This afternoon the Penguins will head to Sunrise to take on the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to start a three game road trip.
The Penguins and Panthers have split the season series with both games going beyond regulation. The problem is nobody knows what to root for, and the current state of the team has fans profoundly confused on a desired direction.
Just a few weeks ago, Penguins fans had been talking about a top draft pick. Now, the conversation has shifted to smatterings of playoff hopes that are dwindling ever rapidly with the Penguins six points out of the Wild Card and Montreal staying hot.
This puts Pittsburgh in the worst place you can be as a sports franchise: purgatory.
The Pittsburgh Endemic
I understand that some of you reading this might not have a full Pittsburgh fandom, but the likelihood is that you do. Pirates, Steelers, Penguins is the rooting interest. Of course, why would you want to root for a team that doesn't wear black and gold?
The problem with Pittsburgh sports right now is painful levels of mediocrity spanned across the three major professional franchises, even expanding into the college basketball realm with Pitt having an incredibly frustrating year.
Compare the three major teams for a moment with me.
The Penguins have Sidney Crosby. The Steelers have TJ Watt. The Pirates have Paul Skenes.
Those are three generational, marquee, franchise cornerstones that other teams would do heinous things to have. And yet, what success have any of these franchises enjoyed recently?
The Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2017, but haven't won a playoff round since the first round of 2018. Those stupid Islanders and Rangers made that happen.
The Steelers, despite having the highest paid defense in the NFL, have not won a playoff game since 2016. Their fallout offensively since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement has proven hard to overcome.
The Pirates (gosh, don't get me started on them) haven't even had a winning record since 2018, haven't made the playoffs since 2015, and haven't won a playoff game since 2013.
There you have it: the three-headed monster of Pittsburgh Sports Purgatory.
How does one escape this purgatory?
One word: decisiveness.
What does that mean? The dictionary defines "decisive" as "settling an issue; producing a definite result".
You want to know the problem with Pittsburgh sports? There's no decisiveness. Decisions made by all three organizations in the last handful of years have promoted no definite direction.
Kyle Dubas tried to undo the horrors of *cough* Ron Hextall *cough* in one offseason. Unfortunately, the root of the Penguins' problems went further than a simple offseason fix. As we've seen for two seasons now, Dubas is trying everything he can to tinker with assets at his disposal.
Perhaps not trading Rickard Rakell was a mistake, as doing so would have been a very decisive move. Still, keeping the caliber of player like Rakell on the roster with term is valuable. It's just that the extracurricular moves to create an actual roster have to poke through sooner than later.
The Penguins sold off assets and received a lot back, but the Penguins are working against the hourglass to improve the organization's direction before Sidney Crosby has to hang up the skates. Although, he is just outside the top 10 in the NHL in scoring, so he might have another decade in him.
The Steelers refuse to change anything. Mike Tomlin's job security is more set than Cam Heyward's loyalty to the black and gold, Art Rooney II is complacency incarnate, and the team has had a revolving door of quarterbacks for three years.
Going 10-7 every season doesn't promote decisiveness. You get bounced in the first round of the playoffs every year and miss out on the upper echelon of draft talent in the coming year. With how thin the NHL draft is this season, the Penguins find themselves in this position even now.
The Pirates have the most promising pitching staff in the MLB and perhaps the greatest pitcher since Bolduke Hungerpuff with the 1876 Chicago Orphans. The team is real, but the name is not. That's written intentionally because Paul Skenes has a chance to be one of one.
Their pitfall is that ownership has done nothing to build around this generational superstar, and he'll be a Yankee or a Dodger in just a few years' time.
Even when the Pirates were good back in the mid-2010's, their refusal to spend money in the offseason led to a franchise destined for mediocrity for years to come.
I made a deal with my dad several years ago saying that the next time the Pirates have a home playoff game, our attendance is mandatory regardless of where we are in the world. We don't know if they'll ever be back, nor even if we'll both be alive when it happens.
Realistically, you could make a deal like this with any of the Pittsburgh sports franchises. Success is but a figment of imagination as we stand here today.
Pick a direction
My charge for the Penguins in these final games is simple: pick who you want to be.
Do you want to be the 2019 St. Louis Blues who came back from being the worst in the league to win the Stanley Cup? Or do you want to actually have a shot at a legitimate top draft prospect.
I don't care what they pick, as long as they pick one or the other. The time might already be passed for the first option. Maybe don't lose to the Islanders like you did and this conversation could have a much more defined direction.
Purgatory is the worst place to be as a sports franchise. Unfortunately, every single team in Pittsburgh has succumbed to such a fate in the year of our Lord, 2025.