After a disappointing Stanley Cup run last spring -- for the third straight year -- and after a three-month lockout that so much as spit in the face of hockey fans, here’s a stat about the Penguins that’s both amazing and informative:

Their TV ratings for this season are up close to 30 percent over last year, at which time they had the best local ratings of all U.S teams in the NHL and the NBA.

There is an excitement about the Penguins that defies description. The run-up to their game against the Flyers March 7 had the feel of a Steelers-Ravens matchup There was an electricity around town that was unusual even for a game of serious import, which this one was not. It matched heated rivals with little on the line -- a first-place team vs. a fourth-place team midway through the season.

For a second, go back to 1980: The Steelers and Pirates were coming off decades of unparalleled success. The Penguins, pre-Mario Lemieux, were a distant fourth in town, well behind, in reverse order, Pitt football, the Pirates, the Steelers.

Advance to today: That pecking order has changed. The Steelers, of course, are king. But the Penguins are a clear No. 2. And here’s what is so fascinating: They're gaining.

So my questions today are these: Considering what has happened in the past 43 years, what will happen in the next five? The next ten? The next 20? Are the Penguins, with their smart marketing and with their savvy understanding of the younger demographics and social media, ready to make a run at the Steelers?

This is no attempt to start a fight. There’s room for all in Pittsburgh sports. The Steelers sell out, the Penguins sell out, Pitt basketball sells out and the Pirates, considering their recent history, are doing every bit as well in terms of selling tickets.

But can the Penguins, a comparative newcomer in Pittsburgh sports, challenge the king? People are probably saying, ``Not in your lifetime,’’ and that would be true. But this is not about five years or ten. It’s about well down the road when the teenagers of 2013 are dads. Who will be king then?

Hockey has made enormous strides. The number of rinks in the area has increased nine fold since the day Lemieux was drafted. And that does not include deck hockey rinks, which are being built at a striking rate. All of a sudden, you don’t have to skate and you don’t have to pay for ice time to play and appreciate hockey.

Just like every kid can have a bat in his hand, now every kid can have a hockey stick in his hand.

The Penguins are working hard to turn the younger and the youngest generations into hockey fans, and its working. It’s not just about Western Pennsylvania players turning up in the NHL at an outrageous rate -- while Pittsburgh rarely produces an NBA player. It’s a generational thing. Where once fathers passed on to their sons a love of football and baseball and maybe basketball, now dads are talking hockey to their kids.

The Penguins immediate future looks sensational. They remain a young team with some of the best talent in the NHL and there’s a good chance those players will stay in Pittsburgh. Another Stanley Cup, at least, is in the Penguins' future. The same championship aspirations can’t be said for the Steelers, who, despite the presence of Ben Roethlisberger on the roster, might have some difficult seasons in the years ahead.

Another Stanley Cup in the next year of two or three will not change the Pittsburgh dynamic. The Steelers will still be king -- for the foreseeable future.

But beyond that, all bets are off.