In Thursday’s “First Call,” former Pittsburgh Steelers assistant coach Bruce Arians discusses where things went wrong with Antonio Brown.
Penguins legend Jaromir Jagr escapes a frightening auto crash. The Pens are celebrating a pair of anniversaries.
And the Pirates did something they rarely do en route to victory Wednesday.
Arians on A.B.
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians addressed his relationship with volatile wide receiver Antonio Brown.
And it has been rocky for a while.
The two were believed to have some beef in Pittsburgh, when Brown was playing his first two seasons with the Steelers and Arians was the offensive coordinator.
Then, after helping Arians and the Bucs win a Super Bowl in 2020, Brown infamously melted down on the sidelines in New York during a game against the Jets in Week 17. And he blamed Arians’ instructions to play through an ankle injury as the reason for his outburst.
Arians, who has since left the sidelines to take a consulting role with the team, appeared on 93.7 The Fan on Wednesday.
“Great player,” Arians said. “Practices hard and plays as hard as anybody I’ve ever coached and I wish him well.
“He was a big part of us getting that ring. … The next season obviously didn’t work out as well, but he was a big, big part of us winning a championship.”
As far as what happened to Brown’s personality after making a name for himself in Pittsburgh, Arians struggled to answer.
“I wasn’t there when he got his stardom, but watching him on film it was just absolutely unbelievable the rapport he and Ben (Roethlisberger) had together,” Arians said. “But some guys handle it differently than others. I can speak of when he was with us, it was going great and then he was fighting through some stuff and it just didn’t work out in the end.”
Also during the show, Arians endorsed the Steelers’ decision to draft Kenny Pickett.
“I liked Kenny Pickett coming out of the draft a lot,” Arians said. “He was the one pro-style quarterback this year who could play right away.”
Arians is going to be part of the Joe Moore Offensive Line Camp on June 4 and 5 at Moon Area High School.
King Kunitz
It’s already been five years since the Penguins won one of the most memorable games in the franchise’s history.
And former Penguin Chris Kunitz scored the biggest goal of his life.
Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of Kunitz’s double-overtime game-winner to eliminate the Ottawa Senators in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final.
On this day five years ago, Chris Kunitz made our hockey dreams come true pic.twitter.com/rAvTcGRvEs
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 25, 2022
That was the 42nd and final shot against Senators goalie Craig Anderson. Matt Murray countered in the other net, stopping 27 of 29 shots, as the Penguins won 3-2.
They would then beat the Nashville Predators in six games to hoist the franchise’s fifth Stanley Cup. It was Kunitz’s second goal of the game and his first two of the playoffs that year. It was also the final goal of his Penguins career before going to Tampa Bay the next season.
Anniversaries abound
Meanwhile, Thursday marks the 30th anniversary of what many people consider to be the loudest game in the history of the Civic/Mellon Arena.
It was the 5-4 comeback victory for the Penguins in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Chicago was winning 3-0 in the first period and was up 4-1 in the second period. But Rick Tocchet and Mario Lemieux scored to pull the Penguins within one goal after 40 minutes.
Late in the third, Jaromir Jagr and Lemieux went to work. With roughly five minutes left, Jagr scored his 10th goal of the playoffs and what still qualifies as one of the greatest of his career.
That tied the contest at 4-4. Then Lemieux gave the Penguins the lead with just over 12 seconds remaining.
Despite a wild flurry in front of Penguins goalie Tom Barrasso in the final seconds, the Penguins held on to win. It was their eighth playoff win in a row. They’d end up sweeping the series to capture the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons.
Scary moment
Speaking of Jagr, he’s lucky to have survived what appears to have been a fairly significant auto crash in the Czech Republic.
Based on a post from him Wednesday, Jagr was driving in his native country when he collided with a tram.
As you can see from his photo, the car was heavily damaged and the airbags were deployed.
Via a translation from the New York Post, Jagr claims that he “thought it was my end” after the crash.
According to the 50-year-old NHL legend, he was uninjured and claimed “nothing happened to the passengers on the tram.” However, the Post found a Czech news site that reported Jagr slightly injured one of his hands and was seen limping while getting out of an ambulance. He also refused to go to a hospital.
Jagr blamed himself for the incident.
“It was my fault,” he wrote. “I tried to cross from one direction to another. I checked the other side and drove into it at the right time. But there was a lot of traffic and I didn’t have time to react to the tram, which was going at high speed in the same direction as me.”
The Post says alcohol tests were reportedly negative.
Earlier that day, Jagr announced he plans to return for another pro hockey season with the Czech Extraliga team that he owns — the Kladno Knights.
It’s about time
The Pirates bats finally got going against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday. They won the series finale 10-5 after taking Game 1 by a final score of 2-1. Then they lost Game 2 by the same score.
But they woke up Wednesday, in large part because the team finally got a few hits with runners in scoring position. Five of them to be exact. That’s a rarity.
According to Joe Block on the television broadcast of the game, April 29 was the last time they had three hits in a game with runners in scoring position.
That was a game they lost 7-3 against the San Diego Padres.
The Pirates hadn’t scored more than five times in a game since May 11, a 5-3 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers. As a team, the Pirates are hitting .197 with runners in scoring position. That’s the worst in the National League and second worst in all of baseball. Only the Toronto Blue Jays (.178) are worse.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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