Is It Still April 11th?
The Penguins 4-2 loss to Chicago on Opening Night had me wondering if I’d been in a coma for the last six months having crazy fever dreams about Kyle Dubas, Erik Karlsson, and everything that was supposed to make the Penguins a different team this season.
As a child of the ‘80s who was often babysat by the television, including terrible soap operas, a good ol’ fashioned coma storyline was a great way to erase a whole bunch of recent history.
A tremendously lazy storytelling device, sure. But when’s that ever stopped anyone, including me, from using it?
Anyway, from the presence of the Blackhawks, to the lackadaisical effort at times, to the impact of the game itself, it all felt eerily familiar to the final regular season home game last season, when the Penguins were officially eliminated.
There were positives, sure. Early on, the depth forwards, especially Noel Acciari, looked up to the task of actually skating the puck out of their own end and starting rushes back the other way. Tristan Jarry made a few big saves in the first 40 minutes as well. There were a pair of power play opportunities that resulted in 4 shots on goal and even Evgeni Malkin(!) running centerpoint for a time. Bryan Rust had a beauty of a redirect of a Kris Letang feed toward the netfront area for the first goal, and Sidney Crosby got on the scoresheet.
Then you have to wonder if age started to catch up to the oldest team in the NHL, and give the 10th youngest team in the league an edge. If not, how else do we explain the final 15-20 minutes of the game and blowing another multi-goal lead in the 3rd period, and all-too-common occurrence a year ago?
Age discrepancy won’t be nearly as available as an excuse on Friday, when the Penguins face the 2nd-oldest team in the league, the Washington Capitals.
AudibleGate Answers
With the theory floating around dark corners of the Steelers Nation interwebs -ok, Reddit- that Matt Canada didn’t react appropriately to the go-ahead TD pass from Kenny Pickett to George Pickens because he didn’t call the play, Pickett provided some clarification to what exactly happened on the play yesterday.
My theory is simple and two-fold: The first part is, Pickett knows to target Pickens in one-on-one situations whenever the opportunity presents itself. The opportunity was present on Sunday, so he took it.
The second half is a little more armchair psychology: Matt Canada didn’t celebrate because Matt Canada knows he’s been criticized for his booth reactions before, and he’s really socially awkward. At times condescending toward the media, and at other times overly conciliatory, the guy’s just odd around people. Again, that’s my dime-store psychological read of it, anyway.
Stone Cold Diontae Johnson
Asked yesterday if he’d be ready for Week 7, following the Steelers’ bye, Diontae Johnson’s response was fairly emphatic: “Oh, hell yeah.”
Johnson spoke at length about itching to get back on the field, being involved in meetings, and offering feedback on the sidelines on Sundays.
Undoubtedly his biggest impact may be simply being available as an open target for the suddenly happy-footed Pickett. If Johnson -the team’s best route runner- is around, it may help Pickett get the ball out more quickly and avoid some of the chicken-with-a-head-cut-off scrambling we’ve seen from him since Johnson left the lineup.
Speaking Japanese
James Franklin was asked an odd question during his weekly press conference yesterday.
It was a poorly worded question that even when given an opportunity to be clarified, didn’t get much better.
But for people to treat the questioner, Cory Giger, the way they have is why social media is garbage.
In a world where people -and not just any people, but the people in charge- value clicks and blind, mindless rage over human interaction and insightful conversation, this is nothing new. It’s why the state of the media is what it is and why, worse yet, the state of society is what it is.
People just feel waayyy too comfortable acting like @$$holes to other people.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.