June arrives this week, and an NHL season that started with September training camps is still at least four games away from ending.
To say it's a grind would be inadequate.
This has become an endurance contest, as it often does. If Pittsburgh wins, this won't be the best Penguins team to lift the Stanley Cup. It might be the most resilient, though.
The Penguins were banged up when the playoffs started in April. They've collected more bumps and bruises through tough series against Columbus and Washington, and got stretched to double overtime in Game 7 against Ottawa. It's been exhausting.
The path to the Cup is ridiculously long, but as long as people are willing to pay for four rounds of best-of-seven series, that's the way it's going to be. The team that wins the Cup wins 16 games. That's the number of games the Penguins won over an entire season in 1983-84, which put them in position to draft Mario Lemieux.
Win or lose, when this series is over, the teams will integrate some significant recovery time into a very short offseason. No doubt some players will also be heading to operating rooms to get those mysterious upper and lower body injuries repaired.
So when it ends, who gets the Cup? It says here the Penguins in six, but who knows?
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--LIGHTS, CAMERA....
The NFL did an abrupt about-face and said it's now OK for players to elaborately celebrate touchdowns.
Of course, the celebrations have to be "spontaneous," even though a lot of them are being planned now.
Given his lust for attention and sizable disposable income, Antonio Brown may hire a choreographer. The pressure is on now that self-expression is back in the game. Outlandish post-TD routines are not restricted to those who can afford to pay the fines. You rookies get in on this, too.
No longer will a middle-aged official be forced to stand by and determine if the fun meter has gone off the charts. There are probably some players contacting Zambelli Internationale now to see if they can shoot fireworks out of their heels as they turn a cartwheel while humming their favorite rap.
So let this version of dancing with the stars begin again. Just waiting for the moment when multiple hamstrings pop as someone's offensive line imitates the Radio City Rockettes.
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--DROPPING DOWN
Andrew McCutchen took his considerable baggage to the No. 6 spot in the batting order. Not a moment too soon, either.
McCutchen is in his second season of utter confusion at the plate. There are some good days, but not enough of them. He embraced vacating the No. 3 spot, probably because even he couldn't justify occupying that position.
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--PARTY PATIO
Nobody will ever say it out loud, but a lot of people at the Penguins wish the outdoor big screen tradition would go away.
It makes a mess, it represents a security issue in these troubled times and it's never a good idea to have a couple thousand potentially angry people milling around outside a venue.
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--PARENTS DAY
After completely overdoing Mother's Day, Root Sports proved to be an equal opportunity obsessor by overdoing the Pirates' annual fathers trip.
Hey, a Pirate got a hit? Look, his dad is happy about that!
Who could have known?
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--SPLASHDOWN
Funny to see Penguins fans outraged that Sidney Crosby was squirted with a water bottle from the Ottawa bench.
If one of the Penguins had sprayed Alex Ovechkin in a similar way, it would be celebrated as clever gamesmanship and replayed for years on the scoreboard video screen.
Darius Kasparaitis was a dangerous cheap shot artist when he played for the Islanders. When he came to Pittsburgh, he became an aggressive physical player.
His game didn't change. His uniform did.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
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