Top Shelf: It’s All about … Niklas Kronwall?
NHL March 3rd. 2008, 10:43am
Lee Diekemper recaps the night in the NHL.
Detroit 4, Buffalo 2: Have the Wings woken up? They stopped a four-game skid behind The Dominator, Dominik Hasek, who stopped 22 of 24 shots. Could the return of defenseman Niklas Kronwall mean that much? He’s been out since Jan. 30 and the Wings have won just 2 of their last 12. Coincidence? Former Wings defenseman Jiri Fischer is toying with a possible return to hockey.
New York Rangers 5, Philadelphia 4 (SO): Just when the Flyers looked to have turned the corner — bam! They run into the Rangers. Martin Biron Antero Nittymaki got yanked after allowing four goals in 14 shots. Maybe he isn’t the No. 1 goalie after all.
Pittsburgh 3, Atlanta 2 (SO): Kris Letang’s shootout goal lifted the Pens. Despite the popularity of the Pens in the Steel City, lest anyone may forget, Pittsburgh is a Steelers town. Case in point: The Pens held a moment of silence for the great Myron Cope — a longtime Steelers color man. Double Yoi!
Minnesota 2, Los Angeles 1 (OT): Martin Skoula’s overtime goal got the Wild the win. Niklas Backstrom let in a late first period goal but stoned the Kings the rest of the way, stopping 27 of 28 shots.
Florida 1, New York Islanders 0: Painful loss for the Isles. Panthers goalie Craig Anderson stood on his head. He turned away 53 shots from the Isles for the shutout.
28 Responses to “Top Shelf: It’s All about … Niklas Kronwall?”
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March 3rd, 2008 at 10:47 AM
The Myron tributes were everywhere. Fans brought Terrible Towels to the Pitt basketball game as well.
Myron wasn’t strictly a Steeler guy. For years, Cope had a talk show (before the airwaves were littered with this drek) in which he discussed the Buccos, Pens, Pitt, PSU, etc.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 AM
popular post today…BALLIN time
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:08 AM
cope was a HUGE proponent of keeping the pens in the burgh
the steelers and their fans can fucking blow me. the next time i hear penguins fans booing their team during the playoffs ill eat my goddamn hat. the next time i hear steelers fans booing respectively will be the next time theyre down a single point or more in the playoffs. fucking jokes. after game 4 of the ottawa series last year the team got a standing ovation for what they had accomplished, steelers fans would have already been in the parking lot
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:10 AM
that cbs ad to the right for the March Madness games online is great.
watch march madness at work as well, cant go wrong
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 AM
@moleman – WTF are you talking about?
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 AM
irish…
I think you’re lost, this is a hockey thread.
And It’s pretty cool for Penguins fans to honor Cope like that, pretty classy.
Asn’t Jiri Fisher the guy who collapsed on the ice, or had a heart condition or something? If he comes back that would be pretty good for hockey.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:19 AM
i just think the steelers fan base is hugely overrated. every game the cbs announcers talk about how great they are but unless its a super tight game there are always empty seats in the fourth quarter, and god forbid anyone sit through terrible weather. and the booing i was reffering to was against jacksonville in the first round this year, there was rampant booing at the end of the first half. that is terrible behavior in my opinion.
granted i expect better, im the guy who yells at people to shut up when they scream ’shoot it’ at the mellon
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:24 AM
i think that’s rampant at just about any nhl rink. i have season tickets to the lightning and there’s some guy behind me that screams that all the time, especially on power plays.
hey pal, i think the club wants to score too. but no need to shoot if there isn’t anyone in position to pounce on a rebound, you know?
as for the steelers fans booing in the first half against the jags, i can’t blame the steelers fans for booing. didn’t the steelers have four turnovers the first half? that’s pretty sloppy for a playoff game.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:27 AM
oh it was a terrible performance. but home field advantage means nothing if the fans are going to jump on you when it gets bad.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 AM
Okay, I get it. The Steelers fans occasionally boo…so that makes them bad fans. Never mind that Steelers home games have been sold out since the Nixon administration and there is a ridiculously long waiting list of people willing to shell out $ for PSLs and season tickets. Other than that, they are terrible fans. Idiot.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 AM
How would you handle a woman who, in a yinzer accent I can’t do justice in print, yells “GETTITOUTTA’ERE” the split friggin’ second the puck crosses the Penguins’ blue line? ‘Cause I have that exactly one row behind me.
Pens fans are OK until the power play hits 0-for-3 on a given night. Then everybody forgets their math and starts booing. (Hint: 1-in-4 would lead the NHL right now.)
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:33 AM
hey hey hey i said overrated not BAD. theyre good fans and in a given situation can be incredible but i just think they jump on the players way too quick.
i actually think that so many PSL’s are tied up in families is kind of a negative for the atmosphere there, i think some young blood would be better
shoot it on the power play is the worst. yeah gonch fucking rip it with noone even with you and a defender right in front of you thats going to block it and lead to a breakaway. dont try and cycle it to find the open man that mathematically you will find if you are patient, just SHOOOOOT IIIIIT
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:35 AM
sorry it just bugs me that jackasses like this writer use something like pens fans honoring cope to show how they pale in comparison to the steelers, i really dont think it has anything to do with that
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:42 AM
may i point you in the direction of ryan phillipe’s treatment of sarah silverman in the epic ‘the way of the gun’
must watch for anyone who thinks she is terrible (she is)
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Yeah, Fischer almost died on the bench one game when he collapsed and his heart stopped.
I can’t believe any team would clear him to play, though. I think his days are done, which is a shame because he was a hell of a talent.
BTW, what the heck has happened to the Sabres?
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:46 AM
no kidding.
but hey, let’s shoot! let’s try to pigeon-hole something even though there are two defenders between the puck-carrier and the goalie. “SHOOT IT!”
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 AM
moleman – I’m not going to denigrate the Pens faithful, as they do have a loyal group of fans. However, I went to a handful of games the year before they drafted Crosby and you could have heard a pin drop. And then…Crosby falls into their lap and suddenly the Pens became a hot ticket again.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 AM
yeah those were bad times. im shocked they managed to keep attendance over the 80 percent mark for most of that time.
i think that your average hockey fan is more of a diehard than the average nfl fan, theres a lot more commitment in following 80+ games a year than 16
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Gonchar doesn’t listen when I yell “Shooot It”, but ironically he does listen when I yell “Give away the puck in your own zone, then get whistled for a hooking penalty”.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:03 PM
are you the son of a bitch that told him to take that double minor saturday?
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:44 PM
moleman – I didn’t realize, prior to this morning, that you are a fellow Pittsburgher. And…you really think that football isn’t the dominant sport in this town? I think that was the writer’s point.
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 PM
nono i know its dominant, im just saying that i think this gesture had more to do with cope being all about pittsburgh sports and loved by everyone, not just him being the steelers announcer. the towels werent brought out because they represent the steelers, its because they are HIS towel; i dont know if the writer understands that.
plus this was the main avenue to do a tribute to him in a timely fashion, if this had been football season and there were a steelers home game yesterday there wouldnt have been a tribute at the pens game imo
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:01 PM
Alright then. I suppose I see what you’re saying now.
There are some people just learning who Myron Cope was and, based on some of the lazy media accounts (not here–but elsewhere), probably think he was just some clown. So not the case. Cope was a gifted writer (for Sports Illustrated, Saturday Evening Post, and the Pgh Post-Gazette) who won acclaim for profiles of Cassius Clay and Howard Cosell. The latter was recognized as one of the 50 all-time classic articles by SI (remember: Sports Illustrated was, at one time, a great magazine).
Never mind what I said earlier about you being an idiot. I was being a bit rash.
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 PM
its okay
fsn was re-running the sportsbeat episode with cope and beano this week, it was incredible
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:21 PM
Pittsburgh had some awesome sports personalities back in the day (I write, sounding a bit older than my 37 years!): Myron, Beano, Bob Prince, Pat Livingston, etc. Another one of my favorites was Bill Currie, who also just passed away recently.
And now the biggest sports guy in town is Mark Madden, colossal douche. And, I won’t apologize for saying that!
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:25 PM
id still take madden over molinari any day of the week. and the entire trib, ugh.
thepensblog did an excellent write up last month about how to make the sports print media in pittsburgh better. one was to give molinaris job to the guy who writes empty netters, which would be great.
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:46 PM
I agree with letting the Empty Netters blog writer take over Molinari’s job, but that will never happen. I liked it when Dejan K. was the Pens beat writer; he brought a bit of humor and cleverness to the space but Molinari comes across as a dour fellow.
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:45 PM
i will say this, molinari responds to all emails it seems. ive emailed him questions at three in the morning and gotten an immediate response