The Year of the Injury for Pittsburgh’s professional sports teams came in 2019.

The Pirates lost staff pitching ace Jameson Taillon to Tommy John surgery. Other key veterans got hurt along the way, a number of them early in the season like Corey Dickerson and Starling Marte, then guys like Marte and Josh Bell late in the year.

The Bucs were three games off their division’s lead at the all-star break. They wound up 69-93 and in last place in the National League Central.

The Steelers went into this season with high hopes of avenging a fade late in 2018 that cost them the AFC North title.

That 2019 season began with an embarrassing loss at New England, followed by the loss of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the season in Week 2.

Steeler running backs and receivers also got banged up and were lost for weeks at a time, including the tight end.

Still, the Steelers were sitting at 8-5 with three weeks left in the regular season, needing to win two games to clinch a wild-card playoff spot in the AFC. That, of course, didn’t happen.

Juggling quarterbacks Mason Rudolph and Devlin “Duck” Hodges, the Steelers scored exactly 10 points in each of their final three games, lost them all and missed the postseason party.

Then there’s the Penguins.

They ended the 2019 portion of their NHL schedule with a bevy of injuries of their own — and have continued that trend into 2020.

Sidney Crosby missed more than 25 games due to sports hernia surgery. The Penguins lost only five of those contests.

Evgeni Malkin missed a number of games early in the year. Defensemen Kris Letang, Brian Dumoulin and Justin Schultz, forwards Jake Guentzel, Patric Hornqvist and Nick Bjugstad have all been on the shelf.

A different Penguin player seems to be getting hurt each night the team plays a game. The Pens are third in the NHL so far this season in total man-games lost.

Yet here they are, now on a nine-day break, sitting with the fourth-most points in the entire league. The Penguins are 31-14-5, good for 67 points, four behind the Metropolitan Division-leading Washington Capitals.

The Pirates collapsed late. The Steelers collapsed late.

Does the same fate await the Penguins, especially with Guentzel out for the rest of the regular season (at least) and their goaltending situation not yet clear as to who will be No. 1 moving forward?

The guess here is no.

The Penguins have leadership on the ice that the Pirates and Steelers lacked on the field. They also have a more recent pedigree of championships and a coaching staff that is unquestioned in terms of plan and direction.

For those reasons, the Penguins will succeed where the Pirates and Steelers failed.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle