First Call: T.J. Watt's new commercial, NHL player takes skate to face, Duquesne owns overtime

The NFL’s Watt brothers start off Wednesday’s “First Call.”

Why wouldn’t they? They are everywhere else.

Also, we check out what happened in the rest of the Eastern Conference while the Penguins finally got back on the winning track. An NHL player gets a skate to the face. Duquesne owns overtime. And Robert Morris gets some praise.

Media takeover

Apparently Gatorade commercials, headphone advertisements and hosting “Saturday Night Live” aren’t enough for the NFL’s Watt brothers.

They want to corner the sandwich market as well.

Steelers star T.J Watt and his brothers, J.J. and Derrick, are now in a Subway TV spot together.

Yes, the idea of three NFL stars crammed in the back of a station wagon en route to a fishing trip is funny.

But I happen to think Mom stole the show in that one.

What else happened?

The Penguins won their Tuesday night game against the Ottawa Senators 7-3.

That broke a six-game losing streak. They now have 82 points. That’s good for third place in the Metro Division.

They are still seven points in front of Carolina for the last playoff spot. The Hurricanes are currently in ninth place of the Eastern Conference with 75 points.

The New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets own the two wild-card spots with 78 points. New York had a chance to climb up to 80, but they lost to the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 Tuesday night.

Also, the Boston Bruins edged the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1. Jake DeBrusk had the game winner.

Nothing was stopping @JDebrusk on this beauty.

His 19th of the season and tonight's winning goal is the @JagermeisterUSA Shot of the Game.#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/cgdtocBwrh

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 4, 2020

That victory extended Boston’s lead over Tampa atop the Atlantic Division. The Bruins improved to 96 points. The Lightning still have 87 in second place.

Oh, boy, Boychuk

This was a scary moment.

In the Canadiens-Islanders game, New York’s Johnny Boychuk took a skate to the face from Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen.

Johnny Boychuk rushes off the ice after taking Artturi Lehkonen's skate to the face. Very scary. pic.twitter.com/NwpIQAzznP

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) March 4, 2020

Ouch!

NHL player turned broadcaster Colby Cohen tweeted, “I’m told he has a bad cut but his eyesight is okay.”

NBC Sports Boston reported that it appears Boychuk was cut on the eyelid but not the eyeball.

“It’s not good,” said Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck via Newsday. He was playing his second game following a 30-game absence after his left forearm was slashed by Patrice Bergeron’s skate blade at Boston on Dec. 19. “Not easy to see. Not good at all.”

TSN tweeted out Lehkonen’s postgame interview.

Artturi Lehkonen shares his thoughts after his skate hit Johnny Boychuk in the face. pic.twitter.com/TeXpkzSZjb

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) March 4, 2020

Sportsnet spurred the discussion of whether the NHL should go to full face shields.

After Johnny Boychuk took a skate to the face, @JeffMarek, @JasonYork33 and @Steve_Dangle discussed on #IceSurfing whether or not full cages should be mandatory.

Do you think all @NHL players should be forced to wear cages for their own protection? pic.twitter.com/GycCiXfOZu

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 4, 2020

I can’t believe we are still having this discussion.

All over overtime

The Duquesne men’s basketball team beat VCU 80-77 in overtime Tuesday.

If the Dukes get you to overtime, look out. Duquesne is now 8-1 in overtime games under third-year head coach Keith Dambrot and 3-0 this season.

That victory pushes the Dukes (11-6) into sole possession of fourth place in the Atlantic 10.

That’s an important spot to have because the top four teams get a double bye in the conference tournament next week. St. Louis and St. Bonaventure are tied for fifth place at 10-6. They play each other Saturday.

The Dukes’ final regular season game is Friday night against Richmond at PPG Paints Arena. The Spiders are in second place at 13-4.

Colonial honors

Not only are the Robert Morris Colonials entering the NEC tournament as the conference’s highest seed, they’ll be going in with a few players that got all-conference accolades.

Redshirt senior Josh Williams (guard) and junior A.J. Bramah (forward) of the Robert Morris University men’s basketball team each earned spots on the 2020 All-Northeast Conference second team.

That was by virtue of a vote from league head coaches.

Williams enters the 2020 NEC Tournament leading the Colonials in scoring at 13.5 points per game, which ranks 12th in the conference. He also ranks second in the circuit in three-point field goals made per game (3.13) and fourth in three-point field goal percentage (.418).

Bramah averages of 13.0 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest while shooting 55.7 percent (152-for-473) from the floor. He ranks second in the NEC in field goal percentage, fourth in rebounding and 14th in scoring.

Earlier this season, Bramah put together a streak of 23 consecutive games scoring in double figures, which ranks as the fourth longest in program history.

I thought both players may get first-team nods, but they’ll have to be satisfied with second-team honors.

And potentially an NCAA tournament berth.

The Colonials begin conference tournament play against No. 8 seed St. Francis Brooklyn at the UPMC Events Center Wednesday at 7 p.m.