Tim Benz: If Steelers championship window has closed, is Penguins' still open?

It’s time for the annual passing of the Pittsburgh sports torch from the Steelers to the Penguins.

From football to hockey. From winter to … well … more winter.

Pittsburgh sports fans segue out of the denouement at Heinz Field to the rising action at PPG Paints Arena.

From old Jack Lambert jerseys to old Mario Lemieux jerseys. From Renegade to Cotton Eye Joe. A yearly metamorphosis bathed in black and gold that goes back centuries.

Or at least to 1967.

Normally the Penguins have been in action for three months by now, ramping up to be the main attraction in town after the Steelers season ends.

This year, though, we jump from one lily pad right onto the other, as the Penguins season is set to begin Wednesday in Philadelphia.

In some of the better years of the mid-2000s, it felt as if you were jumping off of one locomotive to Titletown and right onto another when the franchises swapped lead roles. But neither train has gotten very far down the tracks the last three years.

In the wake of the Steelers’ ghastly loss to the Cleveland Browns, a lot of Steelers fans are wondering if the window has been slammed shut on any chance of another trip to the Super Bowl during the Ben Roethlisberger-Mike Tomlin era.

I think it is. That probably happened somewhere around the second quarter of the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Similar questions were asked about the Penguins’ “window” in the wake of their deflating defeat in the NHL’s qualifying round to the Montreal Canadiens during the summer bubble.

Again, I’d argue, yes. It’s closed, too. Although, so long as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are on the team, diehards can consider it open just a sliver.

But a great assembly of young, affordable talent is needed around those two. After all, No. 87 and No. 71 are no longer the hockey forces-of-nature they once were.

This year’s supporting cast doesn’t strike me as deep enough.

Kasperi Kapanen can’t be with the team to start the year on time as Crosby’s right wing because of visa issues. The bottom six doesn’t appear to have much scoring. Tristan Jarry is going through his first year as a full-time starter in net. And the bottom defensive pair of Cody Ceci and Mike Matheson looks like it’s a hopeful experiment at best.

Not to mention, based on what we saw against the Canadiens and Islanders the last two seasons, there’s little reason to believe that the star players are going to score with regularity in the playoffs anymore.

If they make it that far.

Oh, and there’s that. The 2021 reconstructed NHL format has the Penguins landing in a very deep Eastern Division. It may be stiff enough that the Pens can’t finish in the top four, thus leaving them out of this year’s playoffs.

So if the Penguins’ window is barely open, can it be propped open any wider in 2021? Or is it gliding shut even more as Malkin and Crosby simply play out another one of their remaining years?

“Is this team capable of winning a championship? We believe it is,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan told Mark Madden on 105.9 The X Wednesday. “We believe these guys have elite hockey left in them. I have so much respect for the core here.”

One big question is whether the Penguins can rediscover the kind of team speed they had during the Stanley Cup runs of 2016 and 2017.

“Every team now that has success plays a speed game,” Crosby told Madden on Monday afternoon. “You have to play to your own strength. That’s a strength of our team. We believe in that.”

Sullivan insists the team has quickness. It just may not manifest in the same form we saw four or five years ago.

“There’s physical footspeed. That’s one aspect,” Sullivan said. “There’s also team speed. Your ability to pass the puck. And support the puck. And change the point of attack. There’s mind speed. Your ability to process the game quickly… I think our star players still have the ability to skate. But they are elite in all those other aspects and elements of speed.”

Another issue is the power play. Once a strength of the Penguins, it ranked only 16th at 19.9% in the league last year, belying the talent on the ice during man-up situations.

“I know we can be better on the offensive zone entries. On the breakouts,” Sullivan said. “That’s one specific area we have identified and made a priority to improve. It’s not any one thing. But we believe we have capable people.”

They better be more than “capable.” Because when the Penguins hand the “Pittsburgh Sports Torch” to the Pirates in the summer, that’s rarely been an enjoyable transition the last 30 years or so.

Let’s hope they can delay it as long as humanly possible.

The Trib’s Seth Rorabaugh joins me for Tuesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. We preview the Pens upcoming season, Tristan Jarry’s camp, depth within the division, and Kasperi Kapanen’s status.