The NHL entry draft lottery was held yesterday in New York and the Pittsburgh Penguins won the #1 overall pick in this year’s draft! I know this probably isn’t very exciting to most of you reading this, but it is hockey, and I love Pittsburgh – so smeg off… Having the #1 pick overall (the draft will be held on Saturday, July 31st – ESPN will carry it live) means that the Penguins will select the best prospect of the last 20 years – 17 year old hockey phenom Sidney Crosby. He is being compared to Mario Lemieux, and will most definitely keep hockey in Pittsburgh for another 15 years.

With that said, I thought I’d write a little bit about why I love Pittsburgh so much even though I’ve never really lived there. My mom grew up on the North side of Pittsburgh in an area called Riverview Park. It was a blue collar neighborhood in the 50′s and 60′s and has since become a ghetto. The house my mom grew up in is still there and I like to drive by whenever I visit the city. It reminds me of my grandmother and all the summers and holidays I spent in the house as little kid – some of my first memories are of being in that house. I love snow, and we don’t really get all that much snow in Dallas… Anyway, my mom has always been a huge Steelers, Pirates and Penguins fan, so that was passed along to me. I grew up loving the sport of hockey, and with no hockey team in Dallas, I always followed the Penguins. When the Stars moved here in 93, I was stoked, and I am a huge Stars fan as well, but the Pens will always hold a special place in my sports pants.