Tuesday 12 Qs: Gary, Trae, Jung-Ho, Suzie, Sid ¹⁰⁵

Gary Bettman told reporters at the Columbus All-Star Game that the NHL has no scoring issue. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 9 a.m. and offers you a chance to carry the conversation. Use the comments below to submit an entry.

UPDATE 9 a.m.: And we’re off …

Dave in Ross Township: Can hockey as a sport ever make the right moves to get back to its fast and exciting way of play? As it is now, it’s nearly unwatchable.

DK: It stinks. It’s awful. It’s all the bad adjectives times all the bad numbers.

And you know what’s funny, Dave?

When I wrote this column eviscerating the NHL and Gary Bettman from All-Star weekend in Columbus, I can tell you that it was largely received with a what-game-are-you-watching reaction from hockey fandom as a whole. Maybe that’s because the Penguins hadn’t yet caught the disease, maybe it’s because it’s worsened in the past month — it has, with goals per game now at an utterly embarrassing 4.96 for March — but I pretty much looked like a weirdo in writing it.

Not so much anymore.

And all that’s happened since then to address all this is that the Garage League formed a Garage Committee headed by Lead Garage Mechanic Colin Campbell to take care of diving. Because that’s the problem that Bettman sees. And there are nine people on this committee. Not kidding.

Best sport, worst league.

It’s a real problem, and there’s one base solution: Get rid of Bettman. Yesterday.

deklewa185: I feel like Eastern Conference playoff teams are praying to get the Penguins in the first round. It seems like many other playoff teams have a lot of momentum building, and the Pens still look like they’re trying to figure out what they’re doing. Given their performances where the team stands right now, do you think the Penguins realistically have much of a chance to take down the Caps or Islanders in a series?

DK: Just for fun, I’m going to point out that the Isles are 3-5-2 in their past 10 games. Two of their wins were gimme putts against the Maple Leafs and Devils. One loss was to the Hurricanes. The Capitals are 5-4 in their past nine, they’ve been shut out by the Bruins and Jets in the past week, and they needed a shootout to get past the Sabres, who are actually trying to lose.

Here’s guessing there aren’t suicide watches out on Long Island and in D.C.

Not talking about you here, just in general, but the state of Penguins fandom has reached the point of hyper-hyperbolic with pretty much every little thing that goes awry. And I’m going to be totally candid here: It was nice being away from it for a few days while focusing on baseball in Bradenton.

I was speaking with a friend up in Winnipeg yesterday, and he was telling me all about the sheer joy happening up there with the Jets pursuing their first playoff appearance in 19 years. Every day, every night is a thrill for everyone involved. The MTS Centre is exploding with enthusiasm. The players are being supported unlike any others, win or lose, in the entire NHL.

And in Pittsburgh, we’re pouting over 40 wins, another two potential scoring champs, a Vezina candidate, a Norris candidate and a possible Executive of the Year.

Man, that’s stale. Maybe this team needs to really stink for some semblance of reality to take hold.

Rico: Given the ‘obvious’ need for a cornerback to come in and start right away for the Stillers, do you think they would trade up to get Trae Waynes or one of the other top-echelon guys? Do you think it’s even advisable?

DK: If the Steelers had some abundance of picks, I think you should consider it. But they don’t. In the distribution of comps yesterday, all they added was a seventh-rounder. They’ve got nothing beyond the usual stable, and that’s tough to give up for a team that needs — and I mean needs — a corner and an edge rusher in the top two.

Waynes would be wonderful. He’s been rated the No. 1 corner available. And despite that, he’s lined up with the Steelers on more than one mock draft.

But here’s guessing that, for Tomlin to sound so certain about addressing corner immediately in this draft, they’ve got their eyes on more than one in the event their guy is taken and are ready to take from pretty much anyone in the group. I know that’s not very Steelers-like, but neither is entering a draft with this huge a specific hole and essentially announcing to the world this is how they’re planning to fill it.

punjabiterp: DK, outside of the muscle which Gregory Polanco packed on, did you witness or hear about any mechanical/mental changes which have been worked on for him in order to help him adjust to the big-league style of play?

DK: I did, actually, and I’m remiss in not having detailed this in the Monday column from Bradenton about Polanco and Starling Marte: The coaching staff, and Jeff Branson in particular, have spent extensive time with Polanco focusing on taking his naturally aggressive swings while at the same time making sure it’s his pitch to drive. And that’s meant staying off the high ones. When Polanco hacks up high, that’s when you see those 4-3 groundouts. He rolls over the top of the ball, and the result is a blah bouncer. To really drive it, he needs to stay lower.

It hasn’t been a good spring in that regard, as the column notes. But there’s time.

JAL: The NFL has eliminated blackout games. Any chance MLB will do the same?

DK: Well, there’s a marked difference between the way the NFL was blacking out games and the way the NHL and Major League Baseball do it. With the NFL, it was about shutting off local broadcasting rights in the event of a non-sellout. It was borderline blackmail for someone, anyone, even some rich person, to buy up the rest of the seats so that the city could watch. With the latter two, we’re talking mostly about online viewing rights.

To be clear, we’re not talking about territorial rights, such as whether or not Penguins games should be viewable in Youngstown. That is, again, wholly separate.

So the answer here is … maybe?

I mean, it stands to reason that the NFL decision was reached because of heavy judicial pressure founded on the NFL being a monopoly with antitrust rights, an oxymoron if ever there was one. That’s why the league conceded this point in 2014 and just did so again two days ago at the Phoenix meetings. It was made to sound voluntary. It was anything but.

But the online blackouts of the NHL and MLB cross into Internet exclusivity, protecting the rights of written and highly lucrative local TV contracts and the like. It’s a different world.

All I can add here, and this is personal, is I can’t begin to understand paying for one of those premium TV packages if you live in the market of the team you most want to watch. It’s nonsensical.

soaszah: Given the current state of Pitt basketball, who do you think has the potential of winning the NCAA tournament first, the men’s or women’s team?

DK: Easily the men.

The handful of programs that dominate women’s basketball have made for one of the most exclusive clubs in organized sport. I can attest from having covered two Summer Olympics and spending extensive time with the U.S. women’s team — McKeesport’s Swin Cash was a member of both those gold-medal rosters — that there’s a feeder system in place that, in most cases, involves proving yourself at one of those exclusive programs before being taken seriously for the national program or even the WNBA.

Suzie McConnell-Serio has done a stupendous job in taking Pitt this high in her second year of basically plucking through the ruins left by Agnus Berenato. (The wonderfully talented and determined Brianna Kiesel is obviously an exception.) She deserves every bit of credit she’s getting right now and that much more. Suzie’s always been a winner, always will.

But breaking through the glass ceiling of women’s college basketball at the level you’re describing, that will be the greatest challenge of her already illustrious playing/coaching career.

jeffrey: DK, to your knowledge, had any sports writer in the country started a venture like yours? In other words, was this your original model? And has anyone yet copied the model? They should!

DK: To my knowledge and to that of national writers who have documented this, our site represents the first guinea pig of its kind, yes.

But, to your other question, no, it’s not unique anymore. I’m proud to have helped Gary Shelton, former longtime columnist of the St. Petersburg Times, get GarySheltonSports.com off the ground. And I had the pleasure of hooking up recently in D.C. with David Elfin, former NFL writer for the Washington Times, and advising about his DavidElfinOnSports.com.

So, there are two more, total of three of us at the moment.

But I’ve also heard from others around the continent who are interested. Stay tuned.

MikeyC: Now that Simon Despres is a healthy scratch, what will happen to his statue? Will it find its way to the secret State College hideout?

DK: I made up my mind at the height of the Penn State scandal that I’d never draw parallels to it, funny or otherwise, and I’ll stick by that.

That said, yes, Despres was scratched for the Ducks’ … um, 7-2 loss at the Garden on Sunday night. So maybe the Despres statue remains standing and proud?

No, really, it’s one game and Bruce Boudreau has his defensemen rotating in and out before the playoffs. You’re going to see Mike Johnston doing likewise with the Penguins here soon, or at least if Christian Ehrhoff gets healthy. It’s not the blackest of black marks against Despres.

But sure, it doesn’t look good. Never does.

DK: It’s impossible to watch Arquimedes Caminero striking out pretty much everyone in sight — two more yesterday gives him 15 in just 10 spring innings — and doing it with 98-mph heat and not think he’s the surprise guy. The stuff is just outstanding. Now, you always have to respect the Marlins’ ability to evaluate, so that should be considered here even if he only pitched 19 games in the majors to produce that 5.49 career ERA. But still, after talking to Ray Searage about this young man just a few days ago, and hearing Searage cite repeatedly how ‘smart’ this guy is, one would think his issues can be corrected.

Biggest bust is kind of a cruel assignment for spring, but hey, it’s your question and I’m just the hired help, so I’ll go ahead and answer Jung-Ho Kang.

Is that mean?

I don’t know, but I still have the hardest time processing someone who’s spent a lifetime facing a far lower caliber of pitching just suddenly waltzing into the majors and succeeding. If he does … wow, what a story that would be. Legitimately without precedent for someone from his country. But if he doesn’t, given his stature in South Korea, it’s going to be seen, fairly or not, as a total flop.

Even now, Kang has suddenly shut off all media requests, then was taken out of regular workouts the past three days — though he is expected back in the lineup this afternoon — because of what Clint Hurdle told me was ‘a chance to work on some things on the side.’ If you need work on the side in the third week of March, that’s an alarm bell.

We’ll see. If I’m wrong here, I’m sure no one will mind.

SDBurghman: When an NFL player retires, is it customary for teams to reach an agreement on previously paid bonus money? For instance, in Troy Polamalu’s situation, is there a possibility of Steelers wanting Troy to retire so they save/recoup money and Troy wanting Steelers to cut him to keep money?

DK: There are always outside forces at work in these matters. It’s not just the team and the player. The union has procedures it wants players to follow, so that future players are treated appropriately. Agents want to save face.

So yes, you should absolutely expect Polamalu to play this out to his satisfaction and, simultaneously, for the Steelers to not take any steps that might look disrespectful along the way.

Besides, it’s very much fair to not rule out the possibility Polamalu would want to keep playing. I don’t believe he will. Maybe the Steelers don’t, either. Maybe Polamalu himself doesn’t. But maybe he’s also left open that he could change his mind between now and the time a decision must be made by one side or the other to move on this.

dm1lane: Hypothetical: Game 7 of playoff series, and you are missing one star. Rather have Evgeni Malkin for one game or Sidney Crosby?

DK: Ugh. These are tough this week.

OK, so I’m guessing you won’t buy my standard I-won’t-answer-hypotheticals answer, right?

No?

All right, I’ll take Malkin. And I’ll take him entirely based on what I believe is his continuing ability to rise completely above the game at hand, something we don’t see as often from Crosby. Not talking about playoff games here. Not talking about clutchiness. Just the game at hand. Nothing more. Malkin still has those nights where you say, wow, there’s no one out there even on this guy’s plane of existence. Crosby will have them occasionally. Malkin has them more often.

Also, I’d take Malkin because he’s a more dynamic power-play performer offering more options.

But that’s it on hypotheticals. Those are … yuck.

mholtz612: What is the number/percentage of subscriptions paid for and given to veterans? That’s a remarkable cause. I thank them for their service.

DK: Paid for and given to veterans?

That figure is currently 25. Not 25 percent, but 25 total. And we’re delighted to have been able to relay those generous gifts to men and women who have served our country.

And if anyone is curious, anytime we give you our total number of subscriptions — we’re on target to hit 9,000 this week — those only count paid subscriptions. All the free ones we’ve given out, including those for active-duty military, are not included.

DK: Good. I’m glad you asked.

My wife Dali is handling all our military matters. So, keeping this as simple as possible, email her at [email protected] and tell her whatever you’d like to do. She’ll walk you personally through the process to make sure everything goes the way you want.

She keeps a separate log of veterans who have contacted us about getting the subscriptions. If you ask, she’ll get you that person’s info so you know which vet you’ve helped out.

We will work on making this process more automated, as part of a general rebuild of our customer interface that’s coming in the next few months. But for now, this works best.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed.

And thanks to everyone who participated today!

Penguins-Blues will get a full column tonight.