Joe Starkey

Maybe not that dramatic.

I mean, my God, they almost got better by 50 points, but just a very different team in a very different time.

in their history so that doesn't match this the 97 98 penguins under kevin constantine maybe it seemed like it was the end for whatever that penguin era was mario was gone and they were coming off an okay year where they barely made the playoffs that was a surprising team i'll acknowledge that kind of like this team it had a lot of cast offs and a couple stars and that was it you know

The 2013 Pirates, I mean, they did break a 20-year losing streak.

But again, they'd been knocking on the door for a couple years.

The core of that team, not the whole team, but the core of the team was young.

It was up and coming.

They had collapsed the previous two late seasons.

You could have predicted they were going to make the playoffs and have a good year.

Very obviously a young team on the rise.

This was very obviously an older team not on the rise, on the decline.

Until it wasn't.

Until it wasn't.

And here we are today getting ready for the big screen outside the arena, getting ready for home ice advantage in a playoff series.

Getting ready for everything that comes with playoff hockey.

And if I could pick one word to describe the Penguins over the last four to five years before this year kicked in, stale is the word that comes to mind.

Everything just felt old and stale.

Almost like, let's just kind of end this.

I was one of many, by the way, who argued, let's just tear it down to the studs.

Let's get a lottery pick.