Mark Madden Columns category, Page 34

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ draft did a lot to fix their offense, specifically their running game. But is their defense broken? The Steelers’ playmaking defense has been the team’s cornerstone the last two seasons. It was third- and second-best in yards allowed per play in 2020 (4.9) and 2019 (4.7). It...

One of the best things about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ excellent season is Twitter has had to absorb a sharp stick in the eye, or perhaps someplace a bit further south. When the Penguins obtained defenseman Mike Matheson, he was called the new Jack Johnson. When defenseman Cody Ceci signed, he...

I liked the Steelers’ first draft pick — until they made their second pick. After the Steelers made their third pick, I felt OK again. Picking Alabama’s Najee Harris at No. 24 made perfect sense. He was the best running back in the draft. Harris will make more immediate impact...

Thursday was a great day for hockey. (Sky point to Badger Bob Johnson.) The Philadelphia Flyers got eliminated from playoff contention and will not win the Stanley Cup for a 46th straight season. Please, God, let them (and me) make it to 50 years in 2025. Have you ever seen...

The NHL’s national TV situation has been overhauled. NBC is out. ESPN and Turner Broadcasting are in. Hockey is finally on multiple networks. Pinocchio, you’re a real boy now. NBC failed at hockey. Their in-studio presentation is dull and lifeless, devoid of personality and edge. Praise is thick, criticism nonexistent....

Before Evgeni Malkin got hurt, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ power play scored 15 times on 84 opportunities. That’s a conversion percentage of 17.8. With Malkin out, the power play is 16 for 50. That’s a percentage of 32.0. When Malkin rejoins the lineup, should he go back on the No. 1...

The NFL Draft begins Thursday. Good. It’s so tiresome to discuss. Get it over with. “Experts” pretend the draft is an exact science. But it’s a crapshoot. The Steelers have the 24th pick in the first round. If the Steelers want to help their team now, take a running back....

Here’s a popular talk-show question: When the Pittsburgh Penguins are 100% healthy, what would their lines be? Here’s a popular Penguins fan fantasy: that the team will ever be 100% healthy. That’s not the nature of hockey and certainly not the nature of the Penguins. Their defense was ravaged by...

Mike Tomlin was always going to get his contract extended. He can coach the Steelers for as long he wants. That’s how Dad ran things. Granddad, too. (Actually, Granddad had 13 coaches in the Steelers’ first 35 years, and they only made the playoffs once. But don’t spoil the narrative.)...

Edmonton’s Connor McDavid reached 70 points in 43 games. That’s fast but unsurprising in the limp competition of the North division, the NHL’s worst. It’s so weak that McDavid’s Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs will be hard-pressed to both underachieve in the playoffs. It’s not likely, but hardly impossible....

A whole slew of “experts” think the Pittsburgh Steelers should draft a quarterback. Turn on ESPN. Adam Schefter, Dan Graziano and Booger McFarland are hot for the Steelers to select a QB. Not necessarily in the first round, where the Steelers pick 24th. Maybe in the third or fourth round....

Pine-Richland High School fired Eric Kasperowicz after eight seasons as football coach. He won two state championships and four WPIAL titles, including one of each this past season. Kasperowicz was 85-18. He’s beloved by his players and known for his professionalism. Plenty of Kasperowicz’s players got football scholarships. Kasperowicz wasn’t...

Since New England receiver Julian Edelman quit and those in the sports media presumably whacked out of their minds on hallucinogens started making his case for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the argument posed by Yinzer Nation compares him to the Steelers’ Hines Ward. Ward’s stats badly trump Edelman’s...

At 36, Jeff Carter is still a good hockey player. Carter skates swiftly, which is indigenous to playing for Pittsburgh. He is not the finisher he was in his prime (four seasons of 30-plus goals) but is a proven scorer. He has a shoot-first mentality that will be useful. He...

You can cheat in baseball and get away with it. Not just stretch the rules or exploit gray areas. But blatantly cheat, win, and not get punished. The biggest example is the Houston Astros. They won a World Series in 2017 via sign-stealing. They got caught and confessed. Not one...

McDonald’s is doing a promotion with Evgeni Malkin: The “Geno Meal” consists of a Big Mac, french fries, milkshake and an orange soda. (Do elite athletes ever eat like that?) The “Geno Meal” is available for a limited time. Perhaps that’s an omen. When GM Ron Hextall and president of...

The Pittsburgh Penguins allowed eight goals Tuesday. Liverpool FC conceded three. Can’t anybody here play defense? Only one thing can restore my calm: refreshing sports notes! • The Penguins’ defense was terrible Saturday at Boston and Tuesday at the New York Rangers. But goalies Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry were...

Pitcher Jose Berrios of the Minnesota Twins had a no-hitter going Saturday: 6 innings, zero hits, zero walks, 12 strikeouts. (It wasn’t a perfect game. Berrios hit a batter.) Berrios was pulled by manager Rocco Baldelli. He had thrown 84 pitches. Every manager in MLB would do the same. That...

The Pirates season started well Thursday. Prize rookie Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a home run in the first inning. As Hayes rounded the bases, he was doubtless dreaming of escaping from Pittsburgh at the earliest possible opportunity. If he could have, Hayes would have crossed home plate, sprinted to the dugout,...

The NHL trade deadline is a little over a week away (it’s April 12), and it looks like it will be difficult for Penguins GM Ron Hextall to make an impactful deal. Hextall just doesn’t have much trade capital that might bring meaningful return. That’s unless Hextall shops left winger...

Ben Roethlisberger will be the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback in 2021, although it took longer than expected to iron that out. The offense will be exactly the same. Roethlisberger didn’t come back for one last season to implement new bells and whistles, line up under center, use jet sweep motion or...

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been missing their entire second line and two-thirds of their third line. Those filling in are of marginal quality, and that’s a kind description. Yet the Penguins had won four of five going into Monday’s home game with the New York Islanders, sported an 11-3-1 record...

Remember when a member of the Philadelphia hockey media said Sidney Crosby had passed the torch as hockey’s best player to the Flyers’ Claude Giroux? That was in 2012. In the interim, Crosby has 691 points to Giroux’s 596. Crosby has also won two Stanley Cups since — and two...

The Penguins are going to get bigger. GM Ron Hextall likes big. President of hockey operations Brian Burke likes big. The NHL has been trending big for several years. Where will that leave coach Mike Sullivan? Sullivan likes speed, as did former GM Jim Rutherford. Sullivan made his preference clear...

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ egocentric, me-first culture dates to Antonio Brown’s de facto takeover of the team and is carried on by the cast and crew of the “Corvette, Corvette” show. The cameraman on that project reportedly branched out into bar fighting. Does it affect results? I don’t know that it...