Steelers Cut Jeff Reed; Future Of Ed Hardy Cleet Industry In Jeopardy

Bad news, operators of Pittsburgh-area bottleservice clubs: The Steelers have released Jeff Reed. In his place, the Steelers signed former Redskins and Cowboys kicker Shaun Suisham, who’s spent the past eight months as a free agent looking for work as part of a tongue twister.

There’s always an inherent risk when a team switches kickers, since individuals’ performances at the position can fluctuate wildly at random times, but Reed’s recent performance forced the Steelers’ hand here. Plus, even in the worst-case scenario, Suisham likely won’t be worse than Reed has been so far this year, just either the same or an obvious upgrade (hopefully the latter).

Reed’s tenure with the team has been more than productive, and he does have two Super Bowls on his resume, but after constant inexcusable missed field goals throughout the 2010 season, now’s as good a time as any to dust off the old “NFL is a business” cliches. I just hope Kevin Colbert remembered to pad the towel dispenser in the bathroom outside his office.

Why Dejan Kovacevic’s Rookie Of The Year Ballot Might Not Be Crazy

Hello couple friends of mine reading this! FY Information, I’ve joined the website SB Nation Pittsburgh as a part-time contributor, so if you think my writing on Elvis Has Left isn’t completely terrible, you can go over there and hopefully continue to think that!

I published my first post today, an examination of the controversy surrounding Pittsburgh Beat Writer Dejan Kovacevic’s National League Rookie of the Year ballot, as he was the only writer to vote for any Pirates.

You can read the piece here.

Don’t worry, I’ll continue to post on Elvis Has Left for the foreseeable future just as often as I usually do, which is not very! Thanks for reading!

Rangers 3, Penguins 2 (OT): Pens Outshoot Opponents By 14 And Lose. You Know, The Usual.

The refs were incredibly biased against Pittsburgh in this one. Forcing the Pens to put their power play out six times? That’s just cruel.

The game was a pretty typical Pens’ D / Fleury loss, as they outshot the Rangers in every period and 39-25 overall but lost 3-2. Again, the Fleury goals were mostly defensible; the first one was on a wild scramble in front that Erik Christensen scooped up, the second apparently deflected off the Pens’ D and the post (though it still looked like Fleury was off his post on the short side a bit), and the third came after Michalek fell at the Pens’ blue line then Paul Martin dove to the ice in a failed attempt to break up a 2-on-1, for a nice tag-team suck effort by the Pens’ $9 million offseason acquisitions. I call the 25-shots, 3-goals result ‘Typical Fleury’ in that, while the goals were indeed possible to rationalize, on the other end of the ice, Henrik Lundqvist was absolutely lights-out for most of the game and stopped probably about 10 chances that would’ve been similarly defensible goals, which is a thing that supposed franchise goalies in the NHL do more than once every couple months.

I would rationalize that the Pens were lucky to get a point out of this game, given that Lundqvist was unbeatable for 57 minutes and the Pens’ power play reverted back to Insta-Suck^TM, but the Pens took the lead in the final minutes off a lucky Matt Cooke wrister that slipped through Lundqvist and was immediately followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to give the Pens a power play for the remainder of regulation, during which the Rangers scored an ugly shorthanded game-tying goal with under 90 seconds while the Pens were taking turns doing impressions of Lennie from Of Mice And Men in their own zone.

Fleury has allowed fewer than 3 goals just twice this season in 10 games (not counting his First Period exit in Phoenix), with both those games coming this past weekend against Tampa and Atlanta, and it’s been many a fortnight since we’ve seen a game where Fleury played like Lundqvist did last night. Still, the reverse game puck Monday went to Michalek, who continues to perform at a level where the only positive thing I can say about him is “He must still be hurt.” Awful loss.

Steelers 27, Bengals 21: That Was A Really Close Blowout

Dan At 10:40 pm: Hey Dan.

Dan At 10:10 pm: AHHH! Who are you?

Dan At 10:40 pm: I’m you, thirty minutes in the future. I traveled back in time after the Steelers game ended.

Dan At 10:10 pm: Wha…Why? How?? Also, what would happen if we like made out–

Dan At 10:40 pm: SILENCE! I have come to tell you news from the future.

Dan At 10:10 pm: Why are you speaking like a God? You’re still me.

Dan At 10:40 pm: I am here to tell you that the Steelers will barely escape this game with a 6-point victory after a Bengal drops a fourth down pass that could’ve put them inside the Steelers’ 5 with a chance to win the game in the final minute, and you will be extremely relieved when this happens.

Dan At 10:10 pm: What?? This game??? Hahaha, silly Me, I’ve been watching this game for three quarters and one minute, and the Steelers are completely dominating on offense, defense, and special teams and they’re leading by 20 points against a broken-down quarterback and an offense that’s sputtered all night.

Stars 5, Penguins 2: Pens Play Flawlessly. End Of Story.

When Brent Johnson let in a wrister from 40 feet then Brad Richards threw in a second goal after parking himself in the right circle uncovered for an hour and a half both within the first eight minutes of the First Period, I’m pretty sure we all had the same thought running through our heads: This is going to turn out to be the most perfect game the Penguins have ever played. And you know something? We were right.

The Penguins were completely flawless against Dallas in every conceivable way, and were extremely entertaining to watch in the process. The defense? Perfect. Johnson? Perfect. Michalek in his return from injury? Perfect and perfectly healthy. The power play? Is there a word more perfect than “perfect”? Like, “doubleplusperfect”? Because that’s how good the power play was.

Sure, the scoreboard at the end of the day said Dallas 5, Pittsburgh 2, and the only life the Pens showed was a string of random fights in the middle of the second including Sidney Crosby getting into the action, Kris Letang dropping his gloves, remembering his hand is injured, and pathetically clinging to Brenden Morrow, and Mike Comrie making himself useful and sticking up for his teammates by punching the puck. Shockingly, none of these actions sparked a four-goal comeback.

Hopefully the Pens can continue this flawless play in Anaheim on Friday night. The way the power play has been looking lately, in addition to the defense and the incredibly indistinguishable play of Comrie, Mike Rupp, Max Talbot, and Chris Kunitz, I’m moderately confident that they can keep it up.

2 Quick Sidenotes, after the jump:

NEWS IN BR…F: Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Zito, Rowand, DeRosa “Big Three” Carry Giants To Victory






Cliff Lee: “I Could Return To Rangers If They Pay Me A Total F*ckton”






Redskins Interested In Moss, Russell, Merriman, Smallpox Blankets






Big East To Add 2 Football Teams, Bringing Total To 4






Parise Injured, Would Lend Stick To Hedberg If He Feels Like Playing Up

Saints 20, Steelers 10: Beloved Roethlisberger Falls To Hated City Of New Orleans

As far as Steeler losses go, losing to the Saints in New Orleans is about as digestible as they come; the Saints have struggled lately but they’re still the defending champs playing at home, plus it’s a non-conference game for the Steelers, and New Orleans is just about the least hateable fanbase in sports. I was still rooting for Pittsburgh, obviously, but if Roethlisberger had thrown a game-winning TD pass then ran around throwing Metal horns at the Superdome faithful, I’m positive my friends and I would’ve shared another awkward, unspoken “Why are we rooting for this A-hole again?” moment.

That’s not to say the manner of the Steelers’ loss wasn’t extremely frustrating. Between a failed First-and-Goal from the .000001 yard line, a terrible offensive pass interference call on Hines Ward that led to a missed 50-yard field goal, and the fourth fumble of Heath Miller’s career coming on the Saints’ 34, the Steelers left enough points on the field to sow a self-sustaining points farm. After the jump, let’s throw some blame around (or just hold onto the blame and take another sack):