Some Images from Pesonen's Palace....

Janne's Place is looking kinda special, courtesy of the Penquins website site. Janne's Place Maybe we can get a movement for Pesonen's Palace

He shoots he scores... Ladies and Gentlemen Janne has just left the building

Here is a quick video with 3 different Janne goals, all very nice, and I wanted to go through each of them and give some take home thoughts about them...

1. After watching this goal, all I can think about all the times in the playoffs that guys on our team had the puck all alone in front of the goal and didn't score. This is not only the obvious goto guy Pascal Dupuis, but there were several times that I remember Marian Hossa (the god we can apparently not live without according to most sports writers) not being able to capitalize on great opportunities. Overall, to me, this was a problem for us in the playoffs, being able to capitalize off rebounds with skill. I know we got a couple of rebound stuffs as goals, but those are not always available, sometimes you need to have the patience and skill to get the puck off the rebound and do something with it. If Janne can keep this up here, I think he could be a valuable asset on Sid and Satans line, rather than somebody like Fedetanko or Malone, who will just stand in front of the net and make trouble (not that there is anything wrong with that).

2. Shoot outs, what can you say... Not that big, but if you really think about it, this year we lost 3 of our biggest shoot out performers, in Ruutu, Christiansen and Armstrong. Whether you like shoot outs or not, they are a new part of the game, and having somebody who can perform and help you get 2 points instead of 1 is nice. From this video, obviously the goal tending is probably not at NHL level, but it looks like he has some skills in moving around there, so he may end up being a good asset as the season goes on.

3. Three words for you... Finnish, Finnish, Finnish... and i'm not talking about a citizen of Finland. Anyways, I see this as one of the biggest problems the young Penguins roster has. You even see this a lot in Malkin, but more specifically in guys like Kennedy, Dupuis, sometimes Sykora. We get these excellent opportunities against the goalie, and we just have trouble finishing. Sadly, in situations like these where we have breakdowns, we sometimes don't even get the puck to the goal. Seeing this kind of takes some edge off about the rumors of Janne not being able to grind his way to the goal, and from what I know about him it seems that he is a scorer, so he is going to get the puck to the net by any means necessary.

Hell Yea!!!

The Pittsburgh Penguins will hold a prospects camp from September 9-15 in Kitchener, Ontario. The Penguins’ prospects will have several days of practices before competing against prospects from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Florida . To see the current rookies that will attending camp.
Penquin Rookies

Janne Bleeds Black and Gold...

He may need to goto the doctors to get it checked out.

But seriously, now we know Janne is comin over to play for the black and the gold...


Also, if you haven't noticed, his Karpat team also sported the black and the gold...


But I did some more research into Janne's life, and Suomussalmi, Finland, which happens to be the location of a very famous war battle. Anyways, here, the logo of this town is...

MORE BLACK AND GOLD... So in conclusion, it was destiny that Anaheim did not sign Janne, and that he came to Pittsburgh...

Ugh, i can't wait, not too much longer till training camp and I actually get to report real news and not just interesting Janne facts, which are becoming fewer and farer between.

EDIT:

There was a post inferring that Anaheim is black and gold too...

First of all they are black gold and orange as depicted here...


And, i still think of them in their original colors, not this new wanna be penguin team...

Janne Pesonen Fact of the Week

Although not officially a fact, it is a rumored that the golden helmet that Janne often sports is forged from gold taken from the holy grail, the arc of the covenant and the Aztec city of gold.

Janne Pesonen Picture of the Week

And they say Janne is not ready for the increased physicality... Also, on a side note, considering our colors are Black & Gold I wonder if Janne will bring over the golden helmet?

66, 68, 71, 87... What number comes next in this series?

One of the big questions surrounding Janne Pesonen is what number he will wear in Pittsburgh.

In Karpat, he brought the number 20 up to similar levels as 87 is in Pittsburgh, for Team Finland he did some simple multiplication and sported the number 40. Now will Janne be looking to try something new, or go with an old favorite.

Currently nobody on the Penguins is sporting number 20 or 40, but according to Janne Pesonen's ESPN Player Card and The Hockey News Penguins Roster Janne Pesonen is number 98. Now, i have no idea where they got this from so i don't know if we can confirm it yet. Meanwhile Janne continues to be an enigma on the penguins main site, so I don't know if this is for sure or not.

He's not even in Pittsburgh yet...

And the shlades already want to jump his bones...


I have no information on whether Janne is married or not, but all men around Pittsburgh better put their gals under lock and key (that might not even be enough honestly), because when Janne goes on the prowl nobody's significant others are safe.

Batman and his Boy Wonder and Chris Nichols take on our poll

Yeah i couldn't resist...

anyways, thanks to our new friends over at Steel City Sports Fan (Penguins Edition) I got this article about projections for lines for every team in the east. His take on the penguins...

Pesonen-Crosby-Satan
Staal-Malkin-Sykora
Fedotenko-Talbot-Dupuis

Quick notes: The Marian Hossa experiment didn’t last as long as the Pens would have liked and Ryan Malone is with Tampa Bay now. Veteran sniper Miro Satan will be looking to establish chemistry with Sidney Crosby though, while Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora will likely resume their partnership that thrived in the second half of last season.

Could we finally see Jordan Staal moved to the wing on a more permanent basis (it didn’t happen much last year after we were teased with it during the ’06-7 campaign) to take advantage of his skill? Here’s hoping, although the Pens would really have to form a solid third line to risk losing the defensive jam that Staal brings to that unit.

Finnish winger Janne Pesonen is arriving at a perfect time to develop potentially long-lasting (wishful thinking?) chemistry with either Crosby or Malkin, while various options will likely continually be tried on the other line’s wing if Staal is back at his familiar L3 pivot spot. It might be a stretch to say Pesonen can step right into a top six role in the NHL on Day One, but that's certainly the hope of everyone involved.

Matt Cooke’s energy would obviously look good on the third line, while Ruslan Fedotenko or Pascal Dupuis are more than capable of filling a wing slot alongside Crosby or Malkin if Pesonen needs more time to adjust to the North American game before being given a prime time role.

The one thing i wanted to point out about people voting for 3rd or 4th line was that those lines are mainly reserved for grinders, guys who are really gonna fight to get and hold the puck. Especially since Janne is coming from a less physical league and is on the smaller size i can't see him go there. And personally I feel that he would not mesh with the Russian style of play that Malkin and Sykora bring, and that if he can get his flow going like we have seen in his videos, that him and crosby could put a show on for us (one could say a puck handling expo).

Anyways, that's how i see it, and i think those lines would be great, I'd love to see Staal back on the wing (where he played and excelled his rookie season). Also another thing somebody pointed out on the Steel City Sports Fan blog is that in the article posted earlier that if Janne does not make the 'Guinos that he will return to Europe rather than play in the NHL.

To read the original article and look at all teams line combos check here

Janne Denies Rumors of not coming to Pittsburgh

Janne looking good posing for the press

Idk if anybody had heard, but there were rumors that Janne decided not to come to the US to play for the Pens, but a couple days ago Finnish site Janne denied these rumors here (bad translation)

"I'm going there at the beginning of September and it meiningillä that I will take place team. No other way there would not make any sense, from the source, and now I have one month to reach huippukuntoon," Pesonen recalls."

Also they posted more details about his contract

The details are not yet tihku facts before the NHL's pelaajayhdistys NHLPA will publish its value at the beginning of the season. According to some estimates the earnings Pesos NHL in the move through 600 000-800 000 dollars.

Farmijoukkueessa Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins would pay only about 100 000 dollars, which is less than he would be SM-League

If the location is not at the top for some reason the open, rather than any farmikomennus catch fire agreement is a paragraph on the basis of which he or she can go back to the end of the year back to Europe, for example, Ermine.

"Kai is a kind of loophole is, if there is bad," Pesonen estimates.

You can read the original Finnish article here

Janne Pesonen drink (First official Pesonen and the Pens contest)...

In the wake of sidney crosby turning 21 a bunch of bars thought up their own Sidney Crosby inspired drinks. Now if that wanna-be-janne is good enough to inspire a drink, why the hell not Janne.

This brings me to the contest. What I am asking for everybody to do is post a drink recipe named after/inspired by Janne Pesonen. Post the recipe, and how it relates to Janne. Once i feel like we have enough I will close the contest, post what i feel are the top 10, and start a poll for about a month, giving people time to make the drinks at their own home and vote. Who ever is leading at the end of the month will win some sort of online gift certificate. So yeah, start making drinks people, post your drinks in the comments section.

Janne Pesonen Picture of the Week

Attention Brodeur, DiPietro, Lundquist, Biron, Fernandez, Price, Lalime/Miller, Gerber, Toskala, Lehtonen, Ward, Vokoun, Kolzig, Theodore, Osgood, Giguere and Nabokov, I hope you all stare long and hard at this, cause your gonna see yourself in the place of Reto Berra here (the goalie) atleast 1 time on Hockey Night in Canada this year... An Don Cherry's outrageous suit aint gonna make you feel any better this time

Janne Pesonen Fact of the Week

In an attempt to show up Petr Sykora, Janne Pesonen has already called his shot for the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals

Penguins on the Tube

Here are the dates for the upcoming TV appearances by the Pens in 2008-2009

Oct. 14 Home Flyers........Versus

Nov. 11 AWAY Red Wings.....Versus

Nov. 18 Home Wild..........Versus

Dec. 22 Away Sabres........Versus

Jan. 5 Away Rangers.......Versus

Jan. 18 Home Rangers.......NBC


* Remember all Games and Dates are subject to change.

Whitney to miss 3-5 months

Piitsburgh Post Gazette is reporting Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney will be out 3-5 months due to surgery on his left foot to correct a chronic condition.

EA Sports Snubs Janne

Last year NHL 2008 from EA Sports was rated the best sports video game, and from the reviews coming before it's release it seems as if it is poised to repeat.

In order to get their fans wet, most video game companies release tid-bits of low level details in the weeks going up until the release (NHL comes out on september 9th i believe). Last week, EA Sports posted all the players from each teams rankings. The Penguins rankings can be found here and the rest of the NHL teams can be found here.

Now the big issue is that on the pens roster...THERE IS NO JANNE!!!! I am assuming he is probably on the AHL roster on the game, and if worst comes to worst the last few iterations of NHL have had the SM-Liiga teams in it, so you can bring Janne over from there.

Also, seriously, Janniacs, sign the faux petition about getting Janne shirts in the post prior to this one. Seriously...

Janne Pesonen Penguins shirts...

Now before you cream your pants, that is not a real shirt, but a poorly done photoshop that i did to prove a point.

I am really annoyed with everybody and their mothers prancing around wearing jerseys of those wanna-be-janne's Crosby and Malkin. It's time that the NHL shop (located at http://shop.nhl.com) feed the need of us Janniacs (that is what i named us for the time being).

See people, I have a dream that one day the Janne Nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, mainly by being able to wear shirts that have janne's name and number on it...

What i need everybody to do is in the comment section post your plee for a better tomorrow, a plee for a shop that does not only have shirts for malkin crosby staal and fleury, but for a shop that includes Janne Pesonen merchandise and memorabilia, but mainly those cheap shirt jerseys. So yeah, post your plee and please pass this around to your friends or other pittsburgh blogs you read. Once the comments get to a suitable size i will email it to the NHL shop and hopefully we will be reppin the J E double N to the E by mid october.

Converting Finnish(euro) to USD

I was asked a question about the Pesonen shirt post. It looks like to me that the shirts are 80 euros which is about $119.00 usd, is this correct? If not feel free to guide us. Just browsing through the site I noticed a couple of binky's the Flyers might like once they get a dose of Pesonen.

Through Janne's eyes

It has been written that no other hockey player saw the ice like Gretzky. Well, let it be written no other hockey player sees the goalie like Janne(The Finnish one).

Janne Pesonen Fact of the Week

It is known that the NHL is taking several efforts to increase scoring to make the game more exciting. This year the two biggest steps they had to increase the AGG (average goals per game) were decreasing the size of goalie equipment and bringing Janne Pesonen to the NHL

Janne Pesonen Picture of the Week

First he rocked the world (at hockey worlds) and now he is going to rock pittsburgh

Janne Shirt site...get them while they are hot!!

We had some requests about Janne shirts, I finally found some at link below. This seems like a nice site for karpat hockey collectables. So check it out.

http://www.handsup.com/skriptit/karpatshop/

Big news of the day...or not

The big news today is that Sidney Crosby turned 21...

Big deal, Janne has been 21 for almost 6 years now, and i bet he drank a whole lot more than Sid is going to tonight

Janne Pesonen #20 Karpat

Here you go Hockey fans, stay tune as you get alittle taste of the Finnish cult hero himself. Notice the quick hands. GET USE TO IT!

Saves on Billboards space.....

Seriously, does Nascar come to mind? Does anyone know how advertising ties into either into the team or a players personal contract? Here Janne is looking alittle Tony Stewartish.

More No's?!?!?! and Some notes about Janne

Seriously...a quick message to those 36 people who said no about janne being jesus...



Ok, i really hope this clears up any confusion that people might have.

Also there have been some interesting comments/corrections to our message boards so rather then have people go digging around for them i was gonna post them here.

In Response to the post Janne's Trophy Case Antti informs us:

He won the Matti Keinonen award with +- 39.
There's the source:
http://www.sm-liiga.fi/tilastot.html?b=rs&a=s&s=07-08&t=k

In response to the post Is Janne NHL Ready? André informs us:

The SM-Liiga rinks are about as small as the NHL ones. Point 1 there shouldn't be a problem.

In response to the post No??? WTF and Janne Watch 2008 nu informs us:

'Pelimies' apparently means 'player' in Finnish, "which can mean 'sports player' but is usually 'the other kind of "player"..."

Actual quote from a Finnish person:
OMG, that song cracks me up! The lyrics are so cheesy! Trust me, you're not missing much.

The gist: "I'm a tough player [in every sense of the word], gonna score tonight [in every sense of the word]".

And I do believe "tana iltana ei tuu pakejaa" is something like "not getting dumped tonight!"

Na na NA na na na na na.......

Also I found out an interesting fact today. Janne is often seen wearing a golden helmet when playing hockey (as seen below)


Apparently this is not just Janne being cocky, whenever you when the points title in SM-Liiga, this is the award and you get to wear it all year... Nice way to put a big target on the best players head.

Update from Kevin:

Kultainen kypärä ("the Golden Helmet") is an ice hockey award given to the best player in the Finnish SM-liiga. It is the most appreciated of the awards, as it is voted for by the players. It has been awarded since 1987.

Also remember about janne watch 2008, so keep your eyes open and don't forget to vote YES to proposition 20 (Is Janne Jesus)

Janne Pesonen fact of the week

Janne already built the new penguins arena, but tore it down because he didn't want to take jobs away from Pittsburghers

Could this be the house that Janne built ?

The big day is August 14th for Janne and the Pens new arena. I'm hearing from a unreliable source the Pens are flying Janne in to open the ground breaking ceremonies. They are pushing for the 2010-2011 season.

Janne's Trophy Case

By now we all know the Jannster was SM-Liiga's rookie of the year in the 2003/2004 season. Here are the rest of the hardware in his case.

Janne won the Jari Kurri Trophy (Best player in SM-Liiga playoffs) in the 2006/2007 season. This past season(2007/2008) Janne cleaned house by winning these 3 awards.
1. Aarne Honkavaara Trophy(most goals in the regular season) 34 goals.
2. Veli-Pekka Ketola Trophy(most points in the regular season) 78 pts.
3. Matti Keinonen Trophy(+39)A big Pittsburgh thanks goes out to Antti for the info on the Janne plus/minus Trophy

This might make for some exciting moments if the whirling dervish makes the team and flanks "THE KID".

Is Janne NHL Ready?

So the big discussion that surrounds the entrance to the NHL for Janne is about if he is ready to play NHL hockey... The big issues that surround him are...

1. How will he respond to the smaller rink?
2. How will he respond to the increased physical play?
3. How will he respond to a longer season?

For the smaller rink, hockey skills are hockey skills, whether the rink is giant or small. I think this will take some getting used to, but after some practices and pre-season games he should be able to completely adjust his game.

As per the physical play... As you can see by watching him, Janne is an incredibly fast player, not saying that the physicality is going to be a complete non-issue, but every player adapts to the physicality when they come into the NHL (you can' t tell me the Canadian junior leagues are as physical as the NHL), I don't see why Janne can't adapt like everybody else. Obviously if he becomes a threat, players will try and increase the physicality to make him a non-factor (a-la malkin), but he does have the speed to work around these things. This could be a big issue, but we really cannot judge this considering we have no basis to judge his answer to physical play. This is a wait and see thing.

As for the longer season, this is where we will see the biggest problem. Going from a 56 game season to an 82 game season (not including playoffs) will be a huge step up. He is obviously in shape, but when it comes to the human body it's hard to tell who can take more wear and tear than others.

The other big question is if Janne is ready to jump into the NHL right from SM-Liiga (Finish Elite League). Everywhere i have been reading SM-Liiga is considered a notch below the AHL. Basically the overall sentiment is that the top players in the AHL and SM-Liiga are interchangeable in talent, but the AHL has significantly more depth, so i honestly do believe that Janne will be able to be a top talent in the AHL if he starts out there.

I think Janne has all the necessary tools to be a top 6 winger in the NHL, but I do think that unless he shows us some excellent adaptation and skills during the preseason, it may be a good idea to send him to the AHL and let him adjust to the NHL way of things, then hopefully he can come up to the NHL and woo us all...

This is all assuming Janne continues this charade of not being the greatest hockey player ever born...

Will Janne will be eligible for ROY honors?

In the NHL, a player can be no older than 26 to win the rookie award, a limit established to avoid a repeat of 1990. That year, 31-year-old Sergei Makarov won the NHL's award over 19-year-old Mike Modano. Makarov had played professionally for years in the Soviet Union.Some have suggested a similar age limit for baseball's rookie award.(excerpt from an SI article)

Janne doesn't turn 27 until May 11 2009, but will he considered a professional with his playing in the Finnish Elte league

Janne Pesonen Picture of the week 8/3

Bling Bling bitch

Nhl's take on Pesonen

Janne Pesonen (LW), Pittsburgh
Age: 26; Nationality: Finnish; Height: 5-11; Weight: 180
2007-08 stats: 56 games, 34-44-78, 58 PIM (Karpat Oulu)
Acquired: Signed as a free agent on July 7, 2008.
Contract: One-year contract.

Notes -- Pesonen has won four league championships with Karpat and scored 16 points (7-9) in the 2008 playoffs. In 2007, he was the playoff MVP with 7 points (4-3) in 9 games. Pesonen was named Rookie of the Year in 2003-04, notching 30 points (17-13) in 56 contests. He has played in 285 career games in the Finnish Elite League, collecting 216 points (94-122), along with 200 penalty minutes. Pesonen has also appeared in 62 playoff games, registering 31 points (18-13) and 32 penalty minutes.

“Pesonen is a quick, skilled player that has had much success in the Finnish Elite League,” Penguins GM Fred Shero told PittsburghPenguins.com. “We look forward to watching him perform at his first NHL training camp.”

He was originally selected by Anaheim in the ninth round, No. 269, in the 2004 Entry Draft.

Risto’s take: Pesonen is fast and quick. Sometimes too fast for the defensemen, and sometimes too fast for the referee which is why he has earned himself a reputation as a diver, but he doesn’t do that as often as he’s accused of it. Pesonen won the scoring title in the Finnish Elite League last season thanks to his creative play, and his ability to always find a way to get past the defenseman. He’s a good hockey player, and he was a great player in the Finnish league, although he did fade in the finals. I’d be surprised if he manages to play a regular shift in Pittsburgh. He’s got speed, but not Sami Kapanen (1990s) speed. He’s skilled, but no Malkin or Datsyuk. So, probably first to the AHL.

Risto’s comparable NHL player: Martin St. Louis

NO???? WTF and Janne Watch 2008

First of all, i noticed two people voted No to the is Janne jesus poll... You people who voted here is all the evidence you need...



Yeah, change your votes dumb asses.

Also, I would like to officially announce the start of the Janne watch 2008.



So i'm asking everybody to keep your eyes open and your cameras ready. If anybody happens to be at an open practice where janne is (which i assume is the most likely place to see Janne, but photos of janne in the wild would also be appreciated) snap some photos and send them over and i'll post them and give you credit, please email them to me at vfm+janne@andrew.cmu.edu.

And i noticed we got somebody from finland to visit...So if this is you, could you please post me some sort of translation to that awesome Janne song, which is called Pelimies, the one notable lyric I got from an online translator was "Meat is robust while meat is dull" which unless finish music is really odd, i'm betting that is wrong.

Finally, here is the real music video for the song in the jesus video, it's crazy hilarious...


I officially love Finnish people...

Check back tomorrow or monday for the Janne quote and pictures of the week