Penguins coach Mike Sullivan called his goaltender choice for Game 4 an incredibly difficult decision.
Was it really?
Sullivan believes in Matt Murray. He stuck with him in the playoffs last season long after Marc-Andre Fleury was available. He installed him as the No. 1 goalie this season.
After Sullivan saw Murray work rust-free in relief during Game 3, his decision was probably made. He was going back to Murray.
Fleury has done exemplary work through much of this postseason. If this is his farewell to the Penguins, he'll exit in style. But Murray is the future, and the future is now.
Sullivan coached Murray in the minor leagues and developed belief in him then. It's translated to the NHL. Murray is No. 1 in Sullivan's mind.
That doesn't mean Sullivan doesn't appreciate what Fleury has done. It's a pretty good situation to have two goalies who know the feeling of having the last seconds tick off in a Stanley Cup-clinching game.
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--PLAYING TIME
Some people get upset that Clint Hurdle's lineup seems to be a daily decision. The Pirates are working around significant absences (Jung Ho Kang, Starling Marte and now Gregory Polanco) so that's part of it.
Another part is it's a myth that old-time managers played the same eight players every day.
The Pirates won the World Series in 1971 with as solid an outfield as a team could have -- Willie Stargell, Al Oliver and Roberto Clemente. Those are two Hall of Famers, and the guy playing between them had 2,743 career hits.
Yet Danny Murtaugh, who was a pretty smart manager, still found 312 plate appearances for Vic Davalillo and another 300 for Gene Clines.
There weren't many talk shows then, so there were fewer complaints.
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--PUTTS OVER PUCKS
A lot of Penguins fans were upset when the start of a playoff game was delayed so NBC could conclude its coverage of The Players golf tournament.
That was an easy call for NBC.
Golf brings in more revenue than hockey, so golf gets priority.
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--FLEETING FAME
This is likely Andrew McCutchen's last season with the Pirates.
Occasionally there are mentions that McCutchen was the face of the franchise a few years ago. Or considering the status that seems to represent, make it The Face of The Franchise.
So what? Jason Kendall was once the face of the franchise. He couldn't wait to get out of Pittsburgh, and Pirates fans couldn't wait for him to leave.
Sports is a what-have-you-done-for-me-in-the-last-two-weeks world.
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--WRONG ANSWER
John Jaso has been the target of much criticism from Pirates fans, which is what often happens to players hitting below .200.
He made things worse when a reporter from 93.7 The Fan asked him how he would respond to his critics.
"Go face (Stephen) Strasburg one time and see if they could even get a piece of it," Jaso said. "They're fans. Fans get bad attitudes about it. I'd also like to ask them how far their baseball careers made it, if they even made it past the JV high school baseball team."
Another swing and a miss.
If a plumber came to Jaso's house and did a lousy job, would Jaso be OK with the plumber challenging him to do better?
Fans can be irrational, and often are. But they pay for tickets and want to see something in return for that investment.
The issue isn't whether they could hit a 95-mile per hour fastball, it's whether they're getting value for the money they spend to watch professionals try to do it.
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--ALWATS GRUMPY
If you've been watching the hockey coverage on the NBC networks, you know one thing for certain:
Mike Milbury has been in a bad mood since about 1989.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
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