GTOPG: Denver Post Thinks You Are Embarrassing; Pens Win 5-1

By Finesse

Remember Adrian Dater?  Yeah I know, stupid question.  He's the guy who we've taken to task for his absurd Top-10 Centers list of two years ago that left Steven Stamkos off entirely and had Mike Richards over Evgeni Malkin.  He also looks like the guy who stands around the school bus stop a little too often.

This is the picture the Denver Post chose to use, so you have to think it's the best one they could get.  

He's the beat writer for the Avalanche and had this to say about all the Pens' fans in attendance:

First off, I never knew there were so many people from Pittsburgh who lived in Denver. Wow, for all the love they showed their Penguins tonight, you’d think they would never have left their beloved city in the first place. But there they where in their Stub-Hubbed glory tonight, sitting in the lower bowls of the Pepsi Center, cheering nonstop for the Penguins in their romp over the suddenly awful Avs again.

(One thing I’ll never ever do again: wear jerseys of my Boston teams in a foreign arena. Not because I would be afraid of being told off, but because I’ve finally come to realize after nights like tonight: that you look foolish. You look dorkish jumping up and down for a team whose city you don’t live in anymore, high-fiving all your phony new friends in similar jerseys around you. I think I finally agree with those who say: If you love your city and team so much, why do so many hundreds of you live in Denver or wherever? I think it’s kind of a big, sad overcompensating plea for attention, and I used to fall into that group too; you want so much for people to think “Hey, I’m from PITTSBURGH (or Detroit, or Boston or New York or wherever), that I’m going to act like every goal we score just won us the Stanley Cup and I’m going to lord it over you poor saplings from Denver – even though we live in your city now.” I finally realize now how annoying Red Sox fans are.)

This is classic Pittsburgh-envy, most commonly seen in Washington, D.C. for hockey, and anywhere the Steelers are playing for football.  The argument goes, if Pittsburgh is so great why didn't you stay?  Right, because everyone who likes where they are from ALWAYS HAS TO STAY AND CAN NEVER EVER LEAVE THAT CITY.  EVER.  Twisted logic from a creepy man.

The truth is that you could probably find just as many displaced people from Columbus (picking a city at random) living in Denver as there are from Pittsburgh -- the difference is that people from Columbus don't give a shit about their hometown, so they don't go to the games when their team comes to town.

Just a desperate cry for help from a sad, little, and lonely man.

More on the game after the jump...


If the Penguins want to win a few rounds in the playoffs, then what happened last night is going to have to become the norm, not something that is celebrated.  Like we've said ad nauseum all season, Malkin's dominance has been a great but scary thing -- he's so good that he wins games by himself, but in the playoffs, that is infinitely harder to do.   Last night, three of the Pens first four goals were from Asham, Engelland, and Richard Park, and the 5th was after Steve Sullivan selfishly scored an empty netter without at least letting Fleury get a try.  Those contributions are a welcome surprise, but moving forward, that needs to be the expectation.

And the good thing is, we have no reason not to expect big things from the Pens 3rd and 4th lines.  Asham was invisible all of last season, then may have been our best player in the playoffs (in related news, the Pens were eliminated in the first round).  And if you don't think Richard Park is going to be scoring at least 2 big goals in the first round, then you don't know Richard Park, and you don't know what playoff hockey is all about.

Finally, if you want a fun visual in your head for the rest of the weekend, here's this nugget from Dater's recap in the Denver Post.

Compounding Colorado's problems, the Avs lost right wing Steve Downie to injury. Downie suffered an upper-body ailment in the third period after a pileup in front of the Pittsburgh net, with X-rays taken after the game. He did not accompany the team to Minnesota, where the Avs will play tonight, and he wasn't happy about it, slamming things around by his locker in the Avs dressing room after. 

All in all, a nice win.  Unless you're from Pittsburgh and not in the city limits as you read this.  In that case, you should be embarrassed for yourself and your family.  Be more like those people from Manhattan who have never left the island because: "Everything I need is in the City.  Why would I ever want to leave the City?  What is out there for me that isn't in the City?"  Because we all love those people so much.