Big Lead Sports Bar

4/07/2010

TODAY'S HEADLINES


The Pittsburgh Penguins dropped to 0-4 on the season against the Washington Capitals with a 6-3 loss last night in the team's final regular season game at Mellon Arena. Jordan Leopold scored twice for the Pens and Sidney Crosby added his 48th goal of the year, but that's pretty much where the good news ended.

The bad news was plentiful, starting with the absence of Evgeni Malkin, who left the ice after a few minutes of warmups with an undisclosed illness. It was all downhill from there, as Alex Ovechkin scored twice, tying Crosby for the league lead in goals on an empty-netter with a second remaining in regulation. The Penguin defense and Marc-Andre Fleury both struggled mightily as the team lost their fifth in eight games and slipped into fourth place in the conference. [ESPN]

The Pittsburgh Steelers will be bringing five college players in for visits today, some which raise an eyebrow or two.

Oregon running back LaGarrette Blount, who punched a Boise State player and was suspended for most of the 2009 season, and Oklahama State WR Dez Bryant, who was suspended for lying to the NCAA, were among them. Yep, it looks like this team is valuing character more than ever. [PG]



Ziggy Hood will be appearing at an Altoona Curve game on Thursday to sign autographs for two hours. Hood will also throw out the night’s ceremonial first pitch and participate in a pre-game show interview simulcast on the video board. 

It should tell you how popular the Steelers are when they're being used as promotions for minor league baseball games.  [AltoonaCurve.com] 

Hines Ward spoke out in support of Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes, telling KDKA, "I'm just there to support my teammates. I know they're probably going through some hard times and as being one of the leaders on the team, just trying to go out and have their back and show my support." [KDKA.com]

The Pittsburgh Pirates aim for a 2-0 start at 7:05 tonight against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ross Ohlendorf takes the hill against Clayton Kershaw at PNC Park.  Garrett Jones will try to continue his 324 home run pace for the Bucs. [PittsburghPirates.com]

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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Again - will somebody please ask the Steelers why they refuse to scout non-BCS players? One of the top cornerbacks & kick returners in the draft is right up the road at IUP and there's a big nothing from the Steelers toward him. The kid ran a freakin' 4.34 at the combine! He has already had private workouts with a half dozen teams.

One of the top quarterbacks is at Edinboro of all places. An hour and a half drive up I-79. Come on.

I'm starting to believe that the Steelers have been taken over by Dave Littlefield & Kevin McClatchey. Do they even know what they are doing anymore?

BurressWithButterflywings said...

Oh clearly you are right, the Steelers are terrible judges of talent, ability, and potential. They are certainly worthy of a comparison to the Pirates for it, too. I mean, they must not know what they are looking at, what with winning 2 SB's in the last 5 years and posting a .500 or better record for the last 6 years and 9 of the last 10.

Clearly they are clueless talent evaluators and on the same level as Littlefield.

I mean, look at the players on the team that we have drafted in the last 10 years:

Polamalu- bum, Big Ben- bum, Holmes- terrible, Miller- awful, Woodley- bust..............

Should I keep going?

I know not every pick we have made has been a great one, but if you are going to compare them to Dave Littlefield, I question whether you are serious or just looking to start a debate.

HomeRunFromBehindTheMeatballs said...

Sometimes team avoid showing interest in players to drive their value down and throw other teams off the scent of their plans.

Maybe the steelers have already had someone watching that kid from IUP play every week of his career? It would be awesome to see an IUP kid get into the league, & it would be even neater if he ended up with the stillers (esp since he's at a position of need). However, Kevin Colbert is an EXCELLENT talent evaluator and far be it from me to doubt him.

Unknown said...

The Steelers have recruited and signed non-D1 players. Remember Ricardo Colclough? Didn't quite live up to the potential of a 2nd round pick....

Anonymous said...

Nate Washington was a D2 player as well from Tiffin.

okel dokel said...

My understanding is the Steelers are aware of both players and have frequently signed PSAC plays as free agents. Remember John Kuhn from Shippensburg who now plays for Green Bay.

Also, the Steelers rarely draft the players they bring in for a visit. It is all part of the NFL head games.

Anonymous said...

Of the 5 guys they brought in for visits, 2 are non-BCS.

The guy from IUP ran a 4.47 at the combine, which was still good but not amazing.

The "top" quarterback from Edinboro wasn't even invited to the combine. While that doesn't mean he won't get drafted, its not a good sign.

Like HomeRun said, sometimes teams don't visit so no one knows they're interested. Since Okwusu-Ansah participated in Ohio State's Pro Day, I'm sure the Steelers got a look at him there.

AJ said...

D-2 players don't get invited to evaluations. It's my understanding that NFL teams are only allotted so many interviews prior to the draft and they use those for potential first day draft picks.

There probably isn't a single D2 player in the country that is considered a first or second round pick. Most of them will be available as unsigned free agents.

Anonymous said...

Okwusu-Ansah is pretty widely considered a potential 2nd rounder. But the private workouts aren't that big of a deal. According to Daniel Jeremiah, they are usually just used when a team was interested in a player but was unable to make it to his pro day. D-2 players do get invited to evaluations though.

Scott Zigarovich said...

Obviously the Steelers are clueless when it comes to talent evaluation. Here are some Non-BCS players they should have drafted. Oh wait.........they did draft these guys.

BEN ROETHLISBERGER
"Mean" Joe Greene
Terry Bradshaw
Jack Lambert
John Stallworth
Mel Blount
LC Greenwood
Troy Edwards
Chris Kemoeatu
Ricardo colclough
Ike Taylor
Brett Keisel
Clark Haggans
Joey Porter
Aaron Smith
Jamain Stephens
Earl Holmes
Carlos Emmons
Walter "Bubby" Brister
Louis Lipps

Unknown said...

fightingscot....you've been schooled by regular scott!

Louis Lipps is my homeboy said...

Now that we have that out of the way, I nearly stabbed my couch with a kitchen knife when Ovechkin got the empty netter.

It was bad enough to lose, but to let that a-hole get an easy empty netter (which you know the whole team was trying to help him get) with 5 seconds to tie Sid for the league lead was just a huge nut kick.

Louis Lipps is my homeboy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scott Zigarovich said...

I'm not trying to show anybody up, i'm just trying to point out that the steelers draft who they think will help the team the most. The good news is they are right most of the time.

BurressWithButterflywings said...

@Loooooou, right on!

I was actually accusing Gonch of letting his countryman tie his teammate because I was so angry after that play. Although, Gonch did kind of just stand there with a dumb look on his face and let him have the puck. Let's start the conspiracy early: Gonch takes paycut in offseason to join Russian brethern and head back to DC!

Speaking of conspiracies, thank god the NHL and Bettman love us. I mean, clearly that is why we got no goal on an inexplicably early whistle last night..... Wonder if things would have been different if Leo's 2nd goal ties the game instead of cutting the lead to 1? Probably not to be honest.....