Kovacevic: Shazier's pain is Steelers' pain

Brief and to the Point ...

SEATTLE -- On the night the Steelers drafted Ryan Shazier, Mike Tomlin told those of us squeezed into the team's South Side media room that their new first-rounder's speed represented "rare air" for an inside linebacker.

Yeah, sounds about right.

Shazier shows innate splash when he plays, largely because of that speed, that chase-it-down pursuit. But he also shows, far too often, why his speed is rare for that position: Because it's the domain of much bigger men.

Not now, but after this season, the Steelers need to move him to safety.



I know, that's hardly an original thought. Heck, it was being openly broached while he was still at Ohio State, with scouts fearing he'd get hurt if he stayed at linebacker. But they were right and they couldn't look more right now, which is why the topic should be hotter than ever. If it isn't Shazier's foot or ankle or knee, it's his shoulder or neck or now this concussion that knocked him from the game here Sunday. It happens again and again and again, week after week.

It's as if he was born with a set of parentheses after his name.

I don't buy for a second the standard explanations that it's too late in his career to switch. Shazier is as bright and as driven as they come. Give him a full offseason to work with Carnell Lake, who played with a similar build and made the conversion from outside linebacker to safety in the NFL, then OTAs and minicamp and Latrobe and the preseason, and he'll be fine.

Or, just stick with a fading Will Allen, an afterthought Shamarko Thomas and a linebacker who gets broken all the time.

No risk in that, right?

• The only members of the Steelers' defense with no cause to hang their heads -- Lawrence Timmons and the entire defensive line -- were doing exactly that as much as anyone. They took it hard. And that tells you so much about them.

"We've got to be better," Steve McLendon said at one point to a disconsolate Cam Heyward at the next stall. "That's all there is to it. We've got to be better."

• Ben Roethlisberger was sacked twice and cheap-shotted once, but the offensive line overall again stood out as a strength. Alejandro Villanueva, the greatest worry, is eating people whole -- rookie tight end Jesse James should have gotten off a chip on the one sack charged against Villanueva -- and the rest have ranged from steady to spectacular. Ramon Foster got a monster push on DeAngelo Williams' 6-yard touchdown run.

• It's a good team with a bad secondary. I couldn't have been sure about the latter before, but I am now. Again.

• They're still making the playoffs.

• As inexplicable as the Penguins' treatment of Daniel Sprong has been this season -- Jim Rutherford and Mike Johnston need to hash this out -- I'm totally behind the Penguins keeping Derrick Pouliot in Wilkes-Barre.

This kid has shown to be completely clueless when it comes to grasping that defense isn't optional at the NHL level. I don't care how many points he puts up or how putzy Kris Letang looks on the power play. Until that changes to a convincing extent, he can't come back.

• Sergei Plotnikov has shown traces of improvement, notably in his movement and passing. Next step will be getting off shots within a half-hour or so of receiving the puck.

• Subbing out your goaltender for a shootout if the other guy is significantly better at that?

Sure, but only in Columbus.

They just can't go from a folding chair into the game ice cold. It's risking injury, especially given the dramatic splits often required on slow-motion breakaways. Not even Marc-Andre Fleury could.

But the Blue Jackets could, and I'll bet they do it at some point. That's because they were the only one of the NHL's 30 teams to build a separate practice rink into their main arena, a bright idea for a bunch of reasons. Thus, the non-starting goaltender could simply stroll down the hall and take warmup shots to prepare for a shootout.

The Penguins had weighed the idea of a practice rink in or near Consol more than once but eventually settled on leaving not only the city but also the county by building all the way up in Cranberry, presumably for the tax breaks.

• If Rutherford and his lieutenants want to see Sprong with Sidney Crosby -- and I only hear this all the time -- why not simply tell Johnston exactly that?

Really, do they think he'll quit over it?

• The NHL's one-game suspension of Brandon Dubinsky for cracking his stick off the back of Crosby's neck and back was, indeed, heard loud and clear around the league.

That's why the Stars' Johnny Oduya felt free to perform a sequel on the skull of the Wild's Zach Parise the very next night:



And why not?

Isn't a one-game suspension of a nothing player worth it, theoretically, if it takes out an opponent's best player?

Don't blame Dubinsky. Don't blame Oduya. This goes to the very top.

• By the way, the Wild are loaded with tough guys. That did nothing to deter this.

• Here's the first chapter of Dinosaur Extinction II, my friends.

• Congratulations to the World Series champion Royals on being named Baseball America's Organization of the Year. They drafted wonderfully, developed their talent just as well, trusted that their fans would pack their stadium when they delivered good baseball, then spent above expectations in turn.

Wait, BA gave this to the Pirates?

Why?

The Pirates did none of those above four things. Their drafting, which used to be BA's main criterion, has been abysmal. Their development saw a half-dozen pitchers go under the knife in the past year and change. Their final 18 regular-season games failed to sell out, at least partially an indictment of the business side of things that also used to be considered by BA, and the payroll didn't exceed the basic formula of years prior.

Also, this ...