U mad, bro: Penguins fans are getting cranky with late-season stumbles; Pirates fans won't fake optimism

For once, it appears that the Pittsburgh Steelers won’t be dominating “U mad, bro?” Very few gripes or complaints from football fans lashing out this week.

The Steelers seem done — or close to it — in free agency. The draft is still a few weeks away. “Who will the GM be?” emails don’t exactly drive the bus. And nobody on the team has demanded a trade after dying their mustache blonde or ripping the franchise in a bad rap song.

Thanks to the sputtering Penguins and the low payroll Pirates, we aren’t exactly empty-handed, though.

Not even close.

We start with someone on Twitter who is upset about how the Penguins performed in the shootout during Tuesday’s loss to the New York Islanders.

Better work on shootouts

— FloridaPenguin87 (@FLPenguin87) April 13, 2022

True. The Penguins have now lost seven-of-10 shootouts this year. In that shootout on Long Island, Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby weakly shot pucks right into Ilya Sorokin’s glove, and Kris Letang completely flubbed his attempt and never got off a clean shot.

But shootouts don’t exist in the playoffs. So I’m much more concerned about them “working on” eliminating horrific turnovers in their own defensive end of the ice.

There were a few of those Tuesday night, as you may have seen.

Michael emailed about Mark Madden’s take on the Evgeni Malkin suspension in this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. Mark wasn’t in favor of a suspension, let alone one that was four games long.

“Right. He should not be suspended. He should be arrested!”

Eh, that’s a little extreme. But if committing bad turnovers at the offensive blue line is a crime, Geno is going to need a good lawyer.

Dennis has a thought on Geno’s four-game suspension, too.

I can get behind 4.... The incident was flagrant, stupid, and unnecessary. Then you consider other players infractions: Matthews, Marchand... And it's clear the NHL is making it up as they go.... Next time, Geno, just drop the gloves. Seriously.

— Dennis (@BeerLeague32) April 12, 2022

Actually, it’s not a bad idea given how backward hockey is when it comes to this stuff. By rule, fights are endorsed as being part of the game via five-minute penalties with no immediate cause for suspension.

Just drop the gloves and scrap and push each other to the ice. No one even has to throw a punch. Or at least be smart enough to drop the stick before getting your gloves up into someone’s face.

On Saturday, I tweeted about how the Penguins have gotten into the bad habit of giving up goals almost immediately after they score them. It’s a trend that is getting very old, very quickly.

So is this team

— James Staten (@Buckeye4LifeOH) April 9, 2022

Well played.

This guy wants to chime in on that topic, too.

That's Jarry's playoff modus operandi. Good to see he's already in that mode. Fool me once...

— Local Hero™ (@HofSpillane) April 9, 2022

Wanna know the bigger problem? The goals aren’t just Jarry’s fault. Actually, a lot of them can be blamed on multiple people.

If you’ve convinced yourself they only lost last year’s playoff series because of Jarry and have a preconceived notion he’ll be the sole reason again this year, I’ve got some bad news.

Because if they go to Casey DeSmith in the playoffs, and they get bounced in the first round again, you’ll have to find someone else to blame besides Jarry.

And that might be too uncomfortable for some Penguins fans to handle.

Here’s our only football-related entry this week. Rick puts his two cents in about the controversy surrounding that tweet about Dwayne Haskins’ death from ESPN’s Adam Schefter as well as the NFL Defensive Player of the Year odds. They have Myles Garrett as a slight favorite over Watt to win the award in 2022.

“I did not find Adam’s tweet offensive. It was factual, polite and accurate. No apology was necessary, really.

Also, why has Watt dropped down? Did he get fat and lazy since winning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year, just a few short months ago?”

Well, like you said, there was nothing “wrong” about what Schefter tweeted. But mentioning Haskins’ professional struggles while simultaneously passing along word of his death came off as cold and disconnected.

So I understand the call for an apology and his eventual decision to issue one. If your greater point is, though, that the degree of outrage surrounding the tweet was excessive compared to the original misstep by Schefter itself, then, yes, I’d agree there.

As far as the NFL DPOY odds go, I’m just happy that Steelers fans have some other perceived slight that they can blow out of proportion and carry around like a city-wide cross to bear on behalf of Watt.

I was worried we wouldn’t be able to play a phony disrespect card in his name, now that he actually was given the award. I’m thrilled to see that predictions of who will win DPOY next year outweigh the fact that he actually won it a year ago in the eyes of some.

Glad to see Stiller Nation still has that arrow in its quiver. Thank you, Vegas.

Finally, “TK from Central PA” emailed, agreeing with the critique of the Pirates in last week’s “U mad, bro?”

“U betcha … ’Tis the season of agony and hopelessness. The minor league team masquerading as a MLB team begins its trek to another 100+ loss season.”

Wow. “’Tis the season of agony and hopelessness.” This sounds like the world’s saddest baseball Christmas card.

In my mind’s eye, I can picture a family in Glassport, standing in ugly Pirates-themed Christmas sweaters, in front of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree with frowning faces and empty eggnog cups.

‘Tis the season to be hopeless … fa la la la la, let’s play ball!