U mad, bro?: Readers are fed up with the Penguins, but starting to stick up for the Steelers

When it comes to fan reaction to the Steelers and Penguins, just by the tone, you can always tell which team is in season and struggling versus which is in the offseason and preparing to reboot.

Based on the feedback I’m getting, hockey fans are fed up with the Pens and their losses. Meanwhile, Steelers fans are in “absence makes the heart grow fonder” mode, and they are defending their players from criticism.

Well … most of them.

See for yourself in this week’s “U mad, bro?”

Robert has a very simple view on the Penguins.

“I keep trying to hang in; but stick a fork in ‘em!”

Here’s the problem, Robert. If we stick a fork in ‘em, Evgeni Malkin is likely to retaliate with a slash and wind up in the penalty box.

I also got an email from “Timblade68” about the Pens.

“When it comes down to watching this years team play, I have to take my brother John’s stance: ‘I am not going to watch ‘bad hockey!’”

What is your brother’s stance on watching bad football and baseball? Because if it’s the same, my guess is that he has checked out from the Steelers and Pirates, too.

This is a response to a “First Call” item about the prospect of the Steelers either trading wide receiver Diontae Johnson or signing him to a contract extension.

if they would sign him to an extension,he would probably drop the pen.

— David Dnan (@TheeDavidDoonan) March 4, 2024

Or they might not be able to sit him down to sign it because he’d keep running backward from the chair.

Here is a post from someone who is fed up with Penguins fans who can’t allow themselves to watch Jake Guentzel leave.

For the "I don't how they will survive without Jake" crowd:

Starting with his second season, they have won exactly ONE playoff series. The team will survive without him. Get down from the ledge.

— xoundmind ???? ???? (@xoundmind) March 6, 2024

In one sense, I get where you are coming from. What you are essentially doing here is applying the Branch Rickey/Ralph Kiner school of roster construction.

That is: “Son, we could’ve finished last without you.”

Fine. The problem is that this team was kept together with Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin (plus adding Erik Karlsson) with the idea that it wouldn’t finish last.

Or at least out of the playoffs. Again.

Michael didn’t like that I put Antonio Brown’s tweet making fun of Kenny Pickett in a recent “First Call” post.

“The non-stop bashing of Kenny Pickett in the Pittsburgh media is very odd and extremely lazy. Finding tweets and republishing them as news, just to bash someone serves what purpose?”

Based on how he played last year, “bashing” Pickett is a lot less odd than blindly sticking up for him and acting like he is beyond criticism or the occasional jab on social media.

Secondly, who said I was presenting it as news? It’s a video of a guy throwing a bowling ball through the ceiling. That’s objectively funny. I posted it to make people laugh.

OK. That’s not true. I posted it to make myself laugh. And after spending a significant chunk of the last six months surfing through Pickett-fan boy emails like yours, I think I deserve a chuckle.

Related

• First Call: A team that may be in the lead for Jake Guentzel; Mitch Trubisky signs elsewhere; ex-Pitt Panther released
• Tim Benz: Steelers coaches can be upset about criticism of Kenny Pickett, but be aware of who is being critical
• For the Penguins, being out of a playoff position isn't strange, 'it's awful'

Roger in South Carolina emailed about the Penguins.

“As I am watching the Pens against the Oilers, I remember a quote from good old Pogo Possum. ‘We have met the enemy and he is us.’ Kind of sums it up.”

Was Pogo specifically referencing giving up shorthanded goals while on the power play, by any chance?

Finally, last week I wrote a column suggesting that people should take the low grades of the Steelers in the latest NFLPA poll with a big grain of salt.

Oh wow this is why no one likes Tim Benz, ok

— FTP (@BurnItDahn) February 29, 2024

No. That’s not accurate. It’s not that people dislike me because I occasionally point out that the Steelers’ players can come off as entitled and privileged.

People dislike me because I frequently point out that the players, coaches, management and ownership haven’t been good enough to win a playoff game for seven straight years.

And, as a person whose X account only has three followers at the time of this post, if anyone should have an inherent understanding of what makes a person unpopular, it ought to be you.