Saturday, October 03, 2009
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Morgan Vrana and Kristen Gorman, both 15, would have been planted in front of the big television screen outside Mellon Arena all day if they had been allowed to skip school.
As it was, the girls left Seneca Valley High School yesterday and made a beeline for Uptown, arriving four hours before the Penguins' season opener.
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
The Penguins watch as the Stanley Cup championship banner is raised at the Mellon Arena last night.
That was plenty of time for them to set up their chairs at the front of the grassy area beneath the screen and, with faces painted in black-and-gold decorations and wearing hooded jackets to ward off some light rain, wait to watch the Stanley Cup pregame celebration and the game against the New York Rangers.
"We definitely wanted good seats, and I am almost obsessed -- OK, I am obsessed -- with the Penguins," Morgan said.
"I'm going to be going crazier out here than the people in there," Kristen said of the 17,132 in the sellout crowd who had tickets to watch the team bring out the Stanley Cup and raise the club's third championship banner toward the roof of the metal dome before the Penguins' 3-2 victory.
It was pretty loud inside the arena from the time a red carpet was rolled onto the ice until the ceremony ended 25 minutes later.
Highlights of the team's playoff run to the Cup -- series wins over Philadelphia, Washington, Carolina and Detroit, with all the big goals and big saves -- were projected onto sheeting that stretched from the top of the scoreboard to the ice. After the video, which was narrated by comedian Dennis Miller, the sheeting was lowered to reveal the Cup at center ice.
The Penguins' management, starting with majority co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, and players were introduced, with the largest roars going to star centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who each scored goals last night, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and fan favorite Max Talbot, who scored both goals in the clinching, 2-1 Game 7 win against Detroit but is not ready to play after offseason shoulder surgery.
The players then gathered around the Cup and a long trunk, from which the new banner emerged and was raised -- not all the way to the metal roof of the dome but higher than the scoreboard.
The white banner trimmed in black had in black lettering:
2008-09
Stanley
Cup
Champions
The banner -- made by Signature Flags of Ambridge -- will take a permanent spot between two others commemorating the 1991 and 1992 championships high above one corner of the ice.
As he was June 12 when the Penguins won Game 7 of the final in Detroit, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was on hand
"It's a bit of a homecoming," Mr. Bettman said. "It was 112 days ago that I presented the Stanley Cup to Sidney Crosby, the youngest captain to get the Cup, in Detroit. So now, this is now the hometown celebration in the arena. It's a nice way to start the final season in this building."
The Penguins will move all their banners across the street next season and into the city's new arena, the Consol Energy Center.
Last night, the Penguins' 119th consecutive sellout at Mellon Arena, seats were a coveted commodity, even for the players.
Several had family members and friends in town -- including Mr. Crosby's two grandmothers -- although Mr. Malkin's parents, who became minor celebrities during the playoffs last spring, weren't able to make it.
For some of the Penguins, this wasn't their first front-row seat to a banner-raising celebration.
Winger Bill Guerin waited 14 years between titles and finds a finality in the ceremony that kicks off the new season for the champions.
"It's a nice night, but you're also reminded very quickly that it's a new season," he said. "You can't just sit on the bench and look up at the banner all night. You've got to get going and play some hockey."
The Penguins understand, though, how much of a thrill the continued celebration of their league championship is.
"I was a pretty big fan growing up, and those types of things are important for the fans," said forward Craig Adams, who won his first Stanley Cup with Carolina.
"It's nice, and everybody cheers and you get some goose bumps. But then you turn that off and start playing the game."
Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com
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First published on October 3, 2009 at 12:00 am
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