Time to Embrace Life After Crosby…for Now

The most significant on ice decision of the Mario Lemieux ownership era is less than 17 months away. That’s when your Pittsburgh Penguins must decide whether to lavish what figures to be an eight figure annual salary on the NHL’s preeminent superstar (when healthy), one Sidney Crosby.

Before Sid the Kid became the poster child for the NHL’s recent concussion epidemic, such a deal was academic. The question was not IF the Pens would keep Crosby, just how much it would cost. The only legitimate concern regarding Crosby’s future was whether he would stay in the Burgh or head back to the mother ship in Canada.

Oh how we Penguin fans long for the days when the picture was that simple.

Now of course there is a legitimate question of whether the Pens can afford to keep Crosby. With Crosby healthy, an eight figure contract is a bargain. With Crosby beset by concussion issues and regularly unable to play, it’s a potentially franchise killing contract. Especially given Evgeni Malkin’s return to prominence as arguably the best offensive player in the NHL.

I do not envy Lemieux or Ray Shero the decision they may face in June 2013.

Alas, that decision is well off in the distance. Beyond even the clouds of the NHL’s uncertain labor situation which could potentially confuse the issue further. In short, there is still time, albeit a rapidly decreasing amount to deal with Crosby’s long-term future In contrast, the more pressing issue is less than ten days away.

The 2012 trade deadline arrives a week from Monday. That is the hard deadline for the Penguins to accept if they are willing to concede a second lost season for Crosby. And to my way of thinking, this is exactly what they must do.

I do not know a single Penguin fan who wants anything less than a healthy Sidney Crosby in the line-up before the post season starts. I also do not know a single Penguin fan who did not want to win last week’s $350 Million Power Ball either.

As much as we don’t want to accept it, reality is setting in. And that reality is that Sidney Crosby is unlikely to play again this season.

There is a déjà vu aspect to this situation; we lived the same scenario last spring. We watched the Penguins battle heroically night after night without the two headed monster of Crosby and Malkin in the line-up. And even as we knew that Malkin’s season was over, we hoped beyond hope that somehow, someway, Crosby would return in time to save the team’s Stanley Cup dreams. We hoped as we would in any season but especially last year when the Pens looked darn near invincible, until their apocalyptic post New Year’s injury run.

It never happened. No matter how good Crosby looked skating in practice, no matter how many reports were issued on his “improvement” he could not shake the concussion symptoms. The wait became an exercise in utter futility and the Pens eventually succumbed to superior talent in the Tampa Bay Lightning. The series exposed the most basic lesson in sports; great talent beats hard work when great talent is willing to work hard.

Championship opportunities in sports are precious and rare. They do not come along very often.

And in a strictly sports sense, true championship opportunities lost are a travesty.

The 2011 Penguins lost such an opportunity. They cannot afford to let another slip way while desperately hoping Crosby will return. Quite simply, it’s time to move on and accept the unpleasant reality of Sid’s short-term future.

A year ago I was more resigned to the team’s fate, what with Crosby and Malkin both out of the line-up. I refuse to make such concessions this year; especially with Malkin dominating the league in Crosby like fashion. Most teams in the league would dream of having a Malkin type superstar leading their club. Only in Pittsburgh would we suggest that it takes two such players to win a cup. In point of fact, it does not.

It takes one such player, healthy of course, with the right supporting cast. The Penguins are close but not quite there. Simply put the team as comprised is not Stanley Cup caliber without Crosby…but it can be. And thus Ray Shero MUST act.

The Pens to my way of thinking needs a top six forward, a checking line center, and possibly a depth defenseman. Crosby alone would solve the first two concerns. His return to health would allow the Pens to add arguably the game’s best player to their top six and push Jordan Staal back to the third line. There is no better group of centers in the league…when healthy…than Crosby, Malkin and Staal.

Crosby is so dominant that he can elevate a Pascal Dupuis to top 6 forward status. Staal, for all his strengths cannot. Jordan Staal is the game’s preeminent third line center. As a second line center he needs help. A second line of Staal with Cooke and Dupuis (or Sullivan or Kennedy) is acceptable in February, not in May. Especially given the likes of Cal O’Reilly and/or Dustin Jeffrey are centering the third line.

On the contrary, a line of Staal, Cooke, and say Teemu Selanne is a championship caliber option.

The Penguins’ answer may or may not be the Finish Flash but it needs to be a legitimate top 6 forward (Jaromir Jagr would have been nice solution but alas that's revisionist history now). Shero should be willing part with anybody in the organization short Simon Despres to make that happen. That includes the likes of Jeffrey, Ben Lovejoy, Kennedy and the rapidly fading prospect that is Eric Tangradi.

The Penguins also need a legitimate third line center if Crosby does not return. Stanley Cups are not won with waiver wire cast-offs like O’Reilly or Richard Park, or even Joe Vitale in that role.

Such acquisitions will almost certainly put the Pens over the salary cap with Crosby on the ledger. This accepts as unlikely the miracle that would be adequately replacing Paul Martin’s bloated contract. Which means quite simply that Crosby must come off the ledger until the end of the regular season. That calculation does not even contemplate adding another defensemen which may be a consideration with or without Martin in black and gold.

In the event Sid the Kid performs a miraculous recovery by season’s end, the Pens can still exploit the NHL’s ridiculous cap loophole and bring him back for the post season. There is precedent for this in Penguins’ Stanley Cup history and I’m willing to go way out on a limb and suggest that Sid might add a bit more to the line-up than Miroslav Satan.

That scenario presumes of course that Crosby is healthy and ready to play by mid-April. That is not a presumption I am willing to make with Sid still experiencing concussion symptoms as of today.

It’s time for a harsh, in your face reality check for all Penguin fans. We are now well in to year two of the Crosby concussion battle and there is little evidence that this issue is going to resolve itself any time soon. Even as we cling to the “soft tissue injury” as our Crosby lifeline, the reality is that Sid’s career right now is very much in jeopardy. I continue to hope beyond hope that Crosby returns healthy but I’m simply no longer willing to bank on it, not at the cost of another lost Stanley Cup.

In the pre salary cap days, such concerns were not mutually exclusive. Today they are. The Pens must bite the bullet and upgrade to championship supporting cast around Malkin. That means moving beyond Crosby…at least for now.

Déjà vu all over Again

I love hockey. That’s not exactly breaking news to those who know me well.

In fact one might say I have a cult like devotion to the sport. Die hard hockey fans tend to be that way; a product of both our genuine passion for the game and the constant uphill battle it faces for mainstream acceptance.

I’ve come to grips with hockey’s place in the sports pantheon, which is to say I’ve stopped trying to convert non-believers to the NHL like some kind of skating Jehovah’s Witness. At the same time I am fiercely protective of the game. And yes I will concede that can result in overreactions on my part to short term concerns. However…

There is a fundamental problem that comes with being an NHL fan; one that is nearly impossible to overcome. Simply put, the people who run the sport we love seem hell bent on its destruction. With the possible exception of major league baseball owners, there is no group that consistently works harder to destroy its own product than those who run the National Hockey League.

Every once in awhile, say after a season ending lockout they have an epiphany about doing the right by their game. The epiphany lasts some length of time but eventually the NHL guardians regress back to the mean. The mean in this case is the boring, defensive minded, clutch and grab hockey which caused Mario Lemieux to famously coin the term, “garage league” for the NHL.

And in case you have not been paying attention the league is regressing again.

I noticed last year a shocking decrease in the number of power plays per game. At first I attributed this to players getting comfortable with the post lockout rules and fully adapting their games. Alas, the trend has gone in to overdrive since calendar flipped to 2012. The Penguin stats were posted during their game in Montreal the other night and they were an eye opener; less than 5 power plays per game, TOTAL, between both teams since January 1st. Which means for once Steigy and Errey are not simply blowing homer smoke when they complain about the Pens not getting calls.

Lest you think this is an aberration I’m seeing the same trend in Blackhawks games as well. And it’s starting to affect results such as Anaheim beating Carolina last night after a blatant trip that was not called. I’ve also noticed a subtle increase in the number of sticks around mid-sections that are suddenly being ignored, especially in New Jersey.

In short, the NHL is once again prioritizing grit, tenacity, clutching, and grabbing over skill. That’s wonderful news for the Max Talbot’s of the world but a disaster for the league as a whole.

Lest you think I’m overreacting here are some simple numbers for you:

• In 2003-04, the last year before the lockout the average total goals scored in an NHL game was 5.14.

• In 2005-06, the liberated first year after the lockout the average goals score in an NHL game was 6.16, a 20% increase.

• In 2011-12, through last Sunday the average goals scored have dropped to 5.48 per game; an 11% decrease from the first year post lockout.

That of course is only part of the story; the quantifiable part, which I as a certified numbers geek tend to cling to when presenting an argument. There is also what we see and feel when watching the game. And there is an unmistakable sense that once again offense is slowly being siphoned from the sport.

It’s early of course and the evidence is for now is primarily circumstantial. And yet I feel like I’m having a déjà vu, to the early days of the dead puck era. In those days I found myself apologizing every time I took a non hockey fan to a game. It was a period that chased away all but the most ardent supporters of the NHL.

I understand the league cannot cater solely to the peripheral fans who want 10-8 scores every night. That said, when the NHL threatens to scare me off it has a SEROIUS problem. My memory is not what it used to be but did they not cancel an entire season in part to address this problem?

There may be no better barometer of the NHL’s problem than the Devils who, in spite of breaking the bank for Ilya Kovalchuk are back to destroying any semblance of excitement in the game. Worse yet they now have disciples. After 1,562 NHL games this season, there were four teams whose games feature an average of less than 5 goals, led by Los Angeles at an embarrassing 4.36 goals per game. All four teams, LA, the NY Rangers, Minnesota, and St’Louis are in serious playoff contention right now.

You may also have noticed a bevy of goaltenders once again allowing less than 2 goals per game; lead by such luminaries as Brian Elliott in St’Louis. That’s the same Elliott who was so bad against the Penguins two years ago that Ottawa started the ghost of Pascal Leclaire in two playoff games. Before we start polishing Elliott’s hall of fame bust, let’s remember that the dead puck era was so awful it made Jocelyn Thibault in to a superstar. If that’s not a serious indictment of the game at that time, I don’t know what is.

Thankfully we’re not there…yet. That said, the trend is disconcerting, at least since the refs stopped calling penalties in January. It’s simply too obvious to be an accident or coincidence.

It’s possible the NHL is looking to slow down the game in lieu of the shocking increase in concussions over the last 12 months. If this is the case than the league can at least be somewhat lauded for its motives if not its actions. Addressing the distributing head injury trend is absolutely a necessity; but there has to be a better way than by removing speed and excitement from the sport.

That said, I think there is more to the story. The NHL power base is still dominated by thick minded, “old school” hockey guys whose first love seems to be 4th line grinders and goons. These folks have been decrying the so called “new rules” as an abomination almost from the moment they were introduced. They worship at the altar of Don Cheery, a man who continues to preach this as gospel of “old school” hockey at the expense of skill, excitement or sanity in the sport.

I’m reminded of Tom Barrasso’s famous refusal to have a battle of wits with Cherry because Cherry was unarmed. And yet I still believe the Cherry mentality dominates the NHL’s direction (read Colin Campbell’s mockery of disciplinary action throughout last season). Those who feel different, like for example a certain hall of fame, French Canadian superstar who runs the Penguins get shouted down and decried as whiners when they protest.

Make no mistake; the game is at it best when played with speed, skill, and physicality. I don’t care how great Tim Thomas and Henrik Lundqvist are; something is seriously wrong when goaltenders are approaching a 94% save percentage. Check out how many 1-0 games have been played in the NHL since January 1st, several of which were actually 0 – 0 but for the shootout.

For now there are only signs of distress. Understand though that there were similar such signs in 1998. The league ignored them and tacitly endorsed the horrific clutching and grabbing in some misguided attempt to smooth out economic disparity. Such disparities were supposedly solved after the lockout.

The simple solution is enforce the rules as written. That has always been the solution and it has always worked. The alternative is a gradual decent to another dead puck era. That issue is bad enough at face value, worse with impending labor pains on the horizon.

If you think you can live with that I urge you to go back and watch the 2003 Stanley Cup final between New Jersey and Anaheim. It was the singular low point for NHL hockey in my lifetime; two teams that would just assume the puck never leave the neutral zone playing for the sport's most cherished prize. Compare that to either Pens/Detroit final or the Hawks and Philly. The difference is staggering.

The NHL can stop this trend immediately if they want to. I’m not sure they do.

Steelers Lose Focus on Big Ben’s Injury

Whatever you might think of Ben Roethlisberger as a quarterback, or a human being, you cannot question or deny his toughness.

I don’t have statistics to back this but I'm fairly sure Ben takes more hits than any quarterback in the NFL today (and maybe ever). He plays through injuries that would keep many players off the field and most human beings in the hospital for months. Broken bones, sprained ankles, concussions, even appendectomies cannot sideline Big Ben for long.

It’s a trait that rightfully earns him admiration and respect from me and throughout the Steeler Nation. Steeler fans like their players tough and nasty. There is a certain perverse pride we take in watching Ben beat down Baltimore, the same night his nose was massacred by Haloti Ngata. That is leadership in its purest form; leaving it all on the field when by all accounts he should be sitting in an ice bath.

Leadership is also knowing when to step aside. And it’s just as clear to me that Ben does not.

I have no issue with Ben’s blind spot; I just assume my star quarterback is a warrior and wants to play whenever it’s remotely possible. That makes it incumbent on those above him to take that decision out of his hands when necessary. For whatever reason, Mike Tomlin elected not to do so in two of the last three games. And the Steelers may ultimately pay for that decision this post season.

I understood, with some degree of reluctance, Tomlin’s decision to play Roethlisberger in San Francisco a few weeks back. The Steelers had a chance to move ahead of Baltimore and put themselves in position for a critical first round bye. Tomlin presumed the best way to accomplish that; against one of the best defenses in football, was with Big Ben behind center. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this even though hall of fame quarterback Steve Young clearly did not.

That said, once the Steelers fell behind 20-3 in the 4th quarter, keeping Ben in the game as an immobile human target was simply asinine. I’m a huge Tomlin fan and I can say it was bar none his worst decision as head coach of the Steelers. There was absolutely no conceivable reason for keeping Ben in that game at that point. The decision was a product of typical NFL bravado between coach and quarterback.

Big Ben survived the Monday night beat down, no worse but certainly no better for ware. After that, I genuinely hoped he would not see the field again until the playoffs and maybe not even the second round (presuming they Steelers could overcome the force of will and hope that apparently is Tim Tebow). No games, no practice, no nothing except healing his injury as much as possible. To me this is not even debatable. Not after watching Ben’s inability to walk down steps in week 16 or push off his foot in week 17, when he deemed himself 60% healthy.

This was not about conceding the division title to Baltimore and accepting life as a wild card. The Steelers are and were absolutely capable of beating both St ’Louis and Cleveland with Charlie Batch behind center. Batch is hardly a superstar but he’s an experienced quarterback and solid game manager with a reliable track record. He’s more than good enough to beat two of the worst teams in football. In fact, I think at 100% healthy he is a better option than Roethlisberger at 60%.

In contrast, the Steelers have little or no chance of winning at Baltimore or New England, let alone in the Super Bowl without a reasonably healthy Big Ben.

Given that reality, the entire focus of the organization should have been getting Roethlisberger as healthy as possible for the playoffs. There was no upside to playing Ben last weekend and as we now know, plenty of downside risk.

For whatever reason the Steelers have their own blind spot when it comes to Big Ben. They seem willing to let him play in almost all circumstances. Or perhaps Ben yields too much power over the organization and he ultimately dictates whether or not to play. There is enough historical evidence to make this a reasonable inference.

I was harshly critical of Bill Cowher for starting Roethlisberger twice in 2006 when he had no business being on the field. One could argue that he should have sat out half the season to recuperate from his motorcycle accident. Accepting that he did not, he certainly was nowhere near ready to play in week two against Jacksonville after an emergency appendectomy ten days earlier (on top of everything else). The Steelers were shut out in that game and Ben looked terrible.

A few weeks later Cowher trotted Roethlisberger out against Oakland seven days after his second concussion in five months (and other severe injuries from the crash). Roethlisberger was flat out awful in that game throwing five interceptions. He was the primary reason the Steelers lost to a terrible Raiders team.

Is it a coincidence that two extremely successful, secure, and hard nose coaches have both given in to Ben’s desire to play even when he clearly should not? Or was it ultimately not their decision.

Such considerations are hardly unprecedented in Pittsburgh sports. In 1993 the Penguins skated the best team in their history and quite possibly one of the best of the post expansion era. They were making a mockery of the National Hockey League right up to the day Mario Lemieux was shockingly diagnosed with cancer.

Le Magnifique spent six weeks enduring radiation treatments and heroically returned to the line-up the day of his last session. He and the Pens then went full throttle over the remainder of the season both to set regular season win records and get Lemieux an incomprehensible scoring title. That decision yielded some of the greatest and most exciting hockey any of us have or ever will see. Lemieux blew past Pat Lafontaine to win the scoring title and MVP; one of the most remarkable achievements in NHL history.

Remarkable, misguided, and short sighted.

Lemieux was coming back from CANCER TREATMENTS. His primary focus as an athlete should have been getting healthy for the playoffs. He could not or did not want to accept his limitations in that moment; hardly a shocking revelation given an athlete who often appeared superhuman on the ice. It was up to the Penguins to have a broader perspective.

I believe to this day that Lemieux ran out of gas in those playoffs; a consideration supported by Lemieux barely playing the next two years. The net result was a horrific defeat to a vastly inferior New York Islander squad. It cost the Pens a third straight cup and rightful recognition as a dynasty.

The entire organization, including legendary head coach Scotty Bowman took its eye off the ball. They caved in to Lemieux’s short-term desire to play much as Tomlin and Cowher did with Ben. And let’s not kid ourselves; they did so because Mario Lemieux called the shots at the Igloo long before he became a shareholder of the Pittsburgh Penguins. In that case, it was to the ultimate detriment of his team.

I fear we are reliving that scenario with Ben Roethlisberger. This Steeler team is not, relatively speaking, as good as the ’93 Pens but they are absolutely a Super Bowl contender. A Super Bowl championship should be the unquestioned goal and that is highly unlikely in Roethlisberger’s current state of health.

Look, Ben’s health issues may be inevitable this post season. He suffered a severe ankle sprain which will likely take weeks or longer to heal. There is a better than average chance even under the full rest scenario that he is hampered throughout the playoffs. I get that. And I understand the rust from inactivity argument as well.

And I don’t care.

It was a bad decision plain and simple, by an organization that gets it right far more often than not. It was a loss of focus on the ultimate goal; a loss of focus might very well cost the black and gold a shot at a 7th Lombardi Trophy.

This Just in…Crosby is Good

I maintain to this day that the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a quarter century plus of watching hockey is Mario Lemieux’s comeback in 2000-01.

Le Magnifique took a three year hiatus from the game, returned during the heart of the appalling dead puck era and promptly tallied 76 points in 43 games. That remarkable average of 1.77 points per game extrapolates to a 145 point season; assuming you could suspend disbelief enough to think Lemieux could ever suit up for all 82 games.

Taken in context of the era, the scoring championship was won that year by Jaromir Jagr, who just happened to be Lemieux’s line-mate with 121 points. The highest scoring player not sharing a locker room with Big 66 was Joe Sakic with 118 points. No other player scored more than 96.

And I left out the part about Lemieux scoring three points in his first game back including setting up a goal in the game’s opening minute. Which is to say in the immortal words of Marc Liverant, he was back to making a mockery of the game…on his first shift.

It is blatantly unfair to measure Sidney Crosby’s comeback against such lofty standards. At least that’s what I told myself as Emily and I entered the new energy barn last Monday night. As indescribably exciting as it was to luck in to attending that game (and I assure you it was just that), I told myself all the way to faceoff that there was no conceivable way that Crosby could match Lemieux’s prowess and to keep my expectations in check.

So much for that theory.

Crosby did not just match Lemieux’s performance, he beat it; four points to three. That included two breathtakingly spectacular goals, the first of which was as impressive as any I’ve seen in the NHL this season. Even more impressive, Crosby was far and away the best player on the ice, a surface he was sharing with the rejuvenated Geno Malkin and the Islanders lost wunderkind John Tavares. It was eerily similar to Lemieux doing the same thing that magical December night in 2000 while sharing the ice with Jagr.

Which is to say the game, heck the event was frighteningly reminiscent of the Mario’s return. It started with a positively electric atmosphere, one completely disproportionate to an early season week night game. It ended with an identical 5 to 0 Penguin rout. It was one of those rare sporting events that you simply did not want to end.

There were differences as well. Crosby’s unexcused absence was 11 months, in comparison to Lemieux’s 3.5 years. In addition, Lemieux was retired which means his conditioning was likely “suspect“ (and I’m being charitable) during his time off. Crosby in contrast has been skating hard for months and dominating practices while waiting for “clearance for contact.”

Morover, Le Magnifique returned against a Toronto team that ultimately earned a playoff spot. Crosby returned against a team that might miss the post season if it were relegated to the ECHL. The Leafs started a borderline hall of famer in goal in Curtis Joseph, the Islanders started 4th stringer Anders Nilsson.

[As an aside, did anybody else find it funny that on a stage of this magnitude the Isles choose to start Nilsson rather than their $65 Million supposed franchise goaltender Rick DiPietro? Enjoy writing those checks for another decade…party on Garth (Snow)!]

Given those differences I can afford Mario the slight edge on impressive comebacks; with the caveat that I am quite literally splitting hairs to make that assessment. At the end of the day we are still talking about a brilliant four point performance that most players dare not dream of. Even that does not fully reflect Crosby’s dominance; his mastery of the faceoff circle or how many scoring chances he created. It was other worldly or dare I say Lemieux-esque.

When Crosby suffered his concussion(s) last season he was putting on the most dominant offensive performance the NHL had witnessed since that fabulous Lemieux comeback season. And when he returned to the ice on Monday night, he picked up right where he left off. That in and of itself is perhaps the most amazing part of the story. If I went that long without typing I would lose 20% of my speed.

For a more realistic comparison consider Jordan Staal struggling throughout last season to regain form after an 8 month absence. I expected Crosby would find his game faster than Staal but I still thought it would take some time. It took one shift.

It continued on Friday night when Crosby added three points against overwhelmed Ottawa and showed a renewed feistiness as well. Even his scoreless performance against St’Louis resulted in a tying goal with him on the ice.

The truth of the matter is this; Crosby is right now exactly what he was supposed to be when he entered the league. Not just the best player in the game bar none but one of the truly great players to ever play. Statistically it may be a tad early to make that assessment. Realistically it is not. We got previews of this ability in both the 2009 playoffs against Washington and the first part of last season. Watching him now after ten months in the post-concussion wilderness merely reinforces the obvious.

Keep in mind that Crosby can be measured almost every night against Malkin, who has resumed his place as one of the most dominant offensive forces in the game. Malkin’s return alone spurred the Penguins beyond where they were last spring when consistently hard work rarely translated in to goals. That’s the same Malkin who for my money out performed Sid in both 2007-08 and 2008-09 (an opinion which is permanently archived in writing through the miracle of the internet…for better or for worse).

Those days are now behind us. Malkin is a truly elite hockey player; Crosby is just one step better. For reference, think Lemieux versus Steve Yzerman when both were in their heyday.

What’s truly amazing about Crosby is he continues to improve while many other superstars around him plateau of even fade. Is there anybody outside the 301 area code for example that still thinks Alex Ovechkin is Sid’s equal, let alone the better player? And keep in mind that Sid remains eminently coachable while the great 8 is, in the definition of irony, cursing out Bruce Boudreau.

I still consider Lemieux the most supremely dominant hockey player I’ve ever seen. I remain reluctant to suggest any current player as his equal. As recently as the start of last season I considered any such comparisons utter blasphemy.

I’m not quite ready to renege on that position, but Sid the Kid is putting a real dent in my convictions.

There is unfortunately one other comparison to Lemieux that we cannot ignore. Just as we lived in perpetual fear of Mario’s balky back, we will fear future Crosby concussions. We will swallow hard and hold our collective breath every time he takes a rough hit. We will seize up in terror when the David Backus’ of the world take a swipe at Crosby’s cranium. Those concerns will be multiplied when and if Sid signs what figures to be a 7 year plus deal for $10 Million a year; before July of 2013.

So be it. Such things are out of our control. We can no more control Sid’s health than Nilsson can stop his high speed backhand roof job. We just have to hope that Crosby like many others (Ben Roethlisberger for example) can shake the concussion issues and remain dominant and healthy. I always felt that Lemieux’s health issues cheated the Pens out of several more Stanley Cups. I hope the same is not true of Sid. The Penguins are a very good team without him. They are very likely the best team in the NHL with him.

There is a lot of hockey to be played between now and June. And as we learned last season, a lot of things can happen in that span, for better or for worse. There are no guarantees that the Pens will carry the cup in June just because Sid the Kid is back in the line-up.

No guarantees…but the odds look a whole lot better.

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY PENGUIN…BLESSED BE THE PENGUIN, FOR IT IS GOOD.

Crosby’s Concussion Clouds Pens Future

Okay, this Sidney Crosby concussion problem is officially scary business.

I first discussed my concerns over Crosby’s cranium the week before the Super Bowl. At the time I felt that Penguin fans and the Pittsburgh media were soft peddling a potentially serious concern.

http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/crosbys-concussion-overshadows-steelers.html

Two months later I argued my case that Sid should not play again in the 2010-11 season; even though his absence was the knockout blow to the team’s championship hopes.

http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/short-term-pain-for-long-term-gain.html

Well here we are nearly eight months beyond Crosby’s unfortunate collision with Victor Hedman and the Penguins’ current savior is still having concussion issues. It goes beyond stating the obvious that this is a significant concern.

Let me start off by saying my position today is no different than it was last March. Simply stated, under no circumstances should Sidney Crosby appear in an NHL game until he is 100% symptom free, and for a measurable period of time. If this means Crosby is off the ice until calendar 2012, so be it. If it means he pulls a Peter Forsberg and plays only in the playoffs (assuming the Pens make it without him), so be it. If it means he misses the entire season…GULP…well you get the point.

This is not Aaron Asham we are talking about. Sidney Crosby is the franchise, plain and simple. It may sound callous and cold but life will go on at the Energy Barn if Asham suffers another concussion. Another blow to Crosby could derail the Penguin franchise for years.

Consider the long-term implications which have been overshadowed by the short-term concerns about his health and return. Crosby has two years left on his current five year contract. Sometime before that expires, the Penguins are going to have to extend him his next deal. I have no idea what it will be but a reasonable estimate starts at 7 years, $70 Million. If Sid is healthy and dominating the game, as he is uniquely cable of doing, that’s a bargain price.

Imagine however if Sid signs that contract and then spends those seven years missing 20 or more games per year because of concussions. Imagine if his effectiveness slowly wanes a la Eric Lindros turning him from league poster child to marginal offensive player; at $10 million per annum. Can you imagine the damage that would do to the franchise?

And it’s a frighteningly realistic scenario; one that we endured throughout the 1990s with Mario Lemieux’s back (and other assorted ailments). I will go to my grave believing that a healthy Lemieux in 1993 equals an easy run to a third consecutive cup. You’ll never convince me that injury and fatigue did not weigh him down in that post season. Who knows how many cups Mario would have lifted if not for his frequent injury sabbaticals.

Right now I have concerns that Sid’s head may become Mario’s back of the 2010s. That’s bad enough at face value; even worse when you consider the financial impact overall and against the cap. Which means the Penguins have to consider what was once incomprehensible; trading Sidney Crosby before his contract expires.

I’ll give you a moment to process that before you projectile vomit.

Such an idea was utter blasphemy before January 1, 2011. Eight months and two concussions later it’s a realistic consideration. Simply put, if the Penguins’ organization determines that it can not manage the risk of Sid’s health and an eight figure, long-term contract, they must deal him; and they must do so before its too late.

For the record, the Steelers may very well have the same dilemma with Troy Polamalu in the summer of 2013, which a subject for another blog.

To be clear, I’m not talking about the Jaromir Jagr and Alexie Kovalev yard sale frauds that Craig Patrick perpetrated in the early 2000s. I’m talking about a legitimate return of top players and prospects to support an otherwise solid nucleus. You simply cannot allow Sidney Crosby to walk out of the Burgh for nothing when his contract expires; voluntarily or due to injury concerns. That scenario is as damaging to the Pens as the one I described above.

Of course trading Crosby is the nuclear option. It goes without saying that I hope it NEVER comes to pass. We all watched Crosby’s “Lemieux-like” dominance last season and we all want that to continue for another decade plus. Before the winter classic, there was little reason to doubt that it would.

The Pens are legitimate cup contenders pretty much any year a healthy Crosby is in their line-up. Sid the Kid is that rare franchise superstar who combines top shelf talent with a Michael Jordan like drive to dominate and win. I have very high expectations for a rejuvenated and focused Evgeni Malkin this season but let’s be honest; Geno does not have Sid’s singular focus and six sigma drive to improve. Few athletes do. Few humans do.

Which means the Penguins’ primary objective is to get Crosby healthy, no matter how long it takes. We want Crosby to take the Patrice Bergeron path to returning; not the Marc Savard, Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya path. I never much cared for Lindros but the concussion based demolition of his career was truly unfortunate. It was predicated in large part by the refusal of both he and his employer to recognize and address the severity of his injury. For Crosby’s career to follow that path to ruin would be, strictly in a sports sense, a tragedy.

It is critical the Penguins do everything possible to prevent that, including obstructing Sid’s return if they do not believe he’s ready. Given the propensity of hockey players to ignore pain and injury that may be easier said than done. I doubt for example that Lemieux’s doctors gleefully endorsed the idea of him returning to the line-up the day of his last cancer treatment in 1993.

That does not absolve the Penguins of their responsibility to protect their most important asset, even if it means another lost season. The Penguins can make the playoffs without Sid, given a return to health and dominance of Malkin, but they cannot win the Cup without him. That’s a harsh reality but it’s a small price to pay if it ultimately leads to another decade of Crosby dominance in the Burgh.

The question is where do they draw the line. At what point does this issue become serious enough for the team to consider the nuclear option? At what point is the best player of this era more valuable for his trade value than his on ice contribution? Lest you scoff at this notion remember that none other than Wayne Gretzky was traded in his prime. The Gretzky deal was never about improving the Edmonton Oilers; it was the best attempt to salvage an untenable financial situation.

And for the record, Edmonton won a cup without Gretzky; in part due to the players they received in that deal. They remained competitive for several more years even while playing at a significant financial disadvantage.

None of which should be interpreted as my endorsement of the nuclear option. I remain staunchly vested in the Crosby full recovery option, uncertainty and all. My belief will be even stronger if the NHL makes a sincere effort to eliminate headshots; rather than continuing its Neanderthal view of the issue. The league’s insistence on impotent punishments for head shots last year was nothing less than a tacit endorsement of the resulting carnage.

In the end however it’s not about me or any other Penguin fan. It’s about the organization balancing the implicit uncertainty of a brain injury with the financial realities of modern sports. It’s about understanding how tenuous an athletic career can be, even for a dominant superstar. It’s about accepting what nine months ago was unfathomable, trading the superstar who resuscitated the franchise when he arrived in 2005.

I truly hope it never comes to that. Right now there are no guarantees.

Cry No Tears for the Thrashers

I was mildly surprised to read several scathing articles in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, shredding the NHL for allowing the Thrashers to move to Winnipeg.

To wit, I simply did not think anybody in Atlanta cared enough to even notice.

I can not help but wonder if the Atlanta media is truly incredulous towards losing the Thrashers, or if blasting Gary Bettman just makes for good newspaper copy. Especially when several reader comments bemoan the scarcity of hockey related articles from the writer during say…the Obama administration.

My personal belief is that few tears will be shed for the demise of hockey in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

At the risk of trampling on Atlanta’s sports grave, I think Tuesday was a positive day for the NHL. The league is exiting a large, non traditional market that is at best apathetic and at worst could care less about its product. They are returning to a small Canadian city that lives and dies with the sport. The NHL has not made a move like this in some 30 years; since the last time Atlanta lost a hockey team to Canada. Some believe this move is an aberration. I hope it’s the start of the NHL finally coming to its senses.

I personally do not care for hockey in markets that clearly have no desire to support it. The poster children for this issue are Atlanta, Miami, and Phoenix. I differentiate markets like Carolina, Tampa, and Anaheim which I think have enough support to be successful at some level.

I also think the NHL is bloated at 30 teams. The league’s nine team expansion in the 90s, primarily to non traditional markets was reckless and over ambitious. I was against it from day one and little has changed in the last decade to sway my beliefs. I would just assume move a few clubs back to more supportive markets and I believe that contraction should very much be on the table.

I acknowledge that it is easy to make such bold proclamations with somebody else’s team. I was not so much at peace with the concepts of franchise movement and contraction in the late 1990s when the Penguins were a legitimate contender for either. As an insider, I was well aware of the depth of hockey passion in Pittsburgh that was not always reflected in the team’s attendance at that time. An outsider, especially one with a short memory might easily have scorned Pittsburgh as a failed hockey market place.

Which is not to suggest that moving the Thrashers is a bad thing. Quite the contrary.

Atlanta has now had two bites at the hockey apple and both have failed. I’ve read articles suggesting extenuating circumstances in each case but the reality is, the city for whatever reason has failed to support the team. Blame bad ownership and/or bad teams if you want. Just understand that Atlanta and its fans were given a second shot to support a team and failed to do so.

That is in stark contrast to a Penguins franchise that struggled financially due to their owner selling the team’s future down the river and a horrifically outdated arena that could not generate enough revenue to compensate. We as Penguin fans probably do not truly appreciate the magnitude of Howard Baldwin’s financial carnage in the mid 90s. It’s purely by the grace of Mario Lemieux’s deferred salary that the team survived in the Burgh.

That’s why I’m hesitant to simply dump on Bettman for the Atlanta situation. Bettman certainly has his flaws and they are readily apparent. And he will ultimately have to explain why he’s moved heaven and earth to save the Coyotes in Phoenix while showing little such zeal for Atlanta. At the same time, he was instrumental in keeping the Penguins in Pittsburgh during the ill fated Jim Balsille flirtation. He also protected Buffalo, Ottawa and even Nashville.

Unfortunately the NHL’s actions with Phoenix raised the league’s bar for franchise protection way too high. When they fail to similarly protect Atlanta, Bettman becomes an easy target for sanctimonious media beat downs (and quizzical inquiries from bloggers).

I’m guessing the league’s interest in the Coyotes has more to do with politics and other backroom deals than some altruistic desire to save hockey in Phoenix. When a series of actions make no sense, and the league’s efforts towards the Yotes clearly do not, there are usually alterior motives to which we are not privy.

I sympathize with Atlanta hockey fans; to whatever extent they exist. I’ve said for years that deep down I never expected Mario Lemieux to relocated the Penguins; that does not mean there were not moments of trepidation in the process. It would be completely hypocritical for me to endorse moving a franchise without acknowledging my steadfast opposition and fears when such a possibility existed for the Pens.

Alas the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few. And hockey fans in Atlanta seem to be few and far between. So goes for the rest of the professional teams in that town as well. In spite of being one of the largest cities in the country; Atlanta lags in attendance in all four major professional sports. The Hawks frequently play to friends and family crowds. The Braves had numerous empty seats at playoff games; during a 14 year mini dynasty. Even the Falcons do not regularly sell out.

Let’s be honest, Atlanta losing the Thrashers does not exactly rank with Cleveland losing the Browns or Baltimore losing the Colts. It’s more reminiscent of when the Houston Oilers bolted for Tennessee. Some save the Oilers group organized a rally and as memory serves about 20 people showed up.

For my money, the NHL has gone above and beyond the call of duty to protect its non traditional markets. At some point you have to accept that the plan to some degree is not working.

The issues in Atlanta and Phoenix are obvious and need no further detail in this forum. Sadly they are not unique The Florida Panthers play to embarrassingly low crowds at home and apparently average less than 5,000 fans per game watching them on television. That’s flat out abysmal; a blatant failure that the league should no longer endorse. Those resources are better used to improve struggling markets with a legitimate chance to succeed (i.e., Columbus).

There is an understandable concern that franchise movement and contraction create a bush league perception. Arena football and MLS contract teams; not the four major sports leagues. Keep in mind however that as recently as ten years ago Major League Baseball was seriously considering contraction. And once in awhile its okay for the NHL as whole to take a big hit in order to make a play. The 2005 lockout certainly proved that.

Consider that of the six most recent expansion franchises; only Anaheim has been consistently successful (with Nashville showing bits of hope). Several have been abject failures. Columbus and Atlanta have each made the playoffs just once; failing to win a game. Florida just set an NHL record for most consecutive non playoff seasons. Even Minnesota has struggled.

Enough is enough. It’s time for the league to acknowledge that it grew too fast and too far in the 1990s. Not every market can or should survive. The Thrashers moving to Winnipeg is the first step in facing this reality. It should not be the last..

Let the Yotes and the Panthers go up in smoke. The league would be better off at 28 teams and losing two disinterested markets. And if one or two franchises want to move to better places, so be it. Seattle and Kansas City are open and available in the U.S.; as is Quebec City and Hamilton (theoretically) in Canada.

Sometimes an organization must take a step backward in order to take two steps forward. The NHL is there right now. The league has had enough time to determine which of its markets are viable and which are not. Atlanta failed the test; it should not fail alone.


Appendix: my proposed 28 Team, Four Division Structure:.

Atlantic Division (East) – New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Washington.

Northeast Division (East) – Boston, Buffalo, Carolina, Columbus, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto

Central Division (West) – Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St’Louis, Winnipeg

Pacific Division (West) – Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vancouver

Twenty Year Later – Part II

Yesterday I waxed poetic about the 20 year anniversary of the Pens winning their first Stanley Cup.

The 1991 Stanley Cup Penguins will always have favored status in my heart. You never forget your first cup…or something like that. The team was not as brilliantly talented as their 1992 or even 1993 successors. Their run was not as epic as the 2009 version.  And it matters not a lick.

What they did was bring Pittsburgh its first and most improbable Stanley Cup, doing so through a litany of spectacular moments. They gave us a lifetime of brilliant hockey memories; memories that two decades later are still burned in my brain (with an occasional second assist from YouTube).

Some of the most memorable include:

THE INJURY – The Pens opened the 1990-91 season without Lemieux. Le Magnifique had offseason back surgery and then suffered a major set back with a training camp infection. There was talk that his career was in jeopardy and ultimately we would not see him in the line-up until late January. I remember the Pens opening night broadcast starting with this quote from Tom Barrasso “I wish to state unequivocally that we are a better team with Mario Lemieux in the line-up.” The bad news was obvious. The good news, the rest of the team was forced to grow up with their franchise player sidelined.

THE KID – It’s fair to say that none of us had ever heard of an 18 year old Czech phenom named Jaromir Jagr when the Pens acquired him on draft day. I remember reading that he was the most talented player in the draft; and frankly not believing it. That’s exactly what teams say when they have the fifth pick in a deep draft, rather than the first. Who would have known that Jagr would develop in to the one of the truly dominant offensive stars in NHL history, and a critical component of two Stanley Cup championships. Not to mention a pretty solid weather man on WDVE.

THE OPTION LINE – With Lemieux out, the Pens offense was put in the hands of three young stars playing out their options; Kevin Stevens, Marc Recchi, and John Cullen. All three were critical to the team’s regular season success. All three were critical to the team’s ultimate Stanley Cup championship, Recchi and Steven’s directly and Cullen by being the marketable asset that allowed for THE TRADE (see below).

THE TRADE – Arguably the greatest trade deadline deal in NHL history. The Pens were struggling and underachieving when Craig Patrick changed the entire look of the franchise. The deal was such highway robbery that Hartford GM Eddie Johnston (yes, that EJ) should have gotten his name on the cup. Ron Francis brought leadership and brilliant two way hockey. Ulf Samuelsson brought dominant, in your face defense (as Cam Neely will attest). Even Grant Jennings was a key acquisition. Before the trade the Pens were a great offensive team, after it they were a great team.

THE GOAL, PART I – The Pens were very much in danger of falling behind New Jersey two games to zero…at home. They were outplayed by the plucky Devils for two straight games and had barely managed to force overtime in game 2. That’s when the 18 year old Jagr scored the first of his many jaw dropping goals over the next decade. He blew around the Devil defense, cut across the face of the goal, out waited Chris Terreri, and fired home one of the biggest goals in Penguin history. It was pure individual brilliance; the kind rarely seen by any player…or at least any player not wearing 66 in black and gold.

THE BANISHMENT – A regretably overlooked turning point in the playoffs may have occurred in game four of the first round against New Jersey. After discovering that the Pens had not won a game all year with John Rowan watching from Chris Cox’s house; we banished him to the backyard for the third period. The Pens lost the game but after that, we were more strategic about our viewing logistics. Quote of the year from Chris’ mom…”Why is J.P. in the backyard by himself?”

THE SAVE – I’m the biggest Tom Barrasso fan this side of…anywhere…and even I will acknowledge the obvious. Frank Pietrangelo’s spectacular glove robbery of Peter Stastny was “the moment” the Pens developed that championship belief. The combination of facing elimination and the loss of Barrasso drove stress levels to record highs amongst Pens fans. And then there was Stastny all alone in front, firing a loose rebound towards an empty net…until Frankie Pete robbed him blind. I love watching 18,000 fans jump to their feet to celebrate a sure goal, and then dropping down in stunned disbelief.

THE GOAL, PART II – The Pens were very much in danger of falling behind Washington two games to none, at home. Sound familiar? They were outplayed in game one and needed a late Randy Gilhen (seriously) goal to send game two in to overtime. And then Francis set up Kevin Stevens for the game winning goal in overtime. The Pens never looked back, dominating the next three games with Barrasso stopping 97 of 100 shots. The conference finals were coming.

THE GAURANTEE – In those days, the common belief was that the Boston Bruins were the superior team and the Pens the underdog upstart. Boston has played in the Stanley Cup Finals in two of the last three seasons, led by star players Ray Bourque and Neely. The Pens lost the first two games and were quite frankly robbed by a highly questionable penalty late in game two. The situation looked bleak until Stevens took over. He boldly guaranteed after game two that the Pens would win the series. It was pure bulleting board material...for the Pens. The boys have not lost of playoff game to the Bruins since.

THE ROUT – PART I – After two hard fought victories in Pittsburgh the Pens returned to Boston for a critical game 5. We all thought this would be a turning point in the series. It was. The Pens destroyed the B’s 7-2, chasing overrated scrub goalie Andy Moog in the process.

THE TROPHY – I laugh every time I see teams refuse to touch the conference championship trophy. After Recchi finished off the B’s in game 6, Lemieux and company took the Prince of Wales trophy for a skate. Two weeks later, they were Stanley Cup champs. Two decades later, Sidney Crosby did the same thing. Perhaps this superstition is a tad…dumb?

THE FOG – Don Cherry, a man who could do the entire world a favor by talking considerably less, accuses Barrasso of being “in a fog” after a game one loss to Minnesota in the finals. Barrasso’s response, “I refuse to have a battle of wits with Don Cherry because he’s unarmed.”

THE GREATEST GOAL IN STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HISTORY – “Here’s Lemieux, to center, penalty coming up, LOOK AT LEMIEUX, OH MY GOODNESS, WHAT A GOAL, WHAT A MOVE, LEMIEUX. OOOOOOH BABY.” Kudos to hockey night in Canada for its perfect description of what truly was the greatest goal in playoff history. What Lemieux did to Shawn Chambers and John Casey is a criminal offense in seven states.

THE PARADE – Mario’s back stiffened before game 3 causing a late and shocking scratch of the game’s greatest player. Without Big 66, the Pens fell 3 to 1. Minnesota started planning their Stanley Cup parade. The Pens were…ANGRY.

THE DANCE OF CHAMPIONS – The Pens jumped out to quick leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in a must win game 4; then gave two goals back to make it a one goal game. Late in the third period, the team known as an offensive juggernaut took a five minute major penalty. The Pens killed it without allowing a single shot on goal. It was the defining moment of what was now a great team in all phases. I still say this game was one of the underrated gems of Barrasso’s career.

THE ROUT, PART II – The Pens 8 to 0 demolition of the North Stars in game 6 remains possibly the most dominant cup clinching victory in NHL history.  The NHL was close to invoking a mercy rule. Lemieux so dominates Minnesota that he looks to be playing pond hockey against local high school players. Francis, Mullen and even Jim Paek score breakaways. Barrasso silences his remaining critics with a defining shut out.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT – In the immortal words of Mike Lange, “The Stanley Cup has come to the city of Pittsburgh.”

THE LIFT – Mario Lemieux, the man who lifted the franchise, lifts the Stanley Cup. Lange…”Go for it Mario…Go for it.”

THE PHOTO – The Pens become the first team to do an all hands on photo at center ice with the cup. The tradition lives to this day. One of the greatest moments in Pittsburgh sports history, immortalized forever.

THE MEMORIES – To last a lifetime.

Twenty Years Later ???

If you are a hockey aficionado like me, I highly recommend the Empty Netters Blog on the Post Gazette’s web site. Not only does Seth Rorabaugh do an excellent and thorough job of covering the game, but he also adds a touch of sarcasm and humor which I find to be positively, “Haber-Esqe.”

Throughout the 2010-11 season, Empty Netters has been running a feature entitled “Twenty Years Later” focusing on the 20 year anniversary of the Penguins first Stanley Cup championship. It includes recaps of every game played (often with awesome video footage) and interviews with key players from that team. Most of those players are long gone, with the notable exception of the ageless Marc Recchi. Remember when the Pens traded him in 1992, ostensibly because he was too small to survive long-term in the NHL?

Needless to say, I was thoroughly enjoying the walk down memory lane, until reality slapped me in the face this morning.

TWENTY YEARS ???

Is it really possible that today is the 20 year anniversary of one of the greatest moments in Pittsburgh sports history? Can it really be two decades since that magical season ended with Mario Lemieux lifting the franchise’s improbable first Stanley Cup?

Twenty freakin years?

Let’s see, we were 18 years old, seniors in high school when the Pens won that first championship. That would make me…never mind.

Was it not just yesterday that Mario Lemieux was the 18 year old French Canadian savior of Penguin hockey? No, that was 1984. Did I not wake up this morning to news that 18 year old Czech phenom Jaromir Jagr was coming to Pittsburgh? Sorry, 1990. I could swear that only in the last few minutes came reports that the Pens had acquired Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson from Hartford. That was 1991.

And now, Lemieux is the Penguins OWNER, Jagr is playing out the string in Europe and Francis and Samuelsson are both coaches and/or executives in the league. How on earth did this happen?

Here’s the thing; for me and a large portion of my audience, the Penguins are the first championship team we truly experienced. I have the vaguest of memories of the Steelers’ fourth Super Bowl in 1980; just as I have the vaguest of memories of dressing up as “the Fonz” for Halloween. I’ve said before that those first four Super Bowl championships are far more history to me than they are reality.

The Penguins however are different. We quite literally grew up together. It started with the drafting of Lemieux in 1984, the event that quite literally saved the franchise. It continued as Lemieux matured in to a superstar, and then possibly the most dominant player in NHL history. And it morphed in to a championship when the Penguins finally surrounded Le Magnifique with other championship caliber players.

I still remember dancing around my basement when the Pens acquired Paul Coffey in 1987. Finally, there was a second superstar, a player truly worthy of sharing the ice with Big 66. The other star pieces of the championship puzzle fell gradually in to place over the next three plus years; Barrasso, Recchi, Stevens, Jagr, Mullen, Trottier, Murphy, Francis, Samuelson, etc. It was a stunning build out for a club that for too long relied on other team’s leftovers.

I’m not sure today’s generation of Penguin fans can truly appreciate how impossible to fathom a Stanley Cup Championship was for us in 1991. That’s not to say we were not fully on board for the journey, we absolutely were. We just never dared allow ourselves such grandiose fantasies. Not for a team that had won exactly one playoff series in ten years.

For the most part all we knew were near misses and failures. I remember albeit vaguely the 1982 first round loss to the NY Islanders where the Pens blew a 2 goal lead in the final four minutes. I remember quite clearly blowing what should have been a slam dunk playoff appearance in 1988, in spite of Lemieux’s unwavering brilliance down the stretch. And there but for the grace of Steve Guenette go I.

The Penguins made missing the playoffs an annual event; at a time when over 75% of the league was honored annually with a post season bid.

That’s why we celebrated like drunken sailors when the 1991 Pens knocked of Washington in the second round. Going to the conference finals was new ground; a previously inconceivable destination. On a side note, would anyone have guessed then that the series would mark the beginning of two decades of torturing the Craps?

The Penguins had little or no history in those days. Now they have history to match any non original six team (and for my money one or two of them). The watershed moment for the franchise was the Stanley Cup exchange between Sidney Crosby and Lemieux in 2009? That past meets the present. To me having two completely separate eras of championship greatness is what defines a truly great organization, in any sport.

And yet I still can’t believe its been twenty years.

Twenty years since Frankie Pietrangelo’s save against New Jersey. Twenty years since Kevin Stevens guaranteed a victory over Boston after falling behind two games to none? Twenty years since Lemieux effectively destroyed John Casey’s career.

I guess it makes sense. In those days we would watch the games in Chris Cox’s basement and then play hockey in the driveway between periods (with your friendly neighborhood blogger flopping around on the asphalt making “Barrasso-like” saves”). We would celebrate any series victory by grabbing sticks out the garage and running around the block. Today’s game night activities are to say the least, far more reserved.

So much has changed. Lemieux and Jagr gave way to Crosby and Malkin. Barrasso gave way to Marc-Andre Fleury; Phil Bourque gave way to Max Talbot. The Old Igloo has given way to the brilliant new Consol Energy Barn. Mike Lange has given way to Paul Steigerwald (admittedly the one change that we would all reverse in a heartbeat if possible).

And yet so much has stayed the same. Let us not forget that a franchise that endured so much losing and sorrow in its first two decades has lifted the cup three times in the past two decades. The Pens have turned post season success from an impossible dream to an annual expectations. And they have suited up an incredible list of superstars headlined by Lemieux, Jagr, Crosby, and Malkin. Such thoughts were inconceivable in the early 80s, when players were threatened with trades to the Burgh.

In short, a franchise that was once laughed at and mocked is now one of the class organizations in all of sports. Pittsburgh has become a destination spot for great hockey.

Could we have possibly had the foresight in 1991 to see this coming? Certainly not, nor did we care. At that point it was about nothing more than the moment, the incomprehensible idea that, “The Stanley Cup has come to the city of Pittsburgh" to quote Lange.

We had no foresight towards the repeat championship in 1992, nor the shocking collapse of the most dominant team in Penguin’s history two years later. We could not predict Mario’s back, Stevens’ face, Jagr’s moods, or Howard Baldwin’s reckless and unruly spending spree; all of which nearly ruined the team. We had no way of knowing how close our Penguins would come to extinction in the Burgh, before more Mario magic and a fortuitous ping pong ball returned them to prominence.

How could we? We could not even predict our own futures; college, relocations, jobs, wives, kids, and everything else. All of those things that define us today were unknowns 20 years ago. Our lives were blissfully simple back then. We were far more concerned about shutting down Minnesota’s white hot power play, than we were about graduation.

All we knew or cared about was that the impossible had happened; the Pittsburgh Penguins had brought home the Stanley Cup. It was the first time in my life that I truly felt the complete and total sports happiness that comes only with a championship. It was the year I truly became a Penguin fan for life.

Or better stated…twenty years to life.

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY PENGUIN, BLESSED BE THE PENGUIN, FOR IT IS GOOD.

Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain - Crosby's Comeback Can Wait

Pittsburgh’s current hockey savior skated in full pads on Monday, ending his 68 day ice hockey exile. That short skate, plus two others that followed represent mere baby steps in Sidney Crosby’s recovery from his January concussion(s). And yet the mere sight of number 87 in uniform took Penguin fans on a rollercoaster of extreme emotions ranging from unbridled optimism to trepidation and outright fear.

Truth be told, any reaction at this point is premature. The simple fact that Crosby skated does not insure his return this season. It’s reasonable to assume that skating is part of his rehabilitation routine; a routine that could last an additional three weeks or three months. Much as we would like to believe otherwise, it’s very possible that we will not see Sidney Crosby play another game this season.

That said (for you Jared), I doubt the Pens would have made such a public spectacle of Sid skating if they were not reasonably comfortable with his chances.

So at the risk of putting the cart way before the horse, the obvious question is; should Crosby return this season? Are the risks implicit in his return worth the potential rewards of it?

From a pure hockey standpoint, there is no discussion. Sidney Crosby is the best player in the world right now. It goes without saying that his return to the line-up would measurably improve the Pens Stanley Cup chances. If he were rehabbing a knee or a shoulder injury there would be no debate; the Pens would suit him up the minute he was even close to ready.

Unfortunately that’s not the case. Crosby is dealing with a significant head injury; in point of fact, two head injuries. The concussion(s) was serious enough to keep him off the ice for nearly ten weeks during which time he continued to experience symptoms. That’s too big a red flag to brush aside based on two or three healthy weeks.

I understand that at some point injured players must take the risk implicit with returning to the line-up. With all due respect to Aaron Asham, I’m far more willing to accept the risks of his returning too early than I am for our face of the franchise superstar.

The Penguins know much more about this situation than we do. They have top notch physicians studying Crosby’s cranium and making informed medical judgments. And yet those same physicians basically threw their hands up for the last 2 ½ months and admitted essentially that the brain will be what it will be. They are doctors, not miracle workers. I’m sure Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller would confirm that sentiment.

I’ll reiterate something I pointed out in late January when I first expressed my Crosby concussion concerns. Heath Miller endured one of the most brutal head shots I’ve ever seen against Baltimore and was back on the field three weeks later. Sid has been out more than three times that long. That should give some context on how serious this is. Remember, two concussions in five days; the second of which occurred before the first healed.

Concussions are cumulative. Each is worse than the one before; each one takes a greater toll. You simply can not be too careful given that reality. I keep thinking about how Bill Cowher and the Steelers enabled Ben Roethlisberger’s overzealous return from his motorcycle accident in 2006. His mid season concussion against Atlanta seemed almost preordained given those circumstances.

I’m not sure that anybody can definitively determine what the proper healing time is for this injury. I think we can all agree that six months is a safer time frame than four weeks.

Crosby is a smart player who plays the game with his head up. That’s a politically correct way of saying he’s not Marc Savard. And yet we all saw what happened to Sid twice in five day span in early January. It does not matter who you are; it is impossible to avoid every hit, especially when you play in the high traffic areas.

So yes the risks are great, as are the rewards. A healthy Crosby gives the Pens a legitimate shot at the Stanley Cup. No Sid drastically reduces that opportunity. How do we evaluate this risk reward dilemma? By weighing as many considerations as possible. To wit:

1) The Pens chances to win the Stanley Cup – Exponentially better with Crosby in the line-up (unless you go with the theory that you can’t multiply by zero) but still considerably reduced without Evgeni Malkin. Throw in the likelihood that Sid will not be 100% either physically or hockey wise and those chances slip a bit further. Are those odds good enough to risk the franchise’s future?

2) The Future of the Program – The Penguins are built around Crosby both structurally and financially. Crosby takes up $8.7 Million of cap room through 2014. The worst case scenario is no Crosby. The second worst case is Crosby being in an out of the line-up at partial effectiveness a la Lemieux from 2001-02 through his final retirement. That would leave the Pens in a state of helpless hockey limbo.

3) The Championship Window – Any lost opportunity within an obvious championship window is profoundly disappointing. That disappointment is mitigated by the fact the Pens have locked in their young core for at least two more years; and that core is less than two years removed from lifting the cup.

4) The Environment – We all know the playoffs are considerably more physical than the regular season. You lose the Trevor Gillies thug factor but you gain the…”everyone finishes every check factor.” Net result, chances of injury increase. And that’s before we even consider…

5) The Garage League – The NHL has done little or nothing to dissuade head shots this year. They talk tough and then act with stunning impotence. Yes players fear suspensions more in the playoffs but the sad reality is that the league has FAILED to create a climate where players fear the consequences of delivering a hit to the head.

In the end, my contention is it’s not worth the risk. I might feel different if Malkin were not hurt. I might feel different if the team’s core was aging or they were about to be ravaged by free agency. I might feel different if the NHL made a genuine commitment to protecting its players rather than just spewing spineless rhetoric.

And before you tell me that the Pens medical staff has the best handle on the situation; remember this. On top of all the uncertainty I’ve already described, the Penguins let Crosby play four periods of hockey after taking the original hit from Steckel. For all the good things that go on at the new Igloo these days, this was nothing sure of negligence from top to bottom of the organization. The minute I saw Crosby scrape himself off the mush that was the winter classic ice, I suspected a concussion. Somehow his employer did not.

My emotional side wants Sid back in the line-up without question. My logical side knows that if he does play, I will cringe every time he goes to the corner to play a lose puck.

If you’re still conflicted, a bit of historical Penguin perspective can be quite valuable.

There are striking parallels between Crosby 2010-11 and Mario Lemieux 1989-90. Both players were dominating the league and carrying their team when significant injury struck. And while this current Penguin team is clearly superior in talent and depth; neither is or was a serious cup contender without their marquee star.

Remember how excited we were when Mario miraculously returned to save the Penguins’ hopes in the last game of the 1990 season? Remember how utterly devastated we were when the Pens lost in spite of that and were eliminated from playoff contention?

Given two decades of perspective we now clearly see what was impossible to know that night; losing that game was in reality the best case scenario. The Pens gave up a fleeting moment of happiness and a likely first round playoff defeat for the opportunity to draft Jaromir Jagr. In addition it eliminated the dilemma of whether Lemieux should try and play in the post season with his back in disrepair.

Moreover, Lemieux’s decision to comeback for that game ultimately delayed his inevitable back surgery and his return the following year. The Pens were quite fortunate that delay did not sabotage their 1991 cup run. In short, all emotions aside, the Pens should have shut Big 66 down the minute he hobbled off the ice at Madison Square Garden.

Sound familiar?

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. My heart would love to see Sidney Crosby on the ice when the playoffs start. My head hopes he sits until next year.

Calling Out Scott Burnside’s Petty Vendetta Against Mario Lemieux

I started this blog primarily for two reasons; I love sports and I love to write. I’ve wanted to be a sportswriter for as long as I can remember. The reality is that this blog; a true labor of love for me; is about as close as I will ever get.

I would like to believe that’s why most sports writers ended up in their chosen profession.

Covering sports every day is not a bad way to make a living. That goes especially for columnists who have nearly free reign to write whatever they want under the guise of “opinion.” I’ll readily concede two points on this issue; first my blog is entirely “opinion” and I tend to read columnists first and beat writers a distant second.

In short, I would be a complete hypocrite if I criticized someone for having strong opinions, even if they are in opposition to mine.

I can live with the idea that not every columnist is going to see the world as I do, especially when it comes to Pittsburgh sports. I pride myself in having as objective a view as possible about my home town teams. That means I’m about 10% as objective as a neutral outsider party doing the same analysis. I can be logical and pragmatic to a point; but its always overridden by my fierce emotional attachment to our teams.

In short, I really do understand that for much of the sports world, the sun does not rise and set over the Three Rivers.

Which brings us to Mr. Scott Burnside of ESPN.com fame (or infamy).

Mr. Burnside clearly does not like Mario Lemieux; which is his prerogative. There are a few people in this world I do not like and I don’t feel obliged to justify my reasons. The difference is that I do not use an international sports forum, or even this blog, to denigrate their character. Scott Burnside has now done so on three separate occasions to Lemieux. As far as I can tell, he’s doing so because Lemieux committed the heinous crime of refusing him an interview at the 2009 Stanley Cup finals.

To be clear, I have no issue with Burnside criticizing Lemieux or anybody else for their job performance or their opinions. That’s his job. I take severe issue when those criticisms become personal in nature and go clearly and obviously beyond the issue at hand.

To me there is a covenant of responsibility that any “journalist” has with their readers and those they cover; a covenant that grows in scope and magnitude with the size of their audience. The media has tremendous power to influence or even create public opinion. Given that, somebody fortunate enough to have an audience on the most widely viewed sports forum on earth; has a tremendous obligation to use that power responsibly.

Sadly, Scott Burnside has lost sight of this. He sacrificed his ethics, his objectivity, and his credibility over a petty grudge. So I’m calling him out on it plain and simple. His “columns” about Lemieux qualify as nothing more than petty, vindictive trash and are beneath the standards of “journalism.” He’s using the ENTERTAINMENT and Sports Network to carry on his one man vendetta against Lemieux.

I’m not going to turn this column in to a one man defense of Le Magnifique. Mario nether wants nor needs me to defend him. Like most Penguin fans, I have a very high opinion of the man for what he’s done for the Penguins and Pittsburgh, on and off the ice. I also think a man whose foundation annually donates millions of dollars to cancer related causes is probably a half way decent fellow.

That said, whether Mario is a saint or a sinner is irrelevant here.

We know beyond a doubt that Mario is a private person. We also know that he has tried very hard to make the Penguins of today the story; and not their legendary owner. There are many owners in sports; Jerry Jones and Dan Synder come to mind, who would be well served to learn that lesson. And it goes without saying that none are as accomplished as Lemieux in their chosen sport.

Apparently in Scott Burnside’s eyes, that’s a serious offense.

When I read Burnside’s first scathing condemnation of Lemieux in 2008, (attached below this paragraph), I was truly shocked. I thought I was reading about Ted Bundy…or at least Terrell Owens. To wit, a few quotes:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=3413241

Yet there is one hockey great who will remain strangely, inexplicably mute through these Stanley Cup finals. When requests are made to talk to Lemieux, either in a one-on-one setting or in a group format with reporters covering the finals, word politely comes back through the team that the man who is the Penguins' part-owner doesn't want to take the spotlight away from his young team.

What a load of hooey. This has nothing to do with taking any spotlight away from his players. No, this is more about Lemieux's detachment from the game or, at least, detachment from having to share his thoughts and feelings about the game. It is both convenient and predictable for Lemieux to hide in the background at a time when the game most needs its relevant stars in place, because it's always been about convenience for Lemieux. The only reason Lemieux isn't making himself available during these finals is because there's nothing in it for him.

Beyond the fact that I don’t know what “hooey” is, this seems awfully contemptuous for a man’s whose primary motive is maintaining his privacy. And how exactly does the omnipotent Burnside have such clarity of vision on Lemieux’s motives? The answer is he does not; but then why let facts ruin a perfectly good character demolition?

If Burnside had left it at that, I would over time have taken the forgive but not forget mentality. Alas he was not capable of burying the hatchet. After the NY Islanders spent a Friday night making a mockery of the NHL last month; Burnside was moved. Not to criticize the Islanders for their cowardly, premeditated actions or the NHL for their impotent response mind you. No, Burnside was moved to shred Lemieux for speaking out against it. More quotes from that story (which I’ve included below):

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=6120121

But this wasn't a call to action; it came off as a petulant child stomping his feet.

It's more than a little rich that Lemieux is threatening to walk away from the game now that he's got a shiny new arena and presumably all the millions he was owed all those years back when he hated the game but saved the team in Pittsburgh nonetheless.

Please take a good look at the title; “Only Failure Here is Lemieux’s Message.” Really? That’s the only failure in this travesty? Not trying to end Eric Tangradi’s career for example? Feel free to read the article and/or these quotes and tell me I’m over the top. And “Petulant child stomping his feet…” if that’s not the pot calling the kettle black.

Instead of discussing the relevant issue of a game that was an affront to every respectful principle of sport; Burnside writes an article filleting one of the games all time greats for speaking out against it. Somehow I don’t think he would have reacted that way if Steve Yzerman had those same comments. After all, Stevie Y is always available for an interview.

So a few weeks later, Trevor Gillies returns from a nine game suspension and immediately proves Lemieux 100% correct. In his first game back, Gillies takes a vicious run and gets a 5 minute penalty and game misconduct for attempt to injure. Apparently a nine game suspension for a blatant attempt to maim and injure is not quite the deterrent that Colin Campbell presumed. Who knew?

So what does my buddy Burnside do? He writes an article admitting that Mario was correct and still manages to throw in quite a few cheap shots.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/5263/trevor-gillies-punishment-coming-too-late

Somewhere Mario Lemieux is wagging his finger at those of us who criticized him and saying, "Look, you eggheads, was I right or was I right?" We hate that, by the way.

In the aftermath, Lemieux insisted the NHL had failed, and then destroyed his own message by threatening to leave the game. Haven't seen a "For sale" sign up in front of Consol Energy Center, so I can only assume Lemieux has reconsidered.

“We hate that by the way” hardly smacks of objectivity. That said, here is the key point that is nearly lost in Burnside’s vendetta.

But in the wake of Gillies' performance Wednesday, it's hard not to agree with Lemieux's assessment of how the NHL responded to the situation. That is to say, they failed to send an adequate message.

Gee, where have I heard that before?

So you see, even in admitting that Mario was correct, Burnside still can’t put aside his petty grudge. Is not granting enough interviews really a crime worthy of constant public denigration of an all time great player and decent human? Is it so severe as to take precedence over an event that set hockey back 25 years?

The answer of course is clearly and obviously no. And keep in mind, this is not Dave Molinari dealing with Tom Barrasso’s daily mood swing in the Penguin’s locker room. That I can somewhat understand though certainly not endorse.

Burnside to me has lost all of his credibility because he lost site of his most critical responsibility as a journalist. His personal attacks in a public forum do not even feign objectivity. That deserves far more condemnation then he’s given Mario Lemieux.

My Post Mortem on the Long Island Brawl

I’ve spent the last week trying, and for the most part failing, to get over my anger about what happened on Long Island a week ago Friday.

The entire spectacle was an embarrassment to the National Hockey League, not that the league is intelligent enough to understand that. My position on this incident has not changed over eight days, it’s just been clarified. What happened was a 60 minute premeditated and cowardly assault with intent to injure. It was based not on some noble if misplaced desire to protect the Islanders’ top players; rather on some flimsy vendetta that the Islanders conjured out of mid air. It was, to paraphrase Mario Lemieux, a travesty of sport. A travesty made worse by the NHL’s impotent reaction 24 hours later.

If you think I’m overreacting to all this ask yourself two questions. What would have been the reaction if Matt Martin had landed his cowardly sucker punch from behind and fractured Max Talbot’s jaw or even broken his neck as Todd Bertuzzi did to Steve Moore. And how will you feel if Eric Tangradi is unable to play for a year or more because of his second concussion.

The NHL is doing what it always does, punish the result rather than the action. That would be bad enough if the punishments were proportionate to the crime which they rarely are. It’s a sad truth that if Talbot suffered a career ending injury, Martin likely would have received a 25 to 40 game ban. That would have been woefully inadequate given Martin’s action but certainly more than he got.

Instead the NHL’s lack of action will simply encourage and enable more of this behavior. Consider that the Pens/Islanders game was the third brawl filled game in ten days and little action was taken on the first two. Consider some unknown Colorado hack took a cheap run at Olli Jokinen the next night after he put up four points on the fading Avalanche. It’s a systematic and endemic problem that the NHL does not acknowledge, let alone attempt to fix.

For too long the league has relied on its archaic code of justice to mediate justice. Besides the obvious flaw in having the inmates run the asylum, the simple fact is its not working anymore. Players seem to be losing respect for the so called “code”. What the Islanders did Friday night was a three hour case study in this. As former Penguin Rick Tocchet said last week, players seem more willing to hurt each other today. And Tocchet knows a thing or two about hockey fights.

I might excuse the Islander’s conduct on some level if any member of their organization, player or coach had acknowledged in the slightest that things got out of hand. They steadfastly refused to do so. Instead, they bragged about protecting their players, sending a message and in the most asinine comment I’ve heard this season showing restraint. I guess my memory is foggy. I’m sure I remember Garth Snow wearing a mask when he played goal for the Pens yet he seems like he took one too many slap shots to the cranium.

The NHL should have come out and sent a strong message that this behavior will not be tolerated. When you use the term “DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO INJURE” in doling out punishment, you are saying that the player committed a crime against the game. They should have suspended both Martin and Trevor Gillies for the remainder of the season for their assaults on Talbot and Tangradi. They should have suspended Jack Capuano five games for complete failure to control his players. They should have suspended Matt Hailey for spending the entire night starting brawls. And yes, Dan Bylsma should have been suspended as required by rule for Eric Godard leaving the bench.

Instead they suspended only three players. Two of the suspensions, for Gillies and Martin, were frighteningly inadequate to the crime. And the Godard suspension, which I agree with, was only by rule and would not have been necessary if the officials had put a stop to the insanity in the second period. None of the other brawlers were suspended.

The obvious message here…fighting is acceptable no matter how badly it gets out of hand. And if you go as far over the line as Gillies and Martin did, the league will talk tough and then give them a slap on the wrist suspension. Compare that to the NBA, hardly a bastion of purity or responsibility which suspended players involved in the Indiana/Detroit brawl for the remainder of the season, about 60 games and the playoffs.

The NBA’s message to its players, that kind of brawling will not be tolerated. The NHL’s message, as long as you don’t cheap shot a guy in the head, you’ll be back the next night. And even if you do, you’ll only sit a few days. Somehow I don’t see that as quite the detriment that the all knowing former goon Colin Campbell does.

Those who continue to profess that the players police themselves will call this an isolated incident. I say that this incident proved how ineffective and counter productive that idea is. The NHL claims that fighting protects the game. I take the opposite view point, I think fighting enables the kind of ugly incident we saw last Friday night. As I said last week, if you believe fighting is necessary to police the game I ask you this…did it work last Friday? Keep in mind that before he tried to end Tangradi’s career for no apparent reason, Gillies fought Eric Godard.

I personally would not mind if they eliminated fighting from the game. Unfortunately, the only way that’s going to happen is if somebody dies on the ice during a fight. I truly believe that. And as much as I would prefer hockey to be fight free, I’m not willing to pay the price of a human life to get there. So I would suggest that the league add a mandatory ten minute misconduct on top of every fight. If fighting is that necessary to police the game then a player should be wiling to pay a 15 minute price. And for those who believe it necessary, I remind you that it all but disappears when the playoffs start.

What is worse is what has happened since. Mario Lemieux, arguably the greatest player in NHL history rightfully called out what happened as a travesty of sport. He criticized both the events itself and the NHL’s pathetic response. His message was right on point and had to be delivered. As a fan, I would want my owner to do exactly that.

Not only was his message ignored, it was summarily dismissed by the NHL and Lemieux was ripped for it by fans and media alike. I found it fascinating that in all the talk of Lemieux being a hypocrite because of the sinful act of employing Matt Cooke, not one person actually contradicted his point. To me that is even more convincing evidence that he was 100% correct.

That said, the universal effort to shoot the messenger was telling. It tells me that there are too many people in the NHL that are more concerned with protecting its archaic code of brutal violence than doing what’s best for the sport. Even as the game’s best player and poster child sits on the sideline with a concussion induced by an unpunished cheap shot to the head, the NHL continues to ignore an obvious problem.

Lemieux has been ripped for not calling out Cooke for his shots on Marc Savard and Fedor Tyutin. The implication is that Lemieux supports Cooke’s actions. Beyond the fact that Lemieux and the Pens never once complained about Cooke’s suspension this argument is blatantly stupid. Ask Andrew Ference what happens when you call out a teammate. Do you think free agents would be lining up to come to Pittsburgh if Mario was calling out his own players?

And for the record, I think the NHL should have suspended Cooke for the hit on Savard and more for the hit on Tyutin. It’s all part of an overall trend of the league not taking these issues seriously enough. And each time that happens, the repercussions are worse. Sadly the NHL just does not get this.

Instead they let a career goon like Campbell dole out obviously inadequate punishments. They continue to rally around small minding thinking and an archaic and useless code. They continue to cheapen their product through unnecessary fights that lead to brawls and worse. They continue to make their stars take a back seat to fourth line goons.

As a lifetime hockey fan, I am grudgingly able to look beyond this. Far too many are not. Hockey is one of the greatest games on earth. Sadly, the NHL is hell bent on making sure many people never find out. We learned that the hard way last weekend.

A Sickening Display of “Sport”

I love hockey. So please understand how serious I take what I'm about to write.

My love for the sports parallels the Penguins’ rise to prominence, lead by a quiet (usually) French Canadian simply known as “Le Magnifique.” And yet, I clearly remember watching Michelle Dion and the Pens nearly pull one of the greatest playoff upsets in sports history against the Islander dynasty in 1982.

Those Islander teams were amongst the greatest of all time. They were blessed with a roster full of hall of fame players. They were not saints, but for the most part played the game the right way. Three decades later, their successors put on one of the most shameful displays in NHL history.

I’m not sure what was worse; the beer league goonism and thugery the Islanders perpetrated under the guise of “settling a score,” or the pathetic see no evil response from their coach and general manager. To hear Jack Capuano and Garth Snow tell it, their team of choir boys was simply defending themselves from the likes of the evil Eric Tangradi.

I guess that explains why the legendary Matt Martin felt the need to give Max Talbot the Todd Bertuzzi treatment. I guess that’s why Trevor Gillies skated half the rink to drive his elbow through Tangradi’s cranium, punch him while he was clearly injured and then taunt him while he was laying face first on the ice. So much for getting tough on head injuries.

Let me be as clear as possible on this so there is no misunderstanding where I stand on this. Gillies' actions in that sequence were possibly the most sickening display I’ve seen in over 30 years of watching sports. It was the single most disgraceful act of a game that was a complete disgrace to the sport.

Seriously, what does it say for the Islanders that Martin tried to end Talbot’s season with a cheap sucker punch from behind and it was only the second worst display of the night? And there was an ample supply of other candidates.

All of this occurred because the Islanders apparently felt the need to avenge a questionable hit by Talbot in the last meeting and Brent Johnson’s one punch TKO of Rick DiPietro. Frankly I would think the Islanders would pin a metal on Johnson for taking DiPietro out of the line-up but that’s an argument for a different day. I guess I’m struggling to understand how fighting is an accepted part of the game unless your guy loses. Then its justification to run Johnson and his teammates all night long.

The NHL was apparently incensed in word though not in deed. They admonished both players for “deliberate attempt to injure” and then gave them slap on the wrist suspensions. I’m sorry but when you acknowledge that somebody “deliberately attempted to injure an opponent,” that player’s season should be over. It goes against every principle of organized team sports to purposefully injure an opponent. Even James Harrison acknowledged that. When there are multiple acts as such over 60 minutes, the offending organization and coach should be severely punished.

Apparently the fact that Talbot was lucky enough to duck and avoid a fractured jaw makes the act less egregious, at least in the eyes of the all knowing and all powerful Colin Campbell.

I recognize that the NHL fined the Islanders $100,000 and in doing so sent a bit of a message. That said, whether the Islanders are cheap or not, that’s chump change for a professional sports franchise. What absolutely should have happened is additional fines and a suspension for Islanders coach Jack Capuano who at best turned a blind eye to his team’s obvious intentions, at worse encouraged it.

I commented after the game were that anything less than 20 game suspensions for both Martin and Gilles would leave me outraged. Well guess what…I’m outraged. If I thought my voice carried any weight, I would publicly admonish the league for this tragic miscarriage of sports justice. Thankfully, Mario Lemieux took care of it for me.

Let’s take a step back though. Any non Pittsburgh fan who reads this is going to interpret it as a one sided rant by an angry Penguin fan. I do not deny my anger; my impression is that the Islanders caused most of this; but there is a bigger issue here. In short, what happened Friday night was inevitable.

I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m not a fan of fighting in the NHL. I believe it’s unnecessary and that it cheapens and demeans what is otherwise a great sport. It’s amazing to me that something deemed so necessary all but disappears in the playoffs. It’s even more amazing that people feel that two 4th line goons fighting has more effect on the game than Brooks Orpik crushing a guy with a clean, legal check. The only thing I hate worse than fighting is the pathetic attempts to justify it as a necessary act of “policing the game.”

Did the Islanders look like they were “policing the game” on Friday night?

That said, I have reluctantly accepted fighting for years as part of the game’s culture. I grudgingly gave the league credit for eliminating bench clearing brawls and for gradually siphoning fighting from the game. If fighting was limited to the occasional Eric Godard versus Colton Orr scrap to fire up the crowd, I could live with it. If it was occasionally used to avenge say Adam Grave’s criminal slash on Lemieux in 1992 or Matt Cooke’s hit on Marc Savard last year, I could deal with it.

After seeing three brawl filled games this week, and the NHL’s meager response I fear that’s no longer the case. It’s even worse that the league tries to depict its response as aggressive. The impotent punishments from the league in response to Friday night’s horrific actions are nothing less than a tacit endorsement of what went on. For all of Campbell’s tough talk, only three players left the arena with anything more than additional PIMs.

If the NHL wants to protect fighting’s limited role in the game, I guess that’s their right. If the players truly believe that a limited amount of fighting is necessary, I can continue to accept it in extreme moderation. That said, the travesty of sport that occurred Friday night on Long Island can not be allowed under any circumstances. It is indefensible on any level for a civilized sport. It’s the latest example of a league that continually sabotages any chance for mainstream acceptance.

The movie Slapshot was supposed to be a parody of a bygone era or minor league hockey. It was not supposed to be replayed in earnest by “supposed” NHL players.

The Penguins are not innocent bystanders in this. It does not help their cause that they lead the league in fighting majors. Nor does it help them that Matt Cooke is forcefully growing his reputation as one of the dirtiest players in the game. That does not excuse what went on Friday night in Long Island but it’s clear that the Pens are earning an ugly reputation around the NHL.

A year ago I praised the Pens for becoming a genuinely tough and physical team to play against. This year they seem to be morphing in to their neighbors to the east.

That said, this is bigger than the Penguins and bigger than what happened on Friday night. The simple act of allowing fighting in the sport opens up the doors to that kind of breakdown. The refusal of the league to take truly aggressive action against such an embarrassing display emboldens every other franchise. What’s to stop any other team from bringing up a few minor league hacks to rough up any player who dares throw a body check? I realize the Islanders are not a playoff team (or an NHL team in my opinion) but do you really think losing Matt Martin for four games is going to affect them?

Again, I love hockey and I was thoroughly disgusted by what happened Friday night. The game had the same effect on me that it had on Lemieux; it made me question whether I want to continue to be a part of the sport I love. The NHL remains a niche sport in the United States. When it starts offending its most die hard fans, it’s in serious trouble. The league can not continue to let a minority of backward minded Canadians determine its destiny. It must stop catering to the barbaric Don Cherry and Mike Milbury mentality, or risk destroying itself.

What happened Friday night was a sickening and disgraceful display. Kris Letang and Dan Bylsma said it was not hockey, I saw it was not even sport. It served only to embarrass the National Hockey League and the teams involved, regardless of who was ultimately at fault.
The league had to send a strong message that this was unacceptable on any level. As Lemieux clearly stated today, they failed.