Kovacevic: Think Hornqvist's missed now? What if he isn't signed?

Feb 6, 2018 • 12:00 am

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Maybe the evening won't be emotional enough.

Yeah, Marc-Andre Fleury's return will transcend all else related to Penguins vs. Golden Knights tonight at PPG Paints Arena, and that'll be richly deserved. He's the greatest goaltender in Pittsburgh's hockey history, one of the franchise's five best at any position, and yet he still somehow supersedes all of that as a human being.

I can't wait to experience it, just like I can't wait to experience May 11 at PNC Park for a certain other return.

But, if the brief detour can be forgiven here, I'm taking equally seriously right now the news that the home team will be without Patric Hornqvist "week to week," as Mike Sullivan disclosed for the first time Monday afternoon.

Not because of this one game.

But rather, because it could offer yet another stark example of how this team could look, with Hornqvist facing unrestricted free agency following this season, for years to come.

"Well, it's hard to replace Horny's energy, I'll tell you that," Sullivan began a response to a question on the topic Monday. And there are no questions he embraces more. "He brings so much to our dressing room, to the bench ... it's not quite as vocal when he's not around."

Then, quickly pivoting to the task at hand -- meaning Fleury, Vegas and that 35-13-4 opponent -- the coach added, "But certainly we've got to bring the same ..."

He stopped. Maybe tellingly. Because it just isn't the same.

"Our team plays at its best when it brings a level of emotion," Sullivan proceeded more cautiously. "I've always believed that this game is rooted in emotion. It's about passion. It's about a will to win. And if you're not emotionally invested, it's hard to be at your best."

Deep breath.

"I think Horny might epitomize all that."

This was all so awesome, I don't even know where to start.

But let's try this: Sign this player to a long-term extension. If only because this coach clearly can't stand the thought of a single day without being able to send No. 72 over the bench.

Nor should he:

Yikes. And that line about the Penguins not being "emotionally invested" should ring a bell for anyone who read my coverage from that 3-1 stinker in Newark the other night, when Sullivan bitterly panned his team's effort after acknowledging he'd admonished all concerned to "reinvest" following a terrific effort the previous night against the Capitals.

Funny, but guess which player got hurt against the Capitals.

No one needs to hear a sales job on Hornqvist. He's the heart, the soul, the 16 goals, power-play pile-driver, the pulsating presence on and off the ice and, oh, yeah, this, too:

He'll cost Jim Rutherford a ton of money. Look away if you're squeamish about salary cap crises, but he'll top $5 million in salary, and he'll get several guaranteed years. I see Columbus' recent extension with Cam Atkinson -- seven years, $41.25 million, or $5.875 million in annual value -- as something of a bar. There are differences in that Atkinson's 28 and Hornqvist's 31, and Atkinson was the Blue Jackets' leading scorer the past three seasons, but here's another: Hornqvist's twice the all-around hockey player.

Absolutely, he'll get overpaid in the later years of the term and, because of his style, he'll always miss his share of games along the way. But he'll pay off when he does play, as he always has since his culture-changing arrival in the summer of 2014.

He can't wear another sweater.

Golden Knights practice, PPG Paints Arena, Feb. 5, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

• The game itself could be fun. Yeah, it's East vs. West, two points vs. three, established champ vs. expansion franchise. But it's the Penguins, if you ask me, who can get a little gusto from watching how the Golden Knights forecheck and backcheck -- in frightening harmony at times -- under Gerard Gallant. It's in-your-face at all times, the hockey equivalent of the full-court press, and it's something to see.

• George McPhee is getting credit all over for building the Vegas success, and he should. Speed's the way to go, and his robbery of James Neal, Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson, in particular, stand out. But let's not leave out Gallant because he took the rarest path of all as an expansion coach and urged the attack.

• Seattle's expansion fee should be, like, $1 billion. Plus Microsoft, Starbucks and the entire Nirvana catalog.

• Football can be so very beautiful:

That, by the way, is why NFL teams prohibit reporters from sharing specifics of what we see in practice. Nick Foles fessed up after the game that the Eagles had been working on that gem for two months. Never showed it once in a game. Until fourth bleeping down in the Super Bowl.

• Not to be that guy, but it's mindblowing that Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski nearly connected on that Hail Mary. Brady elegantly eluded a rush, heaved a pass 55 yards, Gronk floored some dude with one arm to get free, then parked right under where the ball finally came down, only to get mugged.

Call that karma, if you will. I'm still floored by how the Patriots' legacy nearly ascended even further.

• If Mike Tomlin had tried that idiotic reverse on the Patriots' final kickoff return, rather than Bill Belichick, he'd have been the laughingstock of the known universe.

• If Tomlin had benched Malcolm Butler on a night his defense was scorched for 41 points by Nick Foles ...

• If Tomlin had made a late-season pickup of a 39-year-old outside linebacker who played nearly the entire Super Bowl and recorded one tackle ... I could do this all day.

• All I have to say about the Eagles finally winning a Super Bowl is that there are now only a dozen franchises that haven't: Bengals, Browns, Bills, Cardinals, Chargers, Falcons, Jaguars, Lions, Panthers, Texans, Titans and Vikings. Four have never participated in one: Browns, Jaguars, Lions and Texans. Only one has never even dared to dream of one.

• If Major League Baseball's players are upset enough about a lack of free-agent spending this winter, here's a suggestion: Lower your prices.

The union, the agents and the players themselves have spoken for generations about believing in an open-market system, in letting the market determine their value. Well, this is the market. Can't have it both ways.

• Baseball's owners aren't anywhere near clever enough or cohesive enough to orchestrate collusion. But if they were, you'd better believe the Pirates would fall in line. Other than breaking ranks to sign Josh Bell out of the draft -- one of the smartest and most productive moves this management has made in a decade -- they always play nice.

• Can't say enough about how impressed I've been with Bob Lilley, the Riverhounds' new coach, and the plan he's put into place for what looks like the first real run of contention in the franchise's 18-year history. They opened camp Monday with more talent -- by far -- than they've ever had, thanks to Lilley's championship reputation in Rochester and a handful of excellent players he's brought from there following that team's bankruptcy.

They're on the cusp of landing an MLS-level midfielder, too.

My talk with him at Highmark Stadium:

Could be a fun summer along at least one local riverbank.

WHAT'S BREWING

• Chris Bradford, Matt Sunday and I will be on hand for the main event. A few weeks back in Vegas, Chris covered the Penguins' first meeting with Fleury extensively. This will be different.

• I'm doing a new every-weekday podcast on DK Sports Radio called 'Daily Shot,' sponsored by Schneider Downs and covering a single subject in just a few quick minutes. There's a new one just below.

• Do you follow us on social media? If not, we're on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, among others.

VIDEO

A way-too-happy Bradford and I serve up some Java: