Good Night Pittsburgh Resolution

Remember last month when I claimed that authors Adam Gamble and Mark Jasper utilized my idea for their Good Night Pittsburgh book? Well, I contacted the Our World of Books folks with an ultimatum: pay me an undisclosed amount of money or allow me to share some pictures of the book. After intense negotiations, involving mediators and even Judge Judy, Our World of Books granted me permission to use the following images:

This is clearly a game between the Steelers and their heated rivals, the Montreal Alouettes. Plus, why are Ben Roethlisberger and Keenan Lewis on the field at the same time?

Since Paul Martin and Deryk Engelland rarely play together, I'd like to think this picture is a tribute to Joe Mullen and Ulf Samuelsson. The only unrealistic part of this page is that none of the fans are wearing Penguins gear.

Overall, I highly recommend Good Night Pittsburgh. Since I no longer live in Pittsburgh, I try to read this to my son as often as I can so that he can become familiar with Pittsburgh landmarks and venues like Kennywood and the Carnegie Museum. In addition, thanks to Adam Gamble for being a good sport about my e-mails.

Penguins-Flyers Storylines

Now that the Pittsburgh Penguins have defeated the New York Rangers, we can all focus on the Eastern conference final between the Pens and the Philadelphia Flyers. For those of you seeking storylines for the series, let me be of assistance of what you will hear from sportscasters and writers over the next week.

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are both located in Pennsylvania, or some variation of this such as the battle of Pennsylvania or the Keystone State rivalry. Let’s face it: this is truly a battle between fans that choose pop versus fans who say soda.

In the Eastern conference semi-finals, Jordan Staal of the Penguins defeated his older brother Marc Staal of the Rangers. Jordan Staal has no siblings on the Flyers. (Or does he? [dramatic pause] No he does not.)

The Flyers’ R.J. Umberger is the Pittsburgh area. Specifically, Umberger is from Plum, which was on of the high schools that my high school faced regularly in sporting events (the last part will not be mentioned during any broadcasts).

Former Penguin Joe Mullen is now an assistant coach for the Flyers.

The last time the Penguins and Flyers met in the playoffs was the 1999-2000 season when the Flyers defeated Pittsburgh 4-2 in the conference semi-finals. The Penguins fourth leading playoff scorer during that post-season? Janne Laukkanen. (This useless piece of trivia will also not be discussed during any playoff coverage. In case you were wondering, Jagr led the Pens with 16 points in 11 playoff games followed by Martin Straka and Jan Hrdina with 12 points each.) Personally, I hope Versus or NBC shows footage of the epic 1989 series when the Flyers defeated the Penguins in seven games in the Patrick Division finals.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are both young and very good.

The last name of Philadelphia’s Joffrey Lupul is a palindrome.

Riley Cote (202 penalty minutes during the regular season) and Georges Laraque (1,037 career penalty minutes) could fight. Of course, Laraque may be practicing more yoga lately as he amazingly has no penalty minutes so far this postseason.

Five words: What Would Gary Roberts Do?

(from The Pensblog)

Finally, Empty Netters has posted the Eastern conference finals schedule. Game one on Friday, May 9 in Pittsburgh.