Mark Madden: Kris Letang has been great for Penguins, despite what Twitter suggests

One of the best things about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ excellent season is Twitter has had to absorb a sharp stick in the eye, or perhaps someplace a bit further south.

When the Penguins obtained defenseman Mike Matheson, he was called the new Jack Johnson.

When defenseman Cody Ceci signed, he and Matheson were labeled the Jack Johnson twins.

But Matheson and Ceci are playing so well that they have become the team’s No. 2 defensive pair, usurping John Marino and Marcus Pettersson. This has gotten Matheson and Ceci ignored by Twitter, which hates to be wrong.

The Penguins don’t miss Johnson. Twitter certainly does.

Twitter instead scapegoats Kris Letang, showing just how remarkably stupid Twitter is.

Twitter has never liked Letang.

Letang has 41 points in 51 games and is a team-best plus-18. He had an assist and was plus-3 in Saturday’s 3-0 victory at Washington. Letang is weighing risk vs. reward and managing score and situation. The Penguins have turned much more systemic, and Letang is buying in.

At 34, Letang is having one of his best seasons. The eye test and fancy stats mostly confirm.

But that doesn’t matter to Twitter. If Letang makes one mistake — as he did, in coverage, when the Penguins gave up a late goal and ultimately a loser point in Thursday’s overtime win at D.C. — Twitter descends viciously because Twitter roots for Letang to fail.

Twitter reflects the sad tribalism that ruins society. Twitter doesn’t judge objectively. Twitter picks sides, plays favorites and warps reality. Twitter needs to be right, especially when it’s not.

Twitter thinks Letang can’t possibly play well. That’s Twitter’s story. “THEY WON THE CUP IN 2017 WITHOUT HIM!”

Yes, we know. But the Penguins won a Stanley Cup in 2009 and ’16 with Letang playing a major role. Letang scored the Cup-winning goal at San Jose in ’16.

Twitter is 10% OK, 90% cesspool. If it required the use of real names and profile photos, Twitter would be much better, maybe even tolerable.

But it doesn’t, so morons operate under a smooth, anonymous handle like @RutherfordHater. That lampoons the ex-Penguins GM who got Pittsburgh two Cups and is still helping the Penguins win via his acquisitions of Ceci, Matheson and Kasperi Kapanen this past offseason.

Twitter’s idiocy isn’t limited to the Penguins.

Witness the backwash that occurred during and after the Steelers draft.

The NFL Draft is a crapshoot. Pro teams draft college kids. Those kids jump to a much higher level where the game is played quite a bit differently. It often takes years for a team to really know what it has. Who knows if a pick is good or isn’t?

Twitter does, or thinks it does.

That’s fine. When it comes to sports, Twitter has always been talk radio distilled to a 24/7 barrage that’s unfortunately addictive.

Knee-jerk reaction is one thing. But to make conflict deeply personal and obscenely insulting — over a draft pick! — is vile and sickening. It was much worse than decorum lets me describe.

But if you’re part of Twitter, this is the business you’ve chosen.

I’m often no better. I wish I were. But Twitter is a tangled web.

As Mike Tyson said, “Social media made you all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.”

The mute function is the next best thing.