— Rumblings, Musings, Opinions —

Troubling Math: The Penguins with 29 games to go remain seventh in the division and have a .529 points percentage entering Wednesday. Tuesday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the New York Islanders was another classic game why it was hard weeks ago to buy into the games in hand being a reason to still believe the team warranted buying stock into at the deadline. For such a veteran team the lack of situational awareness has been something to watch.

Mike Sullivan after being very critical of his club Sunday night, called the Penguins third period rally vs the New York Islanders an ‘inspiring effort:

“A couple of goals were fluky, and I just thought our guys kept competing. So, from that standpoint, I thought there was a lot of like about our team game tonight. I thought out guys had an inspired effort,”

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Penguins to sell message on the future today?: A newsworthy day is upon us with Kyle Dubas scheduled to speak at 2:00 p.m. for pre-deadline media session. Talk in the organization over the last couple days has centered around ownership’s inner circle To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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Rumblings: One league-view of the Penguins and Dubas is they have one thing in their corner in building a plan; There’s extreme confidence Sidney Crosby who is eligible for an extension this summer does not have a wondering eye of going the Tom Brady route and chasing a title elsewhere. In fact the view of Crosby in league circles is the ownership change actually enhanced him finishing his career in Pittsburgh. The Sidney Crosby camp is said to see amazing post-career opportunities through the FSG ownership network that interests Crosby. Chairman Tom Werner To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

–Buzz around the league is there’s certainly more teams in the Pay Jake Guentzel the seven to eight year term camp and [hide] you could easily trade him in three to four years with the rising cap than teams believing his camp is overvaluing what his market is going to be in the summer. Clubs feel To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

–Kyle Dubas loves to take chances on skill, so few were stunned to see the Penguins claim smallish winger Matthew Phillips last week. 1 Goal in 32 career NHL games, though, is a bad sign and it says more of the player when a team like the Capitals that’s planning to embrace young players over the final two months was willing to move on from Phillips ………As Mike Sullivan is getting crushed for his overtime personnel, Indications are Sidney Crosby was gassed to end regulation vs the Islanders and is why he did not start overtime……….

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The Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh Steelers logodid not interview many candidates but the opinions they got back from candidates on their quarterback situation is said to have been a wake-up call to owner Art Rooney II that’s has swayed Rooney’s view to at least be open to upgrading the QB position…………Don’t buy the Messaging the Steelers put out last week via the Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac that the team is not interested in adding a starting caliber quarterback to compete with Kenny Pickett……….There’s certainly smoke Russell Wilson not Ryan Tannehill is Arthur Smith’s top choice To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”! About the Pittsburgh Pirates under Bob Nutting. You can’t fault Nutting as being anything but a great businessman. The Athletic has a great piece on why the Pirates are who they are under Nutting in being some comfortable with losing………

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