Penguins Visit The White House

In honor of thier 2009 Stanley Cup Championship, the Pittsburgh Penguins organization was invited to The White House yesterday to be honored by President Barrack Obama.

What a cool scene.

To watch the President talk about hockey at all, let alone in an organized but relaxed tone was really interesting. I mean, when the 44th President of the United States takes the time at the beginning of the 10 minute appearance to recognize all of the legislators from Western Pennsylvania as being "in the house" to recognize the Penguins, you're on to something special.

Aside from the things one might expect -- like seeing Obama pose for pictures with the Cup, and be recognized by head coach Dan Blysma -- I'm not sure what my favorite part of the ceremony was. There were several enjoyable moments, though.

For one, Obama said having Mario Lemieux in The White House was "a pretty big deal".

Another enjoyable moment was the President turing around from the podium to recognize Evgeni Malkin as being the 3rd youngest player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy was playoff MVP, then watching Malkin pull out his cell phone to take a picture of Obama as soon as he turned back around to face the audience and have the audience break out in laughter.

When Obama turned back around, Malkin hid the phone, before pulling it out once more when Obama again turned to face the audience.

Great stuff there.

Of course, Obama was presented a black Penguins jersey with his name and the number 44 on it, in recognition of him being the 44th President of the United States.

Crosby presented him the jersey, and not long after, Obama said that he must be fast and skilled because there were a lot of big hockey players there and Crosby wasn't one of them.

That was another great moment, for sure.

And with that 10 minutes of fame, the Penguins can -- and should -- close the book on their 2009 season.

Training camp starts with players reporting tomorrow and the Penguins need to do what their brethren from the Pittsburgh Steelers plan to do.

Not repeat.

Focus on the job of starting from day one and turning the current group into one which will win a very special trohpy at the end of the year.

More in the coming days about the outset of camp and 5 burning questions which face the Penguins in their quest to again become champions.