Blake Comeau celebrates his OT goal Thursday night against the Avalanche. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Weekly roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our city’s teams …
• A good scout never stops scouting, per the vernacular.
That might best explain how the Penguins’ front office was able to uncover Blake Comeau, whose overtime goal in the 1-0 shutout of the visiting Avalanche on Thursday night was his 11th of the young NHL season, a total that stunningly matches the number of goals scored in his previous three full seasons with the Flames and Blue Jackets.
All that for a one-year, $700,000 contract, same salary as Craig Adams. and, beyond a doubt, the free-agent bargain of the year in the league.
“Not bad, huh?” Bill Guerin was saying after the game. “That’s a pretty good hockey player.”
We’ll get to that in a moment, but let’s start with the pretty good hockey scouting that happened here, according to several sources I consulted …
Guerin, Tom Fitzgerald and Jason Botteril, the triumvirate now working under Jim Rutherford, were under Ray Shero when the Penguins were battling — and that’s the right word — the Blue Jackets in the first round of Stanley Cup playoffs last spring. And even in the heat of that series, all concerned had continuous discussions about the guy wearing No. 14.
“He was killing us,” Guerin recalled.
Funny, but the stats didn’t reflect that, certainly not for a forward: Comeau played in all six games, took a regular shift and registered zero points, a minus-2 rating and only two shots.
“Yeah, but he was so physical, so fast, on the puck all the time,” Guerin said. “And honestly, we felt there was more there than even what he was showing.”
That resonated with the trio after Shero’s firing, and Rutherford concurred that Comeau would be among the Penguins’ primary targets in free agency. Given their tight cap space, they couldn’t go too far, so the sell job on the franchise had to be convincing. Rutherford placed an initial contact on the first day of the NHL’s so-called ‘interview period,’ a week in advance of free agency in which a GM and agent can discuss most everything except money.
Well, that’s what happened.
“I didn’t talk to Jim directly, but I heard what Pittsburgh thought of me, what they expected,” Comeau was telling me after the cameras and microphones were done Friday night. “I have to tell you, that really meant a lot to me. It had been a while since I scored a lot, and it was good to hear that they believed in me that way.”
And so, the contract was signed July 1, the first day possible.
“From there, I came into training camp and felt like I had a good camp, showed them what I could do, and the coaching staff kept pushing for more offense, more production,” Comeau continued.
Why didn’t that occur in Columbus, where goals are always sparse?
“I was asked to be a hitter because that’s the kind of team they wanted to have. So I was. I went out and hit and hit. And if you keep doing that, that’s how you start thinking of yourself as a player.”
Here’s a snippet from our conversation, first about the Penguins’ faith, then about his OT goal.
First, the goal:
Then, the snippet:
Consider this more of a revival than a breakout: Sure, Comeau is 28, and didn’t top five goals in his previous four seasons, but he also was the 47th overall pick in the 2004 NHL Draft, and he had seasons of 17 and 24 goals with the Islanders before drifting off.
“I’ve always believed I could do this,” he said. “That’s why it’s so great to be in an organization like this, where you know they’ve done this for so many other guys.”
He motioned toward Steve Downie’s stall.
“Downs is no different. You come to Pittsburgh, you’re expected to score. You know that.”
• Good stuff from Marc-Andre Fleury after his sixth shutout on a sweetly symmetrical 29 saves: “How about that crowd, huh? It’s not always like that. They were really into it. I loved it.”
• The Steelers can be tough on young players, often to their detriment. That’s well known. What isn’t seen — and I’ll bet won’t be discussed nearly as much — is how tough they’ve been on Markus Wheaton and Martavis Bryant to help them get to where they are now.
That began with Mike Tomlin, from what I’m told, way back in the offseason workouts, once management had decided it would stay in-house to replace Emmanuel Sanders. He pushed both relentlessly in terms of conditioning and learning the playbook.
“Really, really tough on both,” one player told me.
That continued with Ben Roethlisberger at Latrobe. At one practice, Roethlisberger had heated — and one-way — words for Bryant, in particular. He wasn’t much easier on Wheaton.
There’s a lot more I could write about this, but I won’t, because it might unfairly paint both as bad seeds. Neither is anything of the sort. Rather, the Steelers’ concern from the outset was that they couldn’t afford to wait on Wheaton or Bryant to run routes at a veteran’s level. They needed it right away. That’s why Tomlin and Roethlisberger reacted as they did, and it’s also why Antonio Brown took them under his wing to try to push them to match his unparalleled work ethic.
“I’m proud of them,” Brown said after both shined in Atlanta.
He should be. The Steelers as a collective should be.
I asked Roethlisberger and Le’Veon Bell what Wheaton and Bryant have meant of late …
• Ike Taylor might well be finished as an NFL corner, but he sure isn’t finished leading. I talked to a few defensive backs for a column that will be on this site much later tonight, and every last one of them was effusive about how much he’s meant to that group spiritually in recent weeks, even now that he’s back out of the lineup. More on this in the column.
• Whatever the issue was with Marcus Gilbert in Atlanta — and I’ll repeat that my belief is that Tomlin simply got tired of seeing his name on the injury report — my sense now is that all is clear. He’ll be out there ahead of Mike Adams against the Chiefs. As he should. For what it’s worth in this regard, Gilbert has been in visibly excellent spirits. Not so in Atlanta.
• Cole Tucker, the 18-year-old shortstop who was the Pirates’ most recent first-round draft pick, has been receiving lessons from Jack Wilson out at Wilson’s California fields. And if Wilson has his way, that line will become a long one.
“I’d love to have as many guys as possible. I’m hoping Pedro comes out,” Wilson said, referring, of course, to Pedro Alvarez. “I feel like I was very lucky to have Perry Hill come along in my career — actually, I would have loved to have had him the whole time — and there’s a lot I feel I can pass along, not only from what Perry taught but from my own experience.”
Which isn’t to suggest he’ll be teaching anyone that signature single-knee slide in the hole.
“Oh, gosh, no. There are some things I did I wouldn’t try to show anyone. Perry hated that slide, too. But it was part of my game. I really couldn’t change it.”
Between Wilson’s role and Kevin Young being brought to spring training, Neal Huntington is continuing to use former players to benefit the current team, always a smart move for any GM. The emotional investment can come guaranteed.
• Charlie Morton will not be available to start the Pirates’ season, I’m told definitively, contrary to at least one recent report. The team has every intention of putting Morton through a gradual process in spring training following hip surgery.
• Amount of tears being shed in and around Pitt athletic offices over Steve Pederson’s firing:
• It will be interesting to observe, among many, many other facets, how Pitt’s big move will affect the rivalry with West Virginia. I’ve heard for years that it wasn’t just Pederson that doesn’t want it. Jamie Dixon’s stance has been no different. A new AD obviously could work to restore the Backyard Brawl in football while respecting Dixon’s wish to keep basketball out of it, but being on the same page probably wouldn’t be a bad thing, either.
• No one in this town could be more delighted about Pederson than Dave Wannstedt. Trust me on that.
For further proof, check him out yesterday with David Todd on 970 ESPN.
• The Riverhounds made a ton of smart moves the past few weeks. Richard Nightingale strikes me as close to overqualified as team president. Same goes for two-time USL Pro champion Mark Steffens. But if this franchise wants to show its fragile fan base it’s serious, the next move will be to stop waffling and bring back Jose Angulo.
Angulo is the league’s best player. That’s not up for debate. He’s also its most entertaining, a pure striker with a golden touch. And in Pittsburgh, about three-quarters of all the jerseys you’ll see at a given game at Highmark Stadium have his No. 18 on the back. That’s an asset the just-out-of-bankruptcy Riverhounds can’t afford to squander, especially since Angulo — and I know this first-hand — very much wants to return.
Yes, he can keep himself in better shape. He can be a better locker-room guy. I appreciate both concerns. But I also know there’s only one Angulo in the league, and Pittsburgh needs him.
• Has Duquesne’s annual nosedive already begun?
It would be nice to say no, given all the scoring Jim Ferry has assembled, but the cold fact is, this roster is tissue-paper soft. And Ferry knows it. He’s got grit and character in Derrick Colter and freshman TiSean Powell — I really like his game — but the rest show little to nothing of the kind.
Until that changes, the results won’t, either.
• Good dude: Mario Lemieux. It can’t be spoken often enough. The greatest athlete in our city’s rich history has morphed into a truly special figure in the community and, in a sight most don’t see, a truly hands-on, visible owner. He was right there outside the room again Thursday, smiling as if he’d scored Comeau’s goal himself.
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December 19, 2014
Friday Insider: How Blake Comeau was uncovered
by Dejan Kovacevic • Friday Insider • Penguins
Blake Comeau celebrates his OT goal Thursday night against the Avalanche. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Weekly roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our city’s teams …
That might best explain how the Penguins’ front office was able to uncover Blake Comeau, whose overtime goal in the 1-0 shutout of the visiting Avalanche on Thursday night was his 11th of the young NHL season, a total that stunningly matches the number of goals scored in his previous three full seasons with the Flames and Blue Jackets.
All that for a one-year, $700,000 contract, same salary as Craig Adams. and, beyond a doubt, the free-agent bargain of the year in the league.
“Not bad, huh?” Bill Guerin was saying after the game. “That’s a pretty good hockey player.”
We’ll get to that in a moment, but let’s start with the pretty good hockey scouting that happened here, according to several sources I consulted …
Guerin, Tom Fitzgerald and Jason Botteril, the triumvirate now working under Jim Rutherford, were under Ray Shero when the Penguins were battling — and that’s the right word — the Blue Jackets in the first round of Stanley Cup playoffs last spring. And even in the heat of that series, all concerned had continuous discussions about the guy wearing No. 14.
“He was killing us,” Guerin recalled.
Funny, but the stats didn’t reflect that, certainly not for a forward: Comeau played in all six games, took a regular shift and registered zero points, a minus-2 rating and only two shots.
“Yeah, but he was so physical, so fast, on the puck all the time,” Guerin said. “And honestly, we felt there was more there than even what he was showing.”
That resonated with the trio after Shero’s firing, and Rutherford concurred that Comeau would be among the Penguins’ primary targets in free agency. Given their tight cap space, they couldn’t go too far, so the sell job on the franchise had to be convincing. Rutherford placed an initial contact on the first day of the NHL’s so-called ‘interview period,’ a week in advance of free agency in which a GM and agent can discuss most everything except money.
Well, that’s what happened.
“I didn’t talk to Jim directly, but I heard what Pittsburgh thought of me, what they expected,” Comeau was telling me after the cameras and microphones were done Friday night. “I have to tell you, that really meant a lot to me. It had been a while since I scored a lot, and it was good to hear that they believed in me that way.”
And so, the contract was signed July 1, the first day possible.
“From there, I came into training camp and felt like I had a good camp, showed them what I could do, and the coaching staff kept pushing for more offense, more production,” Comeau continued.
Why didn’t that occur in Columbus, where goals are always sparse?
“I was asked to be a hitter because that’s the kind of team they wanted to have. So I was. I went out and hit and hit. And if you keep doing that, that’s how you start thinking of yourself as a player.”
Here’s a snippet from our conversation, first about the Penguins’ faith, then about his OT goal.
First, the goal:
Then, the snippet:
Consider this more of a revival than a breakout: Sure, Comeau is 28, and didn’t top five goals in his previous four seasons, but he also was the 47th overall pick in the 2004 NHL Draft, and he had seasons of 17 and 24 goals with the Islanders before drifting off.
“I’ve always believed I could do this,” he said. “That’s why it’s so great to be in an organization like this, where you know they’ve done this for so many other guys.”
He motioned toward Steve Downie’s stall.
“Downs is no different. You come to Pittsburgh, you’re expected to score. You know that.”
• Good stuff from Marc-Andre Fleury after his sixth shutout on a sweetly symmetrical 29 saves: “How about that crowd, huh? It’s not always like that. They were really into it. I loved it.”
• The Steelers can be tough on young players, often to their detriment. That’s well known. What isn’t seen — and I’ll bet won’t be discussed nearly as much — is how tough they’ve been on Markus Wheaton and Martavis Bryant to help them get to where they are now.
That began with Mike Tomlin, from what I’m told, way back in the offseason workouts, once management had decided it would stay in-house to replace Emmanuel Sanders. He pushed both relentlessly in terms of conditioning and learning the playbook.
“Really, really tough on both,” one player told me.
That continued with Ben Roethlisberger at Latrobe. At one practice, Roethlisberger had heated — and one-way — words for Bryant, in particular. He wasn’t much easier on Wheaton.
There’s a lot more I could write about this, but I won’t, because it might unfairly paint both as bad seeds. Neither is anything of the sort. Rather, the Steelers’ concern from the outset was that they couldn’t afford to wait on Wheaton or Bryant to run routes at a veteran’s level. They needed it right away. That’s why Tomlin and Roethlisberger reacted as they did, and it’s also why Antonio Brown took them under his wing to try to push them to match his unparalleled work ethic.
“I’m proud of them,” Brown said after both shined in Atlanta.
He should be. The Steelers as a collective should be.
I asked Roethlisberger and Le’Veon Bell what Wheaton and Bryant have meant of late …
• Ike Taylor might well be finished as an NFL corner, but he sure isn’t finished leading. I talked to a few defensive backs for a column that will be on this site much later tonight, and every last one of them was effusive about how much he’s meant to that group spiritually in recent weeks, even now that he’s back out of the lineup. More on this in the column.
• Whatever the issue was with Marcus Gilbert in Atlanta — and I’ll repeat that my belief is that Tomlin simply got tired of seeing his name on the injury report — my sense now is that all is clear. He’ll be out there ahead of Mike Adams against the Chiefs. As he should. For what it’s worth in this regard, Gilbert has been in visibly excellent spirits. Not so in Atlanta.
• Cole Tucker, the 18-year-old shortstop who was the Pirates’ most recent first-round draft pick, has been receiving lessons from Jack Wilson out at Wilson’s California fields. And if Wilson has his way, that line will become a long one.
“I’d love to have as many guys as possible. I’m hoping Pedro comes out,” Wilson said, referring, of course, to Pedro Alvarez. “I feel like I was very lucky to have Perry Hill come along in my career — actually, I would have loved to have had him the whole time — and there’s a lot I feel I can pass along, not only from what Perry taught but from my own experience.”
Which isn’t to suggest he’ll be teaching anyone that signature single-knee slide in the hole.
“Oh, gosh, no. There are some things I did I wouldn’t try to show anyone. Perry hated that slide, too. But it was part of my game. I really couldn’t change it.”
Between Wilson’s role and Kevin Young being brought to spring training, Neal Huntington is continuing to use former players to benefit the current team, always a smart move for any GM. The emotional investment can come guaranteed.
• Charlie Morton will not be available to start the Pirates’ season, I’m told definitively, contrary to at least one recent report. The team has every intention of putting Morton through a gradual process in spring training following hip surgery.
• Amount of tears being shed in and around Pitt athletic offices over Steve Pederson’s firing:
• It will be interesting to observe, among many, many other facets, how Pitt’s big move will affect the rivalry with West Virginia. I’ve heard for years that it wasn’t just Pederson that doesn’t want it. Jamie Dixon’s stance has been no different. A new AD obviously could work to restore the Backyard Brawl in football while respecting Dixon’s wish to keep basketball out of it, but being on the same page probably wouldn’t be a bad thing, either.
• No one in this town could be more delighted about Pederson than Dave Wannstedt. Trust me on that.
For further proof, check him out yesterday with David Todd on 970 ESPN.
• The Riverhounds made a ton of smart moves the past few weeks. Richard Nightingale strikes me as close to overqualified as team president. Same goes for two-time USL Pro champion Mark Steffens. But if this franchise wants to show its fragile fan base it’s serious, the next move will be to stop waffling and bring back Jose Angulo.
Angulo is the league’s best player. That’s not up for debate. He’s also its most entertaining, a pure striker with a golden touch. And in Pittsburgh, about three-quarters of all the jerseys you’ll see at a given game at Highmark Stadium have his No. 18 on the back. That’s an asset the just-out-of-bankruptcy Riverhounds can’t afford to squander, especially since Angulo — and I know this first-hand — very much wants to return.
Yes, he can keep himself in better shape. He can be a better locker-room guy. I appreciate both concerns. But I also know there’s only one Angulo in the league, and Pittsburgh needs him.
• Has Duquesne’s annual nosedive already begun?
It would be nice to say no, given all the scoring Jim Ferry has assembled, but the cold fact is, this roster is tissue-paper soft. And Ferry knows it. He’s got grit and character in Derrick Colter and freshman TiSean Powell — I really like his game — but the rest show little to nothing of the kind.
Until that changes, the results won’t, either.
• Good dude: Mario Lemieux. It can’t be spoken often enough. The greatest athlete in our city’s rich history has morphed into a truly special figure in the community and, in a sight most don’t see, a truly hands-on, visible owner. He was right there outside the room again Thursday, smiling as if he’d scored Comeau’s goal himself.
• No Insider next week. Little holiday coming up.