Sorry guys...

Hey guys, real quick note from your boy Snack...

I wanna personally apologize for our lack of posts in the last few days. My grandmother has passed on, so I've been busy with that and work and such. And thanks in advance for all the condolences I've receieved/am going to recieve...you guys are the best readers in the biz, and my whole family appreciates it.

We'll be back up and running full time on Monday - so bear with us, and we'll have new content and a new top 10 list soon (not to mention an UPDATED mock draft!).

Catch ya'll on the flip side, and see you on Monday...

Snizzle

Link's N'at

Looks the already shorthanded Penguins (Talbot, Sykora, Hossa, etc) will be hurting even worse tonight. Pens captain Sidney Crosby will miss tonight’s game against the Sabres with pain in his right ankle.

It is definitely a little premature to think about this considering he hasn’t even played a full game for us yet. However, Scott Taylor from the Canadian National Post is already asking, does Hossa have a future with the Pens?

Pitt looks for redemption tonight against Cincy at 7 PM (and throughout the Big East tournament for that matter) as they play at their home away from home, Madison Square Garden.

More Big East awards for Pitt hoops players. Sam Young has won most improved player, Dejuan Blair won rookie of the year, and Ronald Ramon won sportsmanship award.

Ex-baseball star Lenny Dykstra is a Wall Street tycoon worth about 150 million. How does that work? According to Dykstra himself, he doesn’t even like to read because it “hurts your eyes” and “makes you think too much”. Did Lenny go to Pgh public school?

Everyone is Irish on St Patty’s Day, except for Luke Ravenstahl that is. St Patty’s Day (parade is this Saturday) is one of the few times it actually pays off to live in Pittsburgh, and that little punk, Luke Ravenstahl,is trying to ruin that. It’s ok for him to go to country music concerts and party in publicly owned vehicles, or be drunk and disorderly at Steelers games, but when the rest of us wanna do it he tries to put a stop to it. You suck Luke, fun ruiner! I am pretty sure Bob O’Connor or Tom Murphy never woulda done this nonsense.

(Pic from blog.kreedphotography.com)

Hater of the Irish and Jagoff of the Week here at PNA...

Monday Morning Hangover...

Note from Snack - Sorry it's a day late, Diego got it to me on time, my fat ass just fell asleep after work yesterday so I didn't get it posted. My bad. But enjoy, all the links are still relevant, and I think it'll be a nice lil addition to your Tuesday...

It is March again which means two things for Diego, March madness NCAA hoops and St Patty’s day drunken mayhem. Neither are quite here yet, but both are on the horizon. This weekend wrapped up the regular season of NCAA basketball, so that means that this week is conference tournament week. I also got a chance to see Pitt live this weekend so lets start the Hangover with some hoops talk.

Pitt gives the DePaul hoops team a chance to enjoy their spring break

Pitt finished its season yesterday with a 98-79 victory over Big East team DePaul, at home at the Pete on senior day. The loss for DePaul means they will not be making an appearance in this years Big East tourney at Madison Square Garden. This was the last home game for seniors Ron Ramon, Keith Benjamin, Mike Cook (out with injury), and Maurice Polen.

(Pic from post-gazette.com)

Introducing the newest members of the Pittsburgh XPlosion!!!

After losing three in a row, the Panthers have bounced back to win three of their last four games to end the season. It was mostly all offense on Sunday at the Peterson center, as Pitt managed to score 98 points (their 2nd highest point total all year) with six players kicking in to score double digits (all 5 starters plus Gilbert Brown). DePaul stayed in the game due to freshmen Dar Tucker who scored 23, and gave the Pitt defense trouble all game long.

The balance of the offense was key in the victory for Pitt, but their defense is still suspect. Allowing a team like DePaul to score almost 80 points is never a good sign. Still the Dixon led Panthers will be making the big dance for the 7th straight season, which is an impressive accomplishment. It is easy to complain about Pitt never making it past the sweet 16, but this basketball team stunk for so many years (in the 1990’s) it’s good to see that they have turned the program completely around.

-Levance Fields is feeling better, finally. Fields had his best game since injury, and arguably best game of the season yesterday. He had 9 rebounds, 9 assists, and 11 points. Fields was looking very Jason Kidd like hustling, making plays on both ends, and leading the Pitt offense.

- Dejuan Blair is a monster. I know I have been saying this all year, but this kid has game. He snatches up every rebound near him, and just looks bigger and stronger then his opponents. He plays psychical and I like it. I’ll keep the NBA comparison’s going and say he’s got some Elton Brand game for sure.

- There are times when Sam Young is unstoppable out there. Young is a gifted scorer and playmaker, if he doesn’t take his talents to the NBA next year, Pitt may have a candidate for not only Big East player of the year, but player of the year period.

*** Pitt’s Sam Young has been voted to first team All-Big East team, while freshman Dejuan Blair received honorable mention (aka he got shafted).***

NCAA and Conference Tourney News

Pitt has Cincinnati in the first round of the Big East tournament Wednesday at 7 PM.

Robert Morris lost Mt. Saint Mary’s 83-65, killing their chances of a NCAA tournament bid.

Duquesne has a first round match with LaSalle also on Wednesday in the A-10

Penguins- Time to get down to it.

For once we are on point here at PN@ and have already posted a recap of yesterday’s Pen’s action, so here is just a few thoughts about the team…

-Fleury is the man. The Penguins higher up’s have shown that their allegiance lies with the Flower. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong with this as he is our franchise goalie. On top of that, Fleury’s ego is more fragile then Conklin’s is so it's better to give him his PT (playing time) so it won’t mess with his head.

-There has been debate about what to do with the power play lines once Hossa returns from injury. I like the idea of splitting up Malking and Crosby, and giving each their own PP line. It seems Malkin plays with more confidence without Crosby by his side. Also, keeping the two separate will drive opposing coaches crazy, as they try to match up their top penalty kill units against each superstar’s line.

Goodbye Wire

In un-sports related news, the series finale of The Wire aired last night on HBO. The Wire is my favorite TV show of all time and after 5 seasons, it concluded in true Wire fashion, conveying the message that the more things changed, the more they stayed same. I won’t snitch as to what happened, but if you haven’t seen it already you need to get on demand and check it out ASAP. The Wire will be greatly missed here at PN@.

(Pic from hbo.com)

Is it Slim Charles' time to shine?

(Pic from hbo.com)

Or is Cheese in charge?

(Pic from flowtv.org)

Or is Marlo still the man?

Until lata...

Pens Win 4-2

The Penguins battled against an eastern conference team. the Washington Capitals, early on Sunday. Before the game even started, when the TV cameras where panning the crowd, I saw almost the same amount of Penguins fans as I did Capital fans - it was as if the game was to be played at home in Pittsburgh. The first period ended scoreless and it was looking as this game was going to be won by fighting hard for the puck down deep in the corners.

The second period started out much like the first period ended. After a hard hitting beginning to the period the Capitals took the lead when Brooks Laich scored a power play goal. Not more than Ninety seconds later did Geno Malkin send a beautiful pass to Petr Sykora, who fanned on it but still scored to tie the game at one. Ten minutes later Geno had another great pass to Sid "the Kid" Crosby who scored with a low line wrist shot. It looked as if the Penguins would enter the locker room with a one goal lead, but they were penalty plagued and allowed the Caps' Alexander Semin to score another power play goal with only seconds left in the period.

(Pic from img.timeinc.net)

First goal since he returned...

At the beginning of the 3rd period both teams seem to have a little more jump in their skate, and both teams had great goal scoring chances in the gridlocked game. With less than thirty seconds left to go, it looked to me that both teams would get at least one point and the game would go to overtime. Sid the Kid threw the puck to the front of the net hoping that something would happen……. And something did! Trying to clear the puck the Capitals' Nick Backstom ended up putting it into the back of his own net, which gave the Penguins a one goal lead with seconds left. With an empty net Geno showed how unselfish he really was by taking another assist on the night and handing the game ending goal to J Staal.

PS - This was our boy Danny "Tteado" Hahn's recap of the game. Not too shabby, me thinks. So thanks buddy.

Until lata...