TORONTO -- There is one cardinal rule in sports journalism: No cheering in the press box.
But it's very hard for me not to root for Chad Ruhwedel, and it has zero to do with him taking over for Matt Hunwick as the Penguins' sixth defenseman. It's not even about Ruhwedel, per se, though I'm sure he's a wonderful young man.
No, I'm rooting for his story and others like it, such as the Flyers' Shayne Gostisbehere, who the Penguins faced Wednesday, and the Maple Leafs' Auston Mathews, who they will face tonight.
I'm a fan of hockey, particularly of hockey in this country. Ruhwedel is from San Diego. Gostisbehere is from Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Matthews is from Scottsdale, Ariz. If you didn't notice, none of the above hail from what anyone would consider fertile breeding grounds for hockey.
On Wednesday, Ruhwedel's career came full circle, playing in his 100th NHL game when the Penguins played at Philadelphia. It was a small milestone, to be sure, in what has been a remarkable six-year journey.
He was undrafted out of UMass-Lowell, playing his final college hockey game at the then-Consol Energy Center in the 2013 Frozen Four against Yale. Two days later, April 11, he made his NHL debut for Buffalo against the Flyers in Philadelphia. He then bounced around the AHL and NHL, finally landing a full-time roster spot in Pittsburgh last season, helping the Penguins to their second-straight Stanley Cup. Which led him to Wednesday ...
"It's been a long road, a lot of good memories along the way," Ruhwedel told me. "Coming from San Diego, it's not a hockey hotbed but it's definitely starting to turn into one. Definitely a lot of good players starting to come out of the area. I'm just fortunate to be where I'm at now."
In the off-season, Ruhwedel heads home to SoCal but says it's difficult for him to find available ice time to skate.
"The rinks are always packed," he said. "More and more kids are playing, the programs are getting better and better, competing with all the L.A. teams and making themselves known on more of the national scale."
That is awesome news for the future of the game in the U.S. Hockey has grown exponentially, even in my lifetime. But I look forward to the day when we'll see an American player who isn't from one of the 3M's -- Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota -- like some sort of exotic bird at the zoo.
Watching Team USA flame out early in last year's World Cup and again last month in the Olympics, you'll understand the need to expand the talent pool from sea to shining sea.
As we were reminded last month, "Hockey is for Everyone." Even for kids in San Diego, South Florida and Scottsdale.
• NHL justice moves ... slowly. Really slowly in the case of Brad Marchand, who was finally docked $2,000 for embellishing a penalty eight days ago against the Penguins.
If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to find the 5:38 mark of last Thursday's game in Boston. Marchand gets tripped by Olli Maatta then literally throws himself into the back of the net. It wasn't just comical, it was embarrassing.
• Ron Francis: Great player. but not-so great general manger. Still, a franchise icon who did everything for the Whalers and then Hurricanes deserved a better fate than to be stripped of power with less than 20 games remaining in the season and Carolina still very much alive in the playoff hunt.
• The Flyers have dropped five in a row with upcoming games against Winnipeg, Vegas and Columbus. They are hardly a lock to make the playoffs.
• Every TV in Toronto was glued to the Raptors-Rockets game on Friday night. That, after the Blue Jays were fourth in total attendance last season. Toronto is much more than just a hockey town.
• Gerard Gallant is a shoo-in for the Jack Adams but don't discount the job that Bob Boughner has done in Florida. Not many had the Panthers contending for a playoff spot this season.
Boughner, a former Penguins defenseman, has been a terrific coach going back to his days in Windsor when he had a high-scoring German forward named Tom Kuhnhackl.
• Was watching Mario Lemieux in his fantasy hockey camp this week at the aptly-named Lemieux Sports Complex. Yep, he's still got it.
• By my count, Kevin Stallings did one really good thing at Pitt, and now the university says it wants to fire him "for cause" for doing it?
Somehow I'm not buying, nor should anyone else, that the university is trying to forego paying Stallings' reported $7.5 million buyout for a Jan. 3 incident in which the coach responded to a heckler during a lopsided loss at Louisville by saying that "At least we didn't pay our guys $100,000!"
Seriously? For that?
Pitt thought so little of Stallings' actions at the time that they didn't reprimand him then and neither did the ACC. By trying to save some money, Pitt looks petty and is losing credibility with any future coach.
Pitt couldn't get the Stallings hiring right and now they can't even get the firing right.
• Speaking of firing "for cause" ... Frank Coonelly was at a GOP fundraising dinner Thursday night for congressional candidate Rick Saccone ... and he brought the Parrot with him. Yeah, the mascot.
Look, politics -- especially in this era of hyper-partisanship -- is a bitter, divisive business. But no matter what your political leanings, I think we can all agree on a few things: One, private citizen Coonelly is entitled to do what he wants, but under no circumstance can the team president drag the Pirates into it. Secondly, Pirates management is tone deaf and completely incompetent.
• Le'Veon Bell is the best all-around player at his position in the NFL. He can carry the ball, catch the ball and excels in pass protection.
But he is not a crusader for running back rights and, no matter how good, is simply not worth more than twice as much as the next highest-paid running back (LeSean McCoy, $6.75 million).
The Steelers will pay Bell $14.55 million next season to play under the exclusive franchise tag, unless a long-term contract extension can be worked out between now and mid-July.
No matter who he plays for in 2019, Bell will never see that kind of money again.
