THE BEST Birthday Gift EVER!!

Even though it was a little early since my birthday is Sunday, going to the Pens game last night was the BEST birthday present I could've asked for!!!!

I CALLED it this time [not Sykora]. After Sykie scored his first goal last night, I leaned over to John and said, "hat trick!" He looked at me with dismay and responded, "don't jinx him." See, he took Sykie's first career hat trick very seriously since he already had 38 two-goal games without such an accomplishment, so John was just as excited as I was when his 3rd one hit the back of the net (after he was robbed when his previous goal was called off!)!! In fact, Sykie should've had four goals last night because we watched the "Penguins Rewind" today and saw that puck go across the red line into the net before the ref's whistle blew -- ROBBED, I TELL YOU!!

But regardless, John and I were there IN PERSON to witness:

• Petr Sykora's FIRST CAREER HAT TRICK
• one of the MOST AWESOME hat trick celebrations ever!!
• Pascal Dupuis' FIRST CAREER HAT TRICK
• TWO hat tricks in one game
• John Curry's first start in net / win AT HOME (and second NHL win) before being re-assigned to WB / S
• NINE Pittsburgh goals
• a Penguins win with a final score of 9-2
• the crowd chanting (and joining in on), "WE WANT 10, WE WANT 10!"
• Pascal Dupuis get "creamed" prior to his Dan Potash post-game interview!!

It was a most memorable game that I am unlikely to forget anytime soon, so --

THANK YOU, Penguins, for giving me the BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT I could've ever hoped for being such a BIG FAN!!!