Editorial: A good step for Penguins fans, but caution is on deck

The Pittsburgh Penguins took their shot two weeks ago when they asked the state for a little more freedom.

PPG Paints Arena was only allowed to have 500 people at games — including the players, the coaches, the guy who drives the Zamboni, the workers who run the lights, the camera crews broadcasting to folks at home and the journalists covering who scored what and how.

The arena’s capacity for hockey crowds is 18,387 attendees. Five hundred people is less than 3% of that total. Other businesses were allowed to have up to 75% of their capacity, and bars or restaurants that self-certified were permitted up to 50%, even if that put them in closer proximity to each other than they would be in a partially-filled hockey arena.

The request made sense — especially since the team was only asking to return to 25% capacity and had taken steps to make that as safe as possible. There were investments in systems and equipment to enhance social distancing. There were plans and procedures formulated with medical partner UPMC.

On Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf met the team and other venues part way, announcing new indoor event limits of 15%. The Penguins subsequently announced its capacity would be 2,800 ticket holders.

It isn’t what the team requested, but it’s a good start.

What they need now is an assist.

Just like Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby might need another player to do their part to help put the puck in the net, score the goal and make that horn sound, the team needs the fans to take the handoff and do their job.

This is a huge step toward getting back to the kind of normality we have not seen in a year. The way to advance to 25% is by proving that the rules can be followed. Wear the masks. Keep the distance.

Everyone wants more chunks of that life we remember from February 2020 back. To get there — now that we have fewer new cases showing up and more vaccines being administered — we all have to do what might be the hardest thing yet.

We have to see that progress isn’t the same thing as completion. We have to keep driving toward the goal, not just declare victory while the clock is still running.

“Pennsylvania is taking a measured approach to revising or lifting mitigation orders,” Wolf said in a statement. “The reason we are seeing cases drop can be attributed, in part, to people following the mitigation efforts we have in place.”

It’s hard. We get it. Like sports, the closer you get to the end, the longer it seems to take. But we have to remember, that’s just because of how badly we want that final horn to blow, signaling that everything is over.

We aren’t there yet. We will be soon. But until it happens, we all need to be on the same team — and stay out of the penalty box.