Black and Gold

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Ryan Clark says goodbye to Steelers

By Scott Brown
http://espn.go.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers
May 20, 2014

PITTSBURGH -- Ryan Clark bid an emotional farewell to Pittsburgh and the Steelers on Tuesday night, telling KDKA-TV he is "grateful to God that he let me be there. It's just one of the best organizations in sports."

Clark started for eight seasons in Pittsburgh, teaming with good friend Troy Polamalu to give the Steelers one of the best safety tandems in the NFL.

Clark

Hard-hitting on the field and away from it with opinions he never hesitated to voice, Clark will go down as one of the better free-agent signings in Steelers history.

The Steelers signed Mike Mitchell in March to get younger and faster at free safety. Clark re-signed with the Redskins, the team he had been with before signing with the Steelers in 2006.

Clark got choked up when he talked about the friendships he forged in Pittsburgh -- and the support he received after suffering a life-threatening illness due to complications from sickle-cell trait that were triggered during a 2007 game in Denver.

"Ike [Taylor], Troy and Will Gay, they're my brothers man, and I think that's the hard part about this game because I don't want people [in Washington] to think that I'm not excited about it because I really am," Clark said. "But when I was sick they came to the hospital and Troy cried with me and prayed with me. That's the things that I'll miss, that's the things that I'll remember."

Clark also said he won't soon forget the fan support the Steelers enjoy in Pittsburgh and far beyond Western Pennsylvania.

"To be able to go places and take over stadiums, the Steelers are spoiled by the fans they have," he said. "To be around just such good people [in the Steelers organization], for people to embrace me and treat me the way that they did. It's important. It was beautiful so I just thank them all."

Clark said the hit he will remember the most came in the Steelers' 33-10 win at New England in 2008. He drilled Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker after a pass sailed over the latter's head. The play epitomized the Steelers' handling of their longtime nemesis in a win that helped propel them on their run to the Super Bowl title.

"The Patriots had this mystique about them, they still do, and Wes Welker had a mystique about him of just being such a scrappy, tough [wide receiver] and we just don't like those guys," Clark said. "We didn't. So it just felt so good to hit him and it set a tone for us."

Monday, May 19, 2014

Shazier, Tuitt can shore up ... secondary?

By Dejan Kovacevic
http://triblive.com/sports
Published: Sunday, May 18, 2014, 10:18 p.m.

Ryan Shazier talks with linebackers coach Keith Butler (AP)

“Football in shorts” is more than just one of Mike Tomlin's many pet phrases. It has a distinct beauty, this one. It's the coach's derisive, default comeback for any question that seeks analysis of any of the Steelers' various offseason workouts, and it doesn't even take the requisite verb.

“Coach, what did you of think of Joe Sixth-Rounder?”

“Football in shorts.”

“Coach, anyone out there who …?”

“Football in shorts.”

It's fair, too. No one's wearing pads. No one's hitting. It's all motions.

At the same time, be certain the Steelers' three-day rookie camp, which wrapped up Sunday on the South Side, represented at least the start of something essential for this franchise.

“A pass rush and coverage work together on a defense. They have since the beginning of time, and they always will,” Tomlin came back to one my decidedly non-football-shorts questions this weekend. “You've got to apply pressure to the quarterback. Doesn't matter how many people you do it with. You've got to use as many as is required for consistent pressure to assure that the ball comes out in a timely manner. Because when it doesn't, it means yards and points for the offense. That's just the reality of football at any level.”

It has been a harsh reality around here for a couple of 8-8 seasons now.

My question for the coach, by the way, was chicken-and-egg variety: Which comes first, quality pass rush or quality pass coverage?

And while Tomlin's thoughtful reply was appreciated, I'll offer one that's a whole lot simpler: Seattle.

The Super Bowl champs ranked No. 1 in passing defense (172 yards per game), No. 1 in interceptions (28) and No. 8 in sacks (44). And the Seahawks achieved that, at the risk of another Richard Sherman rant, through the NFL's most athletic and versatile front seven. Linebackers blitzed from all over the Pacific Northwest.

Defensive tackles dropped into coverage. Even the base scheme would switch from 4-3 to 3-4 or 2-5, anything to disrupt, disrupt, disrupt.

In the Super Bowl, the Seahawks beat the Broncos by giving Peyton Manning 2.4 seconds to throw, compared to Russell Wilson's 2.81. Manning was pressured on 20 of 51 throws, Wilson on 4 of 27. Manning misfired on all six deep balls, including a pick. And no coincidence, Pro Football Focus' highest grades for Seattle's defense went to ends Chris Clemons (sack, QB hit, four hurries) and Cliff Avril (three QB hits, six hurries), and linebacker K.J. Wright (seven tackles). Even the game's most brilliant on-field mind had no idea what was about to hit him.

Any of that sound familiar?

It should, because that's what Dick LeBeau was doing before being saddled with a lot of aging, immobile pawns and rooks on his chess board.

Well, enter Ryan Shazier and Stephon Tuitt.

The Steelers' top two picks in this month's draft were expressly added to be the “defensive playmakers” Tomlin and Kevin Colbert repeatedly have stated they covet. But their true value will be best measured by the impact on the defense as a whole, in particular whether the front seven can resume — after a two-year hiatus — looking dangerous, unpredictable, maybe even a little menacing.

That's No. 1 here. Make no mistake.

The secondary will be much the same, except for Mike Mitchell taking Ryan Clark's place. The defensive line will have younger legs in Tuitt, Cam Heyward, Cam Thomas and Steve McLendon but no clear nose tackle yet. The linebackers have Lawrence Timmons, a maybe/maybe not sequel for Jason Worilds, Jarvis Jones seeking his second sack and Shazier learning on the fly.

That's a lot of ifs. But at least the pieces aren't glued down anymore.

If the speedy, smart and versatile Shazier meets high expectations, he'll allow Troy Polamalu to stop playing linebacker for good, a huge plus all by itself. He'll also help stunt the run. And he'll add a fourth dimension to the pass rush, preventing teams from ganging up on Worilds. He can lighten Timmons' load in pass coverage, too.

“I know I can drop into coverage,” the kid was telling me this weekend. “I've always considered it a strength.”

Tuitt's a bigger man, but he's athletic enough to use in various ways, as well.

Both will need to be quick studies, of course.

“As much as you think you know, there's a long way to go,” Shazier said.

“I've got a lot to learn,” Tuitt said. “This is a defense where you've got to take that playbook with you 24/7.”

Good. That's how it used to be.

I'd tell you how those two looked out there at rookie camp, except that their pants weren't long enough. That'll come soon enough.

Dejan Kovacevic is a sports columnist for Trib Total Media. Reach him at dkovacevic@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Dejan_Kovacevic.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Crosby led Penguins down drain

[This column should draw some attention. - jtf]

Joe Starkey
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Saturday, May 17, 2014, 10:51 p.m.

(Photo: Charles LeClaire/USA Today)

Don't let that little front-office earthquake distract you from the primary reason the Penguins are not participating in the Eastern Conference final.

The primary reason is Sidney Crosby, whose leadership never has been more in question.

If you didn't know better, you'd be looking for blood on Crosby's hands in the wake of Ray Shero's beheading and the pending demise of Dan Bylsma. You'd think he tried to orchestrate the palace coup.

Set aside, for a moment, Crosby's paltry playoff numbers. This is bigger than that. It's about the way he comported himself.

It's about the mysteriously early exits from power plays, the drifting to the bench in the middle of shifts, the uncharacteristic snapping at the coach and the perpetually blank look on his face.

If we find out he was badly injured, different story. But there is no evidence of that. The evidence suggests Crosby was unhappy and wanted the world to know it.

There are some who can't help but make excuses for Crosby. Sid's Sycophants. They have pitted him against Evgeni Malkin since the latter arrived, always favoring Sid.

You know what you'll get every night from Sid, they'd say. But Geno? Geno's too unpredictable. Geno at his worst evokes the shadowy side of Jaromir Jagr.

Yeah, that's it: Sid is Mario; Geno is Jagr.

Well, who looked like the moody, easily frustrated, coach-killer version of Jagr in these playoffs? And who looked more like Lemieux, laying it on the line in Game 7 and putting up a conference-leading point total through two series?

Imagine if Crosby were leading the conference in scoring and Malkin had one goal in his past 18 playoff games. Do you think the Sycophants would be finding excuses for Malkin?

More likely they'd be hanging him in effigy in Market Square.

One thing we never heard from Crosby during these playoffs was an unprompted, unqualified statement of personal responsibility.

A leader's first commandment is to personally and publicly accept blame even when he is not at fault but especially when he is. It tends to play well in locker rooms.

But in the midst of his hideous playoff, Crosby never said anything like this: “Put it on me. I'm the captain. I'm not getting it done.”

Instead, the best he could muster after his wretched Game 2 against Columbus was, “We've got to be better.”

We?

On locker clean-out day, a defensive Crosby said, “Obviously, I would have liked to score more and contribute more. But it wasn't from a lack of effort.”

OK. But when I watched Game 7, I couldn't help but notice that Malkin practically poured his soul onto the ice while Crosby often skirted the perimeter.

Did it look to you like Crosby brought every ounce of his hockey being to Game 7?

The captain also said, “I'd love to tear it up every series, but it doesn't always happen.”

Nobody's demanding that Crosby “tear it up every series.” How about just showing up as a leader of men?

The Sycophants' excuses never end. They'll tell you the Penguins have wasted the past four years of Crosby's career.

That's a lie. The Penguins had Cup-capable rosters in 2010, '12 and '13 and were certainly as good as the Rangers or Canadiens this year. If their best player hadn't failed them, they'd be playing another flawed team in the Canadiens right now.

The weak-wingers complaint needs to die, too. The Penguins offered Marian Hossa $50 million and a guaranteed spot next to Crosby for the prime of his career. Hossa couldn't get out of town fast enough. They brought in Jarome Iginla. Crosby preferred Pascal Dupuis.

The line of Crosby, Dupuis and Chris Kunitz was highly productive. Crosby enjoyed playing with them. So the Penguins shelled out $26.5 million to keep both.

Yeah, poor Sid.

In these playoffs, Bylsma often had Kunitz and Malkin on the top line. That's not a bad set of wingers. True, Brian Gibbons played there, too, and while he's far from an ideal choice, it's worth noting that he had twice as many goals in 54 seconds as Crosby has in his past 18 playoff games.

Crosby had one power-play shot in the entire Rangers series (a weak perimeter wrister in Game 6). How is that possible? He has one third-period goal in his past 41 playoff games (the one that made it 6-2 in a blowout of Ottawa last season).

Feel free to hide your eyes before we look at how Crosby has fared in his past four season-ending games” Montreal Game 7 in 2010, Philly Game 6 in '12, Boston Game 4 in '13 and Rangers Game 7.

In those four games, the Penguins' best player totaled zero goals, zero assists and a minus-6 (still checking on his Corsi rating).

So go ahead and be distracted by the ongoing palace coup at 1001 Fifth Ave. It's pretty riveting stuff.

Just know that the Penguins should still be playing.

Joe Starkey co-hosts a show 2 to 6 p.m. weekdays on 93.7 FM. Reach him at jraystarkey@gmail.com.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Next Pens GM faces big challenge

The replacement for Ray Shero has myriad problems to overcome

By Scott Burnside

http://espn.go.com/nhl/

May 16, 2014

Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma

That ominous metallic sound you heard echoing out of the Steel City late Friday morning was that of the hammer hitting the organizational anvil for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It was a sound most had been expecting from the moment the Penguins could not find the tying goal in Game 7 against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night and fell from the playoffs once again, wondering how so much talent could produce so little.

On Friday, part of that wonderment was crystallized into reality when ownership decided that seismic change was needed and cut ties with former general manager of the year Ray Shero.

Coach Dan Bylsma remains, technically, as the team's head coach while the team seeks out a new GM.

But, as was the case in Vancouver when Trevor Linden took over as president of hockey operations and waited before firing coach John Tortorella, it is all but a given that Bylsma will be cut loose.

Is there a GM anywhere who would come into this situation and retain Bylsma, given that Shero paid a heavy price, at least in part, for choosing a year ago to keep Bylsma behind the bench after the Penguins were swept by the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals?

The short answer: no.

In that sense, it is more than a little passive-aggressive from ownership's side to keep Bylsma twisting in the wind, especially given that he almost certainly would be hired immediately if he were a free agent, what with coaching openings in Florida, Carolina, Vancouver and Washington.

The fact Bylsma might not hit the market until after the draft does him a great disservice. The team owes him better than this.

And surely the plan isn't to make Bylsma a lame-duck coach for another year while the Penguins wait for Mike Babcock's contract to run out in Detroit so they can hire the two-time Olympic gold medal-winning coach of Team Canada? How unseemly would that be?

Surely, the organization isn't prepared to waste another season in the prime of captainSidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin while hoping it can nab the guy who beat the Penguins in the 2008 Stanley Cup finals.

As for Shero, president David Morehouse said Friday that Shero had "complete autonomy" to build the team as he saw fit.

"He had free rein," Morehouse said.

Sounds like ownership trying to distance itself from some of the mess the team finds itself in after annual attempts to bring in pieces to another Stanley Cup puzzle fell short.

Did Shero really acquire Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow, Douglas Murray and Jussi Jokinenat last year's deadline without getting ownership's blessing? Come on.

And, going back further, did ownership not push Shero to grab Marian Hossa (and Pascal Dupuis) from Atlanta? Or Bill Guerin?

Maybe it's semantics, but the bottom line is that the pressure and desire to keep an elite team at the top of the mountain often pushes a team into salary-cap issues and depletes a team's depth in terms of draft picks and prospects.

The Penguins are no different.

Certainly there have been lots of questions about the team's depth and salary-cap situation. And those issues, along with the coaching decision, undoubtedly combined to hasten Shero's departure, as well.

Still, the criticism of Shero is only partially fair.

Look at the team's depth and potential along the blue line, starting with Olli Maatta, who jumped from junior and attracted Calder Trophy interest for his solid play, to Brian Dumoulinand Derrick Pouliot, and you've got a pretty good core of young defensemen for the future. Throw in 6-foot-4 Simon Despres, whom a new coach might take advantage of because of his size and skill, and there's another.

[+] Enlarge Dan Bylsma

Bruce Fedyck/USA TODAY SportsThe fate of coach Dan Bylsma is now in the hands of the next GM.

Do the Penguins have issues with contracts? Sure.

The decision to extend Kris Letangafter last year's defensive meltdown was questionable, although Letang played very well after a rocky start to this spring's run. Still, the $7.25 million cap hit over the life of an eight-year extension now seems excessive. TheRob Scuderi deal that sees him under contract for three more years at a $3.375 million annual cap hit is a problem, as well.

Those deals will make it difficult to retain Matt Niskanen, who has emerged as the team's steadiest defender and who will be an unrestricted free agent in July. He would like to stay, but it's hard to see that happening without the Penguins exercising a compliance buyout to make room.

As the Pens began to lose their grip on the Rangers series, the lack of depth up front became apparent. Beau Bennett has not progressed. Will a new coach help get this talented forward on track again? Brian Gibbons has shown he has the speed to be an NHL player, but there isn't a series of young forwards emerging, as is the case with the Chicago Blackhawks or Los Angeles Kings, to name two recent Cup winners.

Those are now issues that will confront someone new.

Perhaps assistant GM Jason Botterill will get a shot, although if this ultimately is a clean sweep, does Botterill represent someone with enough distance from the previous regime to get the job done, or does his knowledge of the farm team put him in good stead? It's clear the team trusts his judgment, as Morehouse said Friday that Botterill is a candidate for the job and could manage the team through the draft if a new GM isn't in place by late June.

Tim Burke, the highly regarded director of scouting for the San Jose Sharks, is going to get a GM job somewhere sometime soon. Claude Loiselle, an assistant GM in Toronto, is also ready. Tom Kurvers, part of USA Hockey's management team at the ongoing world championship, is an intriguing figure, as well.

And what of Crosby's agent, Pat Brisson, whose name surfaced Friday, as well? Interesting, although the fact Brisson's partner, J.B. Barry, represents Malkin suggests it might be a tad complicated. Still, Brisson is a sharp hockey mind, and there's no team he knows better than the Penguins.

Whoever ultimately takes over as GM must resolve first what is going on with captain Crosby. His lack of productivity this spring and his apparent disconnect with Bylsma is something that has to be a prime consideration in how the team evolves. Fair or not -- and how many times has this been a discussion point with the Washington Capitals and their star captain, Alexander Ovechkin? -- Crosby is the team's most important asset.

If things went awry, the GM must figure out why, and those answers must be part of the consideration, assuming there is going to be a coaching search in the coming weeks.

In short, this first part is the easy part for the Penguins. Ownership was upset, disappointed and decided to clear the decks.

And so the pressure now falls to Mario Lemieux, principal owner Ron Burkle and Morehouse to stop what has become a pattern of annual underachievement and disappointment.

It's this part of the equation that will at some point define this team and its future.

Lemieux, Burkle have right focus

By Dejan Kovacevic
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Friday, May 16, 2014, 11:22 p.m.

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Let's dispense with this right up front: Dan Bylsma isn't coming back to coach the Penguins.

No chance.

Not happening.

His name never came up in the team's clumsy, confounding news conference Friday, the one in which Ray Shero was fired and we then waited awkwardly for the other shoe that never dropped. There already was an element of weirdness that the announcement wasn't being made by owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle but by CEO David Morehouse, Shero's hierarchical equal. And it reached another level when one wiseacre actually had to ask whether, in fact, Bylsma was being fired.

You're welcome.

The answer from Morehouse was no different than those from Lemieux and Burkle an hour later, when they and I met in the owners' voluminous office across the Consol Energy Center hall from the news conference they just dodged.

“Dan's still the coach,” Lemieux replied to my first question, and he kept a straight face.

No, really, Dan isn't still the coach. And I'll tell you why: It's because when Lemieux and Burkle arrived at their decision to fire Shero, they did so not only because of lousy drafts. Not only because of a soft roster. Not only because of prioritizing age over youth. And not only because of reckless spending. But also because — and let's be clear on this — the coach was every bit on board.

When Burkle made public it was Lemieux who ordered the addition of Jacques Martin to the staff last summer “to bring another coach in and see if we could be more flexible, try to adapt between how we were playing in the regular season and in the playoffs,” he wasn't exactly endorsing the head coach.

When Lemieux repeatedly stated the Penguins were lacking “grit and character,” he once took the extra step to add, “even on special teams.” The power play, he meant. Shooting the puck. Crashing the net. That's on the coach.

When I asked how the Penguins could go all season without giving soon-to-be-ancient defense prospect Simon Despres a long look, Lemieux replied, “Yeah.” Burkle chimed in, “Agree with that 100 percent.”

When Burkle described being convinced last summer by Shero to keep Bylsma, he recalled: “If you look back at that today, in some ways, I wish we hadn't made that bet. If we're disappointed, it's that we lost a year to the change that we should have made already.”

Yeah, that coach isn't coming back.

And although Burkle and Lemieux were adamant that they'll leave the new GM to his own work, as they obviously did with Shero, they also made no secret that this mythical man's hiring will come with a multipronged mandate:

• Faster. “Look at Montreal, the way they're built,” Lemieux said. “They have smaller forwards, but they're all speedy, and they've got grit, and they've got character. That's probably what we'd like to have. I think that's where the league is going now.”

• Younger. This time, Lemieux pointed to Columbus, the first-round opponent with a bright future: “They had that nice mix of older and younger players that you need in the playoffs. A lot of fresh legs.”

• Tougher. Not fighting or cheap, Lemieux stressed. But tough enough to compete. Tough enough to spare Sidney Crosby the regular beatings, a language no one understands better than No. 66. “I think Sid would be the first to say he was disappointed in the way he played,” Lemieux said. “I think we all saw that. We're disappointed, as well. But it's up to us to surround him with the players he needs to be successful.”

• Cheaper. Yes, really. Even as Lemieux bluntly said “we signed Kris Letang to keep him” in advance of the final summer before a no-trade clause cements a $58 million commitment, both owners spoke of being more prudent. “We fell into spending to the cap just because it was there,” Burkle said. They won't keep the new GM from hitting the cap, but they'd like to see more players signed to long-term deals at younger ages. Lemieux mentioned Matt Niskanen as an example of such an opportunity that was wasted. Niskanen, coming off a career year, is eligible for free agency this summer.

• Grittier and more character-y. Sorry. They said it so many times, I just had to toss it in again.

I didn't like everything I saw and heard Friday. I'm not wild about Bylsma and his coaches possibly being strung along, though Lemieux and Burkle emphatically assured me they wouldn't stop anyone from pursuing another opportunity. Also, Lemieux and Burkle absolutely should have faced the news conference, and Burkle's explanation that “it's neither one of our styles” because both rarely do interviews wasn't close to acceptable. If that were Art Rooney II or Bob Nutting, Pittsburgh would pitch a fit.

Let's hope that one or both man up when the new GM is introduced. The fans, especially those paying customers whom Burkle praised for “great support,” deserve equal accountability.

For now, this broader accountability and the right focus for the franchise's future will do.

Dejan Kovacevic is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at dkovacevic@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Dejan_Kovacevic.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Pirates test patience with Polanco

By Kevin Gorman
http://triblive.com/sports
Published: Thursday, May 15, 2014, 10:39 p.m.

Since Sports Illustrated dubbed him baseball's “Next Big Thing” late last month, everyone is waiting for the Pirates to promote Gregory Polanco to the majors.

And waiting.

The 22-year-old Polanco is a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder viewed as a five-tool prospect, one who is supposed to star in right field and complete the Dream Outfield with Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte.

“I haven't seen him play lately,” Pirates pitcher and former No. 1 pick Gerrit Cole said, “but I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind that the guy's a big leaguer.”

Except, of course, the Pirates.

Despite public pressure to promote Polanco, the Pirates are keeping their top prospect at Triple-A Indianapolis, where he has hit .373/.440/.613 with 11 doubles, five triples, five home runs and 35 RBIs in 38 games.

The front office warns that Polanco has fewer than 500 plate appearances against pitching above Single-A and wants him to get more experience.

“We know that the fans are clamoring for Gregory Polanco,” Pirates president Frank Coonelly said. “We want to see him here as well, but we want to see him here at a point in time when he can succeed, hit the ground running like an Andrew McCutchen did after well over 1,000 plate appearances against experienced pitchers.”

The Pirates are preaching patience with Polanco, showing theirs while testing ours.

The pressure mounted last week, when Yahoo! Sports first reported that, during spring training, Polanco declined the Pirates' $25 million, seven-year contract offer with three club options.

Conventional wisdom is that the Pirates are delaying his major-league debut to prevent Polanco from reaching Super 2 status, thereby keeping him from becoming eligible for arbitration after two years of service instead of three.

Coonelly refuses to comment on the contract offer but contended that “Super 2 service time is not the factor why Gregory Polanco is in Triple-A.” Coonelly added that Polanco will “be here sometime this summer. I'm confident of that.”

Their concern is that Polanco could encounter adversity the way Pedro Alvarez did, being sent to Triple-A when he struggled with his swing in his sophomore season after collecting 16 home runs and 64 RBIs as a rookie.

The Pirates don't want to damage their prized prospect.

“It's one thing to say he's ready for the big leagues,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. “It's another to say he's ready to jump in to the expectation level that he's going to have right now.”

Instead of watching baseball's Next Big Thing roam right field, we've seen the Pirates try Travis Snider, Jose Tabata and infielders Josh Harrison, Jordy Mercer and Gaby Sanchez.

Because, you know, Travis Ishikawa is no longer available.

Instead of promoting Polanco for the first Sunday night game at PNC Park, the Pirates called up Brent Morel and Jaff Decker.

Are the Pirates willing to withstand public pressure once again, only one season after the end of the 20-year losing streak?

“That's really a question of trust, and you have to earn trust,” Coonelly said. “I think we earned trust with some people last year, but I still think we have some work to do.”

Especially with their players.

That the front office not only allowed veterans A.J. Burnett, Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau to leave through free agency but also added only Ishikawa, Chris Stewart and Edinson Volquez was a disservice to the corps that won 94 games and made the playoffs.

With the Pirates 8.5 games behind the Brewers in NL Central, a June callup for Polanco might be too late. The Bucs play series against the Yankees, Orioles, Nationals, Mets and Dodgers, and all have better records.

“Our won-loss record or a positional level of production –— we've got some other positions that are not as productive as right field, by the way — that doesn't impact whether we think a player is ready to take the next step and ready to jump into this environment,” Huntington said. “If it does, we're making decisions for the wrong reasons. And as excited as we are about Gregory Polanco, and what we think he can become, our job is to help him become that as quickly as he can.”

And as excited as we are about Gregory Polanco, we're hoping the Pirates hurry up and get him that experience.

Our patience is wearing thin.

Kevin Gorman is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Lemieux faces offseason conundrum

By The Tribune-Review
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Wednesday, May 14, 2014, 10:48 p.m.

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Mario Lemieux might well give the angry mob what it wants: the heads of general manager Ray Shero and coach Dan Bylsma.

Might be necessary, too.

But it won't answer The Question.

Mario can't run from The Question.

If he really wants to fix what ails this franchise, he and fellow owner Ron Burkle must determine the right answer to The Question.

What kind of team do we want?

After Game 7 on Tuesday, USA Today's Kevin Allen wrote that the Penguins are looking to adopt to “a more-defensive, grittier system.” That seems to be the popular sentiment. But when your best players are addicted to offense, is it realistic?

The boys apparently weren't having enough “fun” under Dan Bylsma, according to Rob Rossi's report in The Trib on Wednesday. Now you want to make them accountable to a stricter coach and system?

We've seen what happens to defense-first coaches around here. Ask Michel Therrien or Kevin Constantine.

Yeah, Mario could try to make his team more like the Boston Bruins. But the Penguins aren't the Bruins, whose three best players are a defensive defenseman, a goalie and a Selke Trophy winner.

The Penguins' three best players — theoretically — should be Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. So good luck with that defensive, gritty system thing.

And welcome to ownership's conundrum.

Mario surely prefers an entertaining, high-scoring, star-centric team built in his image.

But is that the way to win?

That kind of team is what the Penguins had in mind coming out of the lockout 10 years ago, when the NHL opened the spigots. Those Penguins, flush with two new superstars and determined to draft as many smooth-skating, offensive defensemen as possible, were going to thrive in an obstruction-free world. And for a bit, they did.

But like a big, ugly python, obstruction crept back in and strangled much of the fun from the sport. The “garage league” made a comeback. The Penguins were stuck. They are stuck. It's as if they bought a beachfront mansion only to see the floodwaters roll in.

The conundrum thickens.

Ideally, you'd like a team with perfect balance. One that can prevent goals, score them when it matters and keep the paying customers entertained. You'd like to be the Chicago Blackhawks.

But Chicago's best player (Jonathan Toews) is a two-way demon with a Selke Trophy on his shelf. The Penguins don't have a guy like that or like Marian Hossa, another elite two-way forward. Chicago also isn't bogged down with a top-heavy cap situation (although they soon might be).

The Penguins tried to become more rounded this season. Bylsma adopted a more conservative system and brought in Jacques Martin to work beside him. It didn't translate at playoff time.

Maybe this franchise lost its best chance at real balance when Jordan Staal — a player Shero said he never would trade — was traded. Maybe the best scenario would have been Crosby centering the first line with the big-bodied Staal centering the second and the rest of the roster fleshed out with the massive return on a trade for Malkin.

Now, for better or worse, the Penguins have a top-heavy roster without a ton of flexibility. So whether he hires a new GM or not, Mario might start by working with the material on hand. He can help shape the team he wants.

This would be an excellent time for a long talk with Crosby on how to lead this team into a new era.

For starters, Mario could remind the captain that nobody wants to hear any more whispers attributed to Sid's camp — i.e., ever-present father Troy and agent Pat Brisson — about Sid needing more help. The Penguins signed his two wingers, including Pascal Dupuis, the guy Sid wanted on his right for last year's playoffs instead of the newly acquired Jarome Iginla.

Mario also could implore Sid to play along the goal line on a power play that has torpedoed this team in the past two playoffs. Give Malkin the half-boards.

Look, Mario authorized every big move Shero made. This is his baby, too. If people wonder why Shero's latest rosters had less edge, maybe it's because the Penguins — starting at the top — fancied themselves the flag bearers of a cleaner NHL after Crosby's concussion issues and Matt Cooke's meltdowns.

So what kind of team does Mario want?

Man, that's a tough one. When he finds an answer, it'd be nice to hear from him.

It has been awhile.

Joe Starkey co-hosts a show 2 to 6 p.m. weekdays on 93.7 FM. Reach him at jraystarkey@gmail.com

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Long offseason ahead for Crosby and Penguins

By Gene Collier / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports

May 13, 2014

Brian Boyle #22 celebrates his goal with Dominic Moore #28, Anton Stralman #6 and Derek Dorsett #15 of the New York Rangers during the first period against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Seven of the Second Round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Consol Energy Center on May 13, 2014 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images)

The next big thing on your Penguins calendar — I mean after the firings — arrives July 14, when the club holds its ice crew auditions.

You know, the bright, well-scrubbed young people who zip onto the ice during the breaks and hustle end-to-end, cleaning up the snow. One note: Sidney Crosby will not be auditioning; he no longer skates fast enough.

It would be terrible if the Penguins concealed a Crosby injury throughout these 2014 playoffs.

It would be worse if they have not.

Because if the Captain isn’t hurt, then he simply skated indifferently, fanned on shots, mishandled the puck and was just awful enough to take Dan Bylsma’s team out of these playoffs prematurely. That he will probably take Bylsma’s Penguins career with it, along with perhaps general manager Ray Shero’s, along with who knows whom or what else, all while collecting something just this side of $9 million is more than enough to remove him as the so-called face of the NHL.

“I think any time you go into an elimination game you think about the possibility of it being the last game,” said Bylsma, sitting at the postgame podium in a dark blue suit marked with chalk windows you could see the doom through. “You go into this thinking one team is going on and one team is going home, so yes, you think about it, but here again, I had a ton of confidence in our team in winning this hockey game.”