Here's a news search from google. Find me all the articles dumping on the Pens that are remotely close to what he wrote about the Steelers. He's a Penguin fanboy. It's ok for you to admit it, since he does all the time.
I’ll start with this one, I can give you a good number more if you like:
Going into Saturday night’s home game vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Pittsburgh Penguins had just 19 wins in regulation time over their last 64 games.
They blew a 2-0 third-period lead at Buffalo on Friday night, losing 3-2.
The Penguins’ season has taken on familiar characteristics that have been in place for several years and keep getting amplified in a bad way:
• Rotten power play.
• Goaltending that very rarely steals a game.
• Can’t manage leads. Too often surrender points from winning positions. The Penguins have lost 11 of the last 43 games they led after two periods.
• Soft play in general, but especially in both slots.
• Declining speed.
• An inability to see themselves as they really are.
Those are just greatest hits. Parsing further would be endless. You get the drift.
What should the Penguins do?
I’m not sure, but there are a few things they seem determined to not do:
• They won’t fire coach Mike Sullivan. He’s signed through 2027. He’s from Boston, which connects him to owners Fenway Sports Group. The core three of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have no interest in breaking in a new coach.
• They won’t trade a big name, especially anyone from the core three. They’re also unlikely to trade, say, Jake Guentzel because he’s Crosby’s favorite linemate.
You can logically defend not doing those things.
Sullivan is a very good, respected coach with two Stanley Cups on his resume. (That doesn’t mean he hasn’t hit his expiration date.)
You don’t get better by trading your best players. (That’s the narrative, anyway. In 1992, then-GM Craig Patrick traded two Hall-of-Famers for no Hall-of-Famers and won a second straight Stanley Cup because of it.)
But there’s no doubt the Penguins are stale and have been for years.
So, here’s a logical thought: Nothing should be off-limits.
The Penguins have been too meh for too long to be locked into sentiment and loyalty. Propping up a nostalgia tour indefinitely and indulging the eternal bond of brotherhood wastes new GM Kyle Dubas and isn’t why Dubas was hired.
The Penguins won’t get fixed by not fixing anything.
“What about the no-movement clauses?” Those don’t keep players from being traded. They allow the player to control where he’s traded.
As this space previously noted, the core three will be scattered to the winds when the Penguins go splat.
The next move will be something weak like firing assistant coach Todd Reirden because he’s in charge of the power play. Scapegoating Matt Canada-style.
