Kovacevic: Real hockey's finally at hand ... Allen's stupidity hardly a fluke ... Why not Cutch?

Not going to lie: The Penguins are a tougher, more tenacious team than I'd thought they'd be.

Further not going to lie: Probably not even a third of their first 31 games have been much fun.

Yeah, that was a tour de force in Winnipeg, the evening that set up the extraordinary month that'd follow. They'd recalled who they were, they'd committed to defending, and they'd suffocated opponent after opponent from there, notably the clampdown at home a week ago against the Stars, another riser in the West. Sprinkle in the occasional individual appreciation such as Evgeni Malkin's shootout crescendo against the Flames in his first game back after the 1,000th and, well, if I'm being honest, that's about all I've got.

It's funny, as I'm headed down the elevator after the Dallas victory that didn't feel as heady to me as it might've to others, I mentioned to the security guard that what we really need around here is the Rangers to liven up the scene a little.

So hey, here we go.

When the puck drops tonight at 7:08 p.m., we'll have temps in the 20s, we'll be counting the flakes toward a White Christmas this weekend and, if we're even luckier than that, we'll finally have old-school Patrick Division hockey back in Uptown again ... all in the form of these two rivals facing off for the first time since this:

Sorry. And for anyone who's wondering, yeah, I really did stand in the Madison Square Garden press box and record that for posterity.

Whatever. Time to get real all over again.

Not much has changed since Artemi Panarin's wrister ricocheted off Kris Letang's skate past Tristan Jarry. A few new threads were stitched on a few new sweaters for both sides, but it's still the same core here and the same Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Krieder and Igor Shesterkin there.

Wait, am I forgetting anyone?

Oh, right, that guy.

He'll help make it real, too. Because if there's one thing to respect about Jacob Trouba, it's that he's an equal-opportunity cheap-shot artist, and he'll head-hunt over the holidays as routinely as he does in April and May.

The Penguins are 18-9-4 for 40 points, the Rangers 18-10-5 for 41 points, New York having logged two additional games. Both teams have plus-19 goal differentials, and both teams have had seven-game winning streaks in December, the Penguins' having ended Sunday in Raleigh, N.C., and the Rangers' still chugging.

Enjoy it, Pittsburgh. Enjoy it the way Ron Francis did in ripping that puck through Mike Richter from center red. Enjoy it the way Larry Murphy did in picking Mark Messier's pocket in overtime. Enjoy it the way Mario Lemieux did with his wrist in a cast after Adam Graves the mercenary had chopped it on Roger Neilsen's orders.

This is part of what makes sports awesome and our civic personality everything that it's become.

• It'll be these two in the playoffs again, too. Bank on it.

Whatever weirdness has been happening in Newark, it's winding down, with the first-place Devils now losing five in a row. They'll fall, and they'll fall hard. That'll leave the Hurricanes, in all likelihood, to finish atop the Metro, and the Penguins and Rangers leapfrogging all winter between second and third.

Buckle up.

• Anyone still skeptical of Jarry?

If so, it's at least semi-fair to see this as a preemptive test for how he'll handle playoffs, although I'd find it far more fair to include the Game 7 that he played on a broken foot, one that would've required him to sit out most of the next round if the Penguins had advanced. That was special unto itself, watching him barely be able to walk into the press room afterward.

• Simultaneously most impressive and ominous about the Penguins' start as a whole is that the only three opponents I can recall legit looking like too much to handle on a given night have been the Maple Leafs, Canadiens and, of course, the Hurricanes. And the reason I suggest it's ominous is that all three are very much in the all-skate, high-skill mode that tends to pull the Penguins from the template they need to succeed. Whereas, they'll grit and grind it out with the Jets, Stars, Bruins, etc.

See what I mean?

It's not quite a red flag, but taking bland, boring care of business against Carolina here Thursday could go a long way toward quelling it.

• Young or old, we could all live to 100 and never again see something that stupid in organized sports at any level.

And that's mostly because Marcus Allen, who could've/should've already been a fry cook by now, is precisely that stupid. It's not a moment that he had. It's not anything more or less than what it'd appeared to be. He's just operating with a lot less under that helmet than most folks are, and he displays that on a regular basis in full view of his teammates and anyone else in that locker room. Or any sideline, if anyone recalls that Allen was the focus of Arthur Maulet's ire for whooping it up while the Steelers were being blown out by the Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y.

Not a soul would've missed him.

Mike Tomlin did let him have it right after that play, and I'm told he heard a ton more once the game ended, including from teammates. No one stood within 100 miles of his stall while I was in there.

Was that enough?

Nope, probably not. But there's an element to coaching football that ... um, how should I word this? .,, kinda helps if some people in some roles don't have all their marbles. And special teams can make for quite the magnet in that regard, though it'd be rude of me to spell out this long list of examples.

• Generally speaking, this still being a talking point on Tuesday -- and I'm obviously not an exception -- is lousy. I thought the Steelers were terrific Sunday in Charlotte, N.C., and I can attest that the percentage of that roster in that locker room that was fixated on Allen was exactly zero. They had every right to feel good about themselves.

• OK, not the secondary.

If I'm setting the stage for the NFL Draft, I'm still locked down on left tackle for the first round. But that's months away, and the Steelers still have three games to show that the current crew can keep tightening it up, even as the cornerbacks still have three games to keep getting scorched by the likes of Sam Darnold.

Thing is, who in the name of Artie Burns would trust these guys to take a first-round corner?

• I'm not sold on the left side of the line, or I wouldn't still be leaning toward left tackle. But let's dispense once and for all with the notion that Mason Cole was signed as a stopgap center. He's been the team's steadiest big man, and he's blossomed into a willing, enthusiastic leader for the group. Neither of which could've been anticipated by anyone.

Also, he's really funny, which always feels worth a parenthetical mention.

• Not nearly enough George Pickens. Or DeMarvin Leal. Or Isaiahh Loudermilk. Or Mark Robinson.

It'd behoove Tomlin to not get carried away with results vs. development, to say the least. These victories mean less than nothing if they're not being delivered by the younger players. No one needs to see more of what Devin Bush can do, for example.

• The Pirates' offseason to date has been a near-carbon copy of the one that led into 2022, and that's not really even an opinion. For every one of Ben Cherington's signings to date this offseason, there's a corresponding name -- and low salary -- that can sit parallel to it from the previous one. In some cases, it's to the penny, such as defensive catcher Austin Hedges arriving for the exact same $5 million that lured Roberto Perez. Heck, they both even came by way of Cleveland.

The only real outlier might be Carlos Santana, the one-year, $6.7 million first baseman, but no 37-year-old could singularly represent some fresh level of commitment from any management team, let alone this one.

Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do.

This ain't it.

And that's to say nothing of having set the stage for their best player to request his exit.

• Yes please to this all day long:

Remember the quality conversation I had with Andrew McCutchen up in Milwaukee this past April?

He tried oh, so hard to downplay the Pirates having contacted him last winter, only to disappear after the initial outreach. But I've known the man since he was literally half his current age, and I know of the pride that rages -- still -- in him, and he wasn't about to concede any disappointment in that scenario. And at the same time, it was so easy to detect the love he and his wife Maria feel for the city, the franchise, and how much he'd embrace a return.

So when he liked that tweet yesterday of a New York-based podcast advocating for that return ... right.

We'll see. He's 36 years old, he's fresh off a career-low .700 OPS with the Brewers despite being in a hitter's ballpark, and he's having trouble catching up to righties. But he also totaled 17 home runs, 69 RBIs and endless respect in the Milwaukee clubhouse for his approach to the game.

Also ... you know, he's Cutch. And these guys are going to blow this thing with Bryan Reynolds. So why not, in addition to receiving peak value for Reynolds, bring back the iconic player who'd been sent out for Cutch?

Nah, never mind.

• Thanks to everyone for reading. I'll be at the game tonight to write another column, and I'll be at the HQ/shop Downtown all afternoon before that. Stop and say hello, dammit.