Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Could Jason Botterill return to the Penguins? Plus comments from Conor Sheary to the media!

Episode Date: June 17, 2020

Jason Botterill was officially fired by the Buffalo Sabres today as the general manager and Hunter talks about how awful the Sabres situation is, plus could Botterill make a return? He could come back as an assistant general manager and have the same duties as he did before, especially now that Billy Guerin is gone. Hunter also talks about Conor Sheary's comments to the media today about playing with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel again, plus much more! 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 Tuesday evening episode 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 L-O-U-U-Swar Penguins. Today's episode is, of course, brought to you by BiltBar. Remember, go to Bilbar.com. You can use promo code locked on. You'll get $10 off your first order.

Happy Tuesday to you all. As you know, we hit another week. You guys may also be listening to this tomorrow on Wednesday, which is the 17th. So, you know, happy Tuesday, heavy Wednesday, T-Wall. So we continue to chug through this year. We're already into mid-June.

We're going to be in July before you know. We're going to have the 4th of July. And then, you know, it's just basically into the dog days of summer until sports come back. But, you know, on this day, in 1990, so on this day in Penguins history, the Penguins drafted Yarmier Yager with their first round peck, hell is the fifth overall pick in the 1990 NHL draft.

We all know what happened after that with the back-to-back Stanley Cubs and how much, you know, just how much awesomeness Yager brought to the Penguins. They also acquired Joe Mullen from the Calgary Flames for a second round choice in the 1990 NHL draft, and then they also drafted Chris Tamer than NHL draft. On this day in 2010,

Penguins' assistant coach Mike Yeo resigned from the team to accept a head coaching job with the Houston eras of the HL. Then I think he was made the head coach, of course, of the Minnesota wild. I always forget that Mike Yeo was an assistant coach with the Penguins. It's just, it's funny how that was just so long ago. During the early years of the Crosby Mulcanary, you know, that's just one of the things I always forget was that Mike Yeo was an assistant head coach for the Penguins. And I believe he actually started down in Wilkesbury, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm going to have to double check that. Let's see. Other cool penguins stuff today. Josh Yoia of the Athletic, who of course has been a frequent visitor on this podcast. I actually talked to Mike Sullivan today about Matt Murray or Tristan Jari for the Penguins. he really didn't tip his hand. I mean, would you expect Mike Sullivan to do that? He never tips his hand on many things.

A couple of the quotes that he had in the article. Sullivan said, I would tell you that we have a ton of confidence in Matt Marie and in Tristan Jari. I know that's not what you guys want to hear, but it's the truth. You know, that's just as typical standard Mike Sullivan answer. Yep, we have confidence in both guys, you know, whoever's going to start. We're going to feel comfortable with, you know, whatever happens in camp and leading up to the playing series. You know, we're going to go with the goalie who gives us the best chance to win. You know, that's his mantra.

He's always been like that. You know, I don't think it takes a genius to see that, you know, he's maybe not as high as he used to be on Matt Murray. He's not going to have as big of a leash. We all know that. We all know that the goaltending is the Penguins' biggest question mark going into the play-in series. The forwards, of course, are very deep.

The defense is really, really good. Now when it's healthy, I mean, except for Jack Johnson. But, yeah, the biggest question has always been the goaltending. I did see, actually, Josh was running a poll. Among Penguins fans, know, who would you start in game one of the playoffs? And Matt Murray is winning that. Looks like there's about 3,000 votes cast 60.8% in favor of Matt Murray,

39.2% to Trishandari. So literally a 60-40 ratio. That's not, I don't think, nothing out of the ordinary, I would say. You know, I think there's a lot more Murray fans than some people like to believe. Matt Marie is also more experienced. You all know my answer on this. I would go Matt Murray in game one, but with a very, very much shorter leash. What else from the article here that we can talk about?

You know, basically, you know, he talked about this season with Matt Murray. He said, you know, we have extremely high expectations for Matt. He has shown the ability to play at his very best when the stakes are at their highest. And I can't think of a better characteristic to have for an athlete. So, you know, just talking up Matt Murray because, you know, he's been here before. You know, we all know he's won two Stanley Cups. He played his ass off during both of those runs. I honestly think he was better in 2017.

Then he won is in 2016. But he was still badass in both of those runs. One more thing from the article, and then we'll move on. Sullivan also believed that Murray was turning the corner when the NFL shut down on March 12th because of the pandemic. The quote, you know, he said, I really do think so. You could see him playing in a more consistent level in the second half of the season. We really liked the way he was trending. He certainly has shown in my time with him that he's a better goaltender in the second half of the season.

And into the playoffs, his track record speaks for itself. I mean, yeah, it doesn't really take a genius to see that he usually lights up during the second half of the season. he always has these little struggles during the early portions, October and November, then you find out sometimes he's been dealing with an injury, takes his time off, then comes back, then he lights out. You know, you saw it during the 2018-19 season where he really, really struggled during the first half of the season, I thought. And then, you know, he has his injury then during the second half of the season from like,

I think the date was December 15th, 16th, whenever he came back onward. He had over a 930, 5V5% percentage. he was just lights out the rest of the way. So, you know, when he's on his game, that's the thing. He just needs to be on his game. There are not many goaltenders in this league who I think are better than him when he is, he is on his A game. You know, when he's on his A game, you know, he's squaring up to shooters.

You know, he's big in his neck, making the saves that he sometimes, you know, can't make when, you know, he's not on his game. You know, that's the stuff that I look for in Matmarry's game, you know. There's no, all that glove size. talk or whatever, you know, I've talked about that so many times. A lot of goalies give up goals to their glove side. How most of their goals given up are to the glove side. It's just a fact.

But, you know, if you want to read the rest of that article, just go on theathletic.com, subscribe to it. I'm not going to, you know, just basically rock, talk about the whole thing because, you know, I want you guys to go read it. But, you know, I just found those quotes from Mike Sullivan really interesting. It's one of the few times that Sullivan has talked since the NHL has gone on pause. But, you know, we got to get a glimpse into, you know, maybe what he's planning. You know, not really, I guess.

he really didn't say anything. But, you know, like I said, that's just typical Mike Sullivan stuff. He really is not going to tip his hand on any of that. We also had Connor Sherry spoke to the media today. He talked about some of the COVID testing, potentially playing with Cindy Crosby and Jake Gensel. He said he expects a smooth transition if that line is reunited. The full quote from Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post Exit. I think we can really contribute offensively and also be a responsible line at the same time.

I think we can be excited for the fact that that might happen. He also said at the end of the day Of course, you know, we all want to play As long as everything falls into place And they have the right of ageing precautions I don't have any reservations Myself So, you know, I mean, I've gone on record before

I think they're going to do Gensel Crosby, Sherry I know that Jim I think prefers Gensel next to Crosby We all know how good the underlying numbers are With Gensel and Malkin I mean, I wouldn't be mad either way But I just think they're going to go with

Gensel and Crosby and then Zucker with Malk and you can flip-flop it all you want. I don't really think it's going to make too big of a difference. I know the underlying numbers for Zucker with Crosby and Gensel with Crosby and then vice versa. We'll probably both be really, really good. But I think they just know that how well Gensel plays with Crosby and you can put Sherry in there and he can do his thing. So that's not a surprise. And then, you know, Zucker, Malk, and Rust is just going to be disgusting. Another interesting thing that Sherry talked about was the test for COVID-19.

basically is that, you know, it's not the most fun test to take. I think I've gone it twice. They're pretty much just stick a cutic way up your nostril, and it feels like it's in the back of your brain. So, yeah, for anyone that does not know how a COVID-19 test work, that is basically what happens. Yeah, that sounds definitely pretty painful. I'm actually supposed to go to Aruba for my graduation with my uncle.

It's more than my graduation, yet this is not going to be until, like, September, October. And I think in order to go there, I have to have a COVID test. at least 72 hours before on my flight there. So I think I'm going to have to have a Q-tip up my nostril like Sherry described. So, yeah, I'm going to have to experience that firsthand. So that's going to be pretty interesting. But, yeah, all the players are going to be tested for it, rightfully so. You know, I mean, it's just, yeah, like he said, though, it does, it does not sound

like it's going to be a fun test to take with a Q-tip almost up into your, it feels like it's up into your braid. I just, yeah, doing that every day, you know, it has to be done. but man, that that's going to be really, really uncomfortable just to, like, feel that kind of pain for the players. We all know health is the main concern, so like I said, you know, they have to do this, even though the test is going to be uncomfortable for some of the players. But, okay, with that out of the way, it's time to talk about Bilt Bar. They are protein bars that taste like a candy bar, 16 amazing flavors, eight chocolate nut flavors, eight chocolate nut-free flavors. The bars are covered in 100% chocolate.

They're soft and easy to chew. They're also, you can lose or maintain weight while indulging in a delicious treat. The favorite flavor still is still the peanut butter brownie. I am just stuttering like a complete moron today. The favorite flavor is still the peanut butter brownie. There we go. 20 grams of protein, 170 calories, 3 grams of sugar, 3 grams of net carbs. You think after saying this for a whole month I would not stutter?

Yep, too late. I'm still a complete idiot. But we still have that offer. You can go to bilbar.com. Use promo code locked on. You'll get $10 off your first order. That's promo code locked on for $10 off at billbar. dot com. All right, so welcome back here for this episode of Lockdown Penguins. We did have some

former penguin news today, some pretty big news around the NHL, and that is the lovely Buffalo Sabres franchise. Jason Botrell, the former assistant general manager of the Penguins, and the former general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, was canned today three weeks after Kim Pugula, who co-owns the Sabres with her husband, Teripugula, said that he was going to stay with the Sabres for this season. So three weeks, all it took was for them to change their mind. The Sabers, I was watching that press conference day. I don't know if some of you guys were, but I mean, if you guys see a Sabers fan, if you know a Sabers fan, please hug them. I mean, or just, you know, do a fist pump because, you know, we're during a pandemic, you know, an elbow,

little thing. But, you know, just, just please send them your condolences. I don't know how people stay Sabers fans. I truly don't. When you have Kim Pigula basically saying, oh yeah, we don't think what we're doing right now is a rebuild. It's just like, um, are you not paying it? It's like, yeah, I mean, I guess it's not a rebuild if your team just sucks every freaking year. It's no wonder why Jack Eichel wants out, you know, he's, he basically hints at it when, you know, he says like, you know, I'm tired of losing, you know, I want to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And I think if they keep losing this next season, maybe two more, um, he's, he's going to ask Al, you know, I honestly think he should ask out right now. They've just been nothing but bad to him. They surround

him with so much garbage. They don't even get the Rasmister-Lyining thing right. They screwed up the Ryan O'Reilly trade so bad. There's so much more that that franchise has just screwed up. You know, the Jeff Skinner situation. He wasn't nearly as good this year as he was last year. You know, it's just, it's pretty embarrassing. You know, some of the Penguins fans that talk about Jason Botrell are really just funny

to me, you know, for so long after he left. Oh, my God, guys, he was the brains behind the operation. guys. He won the Penguins two Stanley Cubs. Jim Rutherford didn't do anything. He didn't do any of the work. It was all Jason Botryl. Jason Botrell this. Jason Botrell that. Oh, my

God, he's like the whisperer in Jim Rutherford's ear. It's just like, I don't know where people come up with these theories, but like it's just not, it's not a thing. I'll say this about Jason Bodrell. I think he's good at what he does. He's a good salary cap person. You know, I was talking with one of my buddies this

morning, you know. I think that when he was with Jim Rutherford, they were better with the salary gap. I think that's fair to say. You know, you can see with some of the contracts, you know, Jack Johnson, you know, Matt Hunwick, you know, as opposed to other ones that they signed when Bottsville was here. But to say that, you know, oh, yeah, Jason Bottsville was the brains behind the operation. He did everything behind the scenes. Jim Rutherford didn't make any of these acquisitions.

He didn't build this team or the team, the Stanley Cup winning teams. It's just like, or, you know, he's responsible. Or another thing, he's responsible for back-to-back Stanley Cubs. It's just like, no. No, no, stop with your dumb conspiracy theories. We've been hearing about this ever since he left, and it's just like, oh, stop. It's just, it's just silly to me. Like, that's the thing.

The people who did just talk about Jason Botcher like that, it's just really, really silly. And I did see from a CK404 response code, he had a great tweet this morning. Please follow him on Twitter if you're not. He's one of my favorite follows from England's Twitter. So this was a tweet from October 20th, 2017. Batcha will have a good, tough experience under his belt in two years when he's fired by Pugula and hired by the penguins. So it took maybe one more year, but still, that's just absolutely spectacular. But, you know, he does this like sixth sense shit.

But, you know, like he did say, though, I will be open to bringing him back in his similar roles before. I don't think that's bad to say. You know, bring him back as an assistant, let him do the salary cap thing. Let him do what he does best here. And then, you know, when he's ready, he can go out and actually get a GM job that, you know, maybe suits him better because no one works in Buffalo but Buffalo is just such a tire fire

I feel so bad for you know whoever has to play there and work there I feel so bad for their fans too I mean that was once a proud franchise they would make the playoffs almost every year they've had so many great players throughout their history I mean especially during you know my time growing up

you know Prime Thomas Vanik Jason Pommonville you know Dominic Hasick was there you know that's when Christian Airhoff was pretty good Hell, Billy Lano, I think, was good for a year, which was pretty funny. You know, Ryan Miller had his best seasons there. That was when Ryan Miller was a franchise goaltender, and then, of course, he fell off a little bit, but still, you know, they've had plenty of great talent over the years. And these last just nine years, it's just been a disaster after disaster, after disaster for the Sabres.

And I just feel so bad for their fans. Another thing on the Sabres, I loved how Terry Pugula today said, you know, on hiring a president of hockey operations, I don't believe in that philosophy. So, okay, I guess you're just okay with the status quo. You're not going to try something new. Okay, Terry, you know, when your team sucks ass next year, most likely, and you don't build your team around Jack Eichel like you really should be doing. I mean, you have Jeff Skinner and Sam Reinhardt and Ross, Miss Daly.

I mean, that's basically it. You know, you really don't have much else around those players. You know, when your team just stinks again, you know, don't be looking at the coach. You know, maybe you should take a long look in the mirror and see. that what you're doing in Buffalo is pretty bad, especially after firing a GM after two to three seasons, because you guys just don't get it. But okay, I think I'm all Sabres out.

What was that other news that we had today? Oh, yeah, so it looks like the Nassau Coliseum is shutting down, apparently as it's looking for investors to take over, and apparently this was from newsday.com, their Islanders deal from 2018 is still in existence. So apparently they're going to have all their home games next year move to Brooklyn if this does not change. So, yep, round applause.

There we go. There we go. Everyone knows my thoughts on the Nassau Veterans Memorial Colise. And that place is a dump. It is not suited for NHL games. I hate that arena. I am very much glad they're moving back to Barclays just because, you know, I just,

I love seeing the Islanders and their fans suffer. You know, I'm just, I'm such a sucker for it. So, you know, seeing them play in Barclays with that giant truck right up there, not a lot of fans come to that arena anyway. So, you know, I just love it. But, you know, they are going to be. moving to Belmont in a few years anyway when their arena is eventually finished. But, you know, still love to see it, love seeing Islanders fans get mad about that, that they

won't be playing in their dump-in of Arena. It's just not suitable for NHL games. There's not enough, you know, stands to fill, like, an actual home crowd in there. And it's just, like, it's just way too close in everything. Everything's way too close together. At Arena, the Arena just sucks. But, okay, you know, I've been, I've been ranting about the Islanders now and the Sabers for this whole segment, you know, and I really need to stop.

So now is a good time to send this. message to the whole Locked-on podcast network to all of you guys. The Locked-on Podcast Network, we all stand against racism and social injustice. That's why we, the hosts, are making personal donations to local and national organizations that are fighting for change. And in this month of June, Lockdown is matching the total of all host donations up to initial $10,000. To make your own donation along with us, please visit Lockedonpodcast.com slash Black Lives Matter.

That's locked onpodcast.com slash Black Lives Matter. better. But also, with that said, it is time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving auto park customers online for 20 years. You can go to rockado.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers. The catalog is unique and remarkably easy to navigate. You can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brand's specifications and prices you prefer. Best of all, prices at rockadodo.com are always reliably low and the same for professionals and do it yourselves. Why spend up twice as much for the same post? Also, you know, you can go to rockado.com right now.

You can see all the parts available for your car or truck. You can write Locked On and there are how did you hear about us, box, so they know that we sent you. Amazing selection, reliable to low prices. All the parts of your car will ever need that is rock auto.com. All right, so to finish off this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast, I guess we'll just go around the horn. Apparently a Twitter, a Twitter, good lord, a photo has made it on to Twitter. Apparently, Evgeny Malkin has posted on his Instagram. matching outfits with Sidney Crosby,

well, except Sydney Crosby is wearing flip-plops and McKinie Malkin is wearing sneakers, but still matching shirts and matching shorts. I even tweeted during that, you know, I am most likely going to sob when these two retire. You know, growing up watching these two play, it's just, it's absolutely remarkable what they've done for this city and just how good they are.

And it's just, it's going to be really, really weird when they retire. You know, I'm not ready to talk about that yet. that's still about five to six years downline. Hopefully I still have this podcast at that point so we can talk about that when it comes to it, but you know that's still so far. I wanted to bring up just one last thing before we call it a episode here. I was talking with my buddy the other day. Jeff, you know, of course he's been on this podcast a couple of times.

You know, just like how much this fourth cup would mean, you know, to this city and to the fans and to the players, you know, I'm probably going to do an article on this after exchanging some ideas with him. It just, it would mean so much, you know, to some of the players, you know, I'll tease a little bit of it. You know, just, you know, to have any Malkin, first off, you know, what a fourth Stanley Cup means. Most cups of all time for a Russian-born player, you know, cements him as one of, I think, one of the top 20 to 30 best players of all time. It's like, I can't believe that he was, still can't believe that he was not in the top 100 players of all time. The NHL is such a sham for doing that to him. Chris Lattang, you know, that kind of debunks the, oh, my God, you know, he was, you

He's always hurt. You know, he's not as good as people think he is. You know, having four Stanley Cups and being the best defenseman in franchise history. Yeah, I would say he's, I would say that cements his legacy there. Mike Sullivan to get his third Stanley Cup in five years as the Penguins coach. You know, that cements him as the best coach in Penguin's history. I know everyone loves Badger Bob. I love Badger Bob.

I think he was incredible. I wish I was alive to see that cup run with him. to see how much they loved him. I mean, of course, I've watched the videos, and I saw how much they adored and respected by Jabob. But I think that would cement Mike Sullivan is the best coach in Penguin's history, also one of the best, also one of the best U.S.-born American coaches ever as well.

You know, I mean, one more, I guess, you know, what this means for Cindy Crosby, you know, that he gets that fourth Stanley Cup. You know, he just continues to cement his status as the top five player of all the time. I think he's already there, you know, with Lemieux, Gretzky, Oren, and Howell, I think after those four,

it's it's it's crosbie um i know you can make arguments for other players but in my opinion i think cindy crosby's right up there at another number five spot and i think that will just further cement his legacy you know you have other lower tier players you know justin schultz you know if he plays well you know this this is his big chance to cash out you know it really is not looking well right now that he's going to cash out and make more money than he signed just a few years ago where he signed that let the little short-term contract with the penguins just because of how injured he's been the last couple seasons, but you know, if he balls out, he plays the best hockey he's played since that ankle injury, there will be teams lining up to pay him and pay him a lot of money. So this was just a

nice little tease for this article that I think I'm going to work on that's going to dive way, way, way deeper and do a lot more players. But I figured I would do a little bit of just a little bit of teasing for you guys into potentially what it's going to look like and just how much a fourth Stanley Cup and the Crossley Mulcan Air would mean to some of these. players. So I really appreciate you guys listening to this episode of Locked-on Penguins. We should be back tomorrow with an episode, if not tomorrow, Thursday. Definitely we'll have one on Friday. So tomorrow or Thursday, I'll have my second one, and then, of course, Friday. So like I said, I really do appreciate you guys listening to all these episodes. Follow me on

Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Also shout out to the Lockdown NHL show. The show that they had this week was absolutely outstanding. The roundtable, the discussion they had was just listening to it today. Just outside. I cannot recommend that enough. So that's the Lockdown NHL National Show. Please check it out. Sarah does an incredible job with it. But anyways, thank you guys so much for listening,

and we will talk to you all later this week.