Good Tuesday morning!

• I’ll be flying down to Bradenton, Fla., tonight and spending the remainder of the week there to cover the final portion of the Pirates’ spring training before they travel three whole miles across town to begin Grapefruit play.

I’ll offer content in addition to what Jose Negron’s got, but being honest, it’ll be more of an information expedition. Meaning I’d love nothing more than to get past the obligatory platitudes and learn stuff that’ll help inform what I speak/say in the weeks to come.

Very much looking forward to it.

• Looking forward to all this, too:

NHL

The main event’s the last, of course, with Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell facing off against Arturs Silovs, and not just from the Pittsburgh perspective. For this Olympic tournament to rise up to the level of previous Games, I’m sorry, but there’s got to be more to it than just U.S. and Canada. Either Sweden or Finland has bloom in a big hurry, and time’s running out in Italy.

The Swedes can do this. Just need to finish more of the chances they create.

Kinda like Rakell’s entire winter, right?

• I’ll be nice to have the Penguins back on Cranberry ice this afternoon for their return practice, nicer still if Kyle Dubas can — remotely from Italy — get extensions done for Evgeni Malkin, Connor Dewar and Ryan Shea. All three, not just Geno.

• The NBA’s Rising Stars game, part of its All-Star weekend, played to 95% empty seats at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. So embarrassing was the scene that the league installed small lights on each empty seat to concoct the illusion of activity:

LAKE SHOW YO / X

Wild, huh?

If this had been the NHL, it would’ve been a massive story in mainstream media, much of which is still commandeered by people who hate hockey only because their parents did.

Basketball will always translate more seamlessly to TV than hockey. Most sports do, and nothing can alter that. But it isn’t close when it comes to the spectator component.

• Not gonna lie: Dali and I’ve been immersed in figure skating. Like, totally immersed.

Further not gonna lie: It’s just so, so, so different watching sports without working. I’ve covered so many of these events, and all that consumes me is the content I’ve got to create. This … absorbing how hard these individuals work, everything they commit for an opportunity to try to be perfect for 3-4 minutes once in their lifetime … mind-blowing.

• Next stop: Baseball.