What Is The Establishment's Problem?

This year has been a pivot in my taste in sports. As so many people have, I've pivoted into hockey from motorsports in the off-season, and have found immense joy in the camaraderie of a team sport.

Per usual, my team (or in motorsports, my driver) chose me as opposed to the other way around. My allegiance is to the Pittsburgh Penguins, a city I have never been to and a state I cannot call my birthplace or current residence. When hockey returned to the general public's purview last December, my mind went 'I wonder what happened to Sidney Crosby', found out, turned on a game out of curiosity and here I am six months later.

Some may say I chose them, as I remembered Crosby and therefore tracked him down. But if I had a choice, why would I not choose the Carolina Hurricanes, considering I live a mere two and a half hours from their arena and they've been spectacular this season? Or the Panthers, back to back champions whose affiliate is based a (somewhat easy) ten minute drive from my house?

Anyway, my step into the Penguins fanbase has had me following their ecosystem. While Crosby was my gateway to the team, my preferred player turned into Evgeni Malkin. I love a good story, and Malkin's is undeniably more interesting, a working class hero propelled to the NHL. I feel like any writer would find him more compelling, and though I do not call myself a journalist, I assumed journalists would agree.

Therefore, my surprise continues to grow as I get to know the rank and file of Penguins reporting. What seems like someone very easy to support has turned into reading consistently bizarre takes on Malkin. Why does a man who has carried the team on his back at many different points, a well loved veteran, so easily flicked aside?

Doing my due diligence, I realized there is somewhat of a line in the sand with regards to this. In my research of past columns and interviews, those who once acknowledged Malkin as a core piece of the Penguins now have turned against him. The thread there is they are writing for bigger machines now, no longer just local color. Therefore, I have to ask, what is the establishment's problem with Malkin?

To clarify, the doom, gloom, and somewhat downright nastiness is coming from the establishment journalists. Those who write for the Establishment (AP, The Atlantic, ESPN, etc) really seem to have a bee in their bonnet about Malkin. Equal that to big radio and it seems like there is a consistent messaging across mainstream media: downplay Malkin at any and all costs.

So, I have a few theories as to why the mainstream media, the establishment, the man so to speak is so consistently rallying against Malkin, and none of them are particularly enjoyable to think through.

Firstly, they are following the trend of ragebaiting us. Ragebaiting in sports is actually a time honored tradition, but the transition of media from physical to digital means they feel like they have to drive clicks by any means necessary.

Whether the insistence on ragebaiting is coming from their editors or the writers themselves is undetermined, but I feel somewhere in the middle is the accurate answer. My counterpoint is that journalism is in tatters, and therefore what is the point of ragebaiting? To me, ragebaiting consistently destroys credibility. Though I acknowledge Americans are in a literacy crisis, most people who are actively seeking out articles to read about this situation can read an article.

Otherwise, the clicks would be silly to bring up, and ragebaiting would be useless. These journalists need the articles to continue being employed!

By consistently ragebaiting, they are eroding trust in the audience. While I did not watch Heated Rivalry until about a month into my hockey journey, a lot of people did start engaging with hockey after watching the fictional journey of Shane and Ilya. A lot of these people are well educated adults who know what the basic sites for news about sports are, and would look at bigger corporations like ESPN for answers. But when you're consistently ragebaiting, and people get into the sport and analyze it, you're losing credibility with new fans. When you're saying things with no proof consistently, you're not doing yourself justice.

In the advent of the digital age, these new fans can find newer sources and put these establishment publishers to the side.

Also, so can the older fans. I will say over the past six months that I've engaged with the whole entire gambit of Penguins fans. People like me who found their way into hockey one way or another, people who started as 'bandwagons' during the back to back Cup runs in 2016 and 2017, people who joined the gang when Crosby was drafted in 2005, and people who remember Mario Lemieux's first game as a Penguin in 1984. There is a variety of opinions in the Penguins fanbase, and I will say I have learned a lot from reading posts from people across the board about their experiences and their takes.

I am not someone who is so stuck in their opinion that reading counterpoints is pointless. I enjoy the ebb and flow of respectful debate. I enjoy reading about other people's experiences. I will change my mind if valid points are made, and I have changed my mind many times in the past six moths.

While there are a fair few dissenters on not re-signing Malkin, the lion's share of fans are just as confused as I am in the comments section of the establishment's articles. 'Young legs' and 'time to pass the torch' seem like regurgitated talking points; when pressed for more data, there really isn't much to back it up.

There is one thing we can all agree on though - we're all sick of the ragebait.

One thing to any establishment journalists that may wander here for some godforsaken reason: not everyone has the time or frankly patience that I do to wade through sources. By consistently saying the journalistic equivalent of 'trust me bro', you're losing readership that will turn to talking heads on video social media or fan edits. People want proof, and the new viewership you so snidely think will have to come crawling back to you if and when you're wrong will simply not engage again.

If you want an example of someone who covers Pittsburgh for a more established publication, I would point to Jesse Marshall of The Athletic. How he is friends with some of these absolute ragebaiters is beyond me, but he is one that I would consider well loved by the establishment but also by fans.

A secondary idea I've been toying with is that the establishment journalists are hearing this message from someone that holds the purse strings and are regurgitating the take. Or from the Penguins organization themselves, but Michelle Crechiolo has no opinion articles lately, so that seems odd.

If they are hearing it from someone else, by not disclosing it, it's another step that pushes fans away because fans don't read sports news like general news. I know typically they do not do that, 'a source' is what they'd say, but it's getting to a point where it's genuinely irritating. Fan is the shortened version of the word fanatics and sports fans hold up to that title. They're going to read and analyze and bark back. When they're hearing the same talking point over and over, they're going to respond.

And their responses will get less and less nice, and then you'll complain about the tone in your comments section.

On the other hand, we have the non-establishment journalists chiming in. Again, as someone who likes to be informed and is aware of my newness, I did a lot of digging. Pittsburgh has a lot of really excellent reporting, you just have to dig. I think the fact that Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports being voted the top journalist by fans speaks volumes. People, myself included, trust Taylor's point of view and read her work in good faith.

No one expects journalists to be perfect. We are all human beings, warts and all. But Taylor's commitment to excellence makes her few missteps forgivable.

On top of that, she's actually personable and is able to tread the fine line of journalism and fan service with ease. She wants to get to the heart of the matter, truly loves the sport and team and it shows. She also blends trends in seamlessly; her trying the dirty sodas in Utah and showing us not only sated my curiosity about Utah soda culture but showed her as a person who lives, just like me.

Taylor is in good company; the same could be said of Kelsey Surmacz of The Hockey News and Hunter Hodies of Heavy.com. Neither The Hockey News or Heavy are sources I, as a new hockey fan, had ever heard of. Now I see them as my main source, along with accounts like J Fresh Hockey that give me stats and not the eternal 'my sources say'. From time to time I even read Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now, though I do feel like he is prone to ragebait sometimes. However, I do really love his coverage of the AHL and ECHL teams so I read his articles all the way through and consider his opinion. Often I put the stuff I don't agree with to the back of my mind but I am able to read his stuff in good faith. (He did write an op ed as I sat on this piece in favor of Malkin ... my luck!)

My point here is that right now, I trust the smaller news sites to report more fairly. In fact, I expect random fan accounts to accurately explain the statistics more than I expect the reporters from places like The Atlantic (if you're reading this please do NOT get in my comments section). That is insane.

If you're not being instructed to reiterate the same five phrases, I have to ask if you really enjoy writing about this team anymore, or even this sport. There are 32 teams in the NHL and I guarantee a reporter who writes for one of the newer ones like the Kraken or the Mammoth would gladly trade you for a legacy team like Pittsburgh. Who would pass up a slam dunk like that?

My final two points pivot a bit, but have merit. However, I do feel 'logical only' people will not like these two points, as they discuss topics that aren't primarily rooted in statistics and analysis. Yet they are two points I do think need to be talked about.

One is Malkin-based, so I'll start there. At 33, I sit in the sweet middle point of the millennial generation; the parents of my friends were usually Gen X if not older, my camp counselors either late Gen X or early, early millennial peers. Those who I have mentioned as being more establishment oriented fall into that camp counselor sweet spot.

For those of us that hated history class or just weren't offered the subject in depth, there has been a long fissure between the USA and Russia. While the cracks have always been there, post WWII led us into the period called the Cold War. The Cold War was primarily between the USA and the Soviet Union, now Russia and assorted other Baltic and Slavic nations. Those born between 1946 and 1980 were taught from a young age that the Russians were our enemies, easily punctuated by 1980's Miracle On Ice. Memorialized into a film by Disney, most Gen X and millennials watched Miracle at some point. Whether broadcast on the Wonderful World of Disney on ABC directly to our homes or even at school, Miracle made its way around. It's a movie that punctuates patriotism, subliminally creating an us versus them mentality.

Post 9/11, attitudes on who the USA's primary 'enemy' was shifted, and one could say the late millennials and Gen Z probably grew up thinking very differently as to who 'we' were against. I sat in the middle and therefore was exposed to both and believe neither truly exist in the way they'd like me to believe.

Back to hockey; Gen X and early millennials that make up the core establishment reporting for hockey's xenophobia against Russians (consciously or not) logical yet baffling to those who didn't have that so deeply embedded into their cultural identity. Some are Canadians, but Canada's rivalry with Russian hockey also exists. We as North Americans band together against the 'evil' (or used to), and it's very clear the establishment sees the Russian bloc that exists in the NHL as outsiders still.

Though he has lived in the USA for twenty years, Evgeni Malkin was born July 31st 1986 in Magnitogorsk, a city at the time in the south of the United States of Soviet Russia. 1986 was a big year for the USSR in general; it also heralded in the era of perestroika, which led to the dissolution of the USSR. Malkin rose to excellence not because he had money but because he was so good that the government sponsored him to play.

To make a long story short, there was chaos, confusion and a lack of English when Malkin first entered the NHL in 2006 after being the second overall draft pick of 2004. After the lockout of 2004-2005 and an incredible rookie year by Sidney Crosby in 2005-2006, everyone was excited when Malkin made his somewhat treacherous passage to the States. Unable to talk without a translator at first, homesick, emotional and somewhat shy, I can also imagine that the press was even more hostile as their core would've been older with even more pervasive cultural dislike of Russians. Hell, I bet a few of them even called him a Soviet, though the USSR had been dissolved for over ten years by the time Malkin made it to the USA.

On top of that, Malkin had spent three years in the Russian Superleague, where its stars were not as heavily fatigued by press. A team press base used to 'says nothing but still chatty' Crosby and the overhanging Mario Lemieux probably found Malkin's lack of interest offensive. And to the general press, only one Russian to them could be 'good', so countryman Ovechkin was chosen. Though one could argue the polite and quiet off ice Malkin would be considered logically more Western 'good' than flashy, outrageous, and Putin-endorsed Ovechkin.

Please note I do not want to get into the politics of Russia more than I already have at this time; my opinions on the ways non American players have to survive in the NHL is for another time.

But asking the most conservative sport in the world to challenge their beliefs would be fruitless. Even though many argue the press is always going to be more left leaning, if the sport is so deeply entrenched in conversative values then I think they'll stick to the Good Old Boys Club.

This leads into my final point. Hockey is a Good Old Boys Club in more ways than one. The influx of women in this sport, especially post Heated Rivalry, has clearly ruffled some feathers in a manner similar to how Drive To Survive impacted Formula 1. To many of the establishment, and honestly a lot of the core hockey base that aren't already women, this influx of women is not to be allowed. Women with their embroidered shirts with their team's logo or their glittery, fun keychains are not taken seriously; the GOB Club doesn't see the hard work that embroidery or crafting is as serious pursuits and therefore are feminine fancy.

But just like F1 and to some extent the overflow into the racing series IndyCar, there are stone cold facts about women in fan spaces. A study in 2024 by the Sport Business Journal states that 75% of sports fans are, in fact, women. In 2025, Forbes and CrowdIQ published studies about attendance: newer fans are a fifty-fifty split gender wise. Time and time again, across fandoms and platforms, women are the more consistent long term fans and women also traditionally drive spending.

A funny aside I didn't really think of until typing this is that the non-establishment reporters I laid out as reputable for the Penguins are also primarily women. Even the reporter with the team I mentioned as credible is a woman.

Anyway, women matter. While this is an overarching NHL issue that I could dissect more, it does feel like the establishment fanbase of men around the Penguins bar Marshall are ready and willing to break hearts. While I think they're breaking hearts in a romantic sense, like all of Malkin's women fans have a crush on him, they're actually just breaking the hearts of people who love him because he is himself. The pervasive attitude whenever a large amount of women join a fan space is that they're there because the players are cute, sexy, etc, and frankly, it's a tired idea not rooted in practicalities.

We as the general Penguins fans not only respect Malkin for his work put into the team, but also for who he is and what he has done. Though he was injured for a stretch of the season and then took a stupid, typical, hot-heated Malkin suspension during their game against Stanley Cup bound Buffalo, he was still the heartbeat of the team at times. We knew with Crosby out that Malkin, as he has always statistically, would step up.

We also listen and understand the landscape. The press from top to bottom had nothing but praise for the newly acquired Egor Chinakhov, but whose gloves has Chinakhov been wearing? One could speculate who got his named changed after years of being labeled Yegor to Egor. If everyone expects Chinakhov to become a cornerstone of the Penguins hockey, why would ejecting an unwilling cornerstone of the team, who has also become a friend, do anything but put him on edge?

Who else on senior leadership speaks Russian and took the three other Russian speakers under his wing, including recently re-signed Solovyov? Who else starstruck AHL Penguins goalie Murashov, whose post-season AHL performance has him set up to enter the Penguins lineup next year?

With the performance of Mikhail Ilyin, also at WBS, the AHL affiliate, during playoffs, who else speaks fluent Russian and came to the US barely speaking English?

Who spent time with recently re-signed Connor Dewar to get his backhand to a place that he could execute it effectively in a game?

Who else can help build up forwards to be the flanker to a core player on a team that has historically had a core of some kind, whether it be Lemieux or Crosby based? That's the past forty years of Pittsburgh hockey, and it would be a disservice to the fanbase as well as the future to abandon Malkin now. Not letting him complete the loop, doing with Sergei Gonchar did for him in 2006, it looks petty and silly.

It seems the only people who don't understand that are the establishment journalists. People who remember the 2022 contract fiasco in which Crosby himself had to be involved, and yet seem to think 2026 would be any different.

To that point, are you really willing to piss off Sidney Crosby? I guess you should be glad Crosby's most used app is the Penguins app itself, which rarely runs any of your nonsense.

In the end, you can pick and choose which point or points of view you personally have over this mess of a situation. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will get an extension announcement and the establishment will put out bashful, fluffy articles pretending they always truly believed Malkin was staying.

Unfortunately for them, Penguins fans alike will probably not let them live it down. If they do, I bet Flyers fans will be chomping at the bit to do so as soon as they lose to the Hurricanes. I personally will be only bothering to read their articles if the general consensus on r/Penguins is that is worth my time.

For now, it's me and the guy who keeps commenting random other sites in the replies to my preferred journalists' Twitter comments against a long summer. Mine will be filled with IndyCar and maybe F1 if it doesn't turn into a mess or a boring parade of cars again.