Monday, May 5, 2008

Dual battles of Pennsylvania

Interestingly, as the Pittsburgh Penguins prepare to meet the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, their AHL affiliates are already battling it out in a divisional final.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period and held on for a 3-2 road victory over Philadelphia on Monday at the Wachovia Center in Game 3 of the East Division finals.


As a native Pennsylvanian, let me tell you about the two halves of the state. We don't like each other very much.

Western Pennsylvanians are really midwesterners, and think the people from Philly are a "little too east coast" (yes that's an insult). Philly gets all the favors by the state government and pushes everyone around. The eastern Pennsylvanians, as far I can tell, don't really care what the western Pennsylvanians think, since they outnumber them. They probably think we're behind the times (there's some truth to that though). Pennsylvania is essentially two cultural regions separated by mountains. About the only thing we would agree we have in common is that we all like our sports teams a lot.

Makes for a good rivalry, no?

I was raised a Penguins fan. Everyone I was related to was a Penguins fan, except for my uncle who liked the Islanders. Something about the glory days. But he married in.

Cheesesteaks vs. Perogies (or better yet, Primanti Bros.) for the Eastern Conference. I'm calling Perogies in 5.
.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Go, Pens! (x2)

A check of the Pittsburgh roster shows a decent number of players with WBS Penguins experience...I know having a core of Crosby and Malkin helps a ton, but it is good to know that an NHL team can get a significant contribution from its farm club and be successful while the farm club itself can likewise be successful...it would be nice to see the same with the Thrashers. Maybe once Don WaddAHL leaves it can happen here, too.