Kovacevic: Penguins, Steelers both bound for Boulevard?

Brief and to the Point ...

Our city hasn't seen a major professional sports championship since 2009. That's, like, seven centuries in Cleveland years.

The Steelers and Penguins both won it all that year, of course. It was the headiest of times, especially for the younger generation that hadn't experienced the NFL's greatest dynasty in the 1970s or the back-to-back Stanley Cups in the 1990s. These were their teams, not those of their parents or grandparents. These were their parades, rolling down a matching route on the Boulevard of the Allies with matching turnouts, matching joy.

So, who's next?

And yes, you'd better believe I'm asking that based on what just took place over the weekend, no matter how irrational any significant reaction should be over regular-season games. Sometimes it's just about a sense. A feeling. A buzz. And there can't be any question that's very much in the air after Sunday's rapid-fire combination at PNC Park, then Consol Energy Center, with the Pirates burying the nemesis Cardinals in their opener, then the surging Penguins embarrassing the Flyers, the city's most despised opponent in any sport.

If only someone had pancaked Vontaze Burfict somewhere.



Anyway, let's get back to the question: Who's next?

I'll start by tossing aside the Pirates, with all due respect to what looks like a good lineup and a superb bullpen. Two starting pitchers won't cut it, unless both Francisco Liriano and Gerrit Cole are Cy Young candidates. As I wrote in the season preview column, I see a regression in the order of a dozen wins from the 98 of a year ago.

What's more, it's difficult to envision the franchise making it back to the playoffs for a fourth, fifth, sixth year in a row. The window isn't as small as many portray, but it does exist. Baseball's whack-out economics contribute to that, but it's also about the sport being just generally unpredictable in terms of playoff participants and outcomes.  For the Pirates to overcome that, they'd have to dramatically increase revenues -- local TV money, attendance -- or dramatically increase the talent culled through the drafts.

None of that is on the horizon. At all.

It would be nuts to toss out the Penguins. We're all appreciating what they're doing under Mike Sullivan, with speed, skill, synergy and smarts unseen since ... well, 2009, as Sidney Crosby openly told me a couple weeks ago. It really does look that good. And it looks even better, at least theoretically, once Evgeni Malkin returns.

The obvious obstacle there is that the first round, as a result, might be the most challenging. Nick Bonino has slotted just fine into the second line, but the bulk of the credit for that group's effectiveness has been the blazing skating of Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin, backing off defensemen left and right. And no Malkin will mean that the first-round opponent can take endless liberties to eliminate Crosby, an issue that's not nearly as great in regular-season games as it is in a best-of-seven series.

Otherwise, though, the future looks stirringly bright for the Penguins.

Just not as bright as that of the Steelers.

There's an oversimplified but possibly fair way to make this case in a sentence: They fell a touchdown shy of beating the eventual Super Bowl-winning Broncos, in Denver, a game shy of the AFC championship game and, oh, yeah, they were missing the NFL's best wide receiver, Antonio Brown, and its best running back, Le'Veon Bell.

Getting a bit more in-depth, Martavis Bryant won't be around in 2016, but the offense should still be without peer in the league. No one reading this needs me to lay out why. And the defense, the horse the Broncos and other recent champions rode to the title, could be markedly improved if Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert finally get serious about the secondary. The front seven certainly made enough strides that it wouldn't take much.

But hey, I'm guessing no one minds if it's Steelers and Penguins again, right?

• It's right and admirable that the Penguins are pushing Crosby for the Hart Trophy and Kris Letang for the Norris. Those are their guys. But neither will win and, going full-bore candid here, I'd have a hard time establishing a case that either should.

Both have been the NHL's best players at their respective positions since late December. Neither was anything of the sort before then. Now, it's great that both rebounded as they have, but there's no criteria attached to either award regarding finishing strong or building momentum. It's about a body of work. And if Crosby and/or Letang had played the past three months the way they played the first three months, this wouldn't even be a thing.

Patrick Kane is the league's only player with 100 points. Next closest is Jamie Benn a whole dozen back, then Crosby at 18 back.

Kane will and should win the Hart.

John Klingberg and Drew Doughty have been solid and productive all season long. One of those two will and should win the Norris.

• If anyone with the Penguins should win one of the major awards, it should be Jim Rutherford as the NHL's Executive of the Year.

• While on the subject, given that the Professional Hockey Writers Association is emphasizing hard that the Masterton shouldn't always go to a player who recovers from illness or injury but, rather, the one who demonstrates "perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication" to hockey, how can it not go to Jaromir Jagr?

There's perseverance, and then there's leading a contender in scoring at age 45.

• Has anyone ever overcome being an Oiler faster than Justin Schultz?

I mean, seriously ...







And it's not the offense. Everyone knew that was there, well before his time in Edmonton. No, it's been defense. It's been the smart positioning and stick work. It's been the head-man. It's been how he's glided effortlessly out of the zone. And probably beneath all of that, it's been how enthusiastically he's accepted instruction from this staff.

Is there a trophy for excelling as a former Oiler?

• Speaking of Edmonton, this is a joke.

Enough is enough. Let other teams have the No. 1 overall pick, even if it's just in the name of giving those kids a chance.

• OK, so the NFL has players enter a 'concussion 'protocol,' as it's called when players get checked on the sideline following head trauma. The NHL has a 'quiet room,' as that one's called. And Major League Baseball has a special seven-day disabled list so that teams and players don't try to duck the previous minimum of a 15-day stint.

Each one, taken in isolation, is a step forward for concussion management.

But a concussion is a concussion is a concussion, and it's years if not decades overdue for all of our continent's major sports leagues to get unified on this, similar to how all worked with the World Anti-Doping Agency to develop standards for performance-enhancing drugs.

Know why they haven't already?

Because it would be admitting the problem. And lawsuits are pending.

• If Jon Niese, the Pirates' starter Tuesday, went by his initials -- Jonathon Joseph -- he'd be known as J.J. Which would give the team an A.J., a J.A. and a J.J. in a matter of months.

Don't mind me. I just work here.

• The Pirates' official website carried the following headline atop an article on its home page Monday: 'Pirates taking innovative approach with bullpen: Setup man Watson to be used in high-leverage situations'

I kid you not. Tony Watson, who usually pitches the eighth inning, pitched the seventh. Here's the reason why Watson pitched the seventh. It was about as 'innovative,' groundbreaking and pioneering as, oh, batting your best hitter second or shifting your defensive players.



Honestly, gentlemen, give it a rest. You won 98 games. Let that do the talking.

• My second-favorite conversation after the Pirates' opening victory was with Neftali Feliz, this after his 1-2-3 eighth inning. Feliz, 27, erupted onto the scene six years earlier as the Rangers' closer, then was set back by Tommy John surgery, so it's easy to see he's relishing this chance to bounce back as part of a bullpen he doesn't have to anchor.

"I just come to pitch and to do my job," he said. Broad smile.

If he pans out to his old potential, credit obviously would and should go to Neal Huntington, but man, the proposed Ray Searage statue will be six stories tall.

• First-favorite conversation was with Andrew McCutchen and Josh Harrison, as both tried to outdo each other in explaining to me how cold and windy it was in Indianapolis for that Saturday exhibition with the Reds.

"So cold," J-Hay began. "You couldn't feel your face out there. And then that wind ..."

"Oh, the wind," Cutch chimed in. "There would be these bursts, like 50 or 60 miles an hour, and the game would stop. People would just look back to the flags."

"It was crazy," J-Hay kept it going. "You know how sometimes people talk about what the flags are doing when it's windy? Well, these were the flag-poles! Bent over like this!"

He held his arm at a 45-degree angle.

"They had to take the flags down after the second inning, or those poles were going to come down on the people sitting out on that grass hill," Cutch said. "Scary."

"This," J-Hay said, pointing toward PNC Park's field, where a game had just been played in 37-degree temps, "this was just awesome, man. We'll take this."

Projected first-pitch temp for Tuesday: 41 degrees, with a mild 5 mph breeze.

I'll be there to cover, but also in hopes of witnessing the Pirates invent the double play.