Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Are we really going to do another year of Jack Johnson?

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

Hunter is back today and yes, we're talking more Jack Johnson as Josh Yohe of The Athletic said in a mailbag answer that he's been told that the Penguins have been pleased with Jack Johnson and thought he was better this season than he was last season. Hunter asks how that can be the case, especially after how bad he was in the playoffs. Is the Penguins window closed for good if he continues to get playing time? Hunter answers that as well, plus goes around the league as some teams have started to get eliminated. Finally, Hunter shares who some of his big options are for the Penguins pick at 15 for the NHL Draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, welcome to this Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L0-U-U-Square. We were supposed to have Josh Yo-e on for today's episode, but that's going to be pushed back to tomorrow afternoon. Josh is apparently very, very sick right now. I know he had the mailbag up today for the athletic. We're going to touch on that later on in this episode,

but he will be on here tomorrow. Just wanted to let you guys know as we start off today's episode. But hope you all are doing well. As I said, we will be getting to Joshiowe's mailbag. There's a lot of pretty juicy stuff in there, especially the Jack Johnson stuff. I mean, if you have not seen the Jack Johnson, paragraph that he wrote about when probably half of his Twitter followers asked him as he put in the mailbag. Just get ready to listen to it because it is just, it's very, very bad and just not bode well going into next season. We'll also touch on the couple series that have ended so far, especially the Chicago Blackhawks series versus the Vegas Golden Knights,

where Vegas just absolutely blasted them in five games. And then the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Columbus Blue Jackets where Tampa Bay had a big comeback in the third period today against Columbus to win that series in five games. So we'll touch on that in a segment. And then I think for the last segment, we'll probably just do a free-for-all kind of thing. So let's just get started with this mailbag segment.

It was something to read this mailbag. I'm just trying to get down to where the Jack Johnson thing is right now. So, yeah, basically, so of course, as I said, Half of Josh's Twitter followers basically asked this question about what's going to happen with Jack Johnson. And yeah, it was a sight to behold to read. It was pretty embarrassing. I mean, not at Josh. Of course, Josh is an excellent writer.

You know, he's not advocating for Jack Johnson to stay. I think even in this mailback piece, he actually thinks he should go. But it's just the negligence of the Penguins management from what he's been told. So with that said, let's just get this show on the road right now. So basically, Josh writes so many I have asked about him. so I decided to narrow it down to one question. I don't think they're going to buy out, Jack. If they did that, he would still cost more than a million against their cap for six more years.

That would be pretty silly. The more I talk with people close to the team, the more I believe that Johnson is going to be back next season. I know this will disappoint many of you. Well, yeah, no shit. But for what I've been told, the Penguins were pretty happy with his season. They believe he was much better in his second season with the Penguins than his first season. For what I've been told, some members of the coaching staff were displeased with Justin Schultz all season, particularly in the Toronto bubble.

They believed he wasn't totally. invested in the postseason. Okay. So there is a lot to unpack with that paragraph. First off, Jim Rutherford and the whole Penguins management, if you were happy with Jack Johnson's season, what in the hell are you watching? Are you looking at the underlying numbers? Is your eye test just like so different than everyone else's that somehow it tells you that

Jack Johnson had a good season? What did Jack Johnson do this season that was good to you? And that was better than the last season. He was constantly getting burned in two-on-one situations, constantly just cross-checking players into his own goalie and allowing scoring chances at will. I mean, the underlying numbers say he's bad. Ask anyone that, like, has an okay eye test. He's bad. And, you know, I'm just, I'm not afraid to say what I'm about to say.

Your window slammed shut if he is on this team next season and for this foreseeable future. I'm sorry. You know, you cannot waste the last remaining really good years of the Sydney Crosby of Ganymo. in Chris LaTang era by continuing to put this player out there and try to say, you know what, I know more than all of you. I'm not going to give up on this player, even though he's really, really bad. I know more than all of you. And it's just like, you know, you're just hurting the team in the process.

It's almost just a slap in the face to the fan base, too, in all honesty, because there are a lot of people in this fan base that they do know what they're talking about. And for as much shit as people do give the Penguins fan base, and rightfully so, the Penguins fan base, A lot of them are pretty stupid, but there are still a lot of smart people in this fan base, especially all of you that listen to the show. I absolutely love all of you. You guys are just absolutely great people.

But besides that, you know, and people do great work for these other sites that, you know, they're not the athletic or whatever. And, you know, they see the hole that Jack Johnson is in the lineup. You know, he is a black hole. And the fact that, you know, that people are telling Josh Yoey that, oh, yeah, he's probably going to be a member of the team next season, They were pretty happy with his season.

He was much better in his second season. I just said, what the hell are you watching? Sure, maybe he had an average stint with John Marino when Marino was carrying his corpse up the ice every single time. They were playing together. But other than that, he was an absolute tirefire with Justin Schultz. Justin Schultz, we all know, was about it. We're going to get to Justin Schultz in a minute

because the back half of that paragraph really confused me as well. But you played him on the top hearing when Brian June 1 and John Marino went out. That went back. Chris La Teng's course, the Fennwick percentage was down into like the low, not the low 30s, the high 30s to low 40s. Chris LaTang just looked so out of place. He just had to have him to cover up for Jack Johnson's mistake. You're playing him so many more minutes. And then when you finally shelter him, he's just as bad.

I mean, what are you watching? I just really, really don't understand it. I really hope this is just posturing. You're trying to up his value a bit. Josh also did say in the article, they could attempt to include him in a deal. You want Matt Murray. Sure, you can have them, and we won't ask for much back, but you have to take. Jack Johnson. I think that would be pretty fine. I mean, you also do the same for Nick Fuchs' dad, but it's

still, it just, it boggles my mind how the Penguins Management can actually sit there and say, you know what, he had a better season this season, even though he shot the bed every time he went on to the ice. And I understand, you know, Penguins manager, especially Jim Rutherford, maybe don't like the way Jack Johnson is treated on social media. I get it. You know, some people go a little too far at times. But you know what? Do you think we like shitting on this player so much? I would never root for a player on this team to fail. I mean, I think anyone who does that is just a weird human being.

I've been wanting to be proved wrong with this Jack Johnson signing. Ever since it happened, I wanted to be like, you know what, Jim Rutherford? You were right. Jack Johnson did have something left in the tank. You knew the reason why he was scratched and you exposed it. But instead, you really didn't know why the real reason Jack Johnson was scratched. I mean, well, he flat out. And you know what? I'm really, really hoping that, you know, by some divine miracle, he actually

comes to his senses, Jim Rutherford, that is, and includes him in a trade, dumps him do a team like Otto or something and just gets whatever in return. Because, you know, like I said, you will slam this window shut if you continue to play him on this team. I don't care if it's a shelter role. I don't care if he's getting 8 to 10 minutes a night or even less. He makes this team so, so bad. He was actively causing goals in that Montreal series, vomiting all over himself with Justin Schultz. It just, it cannot go on anymore. And, you know, I don't know why you're trying to do this hollier than though kind of thing with just trying to prove everyone that you're right about this.

But, you know, you're dead wrong about it. And there's just, it's negligence, it's incompetence, it's ignorance, it's whatever the hell you want to call it. Just stop this nonsense already. Get him off the team. You put any other player in where he plays and how many minutes you give that other player. It will be such an improvement. It will keep the window going. Just get this guy off the team already.

It's just absolutely ridiculous that we just keep having to talk about this. But, and okay, so let's just get to the Justin Schultz thing. So he did say some members of the coaching tech were displeased with Justin Schultz all season, particularly in the Toronto bubble. So if you were displeased with him all season, why was he continuing to get big minutes? Like, why were you putting him on the top power play when Chris LaTang was not out there? Why were you continuing to put him out there in six on four, six on five situations? Where is the logic with that?

You're going to say you're displeased with him, but yet you're going to continue to throw him out there into the wolves, put him out there in on-man situations with the extra attacker and not someone like Jason Zucker or Brian Ross, and they're going to put him out there with the top power play, which was a tire fire of a unit during that entire series, and during a lot of the season. It's just the logic does not match up there. I think Chad Ruido was a perfectly serviceable defenseman during the time that he played during the regular season. I think he was from like a December to February stretch where his underlying numbers were actually not. too bad. He's a perfectly serviceable number six defenseman. I do think there is a shot that he could be the everyday player in that spot next season, though I think they could also go out and get a defenseman and free agency. But like, I just, I don't understand the logic of the Penguins coach you have in the Penguins management, you know, just with that bottom pairing as a whole, it just really does not make

any sense to me. Hopefully with a new coaching staff coming in with Mike Sullivan that, you know, they're going to push him a little bit more and maybe they'll have other ideas for the lineup that, you know, are not Jack Johnson, because we already know. Justin Choles is going to be walking. They're not going to be paying him anywhere near $5.5.5 million. They don't even have the cap space for it, and they want to clear some salary anyway. So he's not coming back, and hopefully we will get Jack Johnson off this team.

But that was the big thing that I really wanted to touch on from Joshua's mailbag. You guys can read the rest of it on theathletic.com. Just go to the Penguins for the NHL on the website. I'm not going to spoil it all for you. There were some other pretty good stuff in there, but I just really wanted to get to the Jack Johnson stuff because that just, that really irked me. and I'm sure it irked a lot of you when you guys read it too

or if you guys didn't read it and you guys heard it for the first time on here, hopefully it irked you as well because it's just, it's absolutely unbelievable that people still think Jack Johnson can be an everyday defenseman and that he had a better season than he did last year. But I think now is as good of a time as ever to talk about the new improved built bar. You can get 18 amazing flavors with six new flavors, caramel, brownie, cookies, and cream, lemon almond, carrot cake, apple almond crisp, cherry barca and just,

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Bill Farr.com. All right, so we're back here on this episode of Lockdown Penguins podcast. Kind of just going to go around the league talk about a couple of big eliminations from the Stanley Cup playoffs. And yeah, we'll just start with the Vegas Golden Knights. They absolutely slaughtered the Chicago Blackhawks

in this series in five games. I mean, Chicago was pretty lucky that it got to five games. I mean, Corey Crawford probably had to have 18 beers, I would say, after that game for it because he was just under siege that entire game. I think they,

Vegas almost doubled them up in shots during that game. I think it was almost 46 to 23. I think it was around 43, 23, something like that. But like I said, they just, he was under a constant barrage all game long. He was able to get them to win. And then last night, now Blackouts actually came out pretty good. Jonathan Tave scored to make it 1-0. But Vegas just kept coming at them in waves.

Chicago was answering them, though, each time Vegas would score. And then at the end, I think it was Alex Tuck that had the game winner to make it 4.3. Vegas was able to move on. there was this tweet from Demetri Philipovich Uh-huh He may have taken a down there who of course does the BDO podcast

and he's also done stuff for ESPN basically throughout the series of Vegas that they were close to doubling them up in shots throughout the entire series I think for the high danger chances the tweet said 62 32 32 he deleted it so that may not have been

that as accurate as that but still they just they absolutely slaughtered them Chicago was no match for them and rightfully so Vegas can literally roll out two number one lines at any single team with William Carlson, Max Petcheretti, Mark Stone on one line, and then you can go out and roll Paul Stassany, Jonathan March or so, and Riley Smith on another line.

I mean, that's just not fair. Chandler Stevenson has looked really, really good there. I mean, Alex Tuck, I mean, Ryan Reeves actually somehow looks pretty decent down there. And on the defense, you know, I mean, Nate Schmidt, Shaped Theodore just turned into outstanding defenseman. Robin Lennar, he's going to continue to start for Vegas as long as there's no back-to-backs. I know that's going to make the Mark Andre Fleury stands mad on. line you know what tough shit lob and leonard is a better goaltender at this point than mark

andre flurry i know some people are biased towards flurry but you know what that's life you know mark andre flurry has been in this situation before we all know what happened when he was in that situation and you know he's going to live he's going to get through it and who knows maybe they'll need to call him again i'm pretty sure they probably will at some point if there are games that are back to back which i'm sure there will be if they're trying to get this done by the beginning of October since we're already at the end of August. So yeah, his name probably will be called again. But yeah, Vegas moving on to round two,

just an absolute manhandling of the Chicago Blackhawks. And then we had another series end today with Tampa Bay Columbus. As Khan says from Star Trek, you know, revenge is a dish, best served cold. Honestly, that's one of my favorite movie lines ever. You know, Khan in that movie is just absolutely spectacular. I don't know when he said that. I just lost it because of just how great it was. Anyways, I'm done exposing just how awesome Star Trek is.

But this game was actually pretty fun today. You know, I tweeted out that I deleted it. The Tampa Bay went up to nothing. It's like, well, it looks like lightning won't strike twice for Columbus this year. And then, you know, because I'm such a great reverse jinx person, you know, Columbus was able to tie it at two and then go ahead, three to two going into the third period. And Columbus was out playing Tampa basically this entire game today.

I think the shots at one point were like 33 to 15 or something. Tampa Bay was just not getting any sort. zone time, hardly getting any shots in the third period. I mean, Columbus was able to make it four to two with, I think, ten, nine, ten minutes remaining in the third period. It's like, well, see you guys in game six, but nope, a few minutes later, Tampa Bay was able to score to cut it to four to three. And then with two minutes left, I think, and the goalie pulled, Anthony Sorrelli tied the game for the lightning, get that puck past Corpusallo. I was pretty stunned that Tampa Bay was able to tie that game. Columbus usually clamps it down really well defensively.

They were doing that all series long against Naples. They were frustrating Tampa Bay a lot in the first three games with that style of play. So I was definitely pretty surprised to see that Tampa was able to score two goals on them in the final 10 minutes of regulation. I thought Columbus had that wrapped up in the bag. I even had another tweet that I ended up having to delete basically saying, you know, imagine the takes if Tampa Bay blows this series and then they need to wake up for the next game. Well, you know, I'll take the L on that one as, you know, I've just been taking Ls a lot recently. I just, I don't know what's been going on.

And speak of the devil, I'm just watching this Carolina Boston game five. And I don't know what kind of goal Peter Marazic just allowed, but it was just pretty awful. Bergeron shot it from behind the goal. Basically behind the net and it somehow squeaked past Marazac. I'm looking for the gift from Pete Blackburn right now. I don't know. Someone else put it on my Twitter and just, wow, good grief. Yeah, if Carolina definitely needs to shore up their goaltending, I'm going into next season.

because if they get that down, they're a stacked team going in the next season, and they would be a cup favorite. But you can't keep rolling out Peter Morazick and James Reiner. But they're just, they're so bad. But anywho, also watching this Columbus Tampa Game 5, well, Braden Point was able to win the game in overtime. Because, of course, you know, the guy who won the five overtime game for game one, he just has to score this series Clencher to send the lightning to the next round.

But also just watching this game, it was really, really funny. I think midway through the second period Columbus had had five power plays already I think they were one for five Tampa had zero So yeah Columbus getting that classic refereeing Of being down three games to one and saying You know what? Gotta give them all the power plays And Tampa Bay none because they're up three games to one in the series

They don't really need power plays With just how vaunted their power play is So yeah, love that classic ref show That Columbus was getting there And also just watching that game Columbus was getting away with a lot of stuff Pure Look Dublao had some really really dirty plays throughout the series. A couple really bad ones today where he basically shoved a lightning player

into the boards pretty viciously. It's turning into a kind of a low-key, dirty player, I would say. Well, I wouldn't go that far yet, but he's had a lot of low-key dirty plays during this series. But Tampa has moved on. I mean, right now, guys, it's looking like if, especially if Philadelphia wins tonight, the Islanders win tomorrow, and then Boston take care of business today, we would have the Flyers versus the Islanders, Amy Bruins versus the Lightning. I wish Bruins' Lightning would be the Eastern Conference final. It's going to suck to see one of those teams get eliminated in the second round. I mean, that's if this happens in none of these teams below a 3-1 series lead or a 3-0-series lead

because somehow, guys, the Washington Capitals were able to win last night. I could not believe that. But, yeah, Tampa Bay, I figured they would win in five. Columbus just doesn't have the skill to go up against them. Columbus just needs another franchise superstar kind of player. They had that in Artemi Panarin for a couple years. But, you know, when a player doesn't want to resign there, what the hell can you do?

So those two teams were the first teams to move on. We're still waiting to see if Boston is going to move on against Carolina. That pick, I would take the L with that pick. I picked the Hurricanes in seven, but, you know, the Boston Bruins, it looks like, have woken up in a big way, especially with Peter Morazek,

barfing all over himself with that really, really bad goal that he allowed from behind the net. But, yeah, so other than that game tonight, well, besides the Bruins game than the Flyers, islanders game, I do believe we have game five of the Blues Canucks series, which is turned into a really, really fun series. I can't wait to watch that game tonight at 1030. The Blues have roared back in a big way in that series.

I'm just really, really excited to see if Vancouver's high-end talent can continue to try to carry them, or if the Blues veteran experience can carry them to this series victory. And then, of course, you know, I totally forgot that the Colorado Arizona series is going on today, game five as the avalanche look to move on in the second round. And actually, right as I'm recording this, Nazim Kadri, which is score on a power play goal. Arizona, they're just, they're no match for Colorado. That series should end today.

Dr. Sekempers has been trying to carry them to the next round or just carry them to win another game, but I mean, that's probably not going to happen, but with how my reverse Jenks has been, it very well may. Okay, so we're back for this final segment, and we actually have a, we do have a question from King Clarki. He actually sent me this question right as I was hitting, well, record for this podcast. So basically, you know, he asked, do you have any preferred prospects at the number 15th pick. If so, who and why? To start, guys, I will say I am not like the biggest NHL draft

guru. I will never claim to be. I don't follow a lot of these prospects as much as I should. I do want to get into it more. I'm the exact same way for the NFL draft with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I just do not follow a lot of these prospects as much as I should. But with that said, I mean, the Penguins, they are going to keep this pick. I think they would be foolish not to. I understand people want them to trade it for immediate help. I know they've done that the pass, but you need to hit on this pick. This is a top 15 pick in a very, very deep draft. You got to do what the Islanders did a few years back.

They selected Barzel in the top 20, and you know the rest is history. He's now their best player. So, you know, if the Sond Penguins can somehow get a player like that, that would be very, very nice. I think one guy that I'm looking at, I mean, Clarkie has also been DMing me about this, too. You know, Hendrix LaPierre.

I know the guy has a lot of injury concerns, but before this season when, in the QM, JHL, when he only played 19 games, he had a season during 2018-19, 48 games played 13 goals, 45 points in 48 games, basically a point-free game player. I do think he would be a pretty good pick at 15. Seth Jarvis, I think, would also be a slam dunk at this. I mean, during 2018-19 for the important Winterhawks, 16 goals, 39.61 games,

but his next season in only 58 games, 42 goals, 98 points in 58 games. Center, he shoots right. I mean, the Penguins need centers in their system. this would be an absolute slam dunk pig. He looks like the full packet as his two-way game just looks really, really good from what I've been reading. You know, Bob McKenzie with his big scouting report says

it's just really, really good. His scouting report is honestly the one that I trust the most. He does a really, really good job on it each and every year. But I do want to watch more of him, but it looks like I think at this point he would be a great pick for the Penguins at 15. And lastly, I guess for one more, Anton Lundell, another center.

He's from overseas. He had his first full season in league He finished seventh on his team In scoring 10 goals, 28 points in 44 games He was a league's leading score Among first year draft eligible players And younger this year That info comes from DK Pittsburgh Sports

I totally forgot that Finland won the World Junior Championships Last year and he was a part of the team He played really really well for them And you know he's another center Like I said the Penguins need centers in their pipeline The Prospect Pipeline Anyway is pretty barren for the most far You know, they've just been trading them on and on and on throughout the Sydney Crosby.

We've getting Malking there. But you know what? When you have three Stanley Cups out of it, you're not really going to care at all. But still, now is the time we really start looking towards the future as Crosby and Malking get into their 30s. This will be another player that I think would be really, really good for the Penguins at 15. I don't really know if any of these players would make the team out of camp. I think maybe they would have to wait a year or two to maybe get on the team. But still, getting any one of these three players would just be an absolute steal.

For Pittsburgh and, you know, Seth Jarvis, I think is definitely at the top. my list in my opinion along with La Piers who's also really, really good despite the injury concerns and Lindell. But that'll be it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with Josh Yoey coming on. Hope he's feeling better and we'll just pick his brain

on that whole mail bag and just a bunch more as well. So stay tuned for that. Hope you guys have a great rest of your day and I'll talk to you all tomorrow.