James Mirtle's Q&A With The 700 Level and The Pensblog
If you haven't seen his work before, James Mirtle is one of the best in the business when it comes to hockey blogging. He's a journalist who contributes to the Toronto Globe and Mail, as well as numerous other publications, and he keeps a very tight and informative blog at mirtle.blogspot.com. Mirtle mixes SABR-like statsmanship with incisive commentary and Canadian wit, a breed of blogging even Buzz Bissinger would appreciate. For these reasons, it was a pleasure to participate in his Conference Finals Q&A session. Representing the Penguins is, you guessed it—The Pensblog, who even have a clothing line dedicated to "Dr. Mirtle."
Our Q&A can be found here, and you'll likely also be interested to read The Pensblog's responses.
Thanks to James for the invitation.
Matt, you acquitted yourself nicely. Pensblog? Eh, not so much. They relied more on cheap jokes and generalization, whereas you brought the knowledge big time.
Flyers Fan IQ > Penguins Fan IQ
Posted by: Chamomiles Davis | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Yes, Pensblog is juvenile, but Cumberger? Brilliant.....
Posted by: bizurk | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Those pensblog guys are cool, like in a 'cool brah' kind of way.
Nice job Matt. Anybody here Bissinger on Eskin last night? He was quite apolagetic.
Posted by: Pete D | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 12:40 PM
Flyers blog took no shots at the Pens, yet those amateurs over at PensBlog decided to throw a couple jabs in.
No one has said the Penguins had a 5-3 advantage without saying they took a nice skate-through the final day of the season.
I heard the people in Pittsburgh are putting ads on Philly craiglist to try and get a Penguins jersey on Rocky. If that happens, can we start a riot? From the look of things, it doesn't seem that far off...
Posted by: Greg in DC | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 01:22 PM
Well those Canadian fans put a Habs jersey on Rocky and we all know what happened to the Canadians. As a Philly sports fan, I find it disrespectful, but I wouldn't worry too much about something trivial like that.
Also, did you notice how those PensBlog Bros added "You're just told when you are growing up to hate Philly"? Just more proof that only Pittsburgh considers this a rivalry. This may be the beginning to a rivalry, but the Rangers, Devils and Buffalo have all been bigger rivals over the last 10 years.
And no one had to tell me to hate them.
Posted by: PoorSports | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 02:29 PM
The Pens blog could actually be the worst part of facing the Penguins...it could be the worst blog on the internet. Does it still count as writing when you post pictures with stupid captions as all of your substance?
Kudos to Matt for coming off very well and intelligent in the interview.
Posted by: Steve J | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 07:29 PM
SHIT
did we just lose timmonen?
Posted by: jd | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 08:05 PM
steve-the writer of the pensblog used to write for the WCW. it's meant to be low on substance and more on eliciting a reaction.
Posted by: jd | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 08:07 PM
jd- It all makes sense now...
Posted by: Steve J | Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 11:29 PM