Pittsburgh Sports, Opinion and Politics | Just Watch the Game Blog

It’s hard to believe that the Penguins will be playing a hockey game Wednesday night.

They don’t wait long in the NHL before they start playing exhibition games- training camp starts Saturday.

The best thing about hockey season beginning is that there will be even less focus on the pathetic, aggravating, stinking Pirates.

There will also be real games to watch in about in three weeks.

The Penguins will be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender with or without Sidney Crosby.

Here’s a a nice capsulized look at what each NHL team is dealing with going into training camp.

ESPN.com started its training camp tour in Pittsburgh.

Be sure to check out my show from noon to 2, Mon-Fri on TribLive Radio. I’ll have plenty of hockey experts on all season long, including some of the top NHL.com, ESPN, Versus/NBC and TSN analysts.

I think you’ll find it more interesting than listening to what Steve from McKeesport thinks on The Fan.

Ken Laird, Guy Junker and I will be live from Steelers training camp today on TribLive Radio.

Check us out.

My employers at Trib Total Media made it clear that they’re serious about the future of internet radio today when they announced that Guy Junker will be joining TribLive Radio.

He’ll share the 10 to noon shift with Ken Laird, who will start at 9 and also share the noon to 1 hour with me.

It wouldn’t be right to call what we’re doing an experiment because the technology has been around for a while, but it is the first time anyone in Pittsburgh has tried an internet radio station.

We’re obviously at a disadvantage because it’s not easy for people to listen in their cars, but it won’t be long before cars will be equipped with internet radios and when that happens Trib Total Media will be well ahead of the game.

Eventually, transmitters will become irrelevant and KDKA’s 50,000 watts won’t matter anymore. Every show that’s done in every studio will have the capability of reaching a world wide audience.

We’re doing the kind of radio that I like at TribLive Radio –we don’t depend on the callers to do our shows for us.

That means more guests and  that means that listeners get to hear from people who know more than they do.

We invite calls and emails but they’re not what drive the show.

Guy has been in the local media for over 30 years. He’s knowledgeable and a straight shooter.

I’m looking forward to working with him.

He starts August 1st.

At the risk of making a shamless plug, this is a shameless plug for TribLive radio.

We’ve been on the air since the middle of January and we’re slowly starting to build an audience and I wanted to let you know what we’ve been doing in case you haven’t checked it out yet.

There are ways to listen in your car and on your smart phone and you can find out how by going to the website, but most of our listeners are going to come to us by computer –at least for now.

It’s the kind of talk radio that I like, which means very little dependence on callers and text messages.

For example, today on my show, I had two interesting conversations.

In the first half hour I talked to a reporter who had just come out of the court room where Barry Bonds was on trial and later in the hour I talked goaltending with Darren Pang, the former NHL goalie and NBC/Versus analyst.

Rick Tocchet, when he’s not working as a rotating post game host on the Flyers’ Telecasts, sits in with Chris Mack every morning from 10-12. He talks about NHL issues from the perspective of a former player and former head coach.

And he called on his friends, Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull and Jeremy Roenick to be guests.

Last week I had both Barry Melrose and Pierre McGuire, two of the best analysts in hockey, on my show to talk about the Penguins’ prospects, head shots and everything else that has been going on in the NHL.

I find this kind of talk radio so much more interesting than what is going on at the other stations –especially The Fan, where they are obsessed with getting listener input.

“How far will the Penguins go inthe playoffs without Crosby.”

“Are you still watching the NCAA Tournament now that Pitt is no longer in it.”

“Over or under 64 wins for the 2011 Pirates.”

That’s lazy radio and it’s boring. I think you’ll find a different sound at triblive.com.

Check us out.

Now back to regularly scheduled programming.