Friday Insider

Friday Insider

Friday Insider: Consol ice mystery solved?

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

fridayinsiderA weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

• Just a couple weeks ago, some of the Penguins’ players and even coaches were calling the Consol Energy Center ice some of the worst they’d ever experienced at the NHL level.

So imagine my surprise late Thursday night when I raised the topic anew with a couple guys in the locker room, and they were fairly singing about the stuff.

“The ice was great,” Marc-Andre Fleury told me.

“Really nice,” Pascal Dupuis would echo a bit later.

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Friday Insider: Open mind, spot for Kapanen

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PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION — ALEX MESSMER

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

fridayinsiderA weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

• Kasperi Kapanen is a child by any professional sports standard at age 18 years, three months. But he also just might be in the Penguins’ opening-night lineup Thursday against the Ducks, based on what I’m told from on high inside the organization.

Imagine that, huh?

It’s not just Kapanen’s age that would be impressive about the situation but also the fact he was taken No. 22 overall in the June draft. That, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean the 21 ahead of him won’t someday surpass him. Prospects develop at a different pace, and forwards have the easiest assimilation into the NHL. But it does mean Jim Rutherford and staff look dead-on in the unbridled joy they displayed that night in Philadelphia on the draft floor. And I mean, you should have heard what they were saying off the record. They flat-out love the kid.

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Friday Insider: Real story on Russ, Part XXVII

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

fridayinsiderATLANTA — A weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

• Every time Neal Huntington speaks a syllable about Russell Martin, it’s being parsed like a State of the Union speech or, more oddly, being portrayed as hyperventilating hot news. But the reality is that not a solitary facet of this story has changed over the course of the summer.

And that’s the real story.

When I reported in mid-August that the Pirates had not approached Martin with an extension offer, it kind of stirred the nests in either camp. That happens a lot in this business. A story you put out one day will lead to even more information coming loose, often volunteered, because the various parties will have a reaction and want to make their perspective known.

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Friday Insider: Marte didn’t appreciate back seat

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

fridayinsiderA weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

• Starling Marte is best buds with Gregory Polanco. The two hang together, in the Pirates’ clubhouse and in the outside world. Both are Dominican. Marte is only three years older.

And yet — and I’m going to be careful in wording this — I can tell you that Marte wasn’t all that thrilled when all of Pittsburgh was almost hysterically clamoring for Polanco early this summer. Again, not because of any issue with Polanco the person or the player. “He’s a great hitter,” Marte told me at the time. “I want to see him here, too.” But there also was a bit of a chip with the sentiment. “I’m here, too. I can play.”

Well, flash forward to Thursday night and the 3-2 edging of the Red Sox at PNC Park, in which Marte’s 13th home run — a bomb to the bleacher walkway — that made the difference. Seven of those home runs have come in the past 35 games. So have 19 RBIs. And since the All-Star break, he’s batting .356. Not many have been better, and no one tops his .616 slugging percentage.

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Friday Insider: Pirates’ truth odder than fiction

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

fridayinsiderA weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

• The numbers and narratives that get tossed around in public about the Pirates’ finances often border on the insane, but a few of late have crossed definitively into that territory. The latest — and maybe greatest ever — is that the team took on $25 million, no $35 million or is it now $45 million in new monies since last season.

Do I have a taker for $55 million yet?

It isn’t true. It isn’t close to true, and I’m about to waste my breath here sharing why.

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Friday Insider: Rev up Penguins’ cycle

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

A weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

• Hints have been scarce about what the Penguins’ new system will look like under Mike Johnston, but I was able to cull this much from the staff, based on another hint that was dropped several months ago: They’re about to get back on the cycle.

My meeting this week with Johnston and assistants Rick Tocchet and Gary Agnew confirmed that one of the reasons they — and Jim Rutherford and management — are making such a priority of mobile defensemen is that they’ll attack the opponent more by wearing them down than by simply out-rushing them up ice. All three forwards will be expected to be proficient at the cycle, center included, and a defenseman will be involved, as well.

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Friday Insider: What had Troy so hot?

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

PHILADELPHIA — A weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

• Apparently, TV only caught a moment of Troy Polamalu getting heated on the Steelers’ sideline Thursday night in the loss to the Eagles, but I’ve since heard from witness that it was really, really passionate at one point.

Below is a shot taken by DKonPittsburghSports.com subscriber Greg Conn from his seats at Lincoln Financial Field. It’s after the fact, but you can see the defense off to the left and Polamalu kind of being held off at the right …

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Friday Insider: Simon says, get ready to play

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

A weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

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Despres

• No player will see a more elevated role in the Penguins’ training camp than Simon Despres. And, truth be told, no matter what’s asked of Beau Bennett, it won’t even be close.

Mario Lemieux’s words in my interview with him this summer, in which he openly lamented that neither Ray Shero nor Dan Bylsma gave Despres a chance to stick in the lineup, apparently have resonated powerfully through the organization. As they should have. Eddie Johnston recently told me that some inside the team believed Despres was “absolutely our best defenseman at times,” and he’s right. Despres took control of the game for long stretches at both ends. And, counter to what the coaches advised, he actually did his best when he didn’t keep it simple. He did his best when he felt he was needed to step up and stand out, just as he has been throughout his career pre-NHL.

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