News Flash! We know the Staals play hockey

God bless the Staal family.  They must be tired of telling their story and they must be just plain sick of us.

Henry and Linda Staal have four sons with solid NHL ties. We know.

How many more times are we going to see this story? FSN Pittsburgh, Versus, and NBC need to know that we know.

Back it the day, the Sutter family was hockey's first family and they had six brothers with NHL service.

Watch the video and ask how many times we've seen the complete family archive footage.  There is no more. We've seen it enough.  Same for the overused "STAAL TACTIC" headlines (Yes, we did that once).  Bet if you opened up the family scrapbook, you'd find that headline in the majority of articles.

Make no mistake, this column is in no way a negative reflection on their hockey skills or a slight on family bonds.  We've all heard the story and we should just leave those nice people alone. 

If we ever want an interesting story let's tell the story of Gary Sutter (the seventh brother that never played in the NHL). 

If you have been living under a rock for the last few years, the lockout is over, two-line passes are legal, the Staal family is ... ah, watch the video:

Sid's 100, 200, 300th

Sid checks a few milestones off the list:

Bissonnette bloodies Bradley

Here's tonight's video of the night:

Video of the Night: Godard v. Cote

Nice Rock 'em Sock 'em fight about five minutes into the game tonite. This was the best fight since Gary Roberts schooled Ben Eager.

"Mr. 8.7" Returns to the Air

Controversial (only if your are a Larry Fine look-a-like) Mark Madden returns to the air today. Finally.

Madden's unabashed love of hockey is important to the sport in this city. He's knowledgeable, entertaining and candid.

Getting Madden on the Penguins Flagship station, WXDX, is pure, ahem, genius.

You won't find this in the obituary section today, but, "AM Radio in Pittsburgh is Dead."

New Championship banners

The Penguins new banners are now above the ice at the Mellon Arena and they look very impressive. The NHL MVP and Art Ross banners are a nice touch too.

While some of the purists have complained about the original banners being replaced, we are totally fine with the uniformity of all the banners, knowing that they'll be stunning in the new building.

Our only complaint? Where is the banner for the Pittsburgh Hornets three championships? They hung one in February 2001, but it has mysteriously disappeared.