Here We Go...Again!

Here we go again. After last season’s disappointing playoff run for the mighty Provo Liquor Penguins, the short three-week offseason has erased the feelings of dread and despair and replaced them with a sense of hope. It’s amazing how fast we forget! So here we go again. It’s another season, and another reason for Penguin’s fans to forget the past and to dream of future success.

Although the Penguins have struggled in the playoffs in the past, exiting early and often, the team has shown more than a glimmer of hope in each of its last playoff appearances. This small flicker of hope has led Penguins Nation down a path of ‘no return’ in the past, and the 2010 Winter Season is no different. Expectations are high, bordering on unrealistic, and the entire Penguin’s Organization from GM to player is feeling the added pressure.

In the offseason the team lost key players Mick O’Meara and Chris Boomer; O’Meara to injury, and Boomer to free-agency, which caused major concern with the team. But, when all seemed lost, the front-office made a 17-player trade, in which they finagled a first round pick in the draft, which landed them the child-prodigy Pat Hickey.

The young, eighteen year-old Pat Hickey, brother to the Penguin’s star-forward Sean Hickey, promises to be a rising star in the organization, and has already been compared to Tyler Seguin of the Boston Bruins.

WARNING! Comparing Pat Hickey to Tyler Seguin will give fans unrealistic expectations, and will eventually lead to heartbreak during the season.

Although Pat Hickey is taking the comparison in-stride, Penguins Nation has seemingly based the entire season on his performance. Aside from Tenaglia, who joined the Penguins (formerly the Walpole Flyers, Walpole Whalers) at the age of 10, no first-round pick has ever lived up to the hype, under such heavy expectations. Even Tenaglia started to show signs of wear in his rookie season, when he eventually was carted off to the hospital for an overdose on numerous, unknown narcotics. Eventually it was determined that he was just ‘partying like a rock-star’, however it was still concerning to all those around him.

Pat Hickey is about the same age as Seguin, but the comparison stops there. Pat Hickey is slower; less coordinated, has A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder), can’t speak in complete sentences, and has chronic Narcolepsy, where he immediately falls asleep the second he gets excited. The narcolepsy has haunted him in the past as it has led to him falling asleep on his breakaways. He has actually never scored a goal because of it.

With that said, the addition of Pat Hickey has the team seemingly poised to go deep into the playoffs. In order to groom the young star, the team has taken special precautions. It is expected that he will be grouped with two members of the OML (Old Man Line), consisting of Sherwood, Lutfy and Tragakis. This will give the young kid an opportunity to learn the game from some really old guys. No one knows how this will help his game, but it is being done nonetheless.

Additionally, in order to prevent sibling rivalry between the two brothers, Mr. and Mrs. Hickey will drop-off and pick-up both kids for all games and practices, ensuring that a ‘pillow’ is properly placed between the boys in the car, and on the locker-room bench, to prevent fighting.

The new season is upon us, and only time will tell if the organization has made the right moves in the offseason. For now the Nation patiently waits, and hopes. Here we go again.