Scooter Chronicles

As I expected, the Pens played with more passion and fire last night. They made a real statement. They can compete with the Wings. But for how long. Though the Pens were very impressive in stepping up their game from being totally dominated in Game 2, and looking feeble in Game 1 as well, they still didn’t totally turn the tables.

Sidney Crosby scores his second of the game to put the Pens up 2-0 in the second period.

The Wings still played very strong. The Pens took away a lot of their possession of the puck with that of their own, and they were moving faster in the neutral zone to get...

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On Sunday afternoon, Marcia and I watched “Death at a Funeral”, a British comedy directed by Frank Oz.

Thanks to Guy Bellinger and IMDB for the plot description (with a few changes):

Daniel is a decent young man, married to Jane, still living with his parents. When his father dies, it is up to him to organize his funeral. On this painful morning, with a suitable grave expression on his face, Daniel is ready to welcome his father’s friends and relatives. But preserving the dignity inherent in such circumstances will be a hard task. Particularly with an...

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… have you looked at the standings lately? As for this morning, guess who has the best record in baseball?

The Tampa Bay Rays!!

Here’s a team that has never won more then 70 games in a season, and they already have 31, and there’s still four months of baseball left to play!

It will be interesting to see if they can at least continue on a pace to finish the season at .500 or better (81 wins). I doubt they are a real threat to dethrone the Red Sox as the AL East Champs.

Wow! Another shut-out. Quite honestly, the Wings put on a defensive clinic last night. It wasn’t just a matter of holding the Pens off, or getting lucky. The Pens didn’t have a shot on goal when both teams were at full strength until midway through the second period. They were clogging the neutral zone incredibly well.

Wings’ Valtteri Filppula scores a goal in Bobby Orr fashion.

Now for all you fans out there saying that this series is over, don’t get too worked up yet. This could...

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Never thought the first game would see such a score. And quite honestly, the game was closer then that. The Wings last two goals came with two and a half minutes left in the game or less.

First, it was nice to see the ceremonial first puck drop with two legends representing both teams. Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman did the honors.

Mario and Stevie drop the puck for Niklas Lidstrom and Sidney Crosby.

The first period was impressive, in my opinion, for both teams. The Penguins didn’t show any first Finals game jitters at all. They were very composed, went about their business,...

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Because my employer is doing work in the steel making industry, we have hired a few employees over the years that are originally from Pittsburgh. Two of them are rather big Penguins fans. So we have a little wager on the outcome of the Stanley Cup Finals. And much like the mayors’ of cities in these kind of circumstances, we are offering something from our “home town” as it was.

If the Red Wings win, I will receive a box of cookies from a maker that is based in Pittsburgh. If the Penguins win the series, I will either be getting them a 12-pack of Vernors’ ginger ale or a bag of Sanders’ candy (haven’t decided which yet). Luckily for me, these will be easy to obtain. My Mom sent me a link to...

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I usually abstain from talking about political issues on my blog. I hate them. Besides, I don’t want to start fights. We are Americans, not Democrats and/or Republicans or other affiliations. We are already divided by other issues, and party lines just make us more divided. But I feel like venting on two issues, though one really has nothing to do with any true political views.

Is it just me, or does the mention of the title of this post in campaign commercials annoy you? I understand why this line is always said by the candidate in political commercials. Somebody, associated with some campaign somewhere, made one that said something or showed something that the candidate didn’t agree with, or was along the lines...

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One of my son’s namesakes, Nigel Mansell, was recently feature by ESPN as one of the Top 25 Racers of all time. Mansell falls in at number 24. It was nice to see another Formula One star along with him in the first five of the series (Niki Lauda). I remember Mansell as being rather brash, but backing it up on the track. He never let down. It was great watching him compete, and very hard, against his teammate Nelson Piquet (another fave of mine) when both were driving for Williams in the mid 80’s.

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My brother Todd,...

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The Red Wings are making a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, their fifth in 14 years.

Wings’ Captain Nicklas Lidstrom poses with the Campbell Bowl and deputy commissioner Bill Daly.

I haven’t been able to watch many of the Wings’ games over the years, but my heart is still in Hockeytown. I will be making a point though of watching the Finals. Probably even taping them like I did the previous four Cup Finals appearances in my lifetime.

They will have their work cut out for them this year. Like three of the four prior times (1997 was the exception), the...

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After a week off, the WAFA was in action again last week. And my team continues to improve. They have now won three straight. Lucky for me they did well, because I put no thought into the line-up. Usually I go through all the stats and use averages, sometimes making player adjustments if one player has been playing well or another has been on the downfall, even though averaging well. But given the lack of time this weekend, I just went with the same line-up as the week before. It gave me an 855-787 victory over the Milwaukee Robins.

This week I go up against the Hippo Regius Friars. Since being taken over by Will at the beginning of last season, the team has not won a game. He’s due. But hopefully he isn’t really...

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