Tim Benz: The Penguins’ nostalgia buzz can only last so long
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The Pittsburgh Penguins have lost three times over the past seven days, yet it still feels like they had a pretty good week.
When you welcome back a franchise icon like Jaromir Jagr for the first time in almost a quarter century to retire his jersey, those emotions resonate beyond a few regular-season losses in mid-February.
THANK YOU JAROMIR JAGR @penguins | #Celebrate68 | @68Jagr pic.twitter.com/u63zu5j5on
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) February 18, 2024
When it comes to sports, no drug is more powerful than nostalgia. You can get so drunk on it that it may cause your vision to get blurry about the present day.
Honestly, being drunk and blurry is the best way to watch the current Penguins.
They’ve lost five of six; four of those defeats were by one goal, with three of those in regulation. They are in 12th place of the Eastern Conference (56 points) and eight points behind the Detroit Red Wings, who currently occupy the eighth and final playoff spot.
The Penguins struggle to score. The Pens are 25th in the league at 2.89 goals per game. That’s largely because the power play is an atrocity. At 13.5%, it is 30th in the NHL.
All of those numbers are a far cry from the high-flying, Stanley Cup-winning, highlight-churning glory days of the 1990s when Jagr, Mario Lemieux and company were capturing the city’s imagination about how great of a sport hockey can be.
Pour yourself another frosty mug of nostalgia and put it on my tab.
All the goosebumps. All the glory. Forever in awe of @68Jagr. pic.twitter.com/N5qZf1NNrn
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 18, 2024
Here’s the thing, though. Back when Jagr and Lemieux were soaring and the Penguins were the kings of the city, turning to the past to dull the pain of the present is something Penguins fans used to mock Steelers fans for doing.
Cue up the highlights of Myron calling touchdowns from Bradshaw to Swann and Stallworth because we are all sick of seeing interceptions from Bubby Brister intended for Weegie Thompson and Dwight Stone.
The hockey guys are the fresh new kids in town!
Impressively, the Penguins managed to keep that up for the better part of three decades. But the problem is the current Penguins fan base is finding itself doing a lot of nostalgia binging these days, given the five-year drought without a playoff-round victory.
The less good stuff we have to focus on in 2024, the more we want to dwell on 1992. Or even 2009.
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In fact, the current Penguins are becoming a nostalgia tour in real-time. A walking, talking, skating, breathing nostalgia tour.
While they are still playing. Like, right now.
Go see 87, 58 and 71 on the backs of those jerseys, and let’s all pretend it’s still 2017!
With little help beyond what those guys can provide, it’s no longer a formula that wins enough games. But it seems to be selling tickets.
For now.
Let’s see for how much longer that lasts without positive results, though. We saw it fading by the end of Jagr’s time here before Lemieux made his memorable comeback in December 2000. In a couple of years, I doubt Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang will be able to pull off an impersonation of themselves that’s even as representative as this one is.
Well, maybe Crosby.
Maybe. But how long is he really going to want to do that when playoff stakes aren’t part of the equation?
Unless the nostalgia tour goes back to the future in a big way, that equation is going to result in playoff elimination for the Penguins.
Again.