Well, now we know what the 2010-11 season ticket prices for the Penguins are going to be.  It sure took the Penguins long enough to tell us since asking us for a deposit months BEFORE releasing this data.  Today I finally received information on my new seats in the Consol Energy Center and we are looking at a reasonable 5% increase in ticket prices.  I say reasonable considering we are getting a nice new arena although I think that it is time for the Penguins to hold the line on prices after this year for a couple years considering they have been increasing the past couple of years.

Anyway, this year I paid $44.75 per ticket for two seats in D7 (Row F seats 3 & 4).  Next year, and I hope that I am reading this right, my new seats in Section 201, Row H (seats 3 & 4) are going to be $47 a piece.  $47/$44.75 = 5% increase.

Although I did have a shock at first because I misread the pricing chart.  The Penguins have added some new pricing tiers to what would be D section in the new arena and section 202, just to our right, will be paying $59 a seat.  I saw that and am glad I am where I am although we appear to be pushed further down towards the goal line where as right now we are closer to the blue line which I like because I can see the ice very well.

According to the 3D seating chart provided by the Penguins this is what our view will look like:

First impressions are that we seem a bit further from the ice than before but I will have to check that out with actual photos from the actual locations.

All in all, tickets that last year ran me $3,848.50 will be be $4,042 this year.

Here is some more pricing info for other areas:

Club Seats  FS – $152    HS – $158

First Row Glass  FS – $110    HS – N/A

Lower Bowl Double Attack End Coners Plus (Sec 104, 110) FS – $92    HS – $98

Lower BowlDouble Attack End Coners  (Sec 105, 109) FS – $87    HS – $93

Lower Bowl Double Attack End End Zone (Sec 106-108) FS – $82    HS – $88

Lower Bowl Single Attack End Coners Plus (Sec 114-115, 121-122) FS – $92    HS – $98

Lower Bowl Single Attack End Coners  (Sec 116, 120) FS – $87    HS – $93

Lower Bowl Single Attack End End Zone Rows B-R (Sec 117-119) FS – $75    HS – $81

Lower Bowl Single Attack End End Zone (Sec 117-119) FS – $64    HS – $70

Upper Bowl Center (Sec 202-203, 219-220) FS – $59    HS – $65

Upper Bowl Sides Rows A-E (Sec 201, 204, 218, 221) FS – $59    HS – $65

Upper Bowl Sides (Sec 201, 204, 218, 221) FS – $47    HS – $53

Upper Bowl Center (Sec 202-203, 219-220) FS – $59    HS – $65

Upper Bowl Double Attack End Corners Plus Rows A-E (Sec 205-206, 216-217) FS – $59    HS – $65

Upper Bowl Double Attack End Corners Plus (Sec 205-206, 216-217) FS – $42    HS – $48

Upper Bowl Double Attack End End Zone (Sec 207-215) FS – $39    HS – $45

Upper Bowl Single Attack End Corners Plus Rows A-E (Sec 222-223, 233-234) FS – $59    HS – $65

Upper Bowl Single Attack End Corners Plus (Sec 222-223, 233-234) FS – $39    HS – $45

Upper Bowl Single Attack End End Zone (Sec 224-232) FS – $29    HS – $35

Forgive me if some of this info is a little off, I have been transcribing in from the brochure.  And if you are confused but all this variation in pricing from end to end you are probably not the only one.  Several other season ticket holders I have talked to were likewise a little taken back until they figured it all out as well.

O Canada! What has happened? Many people thought that a Canada – Russian match up would be for a gold medal in Vancouver not in an elimination game where the loser goes home without any medal at all.

Tonight the Canucks take on the Ruskies and Sid takes on Geno … and Ovechkin … and Gonchar. With the likely starter for the Canadians being Luongo, who has never risen to the challenge of being a big time goaltender and an entire team of “potential” on the ice, the guys from the Great White North are going to need a miracle.

So far the Canadians have not played up to what people have seen as their potential. They struggled in the preliminary round and their only two easy victories have been against teams that could probably be beaten by a good college hockey squad.

Thus my prediction is a Russian victory tonight when this bloodbath ends.  The Canadians will scratch and claw with all their might to not go quietly into the night. But what we have seen to date is a team of aged talent that hasn’t been able to prove itself. Crosby is their ace in the hole by Russia holds the trump in a pair of stars named Malkin and Ovechkin.

In order for this prediction to turn out wrong Luongo would have to have the game of his life. Either that or the Canadians would have to swallow their pride and get over the fact that Fleury lost a big game and disappointed his countrymen in World Juniors. Much has changed for the Penguins net minder since then and I think a Stanley Cup should be more than enough to get the stubborn forces of Canadian hockey to give the man who should be in goal the chance he deserves and his team more than a long shot chance to win tonight.

But that will not happen. So Canada had better pray for that miracle.

Gretzky and his fans may still believe that he was the best player to ever don skates and play the game, but one thing is for sure, he wasn’t as great of a team player as either Mario Lemieux or Sidney Crosby. It’s easy to point out why Gretzky is considered so great when you look at the team that surrounded him – something that is nigh impossible these days with salaries escalating faster than revenues warrant. The Penguins are trying however. It is also easy to point out and show how Lemieux was a far superior player when you look at the pathetic teams that surrounded him – yet he still performed at a level unarguably on par with Gretzky. The “better” player considering that? Not even close.

With the new documentary “Kings Ransom,” we once again see why I think it is a no-brainer that when it comes to both on ice talent and off ice class I would pick Mario any day of the week and twice on game day for my team. For that matter I would say the same thing about Sidney Crosby.

“If Sidney Crosby walked in this room, who would know him? In the NBA, every team has a star,” former Kings owner Bruce McNall said gushing over Gretzky. Really? “Who” would know him? Lots of people Mr. McNall. Lots of people.

Hate to break this to you, but outside of the hockey world and even within it, many, many people would not even know Wayne Gretzky if they saw him. He’s old guard and quite frankly the younger fans of hockey these days know little to nothing about him except that there seems to be a lot of “99″s hanging from rafters in arenas around the league thanks to an NHL decision to retire the number league wide. Adoration that, if you ask me, is a little unwarranted and Mr. McNall, you think a little too highly of your former player if you ask me. But it is easy to say when a room is full of people who already know Gretzky or are there specifically to see him.

But I think that before we deify old 99 we have to look with a critical eye at why Gretzky wound up leaving the Oilers, causing a near revolution in Canada, and headed to the LA Kings, a team that has been so perennially bad that they are often forgotten about when naming teams in the league in casual conversation. Gretzky left Edmonton because the Oilers could not afford him any more in a time when free agency was escalating salaries. And Canada’s golden boy did little to help. He refused to renegotiate his contract putting the Oilers in a bind with his current contract up the next year. Gretzky basically punched his own ticket out of Canada and while fans to this day blame the Edmonton organization for the debacle they rarely dare to utter a critical word of 99 or ask why he was so unwilling to do what needed to be done to stay in the Great White North.

Contrast and compare …

Mario Lemieux played on horrendously bad teams from the time he was drafted by the Penguins.  Yet despite putting up comparable numbers to 99 all things considered he took less money than Gretzky in each year of his contracts except one (his last when his back loaded salary kicked in).  Even upon returning to the league after retirement (and despite still putting up super superstar numbers once he did), he still had less dollars per contract year than Gretzky did at the end of his career.  Lemieux took less money to help his team.  Then there is modern day superstar and Penguins center Sidney Crosby.  He too took less than what he could have easily made on the free market to stick with the Penguins when it came time for a deal – something that rubbed off on other players with the team as Malkin, Staal and Fleury took either less than market value to keep the club on a strong footing.  Several role players (including Guerin and Fedotenko this year) also followed Crosby’s lead and like the team and winning so much that they took pay cuts just to play here while they could have easily gone elsewhere.

So to Gretzky’s adoring throngs, I say give me Lemieux and Crosby any day.  And if you don’t know Crosby to see him then that is your problem and no one else’s.  But remember, while Gretzky may have matured later and finally come to understand why Edmonton did what they did, some players understand that while they are still playing and do whatever they can to help the team.  Pittsburgh has been blessed to have two such players and they have elevated themselves above 99 because of that.

When it was announced by the Penguins that season ticket holders would have an oportunity to have their picture taken with Lord Stanley’s Cup the questions began to swirl. How many would take advantage of the oportunity to have a picture with the trophy on Penguins ice? When would be the best time to show up; early or later to beat any potential log jams? Well, yesterday, the first of two days when the cup was available, and when season ticket holders with names in the first half of the alphabet were given tickets for, the answers were unmistakable; nearly every damn one and it did not matter.

Yes, even when we arrived at 11:45 AM (over a full four hours BEFORE our recommended time) the line was out the door of gate one, down the sidewalk to Center Avenue and then around the bend down to Washington Place. Inside the line was wrapped around the concourse from Gate one all the way back to section C5/6 the long way around. Then the line wound down the steps and out to center ice.

The impressive thing? No one seemed to care. Yes, by the time we got out of there at 4:45 (five hours later) there was not bitching or moaning from those around us in line the entire time. People talked, children played and everyone accepted the long march to the single reason why we had all shown up. Even when people who had already had their pictures taken told those standing outside that the wait was five hours the groans were light if existent at all. Everyone seemed to expect this sort of turn out.

Here some pictures from yesterday’s wait in line:

The End of the line when we arrived

Me and Charlotte waiting in line (about 30 minutes after arriving)

Charlotte and mommy taking a stroll

Charlotte gets a ride (about 60 minutes after arriving)

Just inside Gate 1 (We have to walk all the way around)

Waiting once inside

a short break from walking

Soooooo close

Finally! Mommy and Charlotte on the ice

The Grand Prize! Lord Stanley's Cup!

Oh, and just in case you thought that the line might get shorter late in the day?  Well, let’s just say we are damn glad we did not wait until 4:00 pm to show up!

The line at 5PM was still looooooooong!

I just want to thank the entire Penguins organization for this wonderful experience and if you have tickets for today to get your picture with the cup well my suggestion is get there as early as you can!

Say what you want, and having myself read the commentary out of the Detroit papers and Red Wings blogs do vehemently disagree, the Red Wings appear to be out of gas. That does not mean that at some point they will not make a pit stop and refuel. But for now the defending Stanley Cup Champions look tired and defeated.

I sit in D7, four sections up and to the left side of the Pens bench if you are looking at it from the ice. Even from my perch I could see Detroit’s players gasping for air and slumped on the visitor’s bench as the game wore on. When his Sidness teamed up with MVP (Geno Malkin) to put the Penguins ahead 3-2 you could see it from the International Space Station if that damnable roof on the Mellon Arena still opened. Any time you can see the full numbers on the back of a player’s sweater you know they are leaning forward looking for something that they might not have.

Here is the scary thing though. Datsyuk is still not playing. Is he ready? If he is, he is well rested. My sources say he was ready, but only about 80%, for Game 4. This is why the Detroit coaching staff was not quite ready to play him. So he sat. The Wings lost. Now, with Game 5 looming what happens? Does a ready and well rested Datsyuk play and add fresh legs to spark the team out of the Motor City? Does a hobbled Datsyuk get thrown in to the fray by a Detroit team looking for anything at all? And if so does will he be a non-factor or a hindrance? Or will he sit again, still not ready for the ice?

Here’s another scary thing. Detroit played well in the first period at times dominating the play. They also scored quickly in the second to take a lead. But this is the second game in a row where around the halfway point of the second period the Red Wings looked obviously tired. Still, if they can keep getting the lead on the Penguins, is Osgood able to steal a game the Pens should by all rights win?

And yet another scary thing. Sure, the series is now a best of three but it is a best of three with two in Detroit and those darn boards that can score on visiting goalies by themselves without much help. Ask Marc-Andre Fleury about that.

And how about this for just one more scary thing? If the Penguins cannot pull out a win on Saturday night at the Joe, they will be down 3-2 and facing elimination, again, in Game 6 on home ice giving Detroit another chance to hoist the cup in front of really depressed Penguins fans.

Come Saturday night, the Penguins need to dig down deep, find that extra gear, put some extra gas in their own tanks and crash, bang and boom the Red Wings all over the ice; all while staying out of the box. Fleury will need to play a near flawless game to beat Detroit on their home ice and in their own barn.

Do that, and they will have a chance to do something Pittsburgh fans have never seen done – have the home team hoist the Stanley Cup on Igloo ice.