CONSOL Energy Center looked a little bit more like the Heartbreak Hotel Sunday night as the Pittsburgh Penguins took on the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. That's because the Heartbreak Kid himself was in the house to cheer on the home team.

WWE legend Shawn Michaels has been enjoying a wave of attention from the Steel City in the wake of the success of Pittsburgh's hottest offensive trio featuring Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel a.k.a. "The HBK Line."

After a campaign by Penguins fans to get Michaels to come out to a game to cheer on the line that borrowed the abbreviated version of his nickname. The Penguins offered a more formal invitation, which the original HBK happily obliged. Michaels, who has done so much press and even cut a little promo for the whole thing, hopped a flight from his home to make it to Pittsburgh Sunday and proceeded to spend the day with former Pittsburgh Steelers player Brett Keisel, who offered Michaels a ticket to sit next to him at the game.

Their first official stop was to the legendary Primanti Bros. Restaurant to try the sandwich inspired by the HBK Line featuring ham, bacon and kielbasa. It looked like the fellas were enjoying themselves and Michaels looks like he could step back in the ring tomorrow if he wanted to.

Not a bad pre-game meal right there.

By the way, Keisel embodied ex-Michaels cohort Kevin Nash a.k.a. Diesel to serve as his new friend's bodyguard. If Keisel had to deliver any Jackknife Powerbombs, they were out of the public view (smart).

Finally it was time for ol' HBK to get over to the arena. He got there nice and early and probably felt right at home when they started playing to old Degeneration X entrance music just before warmups. Michaels was pretty fired up just to be in the building.

He also got formal welcome from Penguins legend and co-owner Mario Lemieux, whom Michaels was pretty excited to meet. Two of the all-time greats in their respective fields had a little powwow as the WWE Hall of Famer slipped on his custom jersey.

Let's get a closer look at that jersey, though. The 156 is what you get when you add together the jersey numbers of the HBK Line (62+13+81) and since we're all on a nickname basis now, HBK is all you need to know the wearer of the jersey by on the nameplate.

Then it was time to get the game going. The Penguins put together a little tribute video for the HBK Line and then they showed the one and only on the video board. Michaels flexed for the crowd, as one does, but somehow no one got Superkicked (yet).

I honestly did not know jersey sleeves could go up that high, but you've gotta give the people what they want.

Here's how it looked to the fans in the arena:

Michaels is really a part of the hockey community now, though. He was interviewed by Hockey Night in Canada's Scott Oake during the game where he explained what he found so impressive about hockey. The HBK has been honest that he doesn't know much about the sport, but that he's enjoyed learning about it over the last week. Maybe he'll be a long-term fan now.

Unfortunately for HBK, both the line and the wrestler, it was not a victorious night for the Penguins.

He looked like he was having a great time and really feeling the love from the Penguins fans the whole night, aside from the end result of course.

michaelskeisel.jpg
Shawn Michaels (right) cheers on the Penguins and their HBK Line with seatmate Brett Keisel. USATSI