To My Fellow Diehard Penguins Fans,

It's that lovely time of year again where we rock our black and gold and cheer on our Pittsburgh Penguins. Well, that’s not entirely true, because as diehards, we cheer for the Pens from the early moments of the pre-season, all the way through October and April and then the Playoffs. We even rock our gear in the offseason because, well, we love them.

Let’s be real here. We are shocked, and stoked too, that our Penguins made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. We had faith in our team, don’t get me wrong, but the regular season left us with some doubts. And we persevered. It’s quite ironic if you ask me; how our team can go into the Playoffs ranked high and then lose early, or they barely make it and then go all the way.

Since the last time we won the Cup (2009), the Pens have had this really annoying theme going off making it to the Playoffs and getting beat out by some jackass team. In 2010 it was the Habs, in 2011 it was the Bolts in the first round, and in 2012 it was the goddamn Flyers in the first round. The 2013 playoffs weren’t too bad for us-- making it to the Eastern Conference Semis, but we lost to the damn Bruins. In 2014 we got beat out by the Rangers, and them suckers came back and beat us out again last season.

The amount of bandwagoners coming out of the woodwork is insane. I don’t like them myself, but I really don’t appreciate the non-Pens fans harassing me when I wear my jersey out like I just boarded the Pens train yesterday or something. This store the other day had a half-off sale on jerseys, so naturally I’m like, “yeah, gotta buy one.” The guy at the cash was all like, “oh how long you been a fan, since last month?” Sticks and stones may break my bones, but Sens fans’ chirps will never hurt me. I had another guy question my diehardedness. (According to spellcheck, that’s not a word, but if Bootylicious is, then this needs to be one too.) I let him know straight up, I've been a Pens fan forever. A little less so when Mario retired, a little more so when Orpik was drafted, a little more so when Talbot was drafted, and a little more so when Fleury, Malkin, Crosby, and Letang were drafted. I was excited as all hell when we got guys like Beau Bennett, Darius Kasparaitis, Jaromir Jagr, Matt Barnaby, Andrew Ference, Alex Kovalev, Sebastien Caron, Erik Christensen, Mark Recchi, Rob Scuderi, Georges Laraque, Jarkko Ruutu, Mike Rupp, Mike Comrie, Pascal Dupuis, James Neal, Arron Asham, Eric Tangradi, Petr Sykora, Ruslan Fedotenko, Eric Godard, Alex Goligoski, Billy Guerin, Chris Kunitz, Ben Lovejoy, Jordan Staal, Miroslav Satan, Joe Vitale, Deryk Engelland, Matt Cooke, Simon Despres, Philip Samuelsson, Tomas Vokoun, Brenden Morrow, Taylor Pyatt, Jarome Iginla, Brandon Sutter, Jussi Jokinen, Olli Maatta and Christian Ehrhoff, among many many others. You best believe that I balled like a baby when a lot of them left.

I’m still angry we let Talbot leave. Like, really? After winning us the Cup? That man deserved to retire in a Pens uniform. Call me a relic, but I miss the guys who have gone on. I ran around my house screaming in excitement when I found out that Iginla chose Pittsburgh over Boston. I even bought an Iginla Pens shirt a couple days later. When people asked me if I believed in God and Satan, I made the joke that I believe in hockey gods and Miroslav Satan. I still believe that Arron Asham’s knockout of Jay Beagle was the funniest shit I’ve ever seen despite how “classless” everyone else says it was. Max Talbot’s “SHHHHHH!” still makes me laugh. I watch the games now and for a millisecond I flashback to Paul Martin being one of ours, and then I die inside when I see him in a Sharks jersey.

It’s not easy being a diehard. It kills inside to watch the Pens lose. The ups and downs of 82 games worth of Ws and Ls really takes it out of you. But, you know, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am a proud owner of white knuckles after praying to every hockey god I can think of for Pens wins. When it's tied up two-two in the third quarter, you know I'm praying to every old Pens player I know.

In closing, I would really just like to say thank you. Thank you to the other diehards that kept our team motivated to go from a bottom tier team, to the goddamn PITTSBURGH PENGUINS, a name you can say with respect and pride. Who knows, without that bit of faith the diehards have, we might not be in the position of greatness that we are now.

XoXo (those are offense and defense, not hugs and kisses),

Jersey.