Jolts of Positivity Have Come Over Penguins Fans, Sparked by...Kyle Dubas' Grandma??

If you're reading this, you're probably in some way connected to Pittsburgh sports fandom - and it would make a lot of sense that you're a fan of the Penguins. If not, perhaps you're lost, but we happily welcome you anyway! Grab an IC Light and stay a while!

Anyway, people familiar with Pittsburgh sports fandoms will know that the default setting is often, well, pessimism. That pessimism has only increased as the Penguins have dropped to the bottom of the NHL in recent years.

One Penguins fan on Twitter/X @OTCellyy has a solid following on the platform, and each day the Penguins played, he would post the following in some respect:

Much of this season, that's about exactly how all of us have felt. "Here we go again" type-beat.

This post was before the Penguins' 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. It also happened to be the day of the NHL trade deadline when the Penguins were extremely active in the market.

The top comment on this post came from an unsuspecting figure.

At first glance, one sees a stern, overly positive Penguins fan. But then after you do a double-take, you realize...that's Kyle Dubas' grandma.

Her simple, yet widely loved response was met with a great amount of encouragement from fellow Penguins fans in the comment section. Wait. Encouragement? In the year of our Lord, 2025?

How radical.

These are just a few of my favorite responses in the thread, but there are tons more happy comments, comments that are not standard issue amongst Pittsburgh fans.

A Lesson To Be Had

In observing this, I think a lesson we all can learn is that in the fantasy world of professional sports, there are people just like you and me on the other side.

We don't interact with these people face-to-face, nor are they even aware of our existence. Sports are entertainment of course. They're akin to movies, just in a live setting.

The difference between the movies and sports, though, is that the people on the other side of a hockey game are real people with real lives, real struggles, and real grandmas.

Iron Man and Luke Skywalker do not have a real life grandma, but Kyle Dubas does.

It's easy to forget that the people in the sports realm are people just like you and me. We see them as people to be put on a pedestal, but in reality, they're all clocking into work every day just like us. They simply have a larger platform upon which they operate.

The point is that it's not just Kyle Dubas who has a grandma rooting and cheering for him to do well in his endeavors. All of these players have families, some wives, some children, and likely some grandparents who do support them to the ends of the earth.

Here's the latest gameday tweet from OTCellyy.

And would you look at what happened. The Penguins beat the Minnesota Wild 3-1 and Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin combined on the goals against their good friend Marc-Andre Fleury.

The proceedings that followed were incredibly positive. Isn't it something when you show a little positivity for once.

I think we can all glean from this and remind ourselves that we have a lot to be thankful for. The ability to still be able to watch 87 and 71 in black and gold 20 years into their playing career is something that other fanbases simply do not get to experience.

Penguins fans do, and for that, maybe it's worth putting away the doom and gloom. Maybe it's time to start having a positive outlook on the way we approach our sports teams.

We all want to make our grandma's proud, right?

Well, for the guys on the ice that still have the blessing of playing for grandma and the man making all the hockey decisions, let's start viewing them through the lens that everything they do is trying to make grandma proud.

Thanks, Grandma Dubas. Here's to a positive Penguins fandom.

If you'd like to join in the positive Penguins fandom with us, follow us on Twitter/X @PensLabyrinthFS and give us your takes on Penguins news, games, and anything else that's on your mind!