First Call: Steelers LB Patrick Queen fires back at Bart Scott; Justin Fields ready if needed in Cleveland
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen has some beef with former Baltimore Raven Bart Scott. Justin Fields is ready for an expanded role if called upon in Cleveland. The Penguins are preparing for the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.
And Alex Ovechkin scores twice more before getting hurt.
All that in Tuesday's "First Call."
Return fire
In advance of Sunday's Steelers-Ravens game, former Baltimore linebacker Bart Scott went on ESPN's "Get Up" and had some inflammatory things to say about how Patrick Queen left Baltimore for Pittsburgh in free agency.
Queen inked a three-year, $41 million deal with the Steelers in March.
"Even though we hate the Steelers, we respect them, and we'll never admit that out loud," Scott said Friday . "But every once in a while, you get a Judas. And the Judas is Patrick Queen. He went over to the dark side. He's going to learn. He's going to mess around and find out."
After his team's 18-16 win at Acrisure Stadium, Queen sent a return shot via social media.
On Sunday, Queen played one of his most complete games as a Steeler. He had 10 tackles, one for a loss, forced a fumble and recovered it.
Getting in the zone?
The Steelers used Justin Fields on a few running plays during the win against Baltimore. He picked up 17 yards on two carries.
Even though it is a short week of preparation before facing the Cleveland Browns, Fields says the Steelers can feel comfortable calling on him for an expanded version of that look Thursday night.
"I've been doing that my whole life. So it's really nothing new. We've been working on it since training camp. I did it the first six weeks of the season," Fields said Monday.
Might we see more of that in the red zone moving forward? It's something I hope offensive coordinator Arthur Smith tries. After all, Fields posted five rushing touchdowns during his six starts.
"That's a question for Arthur. He usually gets the plan together, and we just run the plays that we are told," Fields said.
The Steelers apparently could use some red-zone help. All four of their possessions inside the 20-yard line died before resulting in a touchdown. Three became Chris Boswell field goals. Another resulted in a Russell Wilson interception.
Lightning crashes
The Tampa Bay Lightning appear to have stopped their bleeding in advance of visiting Pittsburgh to play the Penguins on Tuesday night.
The Bolts come to PPG Paints Arena winners of two in a row, beating the Winnipeg Jets, 4-1, and the New Jersey Devils, 4-0, on Saturday. The Jets have 30 points, the most in the NHL. The Devils have 26 points, tied for second in the Metropolitan Division.
Those two impressive wins stopped a losing streak of four games. The Lightning are currently tied for third place in the Atlantic Division with the Boston Bruins.
As a team, the Lightning are the seventh-best club in hockey when it comes to goals-scored per game at 3.56. Their goals-against average of 2.81 is ninth-best. Their team shooting percentage of 13.2% is third-best in hockey. Nikita Kucherov has 26 points. That leads the team and is tied for the sixth-most in the NHL.
Meanwhile, the Penguins come in at 7-10-3, seventh place in the Metro. They just beat San Jose, 4-3, in a shootout after blowing a 3-0 lead in the second period.
The Pens won two of the three games between the Eastern Conference rivals last season.
Oh, Ovi!
Alex Ovechkin continued his torrid streak Monday night. He scored two more goals against Utah.
Ovi's first goal came on the power-play in the first period to make the score 3-1.
He scored again in the second period for career goal No. 868, and his fifth goal over the last two games.
Ovechkin is now only 27 goals behind Wayne Gretzky's mark of 894 goals, the most goals in NHL history. He leads all goal scorers in the NHL so far this season with 15. However, he did leave the game in the third period with an apparent leg injury .
Via the NHL public relations feed , Ovechkin is the first player in NHL history, age 39 or older, to be the league's first skater to 15 goals in a season. Prior to Ovechkin, the oldest player was Frank Mahovlich (33 years, 304 days on Nov. 10, 1971).
Washington won the game 6-2. They now have 27 points to lead the Metro.
