Monday Igloo Update

Yinzers,

"Destiny Has A New Home." That is the new marketing campaign slogan for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Say "Goodbye" to the Next Generation, Experiencing the Evolution and no more Defying Ordinary. This year, Destiny Has A New Home in Consol Energy Arena. On the Penguins' website, James Santilli, VP of marketing for the Pens was quoted as saying: “We wanted to create a campaign that captures both the promise of our team and the excitement of our new arena – with the anticipation of great things to come.” I think it does a pretty good job of incorporating the two blockbuster ideas, don't you?

In other Penguins news, Evgeni Malkin has one goal this year: "Win the Stanley Cup." Malkin played a fraction of the games last year, just getting bitten by the injury bug which made the hockey community skeptical about his abilities. I'll tell you this, he has two 100 point seasons in his short career. He has been working hard on his conditioning in the off season and I, personally, expect to see another benjamin of points this year.

Preliminary line assignments were given out this past week by coach Dany Bylsma. Line one will consist of Sidney Crosbey with Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis. I use this as my first line on NHL '11 (which is the second best hockey game ever created next to NHLPA '93 on Sega Genesis) and for me, it has a good balance with the explosiveness of Sid the kid matched up with the grit of Kunitz and shear speed of Dupuis. For on-ice practices thus far, Evgeni Malkin has been lined up on the right wing, not the center position that he played most of his young career. Centering his line is free agent pick-up Mike Comrie and young-gun Eric Tangradi on the left wing. There is also chemistry brewing off the ice between unlikely players: Matt Cooke and Aaron Asham. These two have fought and clawed at each other every game that Asham has played for Philthadelphia, but so far, they have begun to develop a friendship off the ice. If this continues to prove a great match, I pitty the fools who mess with Sid, Geno and Staalzy because Cooke and Asham will throw hands.

Student Rush starts back up on Wednesday for the first ever hockey game at Consol Energy Center. The Penguins will be reserving a minimum of 200 seats for the Student Rush program for Wednesday's preseason game. If you have never heard of it, as long as you present your high school or college student ID, you get a ticket with a solid location for $25. The Penguins love their young fan base and continue to reward them for all of their support.

Happy birthday to coach Dany Bylsma. He turned 40 on Sunday. Pranksters Marc-Andre Fleury, Matt Cooke and Craig Adams were quick to say that they don't plan on pulling anything on their coach, but were passing the buck to one another in an article on penguins.nhl.com. There are some boundaries when it's a coach and not a player.

Finally, news hit the press this morning on the Penguins' website that they will be extending Ray "Jukebox" Shero's contract for 5 years. Why not? The man has only built one of the most electric and successful strings of teams in the history of the franchise. The Penguins have sold out every home game for the better part of the decade and continue to be a powerhouse in the NHL. Keep him around, baby.

The first game in Consol Energy Center drops the puck at 7:00 pm against the Detroit Red Wings. The game will be broadcast on 105.9 the X with hall-of-famer Mike Lange and the ol' 29er, Phil Borque. I would imagine you could get a webcast of the game on www.hockeywebcasts.com.

Let's go Pens,
B Brog