STEELERS' NEWS

Steelers sign Ramon Foster to a one-year deal. The RFA was give a contract for $1.26 MM. and will then be an UFA next year if the Steelers don't extend his contrct. Foster was an undrafted free agent out of Tennessee. He's been reliable, starting 26 games in three season including 22 of of the least 24. The Steelers are expected to retain their remaining five restricted free agents — Doug Legursky, Keenan Lewis, David Johnson, Ryan Mundy and Mike Wallace.

SPEAKING OF WALLACE: Now that the 49ers have added Mario Manningham and Randy Moss, the Patriots have added Brandon Lloyd, Donte Stallworth and Anthony Gonzalez, and both teams now appear set to stick with the receivers they have and interest in Wallace is apparently drying up. One thing this shows is how much NFL teams value their first-round draft picks. Wallace is a tremendous receiver, one of the best deep threats in the league, but even his talent isn’t enough to make many teams interested in shipping a first-round pick to the Steelers as compensation, which is what it would take to sign Wallace away. It also may show that Wallace is asking for more than he’s worth, taking about makingmore than the likes of Larry Fitzgerald. Not likely.

It also appears the Steelers are locked in on Alabama's LB Dont'a Hightwoer for their first round pick. At 6'4" and 260 pounds he'd make a great ILB. How about him and James Harrison on the same side of the defense? Or even him and Woodley? Oy!

And for some reason the Steelers apparently do not want Daniel Sepulveda back. Could it be three injuries to the same knee in three years? Probably. If Sepulveda doesn't return that will make a total of five verterans the Steelers have parted ways with thus far: Ward, Farrior, Smith, Keomeatu and Sepulveda.

PENGUINS CLINCH FOURTH PLAYOFF SPOT

With the help of Marc-Andre Fleury winning his 226th game as a Penguin, tieing Tom Barrasso's team career record, the Penguins defeated the Rangers and relegated the Flyers to fifth place, clinching home ice advantage for the first round matchup with those same Flyers. 

Barrasso played for the Penguins from 1988-March 2000 and was 34 when he won his 226th and last game with the Penguins. Marc-Andre Fleury is only 27 and has a good shot at a 500-win career if he stays healthy.

The Penguins had a pretty easy time with the Rangers as the Pens were playing for home ice advantage in the first round and the Rangers had already clinched the number one seed. This also casts a little shadow over the Pens' win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday as Boston had the second seed locked up with really nothing to play for.

However, wins are wins and if the Pens can win Saturday against the Flyers they'll finish no more than three points behind the Rangers. This makes one think, "What if Sidney Crosby had played five more games? The Penguins would have won the conference. What if Jordan Staal had played five more games? The Pens would have won the conference. What if Kris Letang had played five more games? The Penguins would have won the conference. And, what if all three had played five more games? The Pens would have run away with the conference. But so goes it with injuries.

Pascal Dupuis extended the NHL season best scoring streak to 16 games. Now "Super Duper" must carry that on into the playoffs and take the place of past playoff standout Max Talbot.

Eygeni Malkin got his 49th goal and played a solid game defensively.

Tyler Kennedy scored again so let's hope he keeps going.

Unfortunately, another big "noise" in the NHL has come out bashing the Penguins and their "two stars" as "bleeping whiners." Brooks Orpik put a knee-on-knee hit on the Rangers' Derek Stepan. After the game, John Tortorella got exorcised over the Penguins' apparent favoritism in the eyes of the league and their "two whining stars." In Pittsburgh we think the Pens don't get enough respect from NHL league officials. So the truth is probably somewhere down the middle.

Let's hope we can keep the team healthy through the Flyers game Saturday.

DAN AND DAN UNCUT

DAN AND DAN UNCUT - From the Penguins Web Site

Getting real fucking tired of not knowing which goddam channel the Penguins are going to be on. So a-searching we will go and then they wind up on a channel where we don't even get the Penguins' broadcast. I pay DirecTV some exorbitant amount of money to get the Penguin's broadcast then they fuck it up by switching channels at the last minute. I'm sure others are tired of seeing the Penguins on Versus, NBC, The NHL Channel, etc. and so I am. Maybe when they suck again we'll once again know every time where to find their broadcast.

THIS AND THAT IN THE NFL

SAINTS WILL LOSE SUSPENSION APPEAL

The graphic audio of Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams urging his players to injure San Francisco players will sink Sean Payton's suspension appeal.

WILLIAMS URGES PLAYERS TO INJURE 49ERS

And I still want to know why Payton is permitted to choose his successor? Why isn't that covered under the suspension decree? Seems idiotic. If Payton is out whoever is left (GM and owner) should be required to make the choice.

It's time for Goodell to sack up or pack up.

PENGUIN'S FINAL REGULAR SEASON GAMES

Many things to ponder going into the final two games of the regular season.

1. Will Mark-Andre Fleury bounce back? Who's to say? Goaltenders are flaky anyway so who knows what makes them tick?

2. What the hell was James Neal doing throwing fists in the third-to-the-last game of the season. What a time to lose a 40-goal scorer. He probably will miss the final two games and the Penguins HAVE to win at least one to finish 4th. BUT it may come to pass that if the Penguins defeat the Flyers Saturday they can knock the Flyers into 6th place and play the Devils instead in the first round. I would be nice to have him around to nail that one down.

3. Will the defense start playing the way they did about two months ago? The combinations are different now and do't appear to have gelled. Going into the playoffs without your defense "gelled" is not they way you want to have it.

4. Will the Penguins stop the idiotic trend to pass themselves out of scoring chances. This all started, as I suspected it would, when Crosby returned. Now, instead of scoring, it appears everyone wants to be on the "best" assist highlight reel. Many times they're not even best, they're just weirdly inappropriate. It has lead to beaucoups of turnovers and must stop NOW.

5. Will Malkin get 50 goals? I say yes AND the MVP.

6. Will Tyler Kennedy start scoring again? T'would be nice.

7. Can Pascal Dupuis carry his momentum into the playoffs and take Max Talbot's place scoring key goals in the playoffs?

FROM THE STEELER'S WEB SITE

ITEM: Pollard says NFL becoming flag football

Ravens safety Bernard Pollard believes the emphasis on player safety being championed by Commissioner Roger Goodell will turn professional football into flag football.

During an appearance on KILT, Pollard was asked what he thinks Goodell’s ultimate goal is. Pollard answered, “From what I see, we’re gonna be running around with helmets and flags on in about seven years.” Pollard also said Goodell went way too far in his punishments for the Saints’ bounty program, and that he Goodell is fundamentally changing the game.

“It’s getting out of hand,” Pollard said. “This is not powder-puff football, this is not flag football. This is a violent sport. And it’s a fun sport — we all love playing this game. And we’re blessed by God to even go out there and display our talent to the world, but at the same time you can’t sit there and say, ‘We want guts, we want glory, we want heart.’ You can’t give a player heart but at the end of the day you tell him, ‘Well, hold on but be careful when you go to make that hit.’ We wear helmets and shoulder pads. That means you’re supposed to go knock somebody around. We ain’t wearing flags.”

ACTUALLY it will turn into the NBA. No defense. Just going up and down the field scoring.

ITEM: Flacco thinks he’s “the best” QB in football

During a recent appearance on WNST in Baltimore, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco took a page from the Eli Manning playbook.

“I assume everybody thinks they’re a top-five quarterback,” Flacco said in the interview. “I mean, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’m top five, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’d be very successful at my job if I didn’t feel that way. I mean, C’mon? That’s not really too tough of a question. But that doesn’t mean that things are gonna work out that way. It just means that that’s the way it is, that’s the way I feel it is, and that’s the way I feel it should be.”

Flacco’s proclamation comes almost one year after Manning made similar news when he characterized himself as an “elite” quarterback. Manning then led his team to a win in Super Bowl XLVI. In his four seasons as the Ravens’ starter, Flacco is 0-2 in AFC Championship Games, although Baltimore’s loss last season was more a result of Lee Evans’ dropping a pass in the end zone and then Billy Cundiff badly missing a game-tying 32-yard field goal.

Flacco also talked about the status of negotiations with the team for a contract extension.

“It either gets done or it doesn’t,” Flacco said of the negotiations. “And I’m not really too involved in the process besides letting him know how I feel and letting him take care of that and letting the Baltimore Ravens take care of their side. And that’s really my involvement. It’s not about the money, it’s about what you as a player feel that you deserve. And at the end of the day, they’ll take care of it, and I’ll be waiting.”

PERSONALLY, I think Flacco is all fluff and no stuff regardless of his record. The defense carries him most of the time.

SORRY I'M LATE ON THE FLYER THING

Looks like most of the good shit is gone since the Pens-Flyers game on Sunday. But just a few notes: 

Crosby cross-checked in the back by Schenn.

1. There's been a lot of loose talk about the Pens' putting their fourth line out after Brayden Schenn cross-checked Sidney Crosby IN THE BACK, no less, at the end of the Flyers win Sunday. I stated when Crosby came back the first time if there was any one team that was going to go after him it would be the Fucking Philly Flyers. Was I right? Damn straight. Talk about PUNKS, the Flyers are the team that are almost ALWAYS the instigators in any type of hockey mayhem. Then THEY complain because the Pens put out their fourth line in the closing minutes. Well tit-for-tat and Daniel Brierre gets his clocked cleaned CLEANLY by Joe Vitale. 

Aww, are they gonna cry now? The Flyers should feel lucky that Schenn left the Consol alive! One more thing like that against Crosby and all hell is gonna break loose, I don't care if it's on Saturday at Consol or in the playoffs if the two team meet. Further, what the hell was Brierre doing out there anyway in that situation?

2. The good news, the possibility may present itself in that final game that the Penguins could knock the Flyers into 6th place and play the Devils instead. I'd rather not play against Brodeur but I really don't want to play a series against the Philly Fucks. You may win but who knows how many people you're gonna lose because the officials will have no mercy, especially in Philadelphia. 

3. Mike Milbury: This guy has had a hard-on for the Penguins ever since Ulf Samuelssen took Cam (K)Neely out in Game 3 of the 1991 Conference Finals. He has never had any respect for players other than his own. I hate the pukey shit and everything that comes out of his pie hole. After the Flyer game he comes out, on Flyers' radio, calling Sydney Crosby a "punk” and Dan Bylsma "tasteless:"

"So you know, Crosby gets cross-checked [in the back], big whoop. He said after he came back from his 35th concussion, 'I'm not going to do this anymore, I'm not going to get into these scrums. I'm going to stay away from that stuff.' He couldn’t help himself because there’s a little punk in Crosby." 

How compassionate is that in our supposed concussion-conscious world, and from a guy who once went up into the stands and beat a guy with his own shoe. And really Mike, how much punk does that then relate to in, say, one Bobby Clarke? Regardless, PRINCIPALLY Crosby wasn't in a scrum. He appeared to almost everyone except Milbury, to be skating back to his bench. 

We all know that modern NHL goonism was invented by the Flyers of the 70s and carries on to today with them. Why the league doesn't come down on them I'll never know. In fact, they seem to promote it BECAUSE they don't do anything about it. A question: How did the Penguins go from apparent media golden boys two weeks ago to the second coming of Himmler just because of one incident with the goonish Flyers for crying out loud. 

Then Milbury comes out with probably the lamest apology ever, not even mentioning the names of the two individuals he slandered (Crosby and Bylsma):

"I reached out to (Pittsburgh president) David Morehouse and the Penguins about the comments I made yesterday on Philadelphia radio," Milbury said. "In hindsight, I realize what I said was inappropriate and wrong, and I want to apologize to the Penguins organization and their fans."

Granato v. La-LA Man: Almost as much fun as Brian Trottier against Jim "Go-Have-Another-Donught-You-Fat-Pig" Schoenfeld in the 1996 playoffs. [Can someone tell me from whence that reference comes?]

Trottier v. Schoenfeld

Schoenfeld Gets Tossed

Actually, I WANT the Pens to play the Flyers. But if they do, I want to see how many of their guys we can take out, win or lose. I wouldn't care.

THINGS ARE GETTING SERIOUS

Let's hope they at least won the fight. No, I did not watch it. Getting the updates from ESPN on my iPhone was bad enough. Summary:

1. Fleury stunk, AGAIN.

2. Defense stunk, AGAIN.

3. Getting outscored 6-2 after taking a two goal lead REALLY sucks.

4. Having to read Flyers bullshit on the Penguins' web site = fuck off.

Fleury was so bad there wasn't even a photo of him in the Penguins game gallery. His save percentage over the past five games is about .820 and he's given up 16 goals in his last three starts. Not gonna blame ALL of that on the defense.

The Pens have had two games in the last four where they had 47 and 54 shots and scored only 7 goals total. 

The Pens had 44 wins with 11 games remaining after losing to Philadelphia in OT, SEVEN at home. After 8 of those games they sit with 48 wins and have only outscored the opposition 36-35.

The bad news:

1. 5-4-1 in last ten games after a 10-game win streak.

2. Lost to Flyers twice in that period.

3. Goaltending has gone south. Good thing Johnson is back.

4. Talbot scored a goal and he ain't goin' away for the playoffs. In fact, I almost vomited when I heard he had signed with the Flyers. I didn't think he was that spiteful.

5. Staggering into the playoffs: Terrible.

That's about all I can muster. No more photos as I don't feel like even taking the time.