Buy Sam a drink and get his dog one too!

That's life
That's what all the people say
You're riding high in April
You're shot down in May
I know I'm gonna change that tune
When I'm back on top in June.

Those words that Frank Sinatra sang pretty much summed up the Pittsburgh Penguins and their entire season this year. After having the dream of the Cup stolen away by the Red Wings a very short summer before; Sidney Crosby and the Penguins began their 2008-2009 with a clean slate and a hope to not only return to the playoffs but to fight for a chance to get that shiny bowl. However they knew that it was not going to be easy; and boy howdy was that the truth. In fact at times, there were times where even making the playoffs seemed about as far away as the moon.

Now, I’m not your average Penguins fan; in fact I’ve only been more than a casual observer for about four years. Being on the West Coast and a child of the 80’s, we didn’t get the plethora of coverage of the Penguins like we do nowadays; but my sister liked them some and there was CBC and ESPN, so we were able to see Le Magnifique and Company now and again then more often when it would come around to playoff times. Then the summer after the NHL settled the lockout, one of my all time favorite players, Mark Recchi, signed on for a second tour of duty with Pittsburgh and then they drafted this boy named Crosby who they said was the Next One. Well, I saw a whole lot of games with the Great One, so I decided to find out just what all the fuss was about in the town of the black and Vegas gold. Then the next year, the drama with getting Malkin over here made the news and after that I was hooked.

Then this season began; but before they could even think about going to training camp, Ray Shero was going to have to replace some of the key cogs to the machine that got them to the Finals who decided that Pittsburgh was not going to be their address this year. One of those pieces is Ryan Malone, who wasn’t offered a contract even for a hometown discount; so he tested the free agent market and signed with Tampa Bay taking Adam Hall and Gary Roberts with him. Others tempted by greener pastures, like George Laraque and Jarkko Ruutu, headed north; and the hardest one to swallow was Marian Hossa. He not only decided to reject the offers made to him by Ray Shero; but he signed with the Red Wings only weeks after the end of the Cup Finals, causing the Pens Nation to throw back their heads and howl. Then what seemed to make a bad situation worse, or at least it did at the time, was the signing of Miroslav Satan, Matt Cooke and Rusty Fedetenko. Some Pens fans thought was a last ditch effort to salvage what he could rather than go after what they thought was better talent.

Camp finally started, which lead into the exhibition season and a meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning, which should have been fairly mundane; but the hockey gods were bored that night. Sergei Gonchar dislocated his shoulder on a late hit and it ended up needing surgery to repair it. With Sarge out for up to six months, the power play that could be sporadic at time lost its quarterback and number one defenseman; so the team and the coach set out to regroup and after a decent preseason, they headed to Sweden to open the year against the same team that lured 3 of their mates down south. It was a good trip for them, splitting the games; and they were able to keep a decent winning pattern through the end of November which was probably one of their best months of the season.

Then the wheels began to fall off screw by screw, axle by axle, until finally December came and went as did January with only ten wins combined in those two months. Something had to change, and we fans weren't sure what it was; but it needed to be soon if they were going to make the postseason and break the "Finals curse". Finally, the powers that be in the Penguins front office had had enough, and on February 15th, Michel Therrien was fired. Honestly, I was surprised it took as long as it did. From all the sources around the league that I read it appeared there had been a mutiny brewing and there were times that it was pretty evident in the game play and the scores in those games. I could never figure out what exactly it was about Mike that the boys had issues with; but then I'm just some chick 3000 miles away; I'm not in that locker room every day with them. Maybe it was just a whole bunch of small things that turned into a bigger one, like a rubber band ball that you keep adding too until it's the size of your cat. I think that this ball got really really big and finally one time he gave it one push forward too many and it rolled back on him.

A few days later, the Pens management promoted Dan Bylsma, who had been a player just a few years before and was the coach of the babyPens in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as the interim coach. There were also a few other new faces on the bench with Disco Dan a few weeks later with the promotion of Tom Fitzgerald to Assistant Coach, the gaining of Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz through trades and grabbing Craig Adams off the waiver wire. These moves were questioned at the time, but at usual, GMRS knew what he was doing way before he ever pulled the trigger. The only bad thing about the Kunitz trade was the loss of d-man Ryan Whitney. He was and is a fan favorite, but I think he needed a change of scenery; and seeing his play with the Ducks the last part of the season as well as the Ducks' own amazing run through the playoffs, I think it was a win-win on both sides.

Once Disco Dan got settled into his office at the Mellon, it was almost like we were brought into a parallel world. The boys were smiling and playing better; and the most important thing was that they were winning! In fact they went 18–3–4, including 10–1–2 in March, and lost only one home game. After being at .500 and in 10th place in the conference at one point it looked like the Pens might just have a chance to go for Lord Stanley again. The Pens were in 4th place at the end of the season and had home ice; but in 5th place was their arch rival, the Flyers.

The Conference Finals with them last year was brutal and the regular season games were no picnic; but with the new attitude that Bing and the boys had, we fans were pretty confident that they could handle it. And handle it they did in 5 games, which made all Pens fans smile. Then came the Washington Capitals which was probably the most exciting 7 game series I've ever seen, and included dueling hat-tricks by Ovechkin and Sid in game 2. It was ups and downs and here and there and in the end, the boys were victorious. Then a bit of a break again the Carolina Hurricanes, going only 4 games and the sweep. The Canes were gassed by the time the Pens got to them after two brutal 7 game series of their own against the Bruins and the Devils; and they just got clobbered by the black and gold machine that Danny B had built over the past few months.

Then... just as they were celebrating winning the Prince of Wales trophy, it happened: The Wings repeated as Campbell Conference Champs and a rematch of last year's finals was on. This series started pretty much like last year's, minus Fleur falling on his face at the Joe; but there were some differences. Last year they looked totally outplayed where this time they looked like they had more confidence and were holding their own. Then when it went back to Mellon, of course, they were light's out; and along came game 5 back at JLA. As awful and badly as the game was for our boys in black, I really think it helped them step back and focus... really get their shit together and snap out of whatever funk they had been there when they were on the road. Game 6 was a repeat of 2 and 3; which meant one thing and that was game 7 back in Detroit. It was like Rocky and Apollo Creed in the second Rocky movie where they're both lying on the mat gasping for breath and finally Rocky pulls himself back up and wins.

That was what happened last night at the Joe. The Penguins, who had been to Hell and back, had finally gotten to that place where kids dream about in their driveways. I started to cry when the horn sounded... not all out sobbing, but a few tears in my eyes. They were for not only the boys who had never won it like Sarge and Miro and the young guys who worked so hard during the year, as well as Disco losing game 7 as a player in '03; but because 4 months ago this would have not been even thought possible, yet here it was.

Anyway... I've babbled on far too long. Gonna go catch a nap; but first a few videos...

A montage of the player intros they have on the Ceeb including Disco and TommyFitz...


Fleur and his potty mouth...


and TSN's really awesome closing montage...