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Pittsburgh Sports Columns

Column: Best move for banged-up Penguins? None

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New Jersey Devils v Pittsburgh Penguins

Jayson Megna whirls around the Devils’ Marek Zidlicky for a short-handed chance Tuesday. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

And that, hockey fans, is why smart general managers don’t make significant trades in December.

Or January.

Or even early February.

Or even when half the roster gets ravaged by injury, illness or random meteor showers.

Which might actually be a fair way to assess the Pyrrhic state of these first-place Penguins at the moment: Tuesday opened with Kris Letang placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. Sidney Crosby and Robert Bortuzzo, both ill, were declared unlikely to be ready for the nighttime faceoff with the Devils. And when those two surprisingly took the ice for warmups, Chris Kunitz didn’t. It was later revealed he has a fractured foot and will miss at least a couple weeks, leaving the roster without two top wingers. (Or three, if anyone still counts Beau Bennett.)

Am I forgetting anyone?

Oh, yeah, even the emergency reinforcements weren’t immune: Poor Scott Wilson, fresh off a hasty drive across I-80 from Wilkes-Barre and making his NHL debut on what he’d joyfully called “one of the best days of my life,” didn’t last two periods of what wound up a 1-0 shutout victory.

“Leg injury,” Mike Johnston called it, offering an uncharacteristic specific, the sort usually associated with something serious. “We’ll know more tomorrow.”

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Column: This defense embarrasses Steelers

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New Orleans Saints v Pittsburgh Steelers

The Saints’ Benjamin Watson catches a second-quarter touchdown Sunday with Willie Gay miles away. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Brett Keisel looked the other way.

The Steelers’ defense had just taken to Heinz Field, still at least theoretically within range of the Saints after a Le’Veon Bell touchdown closed the deficit to eight. The place had actually begun hoping, even hopping with the requisite PA blast of of Styx’s ‘Renegade’ aimed, as always, at sparking a defensive stand.

“It was a big moment,” Ike Taylor would recall later. “We all felt it.”

Not all. No way. Because there was Keisel pacing, slowly, purposefully toward the south end zone, as the Saints’ offense had set up in the north. The helmet was off, the Beard was jutted forward, and his distant, skyward gaze gave it away: Something was wrong. Really wrong.

And as my eyes caught this, as if a Greek chorus had felt compelled to chime in, right there in the background, one scene overlapping the other, Drew Brees connected on a 69-yard sideline strike for a Kenny Stills touchdown, with Taylor torched in his wake.

The end, indeed, huh?

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Column: Are Crosby, Penguins on outs with refs?

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Carolina Hurricanes v Pittsburgh Penguins

Sidney Crosby pressures the Hurricanes’ Justin Faulk on Friday night at Consol. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Sidney Crosby was still steaming at his stall late Friday night, well after the Penguins’ rather sickly 4-2 loss to the cellar-dwelling Hurricanes, well after somehow keeping his cool through his standard media scrum.

Sure, he was upset with the showing of the team he leads. That was part of it.

“We just didn’t play well,” the captain responded to a question about what Carolina did well. “I mean, they pressured us. They did a lot of the right things. They out-battled us. But we really just didn’t play well.”

Nope. And there isn’t much to dissect there, either, if you ask me. One out of 82. Big whoop. Another crack at the same opponent comes Saturday night in Raleigh, and here’s betting that outcome rolls out in the reverse.

But there is a legit, larger concern in play of late: The Penguins no longer get power plays.

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Column: Early feast for Penguins … at the net

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Toronto Maple Leafs v Pittsburgh Penguins

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby congratulate Blake Comeau on his OT goal and hat trick Wednesday. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

It’s one thing for Mike Johnston to pop up this summer, seemingly out of nowhere, and preach that these Penguins needed to change their feathers and get pucks and bodies to the net.

It’s another thing for Patric Hornqvist to pop up, seemingly with a gift-bag of GPS devices in hand, to demonstrate how to actually do that.

It’s yet another thing to see his teammates, seemingly from the very first faceoff, follow suit.

But man, it’s quite another to hear an opposing goaltender sound downright annoyed by it.

I present to you, Jonathan Bernier, the downright annoyed goaltender of the Maple Leafs:

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Column: A Thanksgiving appreciation in threes

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Buffalo Bills v Pittsburgh Steelers

Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown celebrate a touchdown hookup earlier this season. — GETTY IMAGES

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Feeling especially and personally thankful on this Thanksgiving eve …

• I’m thankful to cover professional sports in a town blessed by not one not two but three truly elite performers on each team, which I’m guessing is more than most would count into that category.

I’ll go Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell with the Steelers, each of whom can currently claim a legit argument for being the very best at his position in the NFL.

I’ll go Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and, yes, Marc-Andre Fleury with the Penguins. Because anyone who would discount the latter doesn’t fully appreciate what it meant Monday that he became the third-youngest goaltender in NHL history to 300 wins. And get this: Since making his debut Oct. 10, 2003, at the Civic Arena, Fleury has accounted for 69 percent of the Penguins’ 432 victories while sharing the crease with 15 other men.

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Column: Steelers’ defense could use real upside

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Ryan Shazier and Jarvis Jones both have missed the Steelers’ past eight games to injury. — GETTY IMAGES

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

“Gang’s all here!” Ike Taylor fairly shouted as the Steelers strode off their South Side fields Monday.

The picture was thousand-words perfect, too.

It was the first practice since saying bye-bye to the bye week.

The first step toward bracing for Drew Brees and the Saints next weekend.

The first chance to focus on the challenge of rising above in the airtight AFC North.

And above all, the first time in two months and two days that Troy Polamalu, Ryan Shazier, Jarvis Jones and Taylor partook in drills together.

A third of the starting defense.

“Imagine that,” Jones would say afterward. “Crazy, huh?”

Yeah, it is, actually. And maybe it’s been forgotten in all the week-to-week angst over what’s ailed the defense that, well, it sure helps to have all the players you’d like to have. Or even most of them.

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Column: Cure Pitt’s sickness, not symptoms

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Tyler Boyd gestures toward the Panther Pitt student section after beating Syracuse, 30-7, Saturday. — PITT ATHLETICS

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

The Pitt football program isn’t nearly good enough, but it seems that’s just an inconvenient annoyance for far too great a percentage of its aging, fading fan base.

So hey, forget that the Panthers’ hollow 30-7 rout of a rancid Syracuse roster Saturday at Heinz Field meant next to nothing. Or that all that their finale next week at Miami represents is a chance to finish 6-6. Or that a .500 bowl bid is better of discarded than accepted. Or that, other than pride and more individual accolades for James Conner and Tyler Boyd and no one else, they’re pretty much just pulling the curtain closed on another lost season.

Right, gentlemen?

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Column: Johnston flunks his own first exam

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Kyle Okposo goes hard forehand to beat Marc-Andre Fleury for the winning shootout goal. -- GETTY IMAGES

Kyle Okposo goes hard forehand to beat Marc-Andre Fleury for the winning shootout goal. — GETTY IMAGES

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Apologies in advance, but this deserves all kinds of disclaimers before the first significant sentence:

• The Penguins’ 5-4 shootout loss to the Islanders on Saturday night was one game of 82. It was no big deal from the season scope nor even this singular outcome. It came down to the final, decisive strike by New York’s Kyle Okposo. Could have been anyone. Could have gone either way.

• The Islanders are as skilled, as creative offensively as any team in the NHL. If you don’t think so, power up that DVR and take a harder look. They’re legit.

• Mike Johnston has been nothing less than a godsend.

And I can’t stress that last one emphatically enough. Jim Rutherford couldn’t have fared any better in finding the right man with the right plan for this group.

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Column: Le’Veon lifts Steelers to next level

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Pittsburgh Steelers v Tennessee Titans

Le’Veon Bell tiptoes through the Titans’ front seven for some of his 204 yards Monday. — GETTY IMAGES

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The offensive lineman in football is at the epicenter of it all. He doesn’t just experience each play. He feels it. He doesn’t just execute each play. He understands how every cog contributed.

Be sure, then, that Ramon Foster felt every fantastic facet of Le’Veon Bell’s 33-carry, 204-yard burst onto the national scene Monday night in the Steelers’ otherwise tepid 27-24 tipping of the Titans at LP Field.

“That young man was just an engine,” as the effervescent guard would put it, “an absolutely unstoppable engine.”

Asked to elaborate, Foster added, “There’s just this sense that you get when it’s clicking, this feel between an offense and a running back. You build confidence. You get a little cocky. You get on a roll. You’re pushing, not retreating. It’s …”

He smiled broadly.

“It’s a blast, man.”

“That’s energy,” Maurkice Pouncey chimed in from the next stall. “That just makes you want to go to the next snap and get up on the guys again and see if you can do it again. It was awesome, man.”

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Column: Steelers motivation? Take your pick

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Tennessee Titans v Pittsburgh Steelers

Ben Roethlisberger is sacked by Jurrell Casey in the Titans’ 16-9 victory last year at Heinz Field. — GETTY IMAGES

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Breaking down the Steelers’ Monday night matchup with the Titans — 8:30 p.m. kickoff, LP Field — isn’t about how Dick LeBeau dominates rookie quarters and will lengthen that legacy against poor Zach Mettenberger, or how Mike Munchak knows Tennessee’s roster so well, or how Ray Horton knows Pittsburgh’s roster so well, or how Ben Roethlisberger and the boys should romp against the NFL’s No. 22-ranked defense, or how only the winless Raiders have a worse offense than the Titans.

Fact is, it’s all so much simpler from the Steelers’ standpoint than any handsomely compensated football guru would be comfortable confessing.

At least it is if one accepts the following three stances as truth:

• The AFC North is there for the taking, with the Bengals first at 6-3-1 and all the rest at 6-4. The Browns’ reign atop the division lasted all of a week. Both of the Steelers’ meetings with the Bengals remain, meaning they drive their own destiny.

• The Titans stink. Don’t be afraid to say it, either, for there’s no other way to explain a 2-7 record and a seven-game nosedive in which their lone triumph came by two points over the Jaguars.

• The Steelers will finally take such an opponent seriously.

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