Jimmy Rixner, Managing Editor for Pensburgh, also known as Hooks Orpik, was kind enough to lend his voice to EOTP temporarily to tell us all why we should cheer for the Pittsburgh Penguins. I will now give the floor to him:
For once, this should be pretty easy. Why should Montreal Canadiens fans cheer for the Pittsburgh Penguins? Let the reasons for the unholy alliance begin:
We hate Ottawa too
The Ottawa Senators are only behind of the Washington Capitals for biggest crybabies within their ownership, management, players and fans, and who knows your nation’s capital might have surpassed ours in that realm.
Even before the Matt Cooke / Erik Karlsson incident (ohhh we’ll get to that in a minute) the Senators have whined and complained against the Pens just like they have with everyone else. Bryan Murray has cried about the Pens for years. Their owner literally hates us and thinks our players intend to injure them.
Again, their owner wrote this tweet. Because there is no vulgarity in hockey. Or on the internet. And he honestly thinks the vilanious Matt Cooke intentionally took out a (for the Pens) fairly low value target in Karlsson.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” and I can’t imagine that statement fitting any better than for the Habs fans to cheer for the Pens.
Hey, we know Michel Therrien too
We can trade cool Michel Therrien stories. Like the one time when he was displeased with Brooks Orpik and made him play wing on the 4th line for like 3 minutes a game for a little while. Or that time where he suggested his team only deserved half of their paychecks because they only try half of the time. It’s a special bond to know the press conference meltdowns, sometimes baffling personnel decisions and the glory that is Michel Therrien. Both of our fanbases can relate like no others can.
The Penguins have a Quebec flare
A lot of our players are native to your neck of the woods. Pascal Dupuis. Kris Letang. Simon Despres. Marc-Andre Fleury. Oh yeah and we built a statue for that Lemieux guy that came from Montreal and saved our franchise more times than we’ll ever know. When it comes to Quebec, Pens fans owe a lot to what’s come from there, and cheering for the Pens means Habs fans can watch native sons made well.
Jarome Iginla
Now that Teemu Selanne has been eliminated (single tear) who’s a better “cool, old veteran that you can’t hate so you jump on his bandwagon in hopes he wins it” candidate than Jarome Iginla? He’s the most humble dude, a really good player and has helped your country to win like a million gold medals over the years. Cheering for him is really easy and something you’ve already done for in Olympics.
Editor’s Note: Also, Iginla screwed over Boston. If that isn’t endearing, what the heck is? -Andrew
Sidney Crosby used to be a Habs fan
Your team is the team of his father and his youth, as you might have heard one time or a million over the years. It also helps that Crosby is the best player in the game, and the most exciting one to watch too. Even with a broken jaw, you still never know what he is capable of on every shift, and you know that you could see something really special or new at any moment. Greatness is fun to cheer for.
But seriously, Ottawa sucks
Come for the Sens hate and watch the Penguins dispatch them, then stay for the ride. Nothing’s ever as good as rooting on your own team this time of year, but if you’re a Habs fan, you can’t do any better than the Pittsburgh Penguins succeeding right now.
Make sure you check out Pensburgh during the playoffs for all your Penguins news, and to hear about how Crosby is awesome and Karlsson sucks.
