The true golden age. I started watching hockey more seriously about 1990 as a Red Wings fan. I hit it just right to appreciate what the latter-half of that decade was like for that club. Yzerman, the Russian Five, Probert, Nick Lidstrom, McCarty then Pavel and Zetterberg etc...
Glad to hear Mario was so cool. I used to hate playing the Pens, and the Flyers with Lindros. Great teams back then.
I still try and listen to Tigers games when I am on the lawn tractor even though they are perma-dogshit. Baseball will forever be a passion. I don't recognize much of the MLB game anymore with the ego, language barriers, and showboaty shit like bat flips being encouraged when it used to get you beaned.
That being said, hearing a live call over the air on a late spring day with a doobie while playing catch on the lawn with my wife is just unbeatable. Baseball is Americana and always will be. Hopefully kids still get stoked for little league, and there are sandlots still played on.
The Red Wings beat the Pens on the Pens' home ice back to win the Cup back in 2008 I think it was ... I couldn't get upset ... it was a great series though my interest in the NHL started to wane around that time. I think we beat you guys for the cup the year after.
It was incredible watching the Pens grow into Stanley Cup Champions in 1991. I was 11 when they drafted Lemieux. They broadcasted games on a meh UHF channel in the area. Since we didn't have cable, I'd often tune into that channel since we received it as clear as a bell :-). That's how I learned about hockey :-).
Lemieux made it clear that he was pissed that he would have to play for Pittsburgh. He did come off as a primadonna at first. I think people changed their opinion of him after his first game :-). I don't think he was called that after that night :-).
The team was a mess back then ... seriously, they were in a worse state than the Pittsburgh Pirates (I fucking LOATHE the owner of that team ... that inbred degenerate billionaire welfare recipient is a disgusting piece of shit) ... you could get center ice seats for next to nothing on many nights though we did have Gary Rissling and Ron Duguay at one point during the shit years :-) :-P ). When I got a bit older, some friends and I would take a bus down to see games ... it was that inexpensive seeing that none of us had much of anything :-).
Anyway, Mario sucked it up, went out on the ice, and became the incredible player he was. He would take wingers with some, but not impressive, talent and make them look like superstars. I swear he had supernatural powers on the ice. Even during seasons where the team SUCKED, his highlight reel would make it look like we were one of the elite teams in the NHL. What is ridiculously impressive is that he did all of that with a somewhat bad back!!!!!
As the Pens started to acquire players like Paul Coffey and Tom Barrasso, you could see them becoming a pretty special team almost in real time. When they traded for Ron Francis & Ulf Samuelson in '91, you knew they were going to kick some ass in the playoffs (one of the players that went to Hartford in that trade was Zarley Zalapski ... kinda wish they would have kept him for the name alone ... he was a favorite of mine).
I'll never forget that night they beat the North Stars and won their first cup. The celebration was organized, region-wide chaos. What was amazing was that there was very little crime ... a few fights were reported and some drunks did some stupid shit, but the night was as if everyone just said "fuck it, let's throw a party and have fun".
I went out to the airport like tens of thousands of other fans that night to greet the team :-) ... I managed to climb up some concrete structure and was almost directly above the players as they walked in. When they brought the cup in, I could see that white marking thing on the bottom as clear as a bell ... just a surreal moment for a fan that saw them grow from nothing to incredible in under a decade.
They won the cup again in 1992 ... that wasn't as much fun. My car was "danced" on by some faggot (he met the street face first ... it wasn't worth it for him to damage my car ... when you have nothing, you tend to defend it irrationally ... I don't know nor do I care what happened to that fucking prick ... I just know that he hit the ground face first somehow ;-) ). A bunch of degenerates tipped a bus over and almost killed the driver. There were fires, faggots throwing lit mattresses out into the streets ... just sad overall.
Anyway ... I think Lemieux is based ... not once did he ever come off as a liberal faggot nor did he ever drag any kind of politics into hockey. I think he agreed to sell the team at its peak value knowing damn well where the NHL was heading if I'm honest.
Man, I miss being able to enjoy a game ... I couldn't care less about the Pirates or Penguins anymore. I refuse to watch that stuff knowing damn well the league wants people like me removed from society. I will certainly have to check out some of the minor league teams in the region.
Sorry for the rambling ... those were some good memories :-) .
As a former Chicago sports fan, just wanted to say that this was a great random post. I miss the simplicity of life back then, and was lucky to grow up in the 80s and 90s. I'm sure every generation says that. Would be great if we could ever have that feeling of sports without the woke bullshit again.
The true golden age. I started watching hockey more seriously about 1990 as a Red Wings fan. I hit it just right to appreciate what the latter-half of that decade was like for that club. Yzerman, the Russian Five, Probert, Nick Lidstrom, McCarty then Pavel and Zetterberg etc...
Glad to hear Mario was so cool. I used to hate playing the Pens, and the Flyers with Lindros. Great teams back then.
I still try and listen to Tigers games when I am on the lawn tractor even though they are perma-dogshit. Baseball will forever be a passion. I don't recognize much of the MLB game anymore with the ego, language barriers, and showboaty shit like bat flips being encouraged when it used to get you beaned.
That being said, hearing a live call over the air on a late spring day with a doobie while playing catch on the lawn with my wife is just unbeatable. Baseball is Americana and always will be. Hopefully kids still get stoked for little league, and there are sandlots still played on.
The Red Wings beat the Pens on the Pens' home ice back to win the Cup back in 2008 I think it was ... I couldn't get upset ... it was a great series though my interest in the NHL started to wane around that time. I think we beat you guys for the cup the year after.
It was incredible watching the Pens grow into Stanley Cup Champions in 1991. I was 11 when they drafted Lemieux. They broadcasted games on a meh UHF channel in the area. Since we didn't have cable, I'd often tune into that channel since we received it as clear as a bell :-). That's how I learned about hockey :-).
Lemieux made it clear that he was pissed that he would have to play for Pittsburgh. He did come off as a primadonna at first. I think people changed their opinion of him after his first game :-). I don't think he was called that after that night :-).
The team was a mess back then ... seriously, they were in a worse state than the Pittsburgh Pirates (I fucking LOATHE the owner of that team ... that inbred degenerate billionaire welfare recipient is a disgusting piece of shit) ... you could get center ice seats for next to nothing on many nights though we did have Gary Rissling and Ron Duguay at one point during the shit years :-) :-P ). When I got a bit older, some friends and I would take a bus down to see games ... it was that inexpensive seeing that none of us had much of anything :-).
Anyway, Mario sucked it up, went out on the ice, and became the incredible player he was. He would take wingers with some, but not impressive, talent and make them look like superstars. I swear he had supernatural powers on the ice. Even during seasons where the team SUCKED, his highlight reel would make it look like we were one of the elite teams in the NHL. What is ridiculously impressive is that he did all of that with a somewhat bad back!!!!!
As the Pens started to acquire players like Paul Coffey and Tom Barrasso, you could see them becoming a pretty special team almost in real time. When they traded for Ron Francis & Ulf Samuelson in '91, you knew they were going to kick some ass in the playoffs (one of the players that went to Hartford in that trade was Zarley Zalapski ... kinda wish they would have kept him for the name alone ... he was a favorite of mine).
I'll never forget that night they beat the North Stars and won their first cup. The celebration was organized, region-wide chaos. What was amazing was that there was very little crime ... a few fights were reported and some drunks did some stupid shit, but the night was as if everyone just said "fuck it, let's throw a party and have fun".
I went out to the airport like tens of thousands of other fans that night to greet the team :-) ... I managed to climb up some concrete structure and was almost directly above the players as they walked in. When they brought the cup in, I could see that white marking thing on the bottom as clear as a bell ... just a surreal moment for a fan that saw them grow from nothing to incredible in under a decade.
They won the cup again in 1992 ... that wasn't as much fun. My car was "danced" on by some faggot (he met the street face first ... it wasn't worth it for him to damage my car ... when you have nothing, you tend to defend it irrationally ... I don't know nor do I care what happened to that fucking prick ... I just know that he hit the ground face first somehow ;-) ). A bunch of degenerates tipped a bus over and almost killed the driver. There were fires, faggots throwing lit mattresses out into the streets ... just sad overall.
Anyway ... I think Lemieux is based ... not once did he ever come off as a liberal faggot nor did he ever drag any kind of politics into hockey. I think he agreed to sell the team at its peak value knowing damn well where the NHL was heading if I'm honest.
Man, I miss being able to enjoy a game ... I couldn't care less about the Pirates or Penguins anymore. I refuse to watch that stuff knowing damn well the league wants people like me removed from society. I will certainly have to check out some of the minor league teams in the region.
Sorry for the rambling ... those were some good memories :-) .
As a former Chicago sports fan, just wanted to say that this was a great random post. I miss the simplicity of life back then, and was lucky to grow up in the 80s and 90s. I'm sure every generation says that. Would be great if we could ever have that feeling of sports without the woke bullshit again.