The Penguins allowed eight goals Tuesday. Liverpool FC conceded three. Can’t anybody here play defense? Only one thing can restore my calm: Refreshing sports notes!
• The Penguins’ defense was terrible Saturday at Boston and Tuesday at the New York Rangers. But goalies Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry were even worse: 14 goals allowed on 52 shots, and they looked every bit that bad. This would be a bad time for the goaltending to implode. The Penguins outshot the Rangers, 45-25, and lost 8-4. That can’t happen.
• When Jarry plays too deep in the net, he stinks. Yet he often insists on doing it.
• The NHL trade deadline is Monday. A big move by the Penguins seems unlikely. GM Ron Hextall doesn’t have proper trade capital or salary cap room. Maybe the Penguins get a big forward for the bottom six. But if the cost is a regular defensemen, Hextall should stand pat. If the Penguins trusted P.O Joseph, he’d be in the lineup right now. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts with the Penguins’ defense corps. Don’t disturb that.
• Keep Mike Matheson. He occasionally drops a grenade in his own zone, but his gaffes are outweighed by his playmaking. He’s scored great goals in two of the last three games and has six points in the last four. Matheson’s skating and skills make him the X factor that was hoped for. He’s helping the Penguins more than Patric Hornqvist would have.
• A few big defensemen are available: Ottawa’s Erik Gudbranson and Dallas’ Jamie Oleksiak. Wonder what coach Mike Sullivan would think about getting one of those two?
• John Marino left the game hurt Tuesday. There’s probably no institutional reason the Penguins are constantly beset by injuries. But they should investigate that possibility, however slim.
• There’s not much buzz around the NHL about big trades before Monday. Every team is losing money this season, so how many want to add payroll? When it comes to blockbuster deals, maybe it would be better to sell some tickets first. Only six teams are truly out of the playoff hunt, which cuts down the amount of sellers. Buffalo winger Taylor Hall seems a lock to move as a rental. Boston is starved for secondary scoring, but can the Bruins find cap room?
• Evgeni Malkin has finally started skating. Good, because it was becoming plausible to wonder if he was coming back at all this season.
• Did Gonzaga choke? Yes. They won 31 straight, including 29 by double digits. They were on the verge of the national title, an undefeated season and history. But in the NCAA final they came out flat, trailed 9-0 and ultimately lost by 16. No other description applies. They choked.
• Baylor’s players did the “Corvette, Corvette” dance at half-court after winning the NCAA title. The key phrase: “After winning the NCAA title.” They’re champions, not clowns.
• The Pirates didn’t take long to flat-out stink: They lost four of their first five, and by a 14-1 score at Cincinnati Tuesday. They didn’t take long to become a bigger joke than their record, either: Non-pitcher Phillip Evans threw the final inning Tuesday. Throw a tent over that circus.
• Gregory Polanco is a dog. The Pirates can (and will) opt out of his contract at season’s end, but Polanco displays no urgency — not that he ever did. But after hitting a pathetic .153 last year, he started the current season 1 for 14 with six strikeouts while failing to break a sweat. Polanco is making $11 million this year. Of all the players the Pirates could have kept, they kept him.
• Another example of why baseball stinks: In Monday’s Pirates game at Cincinnati, the teams combined for 28 strikeouts. They whiffed 55% of the time.
• After Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres dislocated his shoulder with a big swing, I suggested on my radio program that MLB hitters should be on a swing count, perhaps five per game. That’s absurd, but no more absurd than Minnesota pitcher Jose Berrios leaving a game after six innings despite allowing zero hits and striking out 12 because he threw 84 pitches.
• Carolina paid a sizeable price to the New York Jets in return for quarterback Sam Darnold: Second-, fourth- and sixth-round picks. But, if possible, the Steelers should have made that deal. Whoever succeeds Ben Roethlisberger at QB will not have Darnold’s pedigree and experience, and Darnold is just 23. The Steelers will likely need Darnold this year, too, because it’s doubtful Roethlisberger, at 39, will start every game. It’s a move the Steelers should have made.
• If the Steelers didn’t want to give Steven Nelson an extension, so what? Nelson was signed for 2021. He was a starting cornerback, arguably the Steelers’ best. Nelson says he wasn’t given the option of a pay cut. Releasing Nelson was a bad decision. Perhaps cutting Nelson had nothing to do with retaining JuJu Smith-Schuster. But the Steelers needed to keep Nelson more. The Steelers have grotesquely mismanaged their roster this offseason.
• If Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has the chance to retire from football right now and become full-time host of Jeopardy, he should. Rodgers is set to make $22.8 million next season. But, at 37, his football career is expiring. The late Alex Trebek made $10 million per year doing Jeopardy and never got sacked once. If Rodgers tacks on a network analyst gig, he could conceivably make more than he does quarterbacking. The expiration date for those jobs is far, far in the future.
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April 07, 2021 at 09:45PM
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