Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is Teddy Blueger's lack of playoff success concerning?

Episode Date: June 7, 2022

Happy Monday! We are now halfway to episode No. 1,000 and Hunter starts the show with some fresh Penguins news. He touches on how the arena has a new management group that will oversee the operations of PPG and tries to improve the fan engagement and entertainment in Pittsburgh. He goes into what this could mean moving forward for the Penguins as there could be new offerings inside the arena as soon as next season. After that, he gets into two Penguins assistant coaches being connected to head-coach openings and what that could mean for Mike Sullivan heading into this offseason. Will both be able to get a job? Could only one of them depart? Why are teams so interested in these two assistants? Hunter answers those questions before getting into Teddy Blueger's season review. He dives into his underlying numbers and looks at what they tell, plus looks at how his playoff numbers have been super, super concerning throughout the last four years. Should he be expected to be back next season? What needs to happen to make sure that he stays on this team for the next several years (potentially)? He dives into more questions about Blueger before ending the show by shouting out Penguins management for not being incompetent with Mike Sullivan since Bruce Cassidy and Barry Trotz were let go during the offseason. All that, plus much more on today's episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK. 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, everyone. Happy Monday, as usual, always Penguins topics to discuss today, including some more head coaching rumors, or at least assistant. Two of the Penguins' assistant head coaches are in head coaching rumors, something about Bruce Cassidy and why I think everyone should be grateful that Mike Sullivan is still here. We're going to continue our player season reviews with Teddy Bluger today, how his regular season was, what happened in the playoffs, what should we expect going forward, and a pretty big announcement. from the Penguins in the Fenway Sports Group with managing PPG Painsbury, and that's all coming up right after this drop.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at Lone's Four Penguins.

Today's episode is about to you by Ben Online. Ben Online has you covered this season with more props, Ons, and Lines than Ever before. That has been online where the game starts. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this year for us to listen of the day. So there was news around 8.30 this morning, the Penguins out of press release saying the Fenway Squartz Group, which of course owns the Pittsburgh Penguins now, they have selected the Oak View Group to manage PBG Paint Serena. And what that is, they're basically going to, this group is going to modernize the arena a little bit.

I mean, you know, the PPG has been here since 2010. That was their inaugural season right after the Penguins lost to the Montreal Canadiens in seven games when they basically got Yarsov-Hlock. And then the press release, yeah, it's going to win to manage, book and operate on PPG. And, you know, this company, you know, they manage some world-class arenas around the country, you know, the UBS arena home of the New Islanders, Climate Pledge Arena, home of the Seattle Cracken, two of the best NHL arenas, I think in this point in my opinion, the Seattle Arena from the photos I have seen are really nice. The UBS Arena absolutely blows the Nassau Coliseum right at the building. It's also going to manage the company, the Arizona State University arena where the Arizona

Coyotes are set to play for the foreseeable future. Also, this takes place July 1st, and they are going to retain PBG's existing local management team and all of the arena workers. So that is probably the biggest, I guess the biggest news I took out of that. You know, no one really has to go looking for a job or anything like that. But, you know, this can only be good things for the Penguins. Kevin Acklin, who's the CEO of the team said it. This is a rising and abated leader in arena management, and we are proud to welcome their partnership at PPJ Paints Arena.

They recognize the strength and resilience of Pittsburgh's handbase and the quality of our venue. And we're thrilled to partner with them to focus on the future of sports and live entertainment in Pittsburgh. So I will be curious to see, you know, what kind of if there's big renovations to happen for the arena, but that's probably not going to be for many more years now. Just, you know, what changes do they make, you know, inside and, you know,

potentially even outside for the arena. So that was the big, or the first big news. of today. Amen. I listened to 32 thoughts, the podcast. And for anyone that, you know, doesn't listen to another podcast outside of mine, if there are people like that out there,

and, you know, if you are, I love you, obviously, go listen to what their stuff with Jeff Merrick and Elliot Freeman. They are the cream of the crap, I think, in terms of hockey podcasts in this country and around the world, to be honest. And so Elliot Freeman,

they got to the coaching segments. And Friedman said that sounds like the Chicago Blackhawks are planning to interview Todd Reardon of the Pittsburgh Penguins. And I was definitely caught off guard by that. I was of the opinion when he came back to Pittsburgh that he probably is not going to get another head coaching job again because of what happened in Washington. I mean, sure, they made the playoffs, but they never really won around. The power play was not as good when he was there.

The team, again, they still finished, you know, top three in the Metro basically every year. But, you know, I think the capitals just, they didn't really do much of a coaching search after Barry Trots left for the Islanders. They just promoted from within. I think that was potentially a mistake there. But it was interesting to hear that. And, you know, Merrick mentioned that Reardon has a long history of working with defensemen. Obviously, you know, he's done a great job with Mike Matheson. with the Penguins. Crystal Tang had another tremendous season.

John Marino started to really get going in the playoffs. Marcus Patterson was really good all season long. Chad Rueel steady as she goes on the number six pairing. Even Mark Friedman, I thought, really made some headway this year. So I can definitely see why Chicago was interested in him from that kind of standpoint, because Seth Jones is their top team in. He's definitely regressed these last couple of years. you know, if he can get back to the way he played in Columbus for a couple of those years,

when he was there, that makes their defensive core suddenly look a lot better. He also does have head coaching experience. He's gotten teams to the playoffs. But, yeah, I still, I don't think that would be the right fit for weirding, because I think the Blackhawks are still a ways away. I'm going to mute or close my laptop there for, I apologize about that. But, and it was getting back to what I was saying, I just don't think the Hawks are relatively close doing a playoff team.

I mean, there was a rumor. I think Elliot Friedman said it on, I think it was Hockey Night in Canada over the weekend, where outside of Taves, Kane and Chef Jones, the Hawks are listing on any and everything. So they're open for business. I got to think those big three players that are not available for trade know that this is probably going to be a pretty long, I mean, I decently long rebuild, I think. And, you know, Alex DeBringate is, you know, probably the version of Jake Ansel, even though Jake is better.

You know, Dylan Strom is a good player there. You know, obviously they traded Brandon Hagle, got a good return back for him. They traded Flurry at the deadline. You know, I'm curious to see what direction that team is going in here. You know, are they committed to a really long rebuild? Like, you know, four to five to be? potentially, I'm going to turn the TV off here, to four to five to potentially six years, or do they want to really speed this up and go, you know, you know, two years we want to be back

to contention or, you know, three years or something like that. And then Freeman also confirmed that Mike Volucci had a very long interview for the Philadelphia Flyers head coaching jobs. So both Penguin's assistants are getting a lot of head coaching buzz right now. both of them were to leave and right now I personally don't expect that to happen just because there's so many great candidates out there right now. Bruce Cassidy was somehow fired today.

Barry Trots, David Quinn, if you want to classify him, as a good candidate, Rick Bonish, Jim Montgomery, Scotty Arneal, etc., etc. So, you know, I don't expect the two of Penguins assistant coaches to get a head coaching gig,

but it also wouldn't surprise me if, you know, at least maybe one of them. I don't expect both to go. That's for sure. But, you know, it does speak volumes about, you know, how the rest of the league, you know, views these two coaches. And that, you know, Jim Rutherford, even though Mike Sullivan didn't get to handpick his last staff, you know, Rutherford, you know, did a pretty good job assessing a couple of the assistant coaches when he was here next to Sullivan. You know, Volucci, you know, his resume speaks for itself.

He has a lot of experience coaching and managing-wise down in the HL, has coached for numerous NHL teams throughout his tenure, did a really good job with the team's penalty kill up until the playoffs this year. You know, Reardon, you know, the power play could use some work. I would not, you know, if he were to leave and take that job in Chicago or potentially another job, you know, I think they could get someone, you know, equally or potentially better than him with regards to a power play. so that gets fixed for next year.

So they don't really, they don't just stink in the playoffs like they did against the Rangers. Though they definitely will miss the presence of being just a coach that's very good with defensemen. So that's where I think the big loss would be there. And then for Volucci, obviously, the penalty kill was a team strength. But honestly, the PK has been a strength of this team. Going back to when Jacques Martin was hired, you know, back in 2014,

Even during the early, early Dan Bileswell years, this team was killing penalties very well. So, you know, they can definitely, I think, bring in someone here who can run a pretty good penalty kill. So there's plenty of assisting head coaches who would probably jump for this job to work under Mike Sullivan. So again, as of right now, I don't see both of them leaving. One of them potentially could go. But I think you're going to see at least, you know, in terms of Sullivan, Reardon and Belich on the bench, I think at least two of those three we've got because obviously Mike Sullivan is not going anywhere. And by the off chance that both do walk, the Penguins will have a pretty big opportunity.

You know, Mike Sullivan will get to finally handpick his own staff. I don't think Ron Hextall would go out and just make the moves for him. I think, you know, Mike would want to have the say that he deserves, you know, when assembling his staff, you know, he's probably going to want to have the best staff that he can have. if both of these coaches do end up moving on. So that's the latest Penguins news from today on Monday, both the coaches and the announcement with the arena and potentially some renovations coming in the next few years

or definitely down the line as well. Coming up in my next segment, we're going to get into Teddy Blugher's season review. As we chugel on, we're getting close to being through all of the forwards here at this point. But our next partner has a problem. that I literally use every single day. I started taking athletic greens because, you know, I wanted better gut health.

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I am your host, Honore Hodes, Snerda, follow me on Twitter. Hunter Hodes, know what to follow me on, follow the show's Twitter at L-11Square Panguins. I am definitely having a case of the Mondays today. I'm just like screwing up so many words and all this. I have no idea what's going on. Maybe it's because I've been just watching this crazy Colorado Edmonton game. That's 5-5 as I'm recording that's about to go into overtime. It is absolutely, you know, that was a nutty third period.

I just say the least. But, you know, let's get to the next season review on the list. And this is Teddy Bluger, the Penguins' fourth line center, are getting to him here on natural statrick. Nope, I do not want to click Jeff Carter. So, Bullocker this season, 65 games played. When he was on the I's, the Penguins, only 48.3% of the shot attempts.

They had 59% of the actual goals, which is good. 51% of the expected goals, which is the highest of his career. Only 49% of the scoring chances, 52% of the high danger chances for, 65% of the high danger goals for, so 23 high danger goals for 12 high danger goals against. Shot 8.6% this year, a little down from his 9.3% last year at 5E5 this year, 23 total points on 7 goals, 16 assists. You know, he was fine during the regular season.

And, you know, he always, I feel like is fine during the regular season. But the last two years in the playoffs, you all want, these are some damning stats that I'm about to throw out you. Again, for the regular season, in total. nine goals, 28 points, and 65 games. That was actually a career high for him. He's still searching for his first double-digit goal season.

But, you know, when you get to the playoffs, look at this. In four seasons, he's played 10 playoff games, two points in 10 games. That's unacceptable. It's not good enough. Excuse me.

It's bad. You know, and he's gotten plenty of, of quality chances these last two years. And the fact that he only has one goal, which came, that came in the bubble against Montreal in 2019-20. Against the Islanders last year, no points in the six games, even though Brandon Tanna was an absolute menace.

This year, only one assist in seven games. I don't think enough people are talking about that. This team is very deep. But when you have a player like that, that's not showing up. even though he's had really good regular seasons, and he's just coming off a summer where the team protected him in the expansion draft, you have to produce better when the games matter most.

I understand that it's a small sample size, but when your stars are getting shut down at times, and I know Cindy Crosby and Jake Gensel were otherworldly in the playoffs this year, and I know if Gennie Malkin was mostly okay with six points and seven games. Still, you need your depth players to chip in a goal from time to time. You know, look at the Rangers Kid Line with Heidel, Lafrancacro. They are absolutely tormenting teams during their playoff run, and they're up two games to one on the Lightning right now.

You know, Bluger, he's been at it for three full seasons. You know, two points in 10 playoff games since he's come into the league and be a regular, that's not good enough for me. I think the time is now for him to really show who he is as a player and for him to take that next step. he deserves to be on this team i will 100% stand by that i think he's a great penalty killer i mean the team had a three on five goal uh last season against the capitalized that was the pain woman's first three on five goal in over two decades and you know he's good at even strength i like his shot

when it's on you know he has some good he's a nice first pass he's good at carrying the puck into the zone but you know obviously when all that goes away there's not much there But, you know, I just, I still want to see more consistency from him as he enters his fourth, full season, and the NHL fifth overall one. He doesn't make that much money. I mean, obviously, you don't want your fourth line center to make up a good chunk of your salary cap. But I still expect more from someone who, you know, I think people hype up a lot more than they should right now. And don't get me wrong. You know, I like Teddy Bueger.

I think he's a good fourth line center. He's a good depth feast for a contending team. But you probably can't ask him to play, you know, third line minutes or even second line minutes if you need to. I always see people on social media, you know, it's really well. Well, you know, if Jeff Carter's out, you know, maybe Blueberg can sign up in probably third line minutes. And, you know, wow, that may be true. And he doesn't get caved in his own zone like Carter does. Carter also had almost 20 goals this year.

He's still better than him offensively, even if, you know, Carter is not, you know, what he wants once, to say the least. Because, again, you know, Blue Guard doesn't even have a double-digit, you know, goal-scoring season yet on his resume. You know, it's underlying numbers, again, you know, that they are what they are. You know, if we want to go to the playoffs now and take a look at that, seven games, 50% of the shot attempts for the Penguins at even strength. Expected goals for 56%.

So, you know, that's encouraging at least 50% of the scoring chances. 50-50 for high danger scoring chances, no high danger goals against. Assuring percentage, though, only 4%. It was 4.7% last year, 6.25 in 2019-20 when he had that goal. But, you know, I don't know. Maybe it was because he doesn't have Brandon Tannen and Zach Ashtonis on that line, especially Astonis, you know, they were so great together as a center winger duo.

That could have played a part in him strutely. struggling down the stretch, but he also was banged up for a decent chunk in the second half of the regular season. I'm also wondering if that contributed to him not being as good down the stretch and in the playoffs. Again, do I want Teddy Bluger on this team next year? Yes. Again, he's a good contending player.

He's a good player to have on a team that wants to contend. But if, say a team wants him in trade talks and the Penguins' can get someone back that's, you know, maybe a bit better offensively, but doesn't plays well defensively. I would definitely look into that and see if that kind of situation makes sense. You know, I don't think, you know, he's off limits or anything like that. I mean, you know, can you do worse than him? Yes, can you do better than him?

Also, yes. I don't think that's going to be an area of need for the Penguins over the last season. I think Hextall is going to be, you know, comfortable with Bluger for that 4C spot. But I also, you know, in the back of my mind, I wouldn't be surprised if they potentially dangle him in trade talks, even though it probably won't happen. Again, I'm just saying I wouldn't be surprised to say the least. So to sum it all up, I want to see more consistency from him. He's not played well in the playoffs the last couple of years. That needs to change if the penguins do want to potentially go on one more long run in Cindy Crosby's tenure.

And that may sound silly to some of you all, and I get it, you know. You know, a fourth-line center can only expect you to do so much, but, you know, I also expect more than two points, you know, in 10 playoff games in four years. I'm sorry. I just, I expect a lot more than that. Actually, no, excuse me, I almost just screwed that up. It wasn't even 10 games. I did not have my glasses on here.

It is 18 games. Two points in 18 games. So I apologize for that. I don't know what the heck. Again, I am having the case of the monies right now, but the point still stands. Two points in 18 games is not going to cut it. That's really bad.

So hopefully we do see more of him next year. And it would be curious to see if he potentially gets some new linemates during the offseason. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into some pretty big news that happened. today around the league that, you know, I just want people to understand just how, you know, blessed we should be to have Mike Sullivan as the Penguins head coach. But before you get to that, bet online.com.

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to learn more about the trends in action that has been online where the game starts. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Oh, man, this is, give me one second here. So I had to pause the recording a little bit.

I have been pointing a new hashtag on my Twitter with the hashtag Hodes jinks. I tweeted that, you know, it looked like we're going to go back to Denver, especially when the Oilers were up 3 to 1 and 4 to 2. I did not happen to Avlanch just won the game in overtime, 6 to 5. They're going to the first in like a final in 20 years. And the old takes exposed count retweeted to me. So I definitely made it to say the least. That is a moment I will not live down.

I'm just becoming Andrew Philopony. I think at this point with all the jinxes. I mean, it's just basically a kiss of death for me at this point. But, you know, getting back to the news that we saw today, I'm not going to put those on, Bruce Cassidy was fired by the Boston Bruins in a move that really did not make a lot of sense to me. You know, he's probably one of the five to six best coaches in the league. He led the Bruins to the third most wins in the league during his tenure. He got them to within one game of winning the Stanley Cup in 2019.

The Bruins gave the hurricanes everything they could handle in the first round the playoffs this year. They had Tuka Rask literally retire midway through the season and Allmark and Swain and did what they could. You know, they battled numerous injury problems like they have every year. Obviously, it's nothing like the Penguins, but they still battled through them and Cassidy. You know, he always had them ready to play every single night. And for some reason, Don Sweeney and Cam Neely decided to move on. And, you know, this should serve as a reminder to you all, yes, you Penguins fans, they listen to this show, how grateful we should be that we have a management right now, knock on wood, that appreciates Mike Sullivan.

Because if they were to fire him, again, he would have a job in five minutes. He is one of the three best coaches in the league. What he has done since he came in in late 2015 for this organization is absolutely amazing. I know they've had a few first round exits here in a row, but I'm not really going to blame that on him. Just like I'm not really going to blame the brew. problems. Bruce Gassie. It's kind of funny. I was reading some Bruins fans' tweets on my timeline today. And they were saying, you know, it kind of has to do with Don Sweeney and Cam Neely making some pretty questionable roster decisions. And sure enough,

I think that's been the case for both Ron Hextall and Jim Rutherford. You know, I think both general managers really haven't helped Mike Sullivan's case. And if he was to get fired, if it was somehow later down the offseason or, you know, next year maybe, or even if it was this year or the year before that, a year before that, it wouldn't have been his fault for the team going sideways because of mistakes that these regimes have made, you know, such as the Jared McCann situation, the Jack Johnson contract, Justin Schultz being really bad, his last year,

trading for Eric Good Branson, you know, trading for Ryan. He was literally going away from speed and skill after you won back-to-back cups, try to get heavy because Sidney Crosby was taking a couple of stupid shots. I'm telling you, Ryan Reeves is not going to prevent those from happening here, to say the least. So I just wanted to spend, you know, this small segment here, touching on how, you know, fortunate we all should be that Sullivan is the Penguins coach. You know, look at Barry Trots, even.

He was fired for literally no reason at all because Lou Amarillo, you know, just wants to promote from within and he felt like the team needed a change. when in all honestly the team do not need a change there they probably need a change in the front office i mean you know is barry trots the one trading two second round picks uh trading to von taves for two second round picks uh no no no he's i don't think barry trots is also signing a bunch of old vets to like you know two to three to four year contracts um you know and i could say the scene here which in rutherford over the years you know even the matt hunwick situation you know ron hextall with bungling the expansion draft and, you know, maybe not getting a goalie during the last offseason and, you know,

maybe giving too many years to begin and all that, you know, none of these things are on Sullivan. So, you know, it's crazy that, you know, some of the best head coaches in the league, you know, are the scapegoats for bad front office decisions for the overall team. It's just, it's something in hockey that I wish would go away for me. But that will do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I hope you all enjoy listening to this one. I apologize for having a case of the Mondays here. That is not going to be the case on Tuesday where we are back with a fresh new episode

talking about the beloved Pittsburgh Penguins. Hopefully there are some contract news coming here at some point. So again, thank you all so much for listening, and I will talk to you all on Tuesday.