The Swamp

Yeah, I know, Heinz Field and Steelers, etc. But I groaned when I saw Antonio Brown. Sorry. It's just a natural reflex at this point.

The womenfolk here were excited for AB.

rass wrote:The womenfolk here were excited for AB.

Well, I'm happy for them. But living in Pittsburgh, I'm just fatigued by all things Steelers. At least they didn't bring out Joey Porter.

Nice.

The goal. Not too much Steelers.

rass wrote:The goal. Not too much Steelers.

Yeah, sorry.

So, are the womenfolk in your family all Steelers fans just because of the sheer force of your personality? That's actually really sweet. And impressive, considering they have the Jets to compete for their affections.

Oh no Train. That's Heart and Soul!

And yeah, force of personality.

The kids were probably a given (though the younger goes Devils when we see the Pens play here). My wife grew up a Giants fan and switched to the Steelers maybe 5 or so years into our relationship. I'm secretly disappointed she didn't follow Bret Favre's advice (you married a man, not a team).

rass wrote:Oh no Train. That's Heart and Soul!

When you bring in 40 extras and put them in a space that large to act as excited concert-goers, it just makes things look worse.

Also, I thought I had read a week or two ago that One Direction was going to be involved in this. I thought that, if ever anything could unite Penguins and Flyers fans, it would be their shared hatred of One Direction.

rass wrote:(though the younger goes Devils when we see the Pens play here)

Your daughter is a Devils fan? So, they do exist, I guess.

I think that they should fill all of that unused space on the floor around the rink with puppies. How much better would this game be with puppies? Actually, let them run on the ice, too. At least if it goes to overtime. (No, I'm not drinking tonight.)

A friend of mine is at the game tonight. He says he's freezing his ass off because of the wind.

Maybe the wind is what kept One Direction away. You'll never hear the guy from Train complain about the wind.

bapo! wrote:Maybe the wind is what kept One Direction away.

Second intermission?

bapo! wrote:You'll never hear the guy from Train complain about the wind.

Tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet...

Dammit Melissa why would you wear that here???

rass wrote:Ok, so this doesn't mention Train at all.

Yeah, I was going to post that. Sorry if I appear obsessed with this, but I was afraid that I was having another Lidz/Lids false memory. If I were Sabo's friend and paid to see One Direction, I'd be right pissed.

That Voracek goal was really sweet, by the way. But Fleury would have stopped it.

BTW, I have a Swamper who I don't regularly text talking to me via that medium right now (would have freaked me out had I not remembered PM'ing him my #).

Bullshit to recap Pens/Flyers history, bother to show Max, and go with the 2012 series and not mention 2009.

Shhhhhhhhhhh....

rass wrote:Bullshit to recap Pens/Flyers history, bother to show Max, and go with the 2012 series and not mention 2009.

Shhhhhhhhhhh....

A friend of mine has a framed photo of that in his home.

bapo! wrote:

rass wrote:Ok, so this doesn't mention Train at all.

Yeah, I was going to post that. Sorry if I appear obsessed with this, but I was afraid that I was having another Lidz/Lids false memory. If I were Sabo's friend and paid to see One Direction, I'd be right pissed.

That Voracek goal was really sweet, by the way. But Fleury would have stopped it.

I'm pretty sure he couldn't give a shit about One Direction. (You've met this guy, bapo. He's the friend I brought when we met at the soccer bar a while ago.)

Love that sabo popped in to defend his buddy's honor.

That's the first close up of Kessel I've noticed. I love what a dork he is, and how he seems to embrace it.

That goal is softer than a baby's bottom.

rass wrote:Love that sabo popped in to defend his buddy's honor.

I wasn't even insulting him. I just inferred that he might be a 1D fan. There's no shame in that. They're probably trending on Twitter as we speak.

4th-line goal. Nice. 3-1 now.

Loved that sabo popped in to talk baby ass.

I know my audience.

bapo! wrote:

rass wrote:Yeah.

I think we need a skate around thread tonight for that same reason.

Hey, you can have the keys to an open-skate thread. It's Saturday night, tho, so it might be lonely. The only people who are going to be posting are you, me, and maybe sancarlos if we're lucky. I figured I would limit my posts to this thread, but I can be persuaded to post elsewhere.

My wife's at the symphony with her friend, my daughter's at the school play with her friends. So, I'm here at home with the dog, the Sharks game, a beer, and the Swamp!

And while we might be lame here on the Swamp on a Saturday night, at least we aren't mister d on Twitter desperately arguing that the Rangers, who are a 34.999999999 year old all world goalie and some making tape, aren't in holy shit we better win now no mattter what mode.

Got a bad feeling right now...

Exhale, rass.

sancarlos wrote:

bapo! wrote:

rass wrote:Yeah.

I think we need a skate around thread tonight for that same reason.

Hey, you can have the keys to an open-skate thread. It's Saturday night, tho, so it might be lonely. The only people who are going to be posting are you, me, and maybe sancarlos if we're lucky. I figured I would limit my posts to this thread, but I can be persuaded to post elsewhere.

My wife's at the symphony with her friend, my daughter's at the school play with her friends. So, I'm here at home with the dog, the Sharks game, a beer, and the Swamp!

Yes! I won't be watching the Sharks, but maybe I'll find something and stay up for a little while longer.

I like this. It's kind of like an invitation-only open-skate.

I just ate the last five olives in my fridge.

I've been sick as F since Wednesday. Today's the first day I haven't felt like complete garbage. And this came on after Mrs. Sabo had a stomach virus that made her sick as F for five days last week. Kinda sick and tired of being sick and tired.

bapo! wrote:

sancarlos wrote:

bapo! wrote:

rass wrote:Yeah.

I think we need a skate around thread tonight for that same reason.

Hey, you can have the keys to an open-skate thread. It's Saturday night, tho, so it might be lonely. The only people who are going to be posting are you, me, and maybe sancarlos if we're lucky. I figured I would limit my posts to this thread, but I can be persuaded to post elsewhere.

My wife's at the symphony with her friend, my daughter's at the school play with her friends. So, I'm here at home with the dog, the Sharks game, a beer, and the Swamp!

Yes! I won't be watching the Sharks, but maybe I'll find something and stay up for a little while longer.

I like this. It's kind of like an invitation-only open-skate.

I just ate the last five olives in my fridge.

Just polished off a bag of "Spring Herb and Parmesan" veggie Sun Chips. If it wasn't raining and still warm I would take the dog for another walk.

Get rest, Sabo. Feel better.

Did you hear that five members of the Vancouver Canucks have mumps?

Pens vs. Dallas on Tuesday. That's the last game before the trade deadline.

Dammit. I knew this was going to be on and then it completely slipped my mind. LeBron wasn't playing in the Bulls game so I had nothing to watch and still didn't think of it. Ended up turning through 3 episodes of Billions.

We're about 49 hours away from the trade deadline. I haven't followed much of the chatter outside of Fleury. I'm trying to catch up now, and it's all too much. Maatta or Sprong or Guentzel going out. Duchene or Landeskog or Shattenkirk or Evander Kane coming in. I'm going to tune out now. I don't need to waste time thinking about things that probably won't happen.

I really hope that the Pens don't make a move. Maybe another Hainsey-type deal to shore up their defense, but nothing drastic. Even with all of the injuries that they've dealt with this year, they still have the second-best record in the league. The only thing they need is healthy defensemen, and they'll have them eventually. (It's going to be a lot to ask of Maatta and Daley to play their first games back in the playoffs, but they might not have much choice.)

The Ben Bishop/Kings trade kind of came out of nowhere, so now we're just waiting on Fleury. Calgary seems like the most obvious destination. Maybe the only possible destination, now that Dallas has played themselves out of the playoffs. I still think that it makes sense to keep him as Murray injury insurance. I don't think that Rutherford will trade him just to trade him; he would need a decent return. So, we wait.

Oh, and Brandon Manning of the Flyers was suspended 2 games for his head-shot on Guentzel on Saturday. (Considering Manning's history with Connor McDavid, he is now officially my least favorite player in the league.) It was very dirty, and I was happy to see that Guentzel was okay afterwards. He looked great on Saturday. Very creative player.

Following up on completely insignificant stuff that I just can't let go: Apparently, it was the band OneRepublic that was supposed to appear on Saturday, not One Direction. (So, Sabo's friend must be livid now.) The article that rass linked to clearly says OneRepublic. Any chance that this article was edited in the past couple of days, or am I just that dense? Was I that determined to believe that One Direction was supposed to be here? Now I understand how false information can spread so easily.

Anyway, the singer from OneRepublic got sick, and Train was very much a last-minute replacement.

Also, there were penguins (lowercase p) on the ice before the game. And because it was a televised sporting event in America, fireworks exploded about 20 feet away from them. There's apparently some sad video of them reacting to the fireworks, but I haven't seen it. On-line reaction ranges from 'Oh, how horrible' to 'Fuck those penguins. Those special little snowflakes need to man up.'

Apparently, OneRepublic is trying to perform at every small-time major sporting event with a band.

The NFL kicks off its 97th season with "2016 NFL Kickoff Presented by Hyundai" at 7:30 p.m. ET Thursday, Sept. 8. Multi-platinum global stars Dierks Bentley and OneRepublic will perform live at Civic Center Park in Denver

The Pens recalled defenseman Derrick Pouliot this morning. The roller coaster never ends with this kid. Was supposed to be their next great defenseman, but was surpassed by Maatta, then Dumoulin, then everybody else. He's reportedly playing well in the AHL this year, and he was supposed to stay there, but it looks like he might get another chance in the NHL because the guys ahead of him are hurt or playing poorly. Maybe tonight vs. Chicago.

Four hours until the deadline. Reading directly contradictory things about Fleury from reporters.

Trade deadlines are fun.

Guys like that who reach the top of the prospect lists then burn out without ever leaving their original team always intrigue me. Like I'd love to know the best deals Pittsburgh passed on because they wouldn't move Pouliot.



(There's an interesting Duclair parallel here I'm not ready to start thinking about.)