And yet there he was to host that pregame ceremony. He must have been as confused as you about that.

No. The NFL has, I think for about 10 years (could be wrong about the year), had the winner open at home. Exception was when the Ravens went to Denver when the Orioles wouldn’t bend on their game times (stadium conflict).

It has been an NFL thing lately to showcase new stadiums in Week 2 primetime. Latest example being the Purple Palace.

Pittsburgh would be nothing like Charlotte without football. Not even close. Now if you said like Cleveland ...

Wow. Stream of Consciousness.

Maybe like a Pittsburgh team moving to Cleveland.

Yeah, but the point was he already had his meltdown. If they left him in, they wouldn’t have seen Rask. They never would have reached the conference finals. If you want the definition of playoff meltdown, it’s Fleury against the Islanders, clinging to the side of the net like a cartoon character trying to hang on in a…

You can attribute the Pens being run by Boston in 2013 to Rask’s play, but don’t forget Fleury had already been pulled for Vokoun after his cling-to-the-net fiasco against the Islanders. So I include that season among the many in Fleury’s logbook of Cup killers.