When the puck drops tonight at PPG Paints Arena between Pittsburgh's beloved hockey franchise, off to an inspired start amid a wave of injury and illness, and the two-time defending champion Lightning, there'll be empty seats all over the place. Entire empty rows, even.
And it won't mean a damned thing.
It won't mean any more than the Penguins' 14-year, 633-game sellout streak having ended a week ago with a crowd of 16,450, or that the crowd for the next home game was 15,397.
It won't mean any more than the Steelers, who've sold every single ticket since 1972, averaging 7,789 no-shows through their first four games this season at Heinz Field, including a jarring 10,325 empty yellow seats for a loss to the Bengals a month ago.
It won't mean any more than the Pirates, who'd have had terrible attendance in 2021 regardless and who were dealing with state-mandated capacity restrictions through June, still somehow bottoming out with spooky scenes like this in September:

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
First pitch between the Pirates and Tigers, Sept. 8 at PNC Park.
And the reason these things won't mean anything, contrary to countless narratives either naively or conveniently concocted to suit someone's needs, is the most obvious of all: We're still kind of in this global pandemic thing.
I mean, yeah, there'll always be a couple components that'll be unique to Pittsburgh: Hockey ticket costs have priced out far too many around here for far too long, and that demands a correction. The Steelers need to institute a use-it-or-lose-it policy for their season-ticket base, half of which doesn't live anywhere near Western Pennsylvania. And the Pirates ... well, they need to either stop losing 101 games or sell the franchise ... or both.
But beyond that ... wow, no, this isn't about us at all.
Does anyone realize the Maple Leafs have sold out one of their first four games in Toronto?
That's Toronto as in Toronto.
Or that the Rangers, based in a city of 13 million, last night sold 13,590 tickets at Madison Square Garden, which holds 18,006 for hockey and has religiously sold every single one forever.
Or that the Penguins, Maple Leafs, Rangers, Canadiens and Blackhawks are the only teams the NHL regularly asks to take on Monday home dates because they're the only ones who could be trusted to sell them out?
And speaking of the Hawks:
#Blackhawks announce their home sellout streak has officially ended at 535 games.
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) October 25, 2021
Statement from CEO Danny Wirtz: pic.twitter.com/wJKI3TRW8w
No one needs me to tell them how Pittsburgh compares to New York, Chicago, Toronto and Montreal on the population scale, right?
The NFL's a more complicated case, mostly because it plays far fewer games but also because only two teams -- the Steelers and Giants -- report attendance via actual turnstile count. Thus, while overall tickets-sold figures now compare favorably to those in 2019, it's telling that both the Steelers and Giants are down in attendance, by 853 in East Rutherford, N.J., and by 1,661 here. If the other 30 franchises were being as truthful, we'd doubtless see similar dips league-wide.
Major League Baseball's that much more complicated, mostly because, again, the pandemic ate hard into the season's first two months. That not only limited crowd size by law but also forced the banished-from-Canada Blue Jays to play in minor-league ballparks in Dunedin, Fla., and Buffalo, N.Y. Regardless, the 45.3 million total fans in the regular season represented a 33.9% drop from the 68.5 million in 2019, and the lowest figure since 1984.
The Pirates' own average attendance plunged from 18,412 in 2019 to 10,611 this past season. That's a precipitous 42.4% drop. And yet, if fairly tossing out the Blue Jays' bizarre circumstance, it's a virtual match for the rest of baseball.
Remember when Macy's closed Downtown in 2015 and half of everyone around here agonized that it was a Downtown thing?
You know, even though it closed 14 other stores nationally the same day? And soon 125 more?
We can be that way.

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Looking up from Sixth Street, Downtown, yesterday.
• We're still getting through this thing, and we'll eventually get all the way through it. Never been more confident of that.
Also never been prouder of our city, for having gotten through this way, way better than most. It's almost as if we're this medical hub with lots of smart, tough, resilient people.
• That said, no Kris Letang, no Jeff Carter tonight, both because of COVID-19. It's still here, still affecting sports and, far more important, people's lives. Anyone who downplays or dismisses the latter can go ask Zach Aston-Reese about his symptoms ... and then picture what impact that might have on someone elderly if he or the team allowed it to spread.
• If anyone knows why Drew O'Connor would've been slid in and out of line rushes in practice yesterday Cranberry, please don't share it. I don't want to know. I just want to see the kid continue to take a prominent role in this lineup and, within that continue to look more and more like the first true power forward employed in these parts since Billy Guerin.
I'm trying to hold back on which power forward from Pittsburgh's past he really reminds me of. Don't overthink it.
• This roster's top three scorers, each with five points, are O'Connor, Danton Heinen and Evan Rodrigues. All of them were broadly seen as extras, if not outright expendable, entering this season. It's to their inestimable credit that they came prepared to compete in camp and to excel through five games.
Beyond that, though, what matters now is that they aren't discarded as others return. If they played themselves into this status, they need to play themselves out, as well.
• If every NHL team had the same savage sense of humor as the Hurricanes' Twitter account ...
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) October 22, 2021
... then someone would take seriously my suggestion to have the Penguins take warmups tonight in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton sweaters. I'll bet, based on what Jon Cooper told me a couple weeks ago in Tampa, even he would get a good laugh out of it:
Cooper: ‘We could’ve played Pittsburgh’s farm team, and we might’ve seen the same result.’ … Ow.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) October 13, 2021
• The Steelers' clear focus in their return to practice yesterday on the South Side was healing the gashes left by the Seahawks' 110-yard rushing output in a single quarter two Sundays ago. And good for them. There's no proceeding without a Band-Aid there and, in this case, a tourniquet. That was embarrassing, regardless of missing personnel.
But once that bleeding's under control -- and it's not anything that a return of Stephon Tuitt wouldn't solve in a snap -- it's time to turn to takeaways.
Remember those?
There were 38 in 2019, most in the NFL. Then 27 last season, second-most in the NFL. And now ... five. Two picks and three fumble recoveries.
That sort of thing's acceptable for teams with lesser talent on that side of the ball. It genuinely is. Turnovers aren't easy to replicate, as too big a percentage of creating them is flat-out, whichever way the ball bounces. Even a bad defense can run into a few on occasion.
But this isn't that. This is a defense with T.J. Watt still wreaking havoc snap after snap, with Cam Heyward quite possibly outperforming him in the middle, with Minkah Fitzpatrick widely hailed as one of the game's preeminent safeties because of his picks ... and that's to say nothing of several other first-rounders around them, notably Devin Bush, who was supposed to be that type of linebacker.
It's a defense that's been built on the takeaway. And once that factor's removed, to be blunt, it's nothing special.
So don't go seeking comfort, to borrow a Mike Tomlin-ism, in isolating on the shortcomings against the run. Tackle better, then get back to taking the football away.
• Let's not forget that any hopes toward actual contention in 2021 were never realistically founded in the offense. That'd have been wishful, to say the least, if only for the inexperience of the offensive line. It was always, always predicated upon the defense being elite.
If that should somehow return, the whole picture in front of this team brightens big-time.
• Maybe Baker Mayfield will be well enough Sunday in Cleveland to offer a helping right hand.
Come on, who'd rather see Case Keenum?
• Lots laughed when I suggested over the summer to not laugh at the Bengals, but that concept was blown out of the bag over the weekend in Baltimore when Joe Burrow, JaMarr Chase, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd, Joe Mixon and not-to-be-overlooked tight end C.J. Ozumah asserted themselves -- authoritatively -- as the AFC North's most explosive offense.
And no, that's not an overreaction to a single game against an opponent with 14 guys on IR. The Bengals have been doing it all season, including right here.
News flash: Anyone who wins in Pittsburgh and Baltimore is the AFC North favorite.
• Just for fun: Three of the AFC's playoff spots at the moment belong to North teams, with the Steelers being first on the bubble. And no, no division's ever sent all four teams to the playoffs. This is the second year it's even been possible with the expansion of the playoff field from 12 teams to 14.
• Don't miss Ramon Foster today, and I mean that:
• Not many people pay attention to Major League Baseball's Silver Slugger awards -- probably about as much attention as I'm paying to the (presumably) ongoing playoffs -- but it'd be neat to see Bryan Reynolds rewarded in any tangible way for the breakout season he just had.
Three National League outfielders will win a Silver Slugger, regardless of their place in the outfield, based on a vote of managers and coaches, plus some statistical analysis, and it'll be announced Nov. 11.
Bearing in mind it's purely an offensive award, Reynolds' .912 OPS was miles behind the Phillies' Bryce Harper (1.040) and the Nationals' Juan Soto (.999), but it was close enough to the Reds' Nick Castellanos (.939) that it merits debate based on bandbox -- I mean ballpark -- effect. Cincinnati's place is a joke when it comes to favoring hitters, particularly with home runs, where Castellanos' greatest separation is from Reynolds in having a 34-24 edge.
That said, Reynolds won't win. Brand names matter. Castellanos has had that, going back to his time in Detroit.
• Man, if the Bengals and Sabres can be good in the same calendar year, there's hope for baseball around here yet.
• Thanks for reading. I'll be at the rink tonight with another full 10 Takes tomorrow off the game.