Paul McCartney performed at the Verizon Center with a Pittsburgh Penguins sticker on his guitar

August 10, 2016 9:20 am

While Michael Phelps was showing Maryland Pride in Rio, Paul McCartney repped the Pittsburgh Penguins at a concert at the Verizon Center. Wait, what?

Tuesday night, McCartney’s One on One tour rolled into the nation’s capital. McCartney took the stage at 8:30pm and three hours later, finally retired for the evening. During that stretch, McCartney covered nearly all of the greatest hits from his legendary career.

But it was during McCartney’s rendition of “Yesterday” that the former Beatle reminded many Caps fans in attendance of the team’s painful second-round loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champions.

BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!! Thank you @PaulMcCartney !!! #music #concert #dreamcometrue 💗💗💗 pic.twitter.com/UMDCo1xlpa

— Patti (@plmbery9) August 10, 2016

The New York Rangers fan had two hockey stickers of teams he didn’t root for on his acoustic guitar: the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings.

Nothing like being in a concert at Verizon Center and seeing Paul rock the #penguins #paulmccartney

A photo posted by Jackie Fawcett (@yackers) on Aug 9, 2016 at 7:55pm PDT

So what gives?

[adinserter name=”nation-ad”]

According to the Penguins, it has everything to do with the CONSOL Energy Center and not, you know, the actual hockey team.

“Paul McCartney and Wings” was a rock band that performed in the 1970s and early 1980s … which explains why Sir Paul has long had a Wings sticker on one of his iconic guitars. A Detroit Red Wings sticker.

When McCartney christened Pittsburgh’s new CONSOL Energy Center [in 2010] with a spectacular show before a sold-out crowd, one of the guitars he used was, in fact, the famous one with the Wings sticker.

So Penguins president David Morehouse and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl sprung into action — before McCartney’s second show at the new arena on Thursday.

Morehouse provided a Pittsburgh Penguins sticker, and Mayor Ravenstahl presented it to McCartney Thursday afternoon, along with a proclamation honoring his historic performance here.

Sir Paul uses the guitar only when he performs “Yesterday,” … and sure enough, in a unique McCartney tribute to Pittsburgh, there was a Penguins sticker placed strategically above the Wings sticker when “Yesterday” was the first song of the second encore.

That makes me feel better. Still, every time I see that sticker I get…