Mark Madden stories, Page 29

Colorado beat Edmonton, 8-6, in the first game of the Western Conference final Tuesday. That game is how fans want hockey to be: 14 goals, 84 shots, fast, creative, fun, a ton of prime scoring chances and a fierce comeback by the Oilers that fell just short. The stars delivered:...

Ben Cherington is in his third season as Pittsburgh Pirates GM. Things aren’t improving. The Pirates just DFA’d Cole Tucker, their first-round pick in 2014. He’s all teeth and hair, no bat. Lots of charisma, zero pop. He hit .175 with the Pirates this season, .135 in Triple-A. Cherington inherited...

Here are the big issues at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ ongoing series of OTAs: There are none. OTAs are totally unnecessary. Minicamp is totally unnecessary. The process should start with training camp, not before. Baseball, basketball and hockey don’t have OTAs and minicamp. Football does in the attempt to be complicated...

I have long been steadfast when listing my top five hockey players ever. Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky are my top three. List them in any order you like, and I won’t argue. Sidney Crosby and Gordie Howe are my next two. (Howe is included based on tradition,...

The Penguins season is over, Steelers OTAs are mostly meaningless and the Pirates lead the MLB in errors. Refreshing sports notes are your last hope. Allez, allez, allez! • The Steelers spent weeks interviewing GM candidates, narrowed down to six finalists, then hired the in-house guy. That’s entertainment. Here’s betting...

Bryan Rust left money on the table. The right winger’s new six-year contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins has an average annual value of $5.125 million, a raise of a mere $1.625 million. Over the last three seasons, Rust has scored 73 goals in 171 games. Rust is 30. This was...

Mike Sullivan is one of the NHL’s top coaches, and arguably the most accomplished in Penguins history. But he needs a Plan B. For a brief moment in the Penguins’ first-round loss to the New York Rangers, Sullivan had one. It worked. The Penguins had blown a 4-1 lead in...

If my program director asks me what’s on today’s show, I tell him. When the home-plate umpire asks a manager for the lineup card, he can’t decline. A chef submits a menu. A football coach designs a playbook. A movie producer needs a script. These are requirements and not kept...

The ending is just a beginning. The closer you get to the meaning, the sooner you’ll know that you’re dreaming. So, it’s on and on and on, it’s refreshing Pittsburgh Penguins notes. (Look for the answer.) • Sidney Crosby was 100% not cleared to play Game 6. Reports that he...

Immediately after the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season-ending 4-3 overtime loss Sunday at New York, Jake Guentzel paid tribute: “I thought we had something special here.” Guentzel did: He scored eight goals against the Rangers, the first time that’s happened in a playoff series since 2009. The Penguins used to: They were...

In 22 years of playing football, Tom Brady has made $300 million. Brady just signed a 10-year contract with Fox Sports to be their lead NFL analyst upon his retirement from football. He’ll make $375 million. That’s quite a disparity even when accounting for inflation and gas prices. Fox is...

If Sidney Crosby’s series is over, so is the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season. Sure, the Penguins lead their first-round series with the New York Rangers, 3-2. But for Friday’s Game 6, they may be without their best player/captain/first-line center, their starting and second-string goalies, a top-pair defenseman and a top-six winger....

You can flip Igor Shesterkin over. He’s done on this side. It seemed likely that goaltending would decide the first-round playoff series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers. But not like this. Third-stringer Louis Domingue has played passably for the Penguins. Shesterkin, the likely Vezina Trophy winner as...

After Danton Heinen scored to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 5-4 lead with 8 minutes, 58 seconds left in the third period against the New York Rangers in Game 3 of their playoff series Saturday, something odd happened: Playoff hockey broke out. The Penguins played below the Rangers’ goal line...

When failure occurs in sports, it’s required that blame be attached. There’s always something management, a coach or a player could have done to reverse the result. That’s not the case with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ goaltending situation. “They should have had a better veteran No. 3 goalie!” That’s a common...

A good story does not equate to a good player. Don’t confuse the two. Louis Domingue is a good story. He’s the first goalie to enter a playoff game during its second overtime. He ate spicy pork and broccoli during a prior intermission Tuesday because he didn’t think he’d play....

If you’re one of those dullards with a low hockey IQ who doubts the value of Kris Letang to the Pittsburgh Penguins, witness Tuesday’s triple-overtime win against the host New York Rangers. Letang played well. More importantly, he just kept playing. Letang logged 46 minutes and 41 seconds on the...

The Pittsburgh Penguins are built on speed. The New York Rangers clearly are faster. The Rangers outskated the Penguins in all four meetings this season, winning three. The Rangers overwhelmed the Penguins with their forecheck. The Penguins won’t make tactical adjustments to slow the Rangers or the pace of play....

Jordan Addison, the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner as college football’s top wide receiver in 2021, will likely transfer from Pitt to Southern Cal. Addison will be a junior. Pitt supporters are apoplectic, which is their preferred disposition. You’d think they’d be grateful for a chance to martyr themselves. Pitt coach...

When Mike Tomlin got hired to coach the Steelers in 2007, he inherited Ben Roethlisberger. Until now, he’s never replaced his quarterback. You can tell. He doesn’t know how to do it. Kenny Pickett turns 24 on June 6. He started 49 games during his Blutarsky-esque tenure at Pitt. If...

If the Pittsburgh Penguins continue performing as they have for the past month, they’re going to get swept in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Not just eliminated, but swept. The Penguins have lost 11 of 17 and appear to be slowing down with every game. They nearly ground...

The buildup to the Pittsburgh Steelers draft has been analyzed in overwrought and unnecessarily complicated fashion. The Steelers have a board, like every other NFL team. It ranks draft-eligible athletes in descending order of preference after due diligence is done. When somebody is selected, his name gets crossed off. When...

The bad side of high school sports got unfortunate exposure when a coach sadly chose to be a manipulator instead of an adult. A number of Bishop Canevin athletes competed as members of Carlynton’s boys track team as part of a WPIAL-sanctioned co-op. Between 10-15 of those Canevin athletes boycotted...

After Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith made 52 saves to shut out Boston, 4-0, at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday, coach Mike Sullivan wouldn’t directly address the possibility of DeSmith starting in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Nor would winger Jake Guentzel. Nor would winger Jason Zucker. Nor would DeSmith himself....

The NFL Draft is a week away. The Pittsburgh Steelers have two options: Do a showbiz draft. Do a draft that 100% benefits the team. The showbiz draft consists of taking a quarterback with the 20th pick overall, then a wide receiver in the second round. Perhaps some tenuous connection...