Celebration and some various news and notes....

first of all, janne scored...


Kevin's Edit: Pulled this from the Penguins Insider.

Janne Pesonen had his coming out party. Two assists and a nifty breakaway backhand goal after a Bridgeport defenseman fell down when trying to take a shot at the point. This is the kind of game you expect from the Finnish scoring star.

Dan Bylsma, in an interesting quote afterwards, took the opportunity to note the plusses and minuses of Pesonen's game. He said: "We certainly showed us again what he can do with time and space, both with his breakaway goal 5-on-5 and in the shootout. He’s got a large amount of skill, he’s got speed and he’s got an offensive knack around the net. When he plays with that speed, you see his skill. When he tries to go east-west, that’s an area he needs to get better at. You saw both of those things tonight."

I get nervous when I hear a coach talk about trying to tame a talented wild horse like Pesonen, but I guess that's the way the game is played these days.

I'll post some pictures that I got tomorrow, my camera kind of sucks so i couldn't get the best quality or quantity, but whatever. After the game Janne was signing autographs, I got one for myself... I wanted to get a picture with him but there was a long line and he looked tired so i didn't bother, though I did tell him I will look forward to seeing him play for the pens...

So after going to my first AHL game, here are the main takeaways i got about janne:

- Taffe and Janne look way better than any of the other scrubs in the AHL...hmmm...conspiracy theory time....maybe the pens sent taffe down to wilkes barre so he and janne could get accustomed to eachother in a low pressure environment....
- Janne's skating style reminds me of a young Jagr...
- I don't want to sound elitest here, but I really do feel that the low quality of some of the players is holding Janne back. Janne is a playmaker, but he isn't a great one.... By that I mean, he can't make people who are ok look great (like how supposidly crosby and malkin can, haven't seen that yet this year). Janne has impecible positioning, but half the passes that are sent to him are off target (on breakouts most of the time behind him) and when he makes good passes they bobble the puck... I really want to see what he can do with some high caliber talent...
- Janne is amazing at driving the puck down the ice, nobody in the AHL can touch him... He starts to have troubles when he tries to bring the puck across the ice... This is one of those things where it will either come with time, or he will just focus on the North-South game...
- Janne rolls with the physicality... He was out there taking and throwing hits with the best of them. Now nobody out there was throwing insanly cheap Ovechkin shots, but it was a fairly physical game, and janne was taking and giving... Problem gone....


Ok now some general thoughts about the AHL atmosphere:

- Wilkes Barre fans refer to the Pens as "The Big Pens"
- I have never seen so many variations of the same teams jerseys in one arena... I think they must change their jersey 4 times a year...
- I don't think I saw one jersey that was not autographed... That just shows how accessible these players are to their fans...
- You really have to give it up for some of these guys playing out there... They will most likely never play in the NHL, and they know it, but yet they are still out there doing what they love... I say bravo...
- Wilkes Barre fans do not understand getting to your seat before the game... I swear to god people trickle in till atleast halfway through the period...
- WOW on price... I thought i was buying the cheapest seat for $35, i get there and i am right next to the glass in the home zone by the right faceoff circle... incredible... I have never been that close for a hockey game, and it was a great experience... Food was reasonably priced too.... If any of you have a chance to make it to a Baby Pens or any other AHL game I highly recomend it...

So yeah, overall positive experience. After watching that game I really do feel that Janne staying down there is going to start to be a waste of talent. At this point he just needs to start getting his rhythm with the big dogs...

Pictures at some point this weekend, plus i have some preliminary shirt ideas i'm gonna start tossing around the blog this week hopefully so i would love everybody's feedback...