Kovacevic: Random worthless ramblings upon rolling out of bed

Yeah, that's right. It's a notes column hidden in the Daily Fun Thing feature. And it's for the simple reason that no one should take seriously any coverage that doesn't involve, you know, actual coverage.

I've been slammed the past couple weeks by a nasty sinus infection and, after bottoming out during the Penguins' Game 5 in Washington, decided -- with much support -- to shut down until it was healed. That kept me from covering Games 6 and 7, but it feels like the corner's been turned. I got out of the house for the first time Thursday, and I'm planning on being at the Penguins' practice today in Cranberry Township.



I wasn't really sure how to share any of that here. I'm not about to put a headline on the site about a sinus infection, when there's another headline on the home page about one of the Pirates fighting cancer. So I'll apologize if there was any confusion.

Anyway, nothing that I thought during my four days away involved actual coverage, so these totally random ramblings are only fun and nothing more:

• Best wishes to Jameson Taillon. Let's start there. Exceptional, upstanding, intelligent, ambitious and talented young man.

• The headline on the last column I wrote, from Game 5, was this: 'For a brief spell, the Capitals found themselves, but that'll be too little too late.'

Near the end, I wrote the following: 'Because if you think that this group, with this much talent, this much drive and this much buildup toward showing the best version of themselves for all but a handful of minutes … if you think these guys are going down in three straight to any team, in what would be tantamount to a total collapse, I dare say you haven’t been paying attention.'

I then shared my opinion that the Penguins would finish up in Game 6, the same number of games I wrote before the series I felt it would take them to win. Turned out it took one more.

One.

I repeat this all the time, but this is what makes expressing predictions or anything future-based such an awful thing in this business, at least for me. When some readers see a prediction, it's the only thing they see. It's like it's published in neon-red ink. And the reactions to it, in both directions, are just so, so over-the-top.

That's fine. That's anyone's right to take what they want from anything they read. But it's also within my framework as the writer to say, wow, really? If you go back through that column, which was based not on one or two nights but on a broad body of history, you'll find all kinds of smaller, individual points that I felt were worthwhile at the time and actually grew by the time Game 7 was done.

But you'll always have some readers, to say it again, who think that column-writing is about 'prognostication' rather than about sharing one person's considered and nuanced opinion. I never pretend that a column is more than the latter.

If that offends people who are worried about fourth-grade jinxes and 'overconfidence' -- whatever that could even mean when it comes to a sportswriter who isn't connected to the team -- so be it. The columns will continue to express my opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.

• Penguins in two over Ottawa. Maybe one.

• Game 6 did happen, though. It did. And what it ideally will have achieved from the Penguins' perspective is something you've been reading in this space all season long: They've got only one way to win a championship, and that's through being the June 12, 2016, version of themselves. Now more than ever, that's true. They've got to defend.

One more time with gusto: They've got to defend.

If anyone's still waiting for that version that ran up the shot clock on the opponent last spring and summer, forget it. The energy, the wheels aren't the same. There's a reason no one repeats with the Cup anymore. There's a reason that even the Hall of Fame-loaded 1992 Penguins needed to switch up to more defense to repeat. It'll take all five. Every shift. Even against the Senators and Craig Anderson, who will leak goals like crazy. The temptation has to be resisted to deviate from sound defense.

Mike Sullivan's been pounding that message all throughout, and he's seldom been satisfied with its resonance. That changed in Game 7, probably for the first time.

It's got to stick.

• Sullivan's influence on these Penguins since his arrival no longer can be overstated. That's now official. Not since the Final in 2009 against the Red Wings have I seen a game-to-game reversal of performance as violent as this was for the Penguins, and he deserves all the credit now that a young Dan Bylsma got back then.

Personnel?

Pitch perfect. Carter Rowney and Scott Wilson showed well, and it couldn't have been easy scratching Carl Hagelin, who was toughing it out and had just scored a quality goal. Could easily have buried Ron Hainsey. Didn't.

Strategy?

Every bit the equal. No one likes the trap, but the playoffs aren't the place to earn style points. A 1-2-2 without the puck has been used at points throughout the year, so it already was in the arsenal. And once the Penguins got the puck back, it was all systems go-go-go as usual. That kept the Capitals from gaining the Pittsburgh zone at will, as they did in Game 6, and gave the Penguins a lot less ice to passionately defend. In other words, the puck was already in front of them. All their effort could be expended in pursuing it safely rather than chasing tails.

What a coach this guy is.

• The self-persecution/pity complex of the Capitals' fans just has to rank No. 1 in all of pro sports, doesn't it?

Even the Cubs have finally won.

• One thing I won't miss about that series was seeing the Washington Post, allegedly a big-league journalism outfit, taking screenshots of big pieces of text from this site and placing it on social media without a link.

The death of newspapers is slow, but it's as certain as Daniel Winnik missing the net by 7 feet on a clean break.

• My God, the Pirates are difficult to watch. And yeah, I had the eyelids peeled back often enough to have watched way too much of that series at Dodger Stadium and then that blank last night in Phoenix.

But you know what else occurred to me while watching all these swings and misses?

I honestly wonder if, with Jung Ho Kang, Starling Marte and now Taillon out for uncontrollable reasons, management doesn't have its built-in escape hatch for blame for 2017.

Sure, the drafting and development continue to get exposed for the decade-long sham they've been -- thank goodness Rene Gayo and the Latin American operation continue to plug all the holes, the latest being Jose Osuna, signed for a mere $250,000 out of Venezuela -- but the overall picture is now so skewed by these unrelated losses that it feels increasingly hard to really fume at anyone over the Pirates being in last place.

Maybe it's better to wait until they reach the trade deadline, licking their lips at another chance to kick the can further.

• That said, the Pirates' luck in having all this happen while almost no one is noticing ... that's just off the charts.

• There's nothing wrong with Gregory Polanco that a little focus won't fix. He saw a real challenge last night from Zack Greinke, and he was hellbent on winning that at-bat. He did that. It was a big-time moment for a big-time talent. It was a beautiful thing to behold. Dude just needs to get it together.

• More apropos of actual ramblings, I've been giving thought to adding a scrolling ticker to the bottom of the app. It would allow us to get you some info, quotes, even the latest headlines you might have missed, though it would obviously have to eat up at least a small part of the screen.

I think about stuff like this all the time but seldom share in advance.

Any input on this?

• What in the world is happening in Ottawa next week?

We went to book all the travel yesterday, and the hotels were all, like, $500 a night. Never seen that there before. It sure can't be related to playoff hockey, judging by their early crowds this spring.

• Never over-estimate my value to this business, by the way. Josh Yohe, Matt Gajtka and Matt Sunday just killed it for those last two games, and the Game 7 response was one of our biggest subscription/readership days of the year. These guys are really, really good.

In all honesty, I'll admit getting a little bugged anytime it's suggested this is my site. It stopped being that a long time ago. We've got a dozen-plus people and their families fully invested in this. And they're all really, really good.

• Audrey Snyder is really, really good. I'm only singling her out here because I know that her beat being so specific -- Penn State -- keeps a good percentage of readers from giving her work a try. That's a mistake. This is an elite beat reporter with an impeccable sense for news, stories and the craft itself.

• I'm only mildly curious, but why is there no cure for the common cold if it's, you know, common?

Anyone want to start a march with me to cure the cold?

• Now that Showtime's 'Homeland' is done for the season, I'm done watching non-sports TV.

• Even when I watch sports TV, I've got the sound down most of the time. And that's always the case when the Pirates are on. Their play-by-play, for varying reasons, is just unlistenable. Love Bob Walk, Steve Blass and John Wehner, but they're caught in the crossfire.

• Is it possible that the only people to ever make good, accurate movies about DC Comics characters are the psychos doing the Lego movies?

• They'd at least know that there's no Justice League without Hal Jordan and Martian Manhunter.

• Free Comic Book Day was delayed for me and my son, as happens most years because I'm out of town, but we did make it over to Eide's yesterday. Maybe the best annual loot ever, but nothing touched the SpongeBob gem. My son's read it three times, and he made me read it out loud to him once, voices and all. (I do a mean Squidward.)

• Hey, you were warned.

• If you don't mind now, I've got to go make the 27th out trying to steal second.