Mark Madden Columns category, Page 52
Mark Madden: Penguins trading Evgeni Malkin is a very real possibility
Last week, GM Jim Rutherford would not commit to keeping Evgeni Malkin in a Penguins uniform for the rest of his NHL career. It’s not a bluff. It’s not fake news. The Penguins are willing to trade Malkin. That’s for two reasons: • The Penguins are very unhappy with Malkin’s...
Mark Madden: Steelers fans can feel good again
It’s a good time to be a Steelers fan. Finally. The disenfranchised can return to the fold. The lapsed can be born again. The Toxic Twins are gone. As your favorite super genius said when Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown first reached prominence, you don’t win with guys like that....
Mark Madden: Half-empty PNC Park tells real tale of Pirates this season
Pirates fans are going ga-ga over rookie shortstop Cole Tucker, and they should. Tucker marked his big league debut Saturday with a home run and a curtain call. Fellow call-up Bryan Reynolds got lost in the shuffle, and understandably so: Reynolds’ hair isn’t as cool as Tucker’s. But Reynolds went...
Mark Madden: Easy to think Penguins’ run is over
The Chicago Blackhawks won Stanley Cups in 2010, ’13 and ’15. They lost in the first round of the playoffs in ’16 and ’17, and then missed the postseason in ’18 and this year. The Los Angeles Kings won Stanley Cups in 2012 and ’14. They did not qualify for...
Mark Madden: Expect Penguins to play better, fix this series
The New York Islanders are better than I figured. (Perhaps I should have taken a closer look at the standings.) The Islanders won two close games on Long Island because they were able to impose their style. The Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t stink. They just couldn’t get going. The Penguins pay...
Mark Madden: Sidney Crosby won’t let Penguins lose to Islanders
When Jake Guentzel scored late against the New York Rangers in the Penguins’ regular-season finale Saturday, it scrounged a loser point and matched the Penguins against the New York Islanders instead of Washington in the playoffs’ first round. That seemed like a good thing. Washington is the defending Stanley Cup...
Mark Madden: Kurt Angle’s WrestleMania curtain call a significant event
WWE’s WrestleMania 35 takes place Sunday at MetLife Stadium just outside New York City. Sixteen matches are scheduled. It will last over seven hours. That’s too much, especially when most of the matches are haphazardly built and mean little. Seven hours is even longer than the Pirates’ home opener. The...
Mark Madden: Penguins flourish despite mounting problems in March
Julius Caesar was told to “beware the ides of March.” But the Penguins faced problems the whole darn month. Injuries mounted: Kris Letang played three games; Evgeni Malkin missed the last seven; Olli Maatta the first 14; Bryan Rust the first nine. Slumps pervaded: Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel had...
Mark Madden: NFL’s knee-jerk decision is misguided overreaction
The NFL has added pass interference calls (and non-calls) to the list of officiating decisions that are subject to a coach’s challenge. The Steelers’ Mike Tomlin is 0-for-2-years on such requests, so this provides additional ways for him to screw up. Each coach is still allowed just two challenges per...
Mark Madden: Penguins’ Kris Letang should be Norris finalist lock
The Penguins haven’t been cheated when it comes to individual awards. That especially goes for the awards you can’t get cheated out of, like the Art Ross Trophy. That goes to the NHL scoring champion. The Penguins have 15. That’s not to say the Penguins never have been cheated. Like...
Mark Madden: Bush-league journalists descend on Steelers
The Steelers and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took a PR hit when Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell checked out. Roethlisberger was eviscerated. GM Kevin Colbert was villainized. The piling on continues. But, in the process, damage also got done to the concept of journalism. (Journalism has taken a beating for quite...
Mark Madden: Landing one of the top ILBs in draft a must for Steelers
With apologies to the first robin, there’s no surer harbinger of spring than refreshing sports notes! They come bob-bob-bobbin’ along! • In free agency, the Steelers have signed mediocre talents at reasonable prices. It’s what they do. That plugs holes but doesn’t really fix much. The first round of the...
Mark Madden: Penguins’ current play features encouraging signs
It’s easy to overreact to the Penguins’ good play. Every team’s season has ups and downs. The Penguins have looked excellent winning six of their last seven. They were horrific losing nine of 10 from Oct. 30-Nov. 19. But the current uptick definitely features encouraging signs. Goaltending is key, as...
Mark Madden: Antonio Brown stands for nothing but himself
“And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter.” — “Stairway to Heaven,” Led Zeppelin (“Heaven,” not “seven.” That stairway collapsed.) Does anybody remember laughter? It’s been a while where the Pittsburgh Steelers are concerned. The franchise has been buried too...
Mark Madden: Penguins helping ensure Blue Jackets lose ‘all-in’ bet
As the NHL’s Feb. 25 trade deadline beckoned, Columbus was half-expected to trade goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and winger Artemi Panarin, each in the final season of his contract. A rebuilding of sorts seemed likely. But there were no obvious suitors for Bobrovsky. The legit Stanley Cup contenders all have legit...
Mark Madden: Islanders fans booing John Tavares is perfectly understandable
Last Thursday, John Tavares played at the New York Islanders’ home rink (one of them) as a member of the visiting team for the first time. Tavares had 621 points over nine years as an Islander. But he only played in 24 playoff games and won just one postseason series....
Mark Madden: Penguins GM Jim Rutherford’s deadline deals unlikely to matter much
Every time the NHL trade deadline comes around, Penguins fans want the team to trade for Ron Francis again. Like in 1991. That’s speaking metaphorically. But local hockey nostalgia holds that a blockbuster trade is a harbinger for winning a Stanley Cup, especially since it happened again the next year,...
Mark Madden: Pirates owner Bob Nutting, others specialize in absurdity
With sports media and social media bleeding into each other (think bloody mess), content is at a premium. It doesn’t have to be good content. It doesn’t have to be true content. It just has to be voluminous. As a result, a lot of nonsense gets put out there. (Ahem.)...
Mark Madden: Antonio Brown only thinks he runs the Steelers
As we brace for the summit meeting between the man who owns the Pittsburgh Steelers and the man who thinks he owns the Steelers, the question begs: Is Antonio Brown’s behavior carefully calculated to ramrod his way out of Pittsburgh, or is he just nuts? Here’s betting the latter, because...
Mark Madden: Penguins’ season full of crazy sidebars
The Penguins’ power play is one for its last 21 and has surrendered two short-handed goals in that time. It’s not often a power play is minus-1 over a 10-game span. But the Penguins’ penalty kill has scored nine short-handed goals since Dec. 14, an incredible number. The answer seems...
Mark Madden: Any rule that shortens MLB games is good rule
The National League will not use the DH until at least 2022, according to reports. That’s quite understandable. What’s the hurry? The National and American leagues have illogically differed in this regard since 1973. What’s three more years? Those three years, of course, will be filled with the merciless kvetching...
Mark Madden: Penguins need a 1-A type backup as insurance for Matt Murray
Penguins GM Jim Rutherford might be done dealing after acquiring forwards Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann from Florida on Feb 1. But he probably isn’t. Tweaking the roster is in Rutherford’s blood. He’s changed a quarter of his team since season’s start. That’s no complaint. The results speak for themselves....
Mark Madden: Teddy Blueger belongs on Penguins, not in minors
The NFL has no offseason. Maybe that’s why the Super Bowl drew its lowest TV rating in a decade: The citizens are tiring of football, or weary of New England winning, or maybe America just hates Maroon 5. But everybody loves refreshing sports notes. • When the Penguins get healthy,...
Mark Madden: Coyne Schofield-McGuire exchange was awkward, nothing more
The Kendall Coyne Schofield-Pierre McGuire fiasco on the NBC Sports Network on Wednesday night was much ado about nothing. If you’re just now tuning in, U.S. women’s hockey player Coyne Schofield debuted as an analyst on NBCSN’s NHL coverage, specifically the game between Tampa Bay and the host Penguins. McGuire...
Mark Madden: Thanks, Sidney Crosby, for doing it right way
Sidney Crosby won the NHL All-Star Game(s) MVP on Saturday at San Jose, compiling four goals and four assists as his Metropolitan Division team won two straight games and the championship of the 3-on-3 tournament. This is noteworthy for two reasons: • All-Star Game(s) MVP was one of the few...
