Picture of the day

The Big Picture Blog closes it's look at the 2010 Vancouver Games. It was a spirited two weeks of luge death, event and pageantry malfunctions, puff pieces, pillorying NBC for it's coverage, Bob Costas' patented smugness, beloved Pittsburgh athletes betraying America in the name of Canada, and some athletes competing or something.

Up next is the 2012 London Summer Games followed by the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. Apparently Sochi is a Russian city of 300,000 near the Black Sea on the Georgian border. I doubt that it is a real city or even an actual place, because I sure as hell haven't heard of it. I do recall hearing something about a London though.

As always, click to embiggen.

New and improved endings

As we all relax and recover the day after the glorified nationwide drunken orgy holiday known as World Sauntering Day, the NHL has decided to give all us Penguin fans a nice treat. A vicious pipe beating for Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin being rightfully awarded the Hart trophy? No. But they did remix two commercials they had been running so as to better reflect our lives under the stewardship of our new Penguin overlords.

This week in mind shattering testicle injuries

In all the post-game kvetching and whining about handshakes and "how dare that Crosby kid celebrate with his teammates instead of recognizing the Red Wings need to make a strict tee time" you began to wonder if some of the complaining Wings, namely Kris "Can't spell 'Kris Draper' without 'Kid Raper'" Draper, Henrik Zetterberg, and Nick Lidstrom, had any sort of balls. Well it turns out that Lidstrom does have a pair, they were just horrifically injured.

If Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom looked a little sluggish at times during this Stanley Cup Finals, he has a very, very, very good excuse. He suffered a "nearly catastrophic" testicle injury in the Conference Finals. Now how do you feel?

Personally, I feel that if there is one way you don't want your testicle injury to be described, it's "nearly catastrophic." Lidstrom actually missed the final two games of the Chicago series after Patrick Sharp allegedly gave him the "how's your father" with his stick, but the true reason for his absence wasn't widely reported—officially he had a "lower body injury" a fact that Globe and Mail opinionist Bruce Dowbiggin laments in his latest column.

"Nearly catastrophic testicle injury". Ball spearing. Sack ripping. If you'll excuse me, I'll be doubled over and coughing. My groin is grimacing in pain at the same time my mind recoils in horror. See...the...thing is...........no, I can't continue, I'm going to go ice my whole midsection down, just in case.

City of Champions

I'm score! I'm Conn Smythe!

“There’s nothing I’d like more than to be able to shake Marian’s hand at the end of this series, look him in the eye and say, ‘You chose the wrong team.’”

They couldn't do it the easy way. No blowout wins or four game sweeps this round. Just heartstopping play, close games, and years being carelessly hacked away from the ends of Pittsburgher's lives. Game seven, Crosby injured for 2/3rds of the game, refs putting their whistles away, and Detroit needing one goal to tie it up and send it into overtime. But in the end they pulled it out, riding Talbot and Fleury to a game 7 victory and the Pens 3rd cup.

The best thing about this? Other than having gone through the agony of the Rico Fata/Dick Tarnstrom/Lasse Pirjeta/Milan Kraft, team is up for sale, Kansas City has a new areana, Jim Balsille bought the team, oh wait no he didn't years and coming out the other side with a new arena and cup? Other than listening to a whole summer of bitter Red Wings, Capitals, and Flyers fans ranting and whining about the league-wide conspiracy to have the team with the two best players win the cup? Sidney Crosby-21, Evgeni Malkin-22, Marc-Andre Fleury-23, Jordan Staal-20. None of them are 25 and all of them are locked up for years and years and years. This is just the beginning.

Oh, and to Judas Hossa....

"You chose.....poorly."

"You get nothing! You lose! Good day sir!"

"I said good day!"