Unfiltered: Tim Benz and Mark Madden discuss Pirates highlights, Penguins moves, NHL's need to sell tickets

Tim Benz and Mark Madden return for this week’s edition of “Unfiltered” on TribLive’s Facebook page to discuss the Pirates recent winning streak, Penguins possible move, NHL needs to sell tickets to keep going, and more.

Madden and Benz talk about the good weekend for the Pirates. Gregory Polanco had five hits over the weekend, Josh Bell is too good to be this bad for so long, Bryan Reynolds might be getting on track, but really the issue is that the team is bad and good players will stink in this environment, according to Madden.

Madden wonders about what a good day or two, a short run of hits, or some wins, will ultimately mean over the long run.

Benz looks at the Pirates and thinks that if the team wants to move Bell, they are trading at his lowest point in his value. Madden doesn’t think the team is looking to get much in return if they make a trade, the team is just looking at the money.

On hockey, Madden recaps a few things Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford had to say in a recent interview and what moves the team is looking at for the offseason.

But Madden doesn’t think hockey will be played for a long time because of the pandemic. He says he guarantees that the NHL will not play again until they can sell tickets. The league needs ticket sales.

A half-house (or less) for the sake of social distancing won’t cut it, either. Selling a fraction of the tickets, even temporarily, would kill the Penguins. They need sellouts.

The guys also talk about the Steelers training camp and how reports coming out are all are saying good things. But how much is that really true?

They also talk about covid-19 concerns for the entire sports world, the possibility of a bubble for the NFL playoffs, school sports in Pennsylvania amid the pandemic and respond to some reader comments.

Watch the show here: