Wings First Return to Pittsburgh...

The Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since winning the cup last season against these very Penguins. Well... most of these Penguins. 2 major changes include Marian Hossa, and Ty Conklin switching over from the dark side, and joining the Winged Wheel. As expected Hossa received a chorus of boos each and every time he touched the puck, but Ty Conklin seemed to fly under the fans radar. Big Mistake. The lowly back-up goaltender who carried Crosby & Co. last season when Fleury was injured, came back ready to show his former employer how much game he had left. The fans were all over Hossa tonight, but he seemed to thrive on the challenge to show these fans what they lost.

At one point the cameras cut to a fan with a home made sign that read "17,132 = Pittsburgh Sellout then had a poorly drawn Red Wing jersey with Hossa on it equivalent to a Detroit Sellout". Pierre McGuire then asked "how is Hossa a sellout when he took LESS money to play in Detroit??"

But that wasn't even Pierre's best quote of the night. After Marian scored the second goal he made his way back to the bench with an enormous smile on his face that McGuire described by saying "He's smiling bigger than a butcher's dog!"

A few of the great story lines tonight;

• Hossa skates around solo while the fans boo mercilessly, only to fire a sweet backhand past Fleury while 4 Penguins watched in awe and thus sending the Boo-Birds into a frenzy.
  (5 Shots, 1 Goal & +1)
  
• Conklin shuts out his former team in their own barn.
  (25 Saves)
  
• Datsyuk & Zetterberg re-united to shut down Malkin, and made Crosby non-existant.
  (Malkin 21:20 TOI, 4 Shots & -1 and Crosby = 23:21 TOI, 1 Shot & -1)

I LOVE beating Pittsburgh.