Lightning 3, Penguins 1: Pens performance: Frustrating. Fan behavior: Disgraceful

Photo creds to www.espn.com

I've been accustomed to being at sporting events for my entire life. I've had season tickets for the Pittsburgh Pirates for all 18 years of my existence. I've been to several Pittsburgh Steelers games, as well as a few NCAA Tournaments. I'm also familiar with the atmosphere of a professional hockey game. So, needless to say, I am familiar with sports, as well as it's fans. Therefore, I know when fans take what they are watching too seriously. That was most definitely the case at Consol Energy Center on Friday night.

It started about 2:00 in, when Lightning winger Ryan Callahan drove Pens defenseman Kris Letang into the boards, drawing a 5:00 major for boarding. It was a dirty hit, and Pens fans had a right to be upset about it. However, I felt that the crust of the fans surrounding me in Section 209 (particularity the 40+-year-old man sitting directly in front of me) was uncalled for as well. As dirty as Callahan was, f-bombing him to death from peanut heaven didn't help heal Kris Letang's head. Although this agitated me for a minute or two, I understood that this is just how fans are. So I accepted the juvenile behavior and continued watching the game. What happened about 10 minutes later, however, was a black eye on the great sports fans of Western Pa.

A puck was dumped behind the Lightning net, and Tampa's excellent goaltender, Ben Bishop, went out to play it. Here, he was challenged by Pens winger, Connor Sheary, who beat him to the puck and nearly set up a goal for Patrick Hornqvist. While he was getting back to his cage, Bishop's knee turned awkwardly and he went to the ground in a ton of pain. In the immediate aftermath, some fans were cheering, and to me, this was understandable, as it was not quite clear how badly Bishop was hurt and Pens fans thought that their team's chances of winning might have just increased significantly. A few seconds later, those cheers turned to boos. Yes, a pro athlete was on the ground in what I am sure was an unimaginable amount of pain for those who have not gone through it, citizens of our respectable city were booing because play was stopped. Yes, people were stupid enough to think that Bishop would be faking the injury, and yes, the worst was still to come.

About 3 minutes passed, and Consol Energy Center had, for the most part, gone silent, as the crowd settled down because they realized that what they were watching was a serious thing. Sadly, a gentleman sitting about three rows in front of me (again, no younger than 40), belted out; ''Get him a tampon''.

I won't elaborate on that insult because there is no explanation needed. However, there is a reason that I brought up the ages of the spectators in question. Say a kid my age (18) or a few years older had yelled out ''Get him a tampon'' at the top of his lungs. It still would have been horrendous, but at least a young man's juvenile behavior would have made some sense. The fact that these insensitive and vulgar insults were being shouted by gentlemen not much younger than my dad is pathetic at the very least, psychotic at the very most. The worst part about the Bishop injury reaction was what transpired on social media.

In the eyes of far too many Penguin fans, Bishop deserved to go down. That's right. By their logic, because Letang was hurt earlier by a dirty play, that means Ben Bishop, who had nothing to do with Callahan's hit, deserved to be in an intense amount of pain. "Karma" was the word of the day for many a yinzer. "Shameful" was the word of the day for me. I think that word is entirely appropriate for the behavior of our city's fan base.

Now, to be fair, Bishop was met with a respectful applause when he was carried off the ice on a stretcher. However, that only does so much to make up for the idiocy of booing him when he first went down, and it was certainly unnessceary of NBC analyst, Pierre McGwire, to praise the fans for their respect of the injury, when just 5 minutes before, they were emmensley offensive.

Aside from being disrespectful on Friday night, the Consol crowd was, from the second period forward, pretty dead. I know that the Penguins performance didn't give fans a whole lot to cheer about and that the Lightning are not as intense of an opponent as the Captials or Rangers, but the joint needed to be far louder than it was on Friday. The players had an excuse to be fatigued from an emotional six-game series with Washington. The fans did not, and they must bring it in Game 2 and give the players a much-needed energy boost.

I think that Pittsburgh sports fans are as good as any in American sports, but their actions on Friday night were uncalled for, and certainly are unbecoming of the ''City of Champions''. I hope that this type of disrespect is just an aberration and does not become anything more than that.