-1 and making me look extremely smart for making them my AFC sleeper the Bills have since lost their last 4 games and are now 5-5 and last in their division. They need this game to stay in the hunt. The Chiefs are 1-9 and have no business being in this game. That's usually when an upset occurs but I think Trent Edwards is ready to put his interception craziness on hold.

Bills -3.5

Chicago Bears (-6) at St. Louis Rams

Look for the Bears to take out some anger this weak in St. Louis. Sexy Rexy will bring it.

Bears -6

New England Patriots vs. Miami Dolphins (-1)

Honestly who would have guessed before this season that the Dolphins would have been favored in any game against the Pats this year. Call me a skeptic but I don't buy them yet.

Patriots +1

Minnesota Vikings (-3.5) at Jacksonville Jaguars

I know the Jags run Defense has been less than impressive this season but I really thought the spread would be closer. Maybe it's a gimme for them to take that. I like them at home. I don't know why.

Jaguars +3.5

Philadelphia Eagles at Baltimore Ravens (-3.5)

In a must win game against the Bengals last week the Eagles .... tied? What the hell? Seriously?!? How are you going to let those scrubs come that close to beating you when it's a must win for your team? "I didn't even know there were ties in the NFL." Good call from the guy who just barely beat Vince Young in the wonderlic.

Ravens -3.5

Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos (-10)

The Broncos should win at home. I don't know about 10 points though.

Raiders +10

Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons (-1.5)

The Panthers are quietly 8-2 in the NFC South this year. 8-2 and nobody is talking about them. Matt Ryan is going to receive a wake up call from their defense this week.

Panthers +1.5

New York Giants (-7.5) vs. Arizona Cardinals

I like the Giants. They run hard. They play a physical defense. But I think if anyone can surprise them it will be a team with the likes of Kurt Warner. And being that the Cards are my NFC sleeper I'm going to stick with them.

Cardinals +7.5

Washington Redskins (-4.5) at Seattle Seahawks

I really think getting rid of Shaun Alexander was the worse thing the Seahawks could have done this year. I agree he was overrated but he was such a pass threat out of the backfield. That's one of those things that helps a weak team. Now the Seachickens are a weak team with zero weapons. This will be a rebound week for the Skins. Oh ... and wlecome back to Seattle Shaun Alexander!

Redskins -4.5

Indianapolis Colts (-4) at San Diego Chargers

I realize the Colts beat the Steelers and the Chargers lost to them. But I got the impression that the Colts were a weaker team than they showed and the Chargers were surprisingly tough. Chalk one up for that douche bag Phillip Rivers.

Chargers +4

MONDAY NOVEMBER 24th

Green Bay Packers at New Orleans Saints (even)

Just two words: Advantage Packers

Packers win.

Week 9 Record: 8-6

Week 10 Record: 11-3

Week 11 Record: 10-6

Season Record: 86-72-1

Commercials That Annoy You

Ever sit down to watch the tube to relax and find out your program is playing that one commercial that just annoys the shit out of you? Not just your normal everyday crappy commercial but that one that is so freaking awful that you refuse to buy/use their product because of it. That happened to me the other day so I decided to post the most wretched ideas in marketing that are on TV today.

Dr. Scholl's Gel Insoles

They should have called this shit Dr. Seuss's Gel Insoles after they slapped this crap on a commercial spot.

Subway


This commercial is so awful it makes my stomach turn more than their meatball Subs.


Free Credit Report . Com

If I could burn the sound and image of that annoying dick wad out of my skull I would. This is one guy who should be thrown in the Octagon with Rampage Jackson. In fact throwing in the guy who thought of this commercial would be a good idea too.

Frank TV


Does anybody actually watch this show? Never before have I seen a so many promos for a television show that I would never watch. The guy seems about as retarded as the characters he portrays.

Truth Anti-Tobacco


I hate these commercials so much that I started smoking.

Dominos

Awful! Did you even attempt to think of a commercial idea? Or did you have the Family Guy Manatees come up with that crap for you?

Did I miss any? Let me know!

The Thunder of Thunder Bay

Go ahead and admit it. Last night you cussed out Therrien. You swore at Fleury or the defense. You thought for a second that the Refs were wearing some red. If you said no to all of these you're a liar. Personally I texted Runhigh "Game Over" after it went to 5-2 in the 3rd period. I think it was at that point we texted each other and said we were switching the channels. He went to some lesbian talking about God knows what and I flipped to watch the final table of World Series of Poker (I know it's not a sport but Damn it's addicting). So being the glutton for punishment I am I kept flipping back to the game expecting to find the Red Wings had gone up by another goal and that the Pens were giving up. But It seemed that the Pens never gave up and finally snapped out of the Stanley Cup funk that they appeared to have been in since the season started. It Started with 13 minutes left in the 3rd period. Down 5-2 and all but written off by the Versus announcer Emerick the Pens got a goal from the league's points leader Evgeni Malkin. Staal made it a one goal game just over a minute later when he put away a rebound off of Osgood. I know this is off the subject but for God knows what reason, every time Osgood made a big save after that goal the Detroit crowd kept chanting 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy' over and over. Hey dumb asses! You're goaltender has let up 4+ goals! Quit chanting his name like he's posting a shutout! The Red Wings once again sent a blow to my hope when they added a sixth goal to make it 6-4. I asked Runhigh if this game reminded him of Game 6 of the finals at all? Runhigh: "Nope ... whiskey ruined my memory of game six ... similar to tonight's." Staal added another goal and I quickly forgot about switching between Poker and the game and stuck with the Pens. Runhigh cussed the Pens out for not deciding if they were going to play well or not. The Staal show wasn't over though. After Fleury was pulled Staal added his 3rd with 22 seconds remaining to tie it and earn his hat trick.



It makes you wonder how anyone could be talking a Staal trade this early into a season. He's a third year player with an unbelievable rookie season. With superstars like Crosby and Malkin on the team and high expectations for his sophomore season I can understand how he felt like a letdown. But I can't believe how many people were so ready to give up on a player of his size and talent level. Now that his season has jump started I can envision a thirty goal season once again. Go ahead . . . You can all say "Hossa who?" now.
The Staal show wasn't over though. In the overtime period Staal's line turned over the puck and "The greatest forward in the game" as Detroit fans love to call him was made to look stupid as Staal back checked, lifted his stick, stole the puck, and made a pass to the tape of Fedotenko's stick who sniped it into the upper corner of the net to win the game. Staal has arrived and helped to ease the pain of the the June loss by demolishing the Red Wing defense in the 3rd.
Go ahead .... Talk trade now.