Penguins Practice Stalkfest

As you already know, I'm pretty obsessed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. So, when I found out a few months ago that they hold free and open practices to the public, I knew I was going to at least one this season. No question about it.

Their practice facility, the Iceoplex at Southpointe, is only 3-½ hours away. Jenn, being the loving and self-sacrificing best friend she is, agreed to travel there with me for Saturday's practice...although I'm sure she would have preferred a trip to the dentist.

Friday, we left around 8:00 PM for the drive to Washington, PA. We stayed at the Days Inn and I must say - DO NOT stay there. Aside from the burn holes in the comforter and the wallpaper falling off the walls, there were a few other problems. First, none of the ice machines worked. There was a huge cockroach smashed and stuck in the curtain and left there for us to see. The channel buttons on the remote control didn't work, so you had to type in the individual numbers to change the channel.

My personal favorite? There was some leftover popcorn in our ice bucket that the maid had forgotten to clean out.

Needless to say, we rushed out of there in the morning (after our continental breakfast, of course). Since I'm a coward, Jenn confronted the lady at the reception desk. Apparently, she didn't seem very surprised by any of this. Shocker.

We got to the Iceoplex around 9:45. There were about 10 people waiting in line near the rear entrance, holding Sidney Crosby jerseys and pictures. Of course, my hopes got up and we stood there for a freezing hour with my jersey and permanent marker in hand. Sidenote: There is no one to blame but myself for wearing flip-flops in 22º weather.

The parking lot filled up and people started parking in the grass. With practice starting in five minutes, we decided to give up and head in. Practice had already started, so we found seats and I took a million paparazzi shots. I took more than a few of Jordan Staal.

I tried to find Pants and Chuck, the writers for one of my favorite blogs What's Up, Ya Sieve?, but to no avail. If you want to hear about today's game or see better pictures of the practice, you should probably go to their hilarious and awesome blog.

Practice was awesome. It's fun to see them interact with each other, push each other and play around. I saw Letang try to start a fight with Engelland, Arron Asham army crawl across the ice, and Dan Bylsma spray fans with water.

As the players began to leave the ice, we headed outside to hopefully see some of them. The line near the rear exit was outrageously long. We waited in it, anyway. About 30 minutes later, everyone started to get really excited because goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (Flower) was making his way down the line in his amazing car. I didn't think he'd actually sign for everyone because there were way over 100 people waiting, but he did! I had him sign my Penguins pennant and got a picture with him!

I told him good luck tomorrow...and it must have worked because they won in a shootout today and he was named first star of the game with 37 saves. I'll take partial credit. You're welcome.

After practice, we made our way downtown to walk around the South side of Pittsburgh and eat lunch. Jenn got to have a draft Yuengling and I got to gush over Flower for an hour, so all was right in the world. Reluctantly, we left for our drive back with me desperately scouring the streets for Penguins or tickets to today's game one last time. No such luck.

Despite the creepy hotel room, the trip was great. Maybe I can talk Jenn into doing it again next year? Ha!