First Call: Steelers captain Cam Heyward's new media venture; Stanley Cup won't go to Russia; high praise for Pens-Wings '09 Final

Thursday’s “First Call” looks at a new side gig for Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward.

The Penguins’ 2009 Stanley Cup Final win over Detroit gets some love. The Stanley Cup is getting some travel restrictions.

And some local basketball stars are back playing on a big stage once more.

Hear Heyward

Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward is entering the media realm.

To a certain degree.

Heyward is launching his own podcast via ESPN and the Peyton Manning-backed Omaha Productions platform.

Via an ESPN press release, “Each week, ‘The Cam Heyward Show’ gives fans a peek behind the curtain of NFL life. Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle and five-time Pro Bowler Cam Heyward gives his unfiltered thoughts on the league and headlines across all sports, welcoming in top guests including athletes, coaches and celebrities to talk sports, pop culture and more.”

No word yet on if Heyward will have a cohost or cohosts. The debut episode is supposed to be July 11.

Heyward is a weekly guest on the “’DVE Morning Show” on 102.5 WDVE. He also has won the Chief Award three times. It is given annually to the member of the Steelers organization that “best exemplifies the spirit of cooperation with the media” of team founder Arthur J. Rooney Sr. It’s given out every year by the Pittsburgh chapter of the Pro Football Writers Association.

Recently, Heyward also won the 2022 Good Guy Award as named by the Professional Football Writers of America. The Good Guy Award is given to an NFL player for his qualities and professional style in helping pro football writers do their jobs. The award has been presented annually by the PFWA since 2005.

Travel restrictions

Regardless of who wins the Stanley Cup, it won’t be going to Russia or Belarus this summer.

“With respect to this summer, the Cup isn’t going to Russia or Belarus,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said during a news conference ahead of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. “To that extent, we may owe a Cup trip in the future. That can happen like we did with the pandemic, but it’s not happening this summer.”

The move isn’t a surprise given Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine.

Three Tampa Bay Lightning players are Russian — star forward Nikita Kucherov, 2021 Conn Smythe winner Andrei Vasilevskiy and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.

As for the Colorado Avalanche, they have just one Russian player on the postseason roster, winger Valeri Nichushkin.

Daly did say, though, that there will be no restrictions on selecting Russian or Belarussian players in the upcoming NHL draft.

There was one better?

The Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin ranked every Stanley Cup Final in the salary cap era. Prior to the one that started Wednesday night between the Avs and Lightning, there have been 16 championship series from 2006 through 2021.

Larkin ranked the 2009 Final between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins as the second best of the bunch.

That was the one that ended with the Penguins upsetting the Wings in Game 7, on the road in Detroit, after falling behind 3-2 in the series. And after the Wings had beaten the Penguins in the ’08 Final (which finished 9th in the rankings, by the way).

On this day in 2009...

Best. Day. Ever. pic.twitter.com/bf9ViKF4Uq

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) June 12, 2022

In his post, Larkin concocted a wide-ranging, points-based system to rank each series. But his synopsis of the ’09 series went like this:

“The Penguins’ revenge series was quite the rollercoaster. They dropped Game 1 and 2 in Detroit. After they won two straight in Pittsburgh to even the series, Fleury got pulled in Game 5 after surrendering five goals. It was quite the redemption arc for ‘Flower,’ who made an all-time save on Nick Lidstrom in the dying seconds of Game 7 to help Pittsburgh win the Cup — with Crosby hobbling on one leg after he got knocked out of the game with a knee injury.”

The only series Larkin put in front of Pens-Wings 2.0 was the Bruins 2011 seven-game defeat of the Vancouver Canucks. That was Boston’s first Cup since 1972. Vancouver still hasn’t won one. Three of the seven games were one-goal contests. Two of them were 1-0 scores. One went to overtime.

The 2016 Penguins victory over the San Jose Sharks ranked 12th. The team’s win over the Nashville Predators was eighth.

If it’s my vote, I’m putting the Pens-Wings ‘09 series No.1 overall.

I’d put the ‘08 series second when it comes to the Penguins finals. Then the 2016 win over the Sharks third, followed by the victory over Nashville.

Back with Boeheim

Former Schenley high school greats D.J. Kennedy and DeAndre Kane are both back with the “Boeheim’s Army” team for this year’s “The Basketball Tournament” on ESPN.

The made-for-television event features 64 teams in a single elimination bracket, battling for a “$1+ million” prize.

The games begin July 16.

Boeheim’s Army is the defending champion and named after long-time Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. Most of the players are Orange alumni. Kane and Kennedy have no direct ties to Syracuse basketball but were on the squad when it won the 2021 event.

After leaving Schenley as a 2007 PIAA champion with Kane and former Pitt star DeJuan Blair, Kennedy went to St. Johns. He won the TBT four other times with Overseas Elite. He was a tournament MVP once.

Kane went to Marshall and Iowa State and won two championships in the Israeli League. He was on three of those TBT title squads with Kennedy on the Overseas Elite teams, too.

Some former Syracuse players who will be their teammates include Tyler Ennis, Rakeem Christmas, CJ Fair, Andrew White and Marek Dolezaj. Jeremy Pope and another former ‘Cuse player, Ryan Blackwell, will be the coaches.