from Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

In virtually every sense, it’s impossible to feel sorry for Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux. One is a billionaire, the other a millionaire many times over. They will become even more filthy rich if/when they sell their controlling interests of the Penguins.

But it is easy to feel sorry for Burkle and Lemieux because their team hasn’t given them what they deserve in championships. They, along with the Rooneys of the Steelers, have been among the best, most stable and most supportive owners in sports, freely spending to produce a winner. But the Penguins have underachieved despite having two of the world’s best players in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. They play exciting hockey most of the time, have won a lot of regular-season games and have made a lot of money for Burkle and Lemieux with a consecutive games home sellout streak of 377 and the highest local television ratings for a U.S.-based NHL team six years in a row. But they often have come up small in the playoffs. The failure was so bad, at least in management’s eyes, that the front office and coaching staff were overhauled after the 2013-14 season. Nothing changed this spring; the team was eliminated by the New York Rangers in five games in the first round, leading to a sizable financial wallop for the owners because of only two home playoff games.

It seems like a lifetime ago that the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009. Since then, the Los Angeles Kings have won it twice. The Chicago Blackhawks appear set to win for the third time in six years. That should be the Penguins. It’s too bad their stars haven’t performed under the brightest lights the way the Blackhawks stars have.

That has to be one of the reasons Burkle and Lemieux are looking to sell. The value of the franchise — estimated at $565 million last fall by Forbes Magazine — appears ready to dip.

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