That's all due to Mario and Sid and the 5 Cups. Personally, growing up in the 60s & 70s football was GOD, I never knew anyone that played hockey or any place near where I lived where hockey was even played. I know it was played somewhere in the area, but nowhere that I was aware of, I never even watched a Pens game until the late 80s.
Define "horrible attendance years before Sid?" Here are the numbers (3years prior and Sid's first year) in a decrepit Mellon Arena that seated 16,958:
I’m surprised the attendance was that high. Although 05-06 had Sid. I suspect we would have seen numbers more like 03-04 if we didn’t get him.
I'm just a Pens fan, not a hockey fan in general, I have never watched an entire NHL game that doesn't include the Pens and quit watching the playoffs every year the day they are eliminated, so it is harder to watch when they are bad, but I still do watch games, i watched the loss to Florida the other night.
Hockey takes so much "stuff" like pads, sticks, helmets, skates, a goal, an ice rink, unless your parents are really into it, you're not likely to play. i grew up playing basketball and football on the playground, even in the street, you can play baseball or wiffle ball in a back yard, my parents where non-sports fan immigrants, my dad only knew soccer and that didn't even exist where I grew up in the 60s-70s, so I just learned whatever the other kids played outside so there was no chance I'd ever try hockey and part of liking the other sports better is that I actually played them.
It is expensive. And time commitments. I played hockey since I was a kid, followed the penguins before Mario (I'm old) was completely jazzed up watching the 1980 Olympics unfold.....not just the Russian game. So it has been with me. Like I told some guys last night, a 12 year old me had a letter to the editor published in the Hockey Digest.
I 'm a little older, hockey was not at all on my radar as a kid, it didn't seem popular and in all honesty, the first hockey game I ever watched was the 1980 USA vs USSR Gold Medal game at a college party, 20 years old, so I was also excited buy that, but never really got into it until the 1990 playoffs when the Pens won, have been a Pens fan since, but not exactly my favorite sport. still like it, Pens and the Olympics usually.
My sister-in-law’s kids all play hockey year round. With travel teams, travel, hotels, tournament, equipment, we figure they’re spending a minimum of $20k a year for the three boys. They hire private coaches for 1-on-1 coaching, etc. they (parents) have good jobs but complain they’re broke.
People got crazy in the age of the helicopter parents, thinking that they need to train their kids to be the best and try for scholarships and for the vast majority it's a waste, their kids could be beaten out by other kids who didn't play on the best travel teams and didn't get special training. And a lot of the time they spend $20k a year for a decade and the kid gets a partial scholarship worth $1000 in the end.
The game against the USSR was the semi-final. The Gold Medal game in 1980 was against Finland.
I so get this. My youngest son has played a lot of ice hockey, and still does. We never expected any financial return on investment for all of the equipment and ice time fees spent over the years. The ROI is with the experiences. He has traveled the world to play. And if Covid hadn't happened, he would have played in three more IIHF tournaments but these were either cancelled or NZ pulled out due to Covid. (Saved me some serious coin, but we had planned to take the entire family to Europe in 2020 to see him play in U18s in Luxembourg. That would have been an amazing trip.)
I consider my balls busted.
Yep. I was also going to post unless he went to college that pulled in CBC (Canadian TV) that he, like this JR High kid, watched it on tape delay at 8:00 EST, even though it was played actually at 5:00EST.
Well in today's vernacular it would be almost considered a "semifinal". The point is, it was not for the gold medal that is often now mistaken. "We won the greatest game in history and now are going to lose the gold to a bunch of friggin Finns" is the greatest line describing the feeling of going into the 3rd period of the game against Finland down 2-1.
My daughter was a soccer player 12 years, and also a ballet dancer. she played mostly rec league and high school, only 2 years did she actually play on a travel team, and she hated it, because the coach acted like it was life and death and you should be thinking about soccer all the time and even quit dancing, after 10th grade she quit travel and just played for her high school and rec in the spring, ironically she beat out a lot of elite travel team kids in high school, and even played one year of college. no, she wasn't elite and never in line for a full scholarship anywhere, she actually was more concerned about having fun and being on a team with friendly girls, but really I doubt she would have gained anything by being serious and intense trying to play on the highest level travel, there was a girl on her high school team that played the same position as her and they were about equal and her mom would come to the games and cuss the rest of the team out for not being any good, because her daughter who played for a team called Maryland United which was some sort of higher level team, in the end though, that girl also played one year of small college and quit. There was only one girl in the league they were in at the time that ended up getting a partial scholarship to U of Maryland, and she was the type that scored like 30 goals every year in high school.
Student rush was awesome in the late 90s to early 2000s
Same! Was the best part of those years. Could get B16 seats right behind the net for so cheap. Went to 20+ games a year then as a high school and then college student.
I’m cool with firing Sully. But I honestly don’t think that will change a thing. Will it make Mulkin and Letang 5 years younger Their best days are behind them. Will it make Karlson a better defender ?
It's well past its expiration date.
Man aint that the truth. Heres another one, how about plunking carter in front of the net on the PP and let him screen the goalie and use his great hands to tip pucks and get rebounds. Hes done that on the second unit at times but put him with the first unit. Drop Malkin off the PP. Go with Sid, Letang, Karlson, Carter and Jake or Rust.
I have been saying this all year. Carter is on the roster. He can't skate. But neither could Hornquist (not well) or Johan Franzen or going all the way back to Tim Kerr. Get his big butt out there, he has goal scorer pedigree. I can't believe they won't do this. Oh sure, he gets 20 seconds of mopup 2nd PP role. But take off whoever I don't care from PP1 and put Carter in front of the net.
Here is an article discussing GM Dubas's press conference today regarding a myriad of Penguin issues ...... a video of the 25+ minute press conference plus a synopsis is on there ....... take a look ..... have to run but I'll give some opinions later, will be interested in what you guys think ....
This organization right now seems half like the Steelers with their staleness and unwilling to change direction and the Pirates with abject incompetency.
