Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Jesse Marshall is back for ALL sorts of Penguin talk!

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

The second episode of Friday is finally here! Hunter is joined by Jesse Marshall to touch on all things Pittsburgh Penguins and they first start with the GM search. Who are Jesse's top options to replace Ron Hextall? Is he high on Kyle Dubas while others are not? What kind of GM does Jesse want running the team moving forward? The two also discuss whether a woman could be joining the front office as the time is almost here for a woman to be the first full-time general manager in NHL history. After that, the two analyze what the Penguins need to do this offseason to be a playoff team again next season. What's at the top of Jesse's list? Does he think the Penguins need to start over in goal? Is buying out Mikael Granlund pretty easy? What would he do about Jeff Petry? He tries to answer all of those questions before the show ends with the two discussing the Stanley Cup Playoffs so far and which series have caught their attention. All of that, plus much more, is on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic 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/NHLNETWORKFanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go to FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) 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 there, Penguins fans. Welcome back to the second of two episodes for today, because of course I didn't have one on Thursday. For today's episode, we're going to have Jesse Marshall of the Athletic on to discuss everything regarding this team from the GM firings to who he would be looking to replace Ron Hextall, Brian Burke and Chris Breyer, to moves that he would make this off season.

Maybe he has some stuff that I haven't thought of and we'll also discuss the playoffs as a whole. That's all coming up right after this drop. You're locked on penguins. your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to another episode

of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show's Twitter at Ellers for Penguins, and of course, thank you so much for making this your first listen today. We're free and available on all platforms.

So for this one, your second listen of the day. Joining me now is The Man, the Myth, the Legend. Jesse Marshall. He has not been on the show in quite a bit. He was on the round of 4-1-2 earlier this week. For some reason, they decided not to invite me. I'm just messing around people. But Jesse, really appreciate you coming on, man. It's good to talk anything relating to the Penguins, even though this is a weird time not seeing them in the playoffs. It is, yeah. I was in college the last time this happened. I'm old. I'm way older than you were probably like in elementary school, like kindergarten or something. Yes, close. I was close.

grade. Second or third grade. But that's yeah, pretty much my entire adult life, right? There's been, even if it's for a brief spell like it was with Montreal in the play in year, right? That didn't last very long, but they were still in, right? So it's a bizarre. I'm enjoying it, personally. Not in like a, like I enjoy the penguins not being in, but like it's nice to have the ability to sit down and really pay really close attention to the other series, because if you're writing about the penguins, and you know this, you can pay attention to whatever things are happening, but you're formulating story ideas or doing your show that you do every day and having to come up with content for that.

You don't really have the joy as much maybe as you would other times. So the hockey fan, I guess, in us, it puts us on a little bit of a different position for sure. And I'm having fun kind of just like cutting video of like, you know, whatever in the heck I feel like and writing about whatever I want. So it's kind of fun in that regard, I guess. Yeah, you've been doing all that stuff for McKean's hockey. And if you're not reading Jesse's work, you are missing out because he's been putting a lot of video from all the other series.

It has been fun, you know, we'll get to the playoffs a little bit later. But, you know, I've started like a new, I've started like the final Thron trilogy. I've just been reading that and just watching the games. I'm like, wow, it's kind of interesting to not have to, you know, be pacing, just be pacing around your house or your apartment and watching this team. in playoff games it's just it's new but you know it's for like a one-off year hopefully um a little definitely a little different yeah and and it's a shame i mean you know we've talked you and i have talked about the year that crosbie and malkin had and um you know really the year

that they ended up really from their top six frankly you know jason zucker having a career year in pittsburg from his time here um i think jake gensel probably i'd like to have scored a little bit more, but I think still had a good season. As much as there was bad and there was a lot, there was also some good. And it's, you know, it feels wasteful, I think, as the word I think I would use that there was a lot of good, you know, 82 game performances that got turned in. And unfortunately, it led to nothing. Yeah, you're right. I mean, you know, Cady Crosby, of Guinea-Malkin played all 82 games, had 85 to 90 plus points. They still couldn't even drag the rest to that team in the playoffs and, you know, it led to some serious changes.

You know, it's been a week now, Jesse, since Ron Hextall, Brian Burke, and Chris Pryor lost their jobs. It's been a week since we first heard from Fenway Sports Group. And it's been crickets since then because there's really been no sort of rumors about who the next GM is going to be. I expected it to be quiet. I don't, I didn't think it was going to be, you know, as fast as it was last time. I'm pretty sure when Rutherford resigned a couple of years ago, they filled that role within

two weeks. Like, they were very quick. I think, like, I think Rossi of the athletic had like five candidates right off the bat within like two days. You know, they're really, it looks like they're really taking their time with this. I think we're kind of similar with our thinking, but, you know, who are you really looking forward to potentially seeing, you know, taking Ron Hextall's, I, I buched that question. Who are you looking forward to potentially seeing, you know, take over this team? Yeah. So I think, I think there's a couple of names I'd throw at you, and I think they're all going to fit like a,

profile that you're not going to be surprised to find that I like. Eric Tolski is probably at the top of the list. That to me is, you know, I don't think people understand because this was like 13 years ago that this happened. But Eric Tulski wrote the articles that that berth expected goal analysis. Like he did the work in the space that discovered score effects, right? and stuff like that, the fact that teams hemorrhage more shots when they're up to goals and that maybe we should ignore that period of the game because there's a lot of noise in there.

You know, he's so savvy. I think for me anyway, what you really get with Him Hunter is the guarantee that you're not going to have a glaringly erroneous player acquisition, right? Like Mikhail Granlin, for example, inexcusable, inexcusable acquisition in every shape of it. a guy like Eric Tulski or I know Tyler Delo has a tendency to rub people the wrong way. His public discourse about analytics was often direct and to the point. Whereas like if you're in a conversation with someone who doesn't believe in hockey analytics or that numbers matter in hockey, you know, maybe you tread lightly with them to try to get buy-in or present points in like a,

you baby it down a little bit. Della wouldn't do that. Like he would just run you over with a steamroller with the facts and be like, your opinion, stupid, here's the way it actually is. I like him. Personally, I like that. So I mean, you throw his name in there. These are guys that, oh, go ahead.

Here's the thing, though, like if everybody keeps talking about, well, what about these? They don't have the interpersonal relationships. and who cares? I don't care. I really don't. I frankly, I don't care about that at all. I want guys who are going to make good shrewd player acquisitions that cost other teams and benefit the penguins. That should be everybody's goal. Like, why are we all interested? Well, does this guy, like, are they going to talk about golf for 25 minutes when they pick up the phone? Like, are they going to be friends? Like, I don't care. Get good players. You know, that's what this is about. and they all have the ability to do that.

Do people really think, do people really think that if, like, Sam Ventura, who's another name, who's from Pittsburgh, CMU guy, if he got the job and he called, like Ron Francis,

do people think that Ron Francis would hang up because Sam Ventura is a new gym? Do people think that he just would like click, click, oh, idiot, and like hang the, this concept is crazy to me that, like, you have to have some level of like interpersonal relationship,

with other general managers. I just don't believe in that. So all these names are fresh. Kyle Dubus, I don't care. I don't dislike Kyle Dubus. I think I don't know the story, right? That's the frustrating piece. I think the narrative I've been fed is that the bad decisions Kyle Dubus has made

haven't really been his idea. You can sell me that with like maybe a bridge somewhere. Like I'm not that dumb, right? I'm just not. Like, that's, that's nonsensical to me. And what kind of organization do you have if your general manager could just be steamrolled into signing 40 plus veterans at the whimsical behest of Brendan Shanahan? Like, I just don't know.

Maybe that's the way it is, right? I just don't know that I believe that. I still don't dislike Caldubus. Sorry, Hunter, but to finish my idea, like, I do think there's merit in saying that despite the circumstances up there, that a large amount of cash and a blank check over hockey ops might be an attractive thing to him for a team that has Sidney Crosby's Twilight. Imagine what his legend becomes if he wins a cup with Sidney Crosby one more time, right? Like, what does it do for him?

Especially if he's making a bag of cash and he has 100% control over everything. Of course, I think he might be interested in that. I just don't know to what level and I don't know, obviously, the Penguins aren't out there like sitting down at the table having a conversation with them about it right now because Maple Leafs are in the playoffs and you know they're not they're not tampering so um i don't know i mean i think that there's legitimacy to the interest i just don't know if it's reciprocal we'll put it that way yeah i mean and we're probably not going to find that out for another week week and a half until potentially the leaves um arlin i think as soon as they if they lose that series

I think Fenway's worst group is probably going to give him a hell call right away. I think they see him as like that Theo Epstein kind of guy when they hired him for the Red Sox. I think they think of him like that just, you know, 100% of the way. I understand that people will not like do this because, well, he's lost in the first round every year. Well, you know, he's also in the general manager of a team that, you know, is more or less curse, but also, you know, they've gone up against some really tough opponents in those series, like Boston's very good. Tampa Bay is very good.

The Columbus and Montreal series, you probably should have won. But all their other years, you know, they've gone up against some very good competition. I'm not saying I would hire him. I'm just saying that, you know, he would be a better fit,

you know, than obviously the last regime and some of the other people that I think could be on this list. I just want someone who's not really a retread, like a Brad Trail. Yeah, recycled hot man. Right.

Yeah. 100% agree. 100% agree. It would just be dumb. Like, you know, Bradshaw living, fine job in Calgary, got them close to the playoffs. I did what he could with Kachuk and Goodrow leaving. But he's nothing much, much special. You have those dumb rumors about Stan Bowman.

Yeah, I don't even, I'm not even going to give him a call. Peter Shirelli, I think I've seen floated out there. I mean, if you want a haul for Larson-type deal, you can just hire him for that. You can do that. But, yeah, I just want someone who's fresh. Yeah, literally. I just want someone who's fresh. who's innovative, brings new ideas, and actually knows how to evaluate players in our year

2023 and not from 2017 or 2018, Jesse. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, 100%. Well, that's the big thing, too. And then, like, a lot of people, you know, I'm not afraid, I'm not really not afraid to say this, but like, you know, Mr. Huffman got brought into the Penguins organization. He never been a scout anywhere before, right? Like, what was his history?

This is as extensive as mine, frankly. Actually, I don't know. I might even say mine's more extensive. uh i it's like i've been sitting on the internet doing this for years i don't know man i i there was a there was a i think there was a touch of like my friends are here like let's bring them on over um and i think that there was a disconnect for me between the what the coach wanted to do and the way that he wanted to play and what they were signing and bringing in like i think that was really really off the mark like there was a complete divorce between the two parties that they

they never were on the same page hardly at any point other than maybe like ricard rickle you could say it was like a player that really fit the style of play that Sullivan wanted you know but other outside of that i feel like everything else Ryan paling maybe we could add in there um but for the most part like you know it was there were a lot of whiffs and i i there's i think whatever you do um you do have an analytics department already it's there pre-existing it's very talented um and catarina was great. You could vote around that. I think you give somebody that ability to come in and control it, right? Like I said, Hunter, that allure of like that blank check. And if they want to build out an assistant GM and they want to bring other people in great, if they don't great,

trust whoever it is, make the right higher, trust whoever it is, and then let them paint the vision and take control of it. You know, I don't think that it's going to do anybody any good to, you know, bring a Burke in again or bring in some kind of like, you know, hiring manager, you know, or something like that, you know, let the team make the decision, let the group make the decision. Yeah. Target the guy you want and then let that person, that person that you've brought in build from, let them be the architect. Don't bring in somebody else to do it for them. No. I mean, and that's not, by the way, not an excuse for Ron Hextall. That's not an excuse

for Ron Hextall. It was just a weird marriage, right? Like, it's just like, it didn't make any sense to me. And there was always that question of who's actually. And, that's actually. And, by the way. And there was actually in charge here. You can never have that happening again. You can never have that happening again. It would be very, very clear who this person in charge is this time around. Yeah, I mean, we saw it with the Jacob Chikrin stuff. You know, that was, I think that was honestly almost felt like the beginning of the end for Hextall here, just because time was going against Sullivan a little bit. And I don't think Sullivan has any Bill Belichick like power here. But he obviously has been here for a long time. And while Hextal wasn't, that's just, yeah, you're right. The two never saw eye to eye, I think, on how, you know, their respect.

of viewpoints wanted the team to be built. And I do think for this one office, just, you know, other than bringing in an innovative person, I actually, I've been thinking this for the last couple of days, I think you're going to see a woman be brought aboard because, you know, the time is coming when there is going to be a woman general manager in this league, I would say probably within the next couple of years, to be honest. And, you know, with the way Fenway operates,

I think they could definitely try to, you know, if they do want someone like Dubus, I could see them, going out there and getting Haley Wickenheiser, who's there as an assistant GM under him. I think Rob had Alexandra. Mandrake. Yeah, she's in Seattle. Cammy, I think, John, you're going to hear this later on today on the hockey happy hour. I probably shouldn't have dropped that.

We're still in the baby stages of it, but, you know, Josh dropped Cammy Granato. I would be very surprised if there wasn't a woman on this stuff. And, you know, I would be all for it because, you know, again, the time is coming when there is going to be a full-time woman general manager in this league. Amen. I hope they pick up the phone and call my friend Rachel Dory. Megan Thikek as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Any of those names are phenomenal. Yeah. I agree with you, by the way. Yeah.

I don't know. I'm not going to get into like the specifics because like, you know, out of respect, but like, you know, why I think what happened with Rachel sucked? Yeah. The situation was crappy. You know, I'd be wary of some people because of that situation. That's just my opinion. But I think, you know, it's another name I would just throw in the hat as the Dory name. Yeah. Yeah. That's a perfect one right there. That will wrap up this first segment of the podcast. coming up. And the second is I'm going to get into some moves that, you know, and I'm going to if he thinks the penguin should make over the off season. As I do think there are going to be quite a few changes. But before we get into that, we do have to discuss eBay Motors. If I get my wonderful, nope, that's not the right one. That is the right one for the YouTube audience.

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the game in no time. After all, it's easy to bring home a win when the right parts are guaranteed. Get the right parts, the right fit, and the right price on eBaymotors.com. Let's ride. Eligible items only exclusions apply. All right. We're back here in this episode. of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honore Hodes. I'm with Jesse Marshall of the Athletic. Jesse, you know, whenever the new management staff comes in,

whether that's two weeks, three weeks, a month, maybe more. They are going to be pressed with a lot of decisions to make the summers, a lot of UFAs, a couple RFAs, but there's also employers under contract who probably should not be returning next season.

And, you know, I'll throw this out there because I saw this throwing around social media this week i talked about on my show jesse do you think it's worth it for the penguins to buy out my kyle grail and eat some salary cap for the next several years i think it's the most sensical thing that they can do frankly i think any general manager that gets hired that should be the first order of business just makes too much sense um what sucks is that and we and i you and i have always discussed like how cool it'll be when the cap goes up how creative can the penguins get like what will they do with that extra money well now they kind of have to

flush it down the toilet a little bit, right? Because, you know, they got to buy him out. But I don't think he has the goods to play in the Mike Sullivan system at a $5 million a year cat pit. That's the key, right? Like, at that level, I don't, I don't see him as like a super aggressive bear down four checker. Like, he fits that bill. I don't think he's going to get the power playtime to be an impactful playmaker because that's probably the best part of his game. And The second power play unit in Pittsburgh is basically garbage time, right? You don't see a lot of action in there. Crosby, Malkan, Lutang, or dominate that top unit.

And even strength, his impacts were negligible at best. He scored one trash time goal against the Flyers. I'm not even going to count that goal anymore. Doesn't count. Well, Hunter, here's the other thing I haven't even gotten. He's objectively bad defensively. Yeah. He is.

He just is. It's not good to find it. You could say what you want, but you can't put lipstick stick on a pig. Like I see it. Like it's there. The data's there. It's not great. So I just, I would rather, it's one of the situations where you'd rather pay to not have to deal with all that and then have the rest of the cap space. You could sign two players that are more impactful for him with the money that you have left over, take out the, it's like 1.8. I think, Hunter, don't quote, do you know the number offhand? I think is at 1.8 million. This year, the buyout cap hits

933 I think 933 and then it goes up to 1.8 for the next several years but looking at it this way though do the math that's money that you have if you go out and make two shrewd smart moves for 1.5 mil apiece you have 4 million and extra

cop space this year get 100 or $5,000 you just gave yourself a little buffer congratulations so I just feel like it's it's almost it makes too much sense to not do it I would be shocked if it didn't happen just because again I don't if Mike Sullivan's sticking or even if he's not sticking around. Like, even if they get a new coach, do you still really want that at $5 million a year?

I mean, I don't see the results improving in any drastic format regardless of what the system is. So for me, yes, I would 100% do it. Yeah, I just, yeah, you're right, Jesse. I don't think he ever really truly fit the system. His offense has gone downhill. I don't need to hear about the 64 points. He played with Roman Yossi, Matt Duches and Philip Orsberg. I probably said that about 5,000 times. There's a stupid little critter, not even a critter, just a little fly trying to fly around near my desk. Another question I have for you is, you know, what about, you know, for defensively, Jeff Petrie makes a lot of money, 6.25 for the next couple of seasons. I was on board with that move at the time because he played pretty well down the stretch the season before this one under Marty St. Louis, I believe, had 21 points in 30 games after

St. Louis took over. Thought, okay, put him in a more offensive system, he'll thrive. well he didn't his aid started to show do you think the penguins could look to move on from him this offseason even though his contract is a bit much i think that you probably try but to your point right you're going to have to sweeten that pot potentially for another team to take some of that on they don't have any sweeteners or they can't afford to sweeten right that may hamper their ability to do things in other areas so um you know here's the good news is he wasn't a disaster right Like he wasn't this undeployable. I think he suffered from big moments.

I think what would really benefit Jeff Petrie and Pittsburgh Hunters to just pinch less. I think that's true of all the defensemen. I think that just as an organization, they need to pinch less, period, all the time. I think that that green light is a little too green in some uncomfortable areas for me. So I think if they could tone that back, it does two things. One, it gives him more cause to have to. utilize some shrewd common sense in his bench situations, which they could bit him down the stretch this year. I think, too, it takes the burden off him to have to face less odd man situations,

you know, from an expected goals against standpoint hunter, the penguins were trash defensively this year. And I think a lot of it was transition stuff, right? They get caught a lot. They were, they were forced to play in transition on their heels and didn't react well to situations where they had to freelance read things, right? So anything you could do to reduce those moments is to be great. So if he does stick around, I think there are ways that they can organically get a little bit more out of him, you know, without sinking the boat defensively. Yeah. I think that's fair. You know, also, you know, putting a competent partner with him would help, you know, if that's Marcus Pedersen, that's Marcus Pedersen, if it's someone else who they

decide to sign, which I think that's one of their top needs, and that's that. But, you know, speaking of that, Jesse, you know, what is kind of like your dream? mock offseason outside of buying out Gremlin. You know, I've been on the record saying I think they need someone else to play with Crystal Tang. I think that's a big piece of the puzzle. They also probably need to start in goaltender. You've got to fill out your

bottom six. How would you approach this offseason to getting this team back to at least being a playoff team next year? Sure. I mean, so goaltending is number one. I think anything you do right out of the gate that's not that is a mistake. strictly just because, you know, you can fix the roster and you could dress that up and

fill out those holes and get a better bottom six and all that. But if if you have bad goaltending, leaky goaltending, who cares, right? I mean, at the end of the day, like, you're still going to lose. I think, you know, no, you don't have a team right now that's good enough, nor do I think you can build a team that's good enough to overcome something like that, you know? So that's the first one. Now you're going to have to get a little creative there. For sure, right? No question about it.

A name I like in free agency that I think is out there that you might be able to get fancy and do something with is like an Aden Hill. Maybe you go out and find a way to get creative and do that. Maybe you make a trade. You know, Vamalka is a guy like out in Arizona. UC Soros. UC Soros, everybody loves that. I'm down with that as well. But you have to do something, right?

You've got to go to do something. You've got to go out. I don't think either of the goalies that they had this year should be back. I don't think either one of them. Do you want to keep Dustin Tocarski for the H.L. Great. Fine. I don't care. But the other ones, they have got to go. You know, looking out from the back defensively, yeah, I mean, I agree with you.

I'm not so much interested in, like, the discussions that people are having regarding, like, size when you get bigger. I just want people who can handle the puck, right? and are good in transition. That's really it for me. That's my requirement. People who, you know, maybe can traditionally help you drive, play a little bit and pick you up. Unfortunately, all the good, you have to rebuild the big.

So number two, I'm going to say, is actually rebuild the bottom six. Whether that's, like, let some young players that are on cheap deals, you know, get in there and finally play. Maybe you have to do that. Cool. I understand that. Maybe you have to get creative. and try to find a way to go out and pinch and poach an RFA somewhere, you know,

and get their rights, you know, compensation-wise. They're in a crappy position. But, you know, you have to, you've got to find a way to do things on the cheap when it comes to the bottom six. And that starts with, you know, maybe like a guy like a Drew O'Connor, you know, and just sucking it up and giving him the space and putting him down there permanently because it saves you money, you know, and you could potentially have the space to do other thing.

So my, in order for me is goaltending bottom six. And then, you know, you can individually spot out from there. Oh, there's Jesse's mock offseason right there. You know, hopefully, you know, the new management comes in here and, you know, up the season. And I do agree with you about O'Connor. I think he should have a full-time spot next season. Paling.

I'm lukewarm too. I thought he played better when he got back from his injury. But I'm still not sure if he can fully stay healthy. for next season. But that would do it for this segment. Coming up to end the show, we're going to do some little talk about the Sine the Cup playoffs,

what Jesse has seen so far what I've seen from a lot of these series. So don't go anywhere that's coming up right after this commercial break. All right, I'm back on this episode of the Blockton, Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honor Hodes. Murdofawley on Twitter

at Honorahodees. Follow the show's Twitter at Endorse for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day. We're free and available on all platforms. I don't know, this weird little fly thing It's just,

we got a little fruit fly over there or something. He is testing me today. I don't know where this thing came from. You need to step off your reflexes. You've been swatting at this thing. I'm trying to kill it. Thank God you're not a goalie. You'd be a sieve.

He'd be a terrible glove, Hunter. He won't. He won't die. Matt Murray, love a glove. I know. It's terrible. Oh, he won't die. But, you know, I can tell you who also, you know, won't die.

There are a lot of these teams in the playoffs right now because a lot of these years are very good. Jesse, when you've watched all nights of those Stanley Cup playoffs so far, what series has really caught your eye as the one where fans need to be like, okay, I got a tuned into this one. Seattle, Colorado, it's been so much fun. Games been great. Both of these teams,

I think what's interesting about this is that they're playing the same systems, pretty much, for the most part, and that, like, they're really aggressive on their forecheck. And each team is simultaneously trying to rob the other, of as much time and space as they possibly can. You know, I loved watching in Game 1, Seattle, close a lead out super aggressively. And, like, on the front foot, we're not going to sit back and protect this lead. We're going to continue to try to press you.

And then they did that again in game two, but Colorado, you know, found a way around it. You know, I posted a video on Twitter today and I'm, you know, using that long change in the second period of their advantage. There's a lot of little quick stretch passing that they did to get around to Seattle, So I feel like there's two coaches in that series that are really dancing around each other right now and trying to figure out how they're going to find time and space. I thought the Rangers Devil's series is going to be the best one in the playoffs. And boy, does it suck? Just sucks.

And the Rangers are just absolutely throttling them. It's a 2000. It's Penguin Senators 2007. Yeah, 100% man. I agree with that 100%. Boston, Florida has been good, right? That's been good. I think it's been good series.

no Bergeron makes that a very interesting dynamic. It totally changes the face of that series. And, you know, I'm interested to see what happens tonight with this game three at Edmonton in L.A. Because Connor McDavid's super good. Leon Drysiddle is super good. But man, like the Kings again in that game one, they felt like a team that could like take this to distance

and make it really difficult. So if Edmonton comes out tonight and just destroys them, this one might be quick. If L.A. wins? well buckle up that'll be fun LA's been kind of like trapping a bit have you noticed that they say like a one three one almost like a one four

they probably the option what are the other options let Connor McDavid dice you right so like I wouldn't even you know if he if he was on the ice you put all five guys on the blue line just stand there every sticks out lay down everyone lay down across the blue I make them dump it make them dump it

I'm kidding but no I think that's smart to be frank with you. You can't, they can't punch with them. They cannot do it. Right. And there's a lot of times like where I think like Florida is, I think, a great example of this. There's Seattle's a great example of this, frankly, is it don't, you know, if your, if your strength is for checking and aggressive play, live on that, you know, don't go up against a better team and cower. But I think in this case like it's working it well it worked a little bit you know and it's probably your best chance to survive so um that's what they used to do it in lemu back in the day dude like and you could get

away with like putting your arm around somebody's neck and giving him a DDT like that was legal like that's what you did against Lemieux like DDT power drive them you know give him a tombstone that's the only chance you have to win so um yeah and then uh Tampa Toronto what a what a just absolute those Toronto fans were feral last night it was crazy great. So that's going to be seven agonizing games for the fans of those franchises. They are just going to tear each other to shreds. I'm going to sit back and enjoy it. That's been a fun one so far. I don't know if you saw that. I'm not repeating this on here, obviously. Phil Esposito, I think honored 420 with a really bad quote last night during that

Leafs. I did not see this. What was it? I'll just send it to you. It's... Okay, don't do it. Yeah, if you can't. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, I'm not. I'm glad I missed it, frankly. I'm... I don't know what he was thinking there, but yeah, there was a ton of penalty minutes there. The Dallas Minnesota series has been awesome. I love watching. Dallas is fun to watch. I don't know why Minnesota went to Flurrying game two.

That really made no sense. Yeah, but you usually don't do that after a win. Yeah, that one, yeah, I don't understand that at all. And then the one series, Jesse, that I can't watch, that Carolina, New York series, it's just like watching paint dry. It's so bad. Yeah, not a good matchup for the Islanders. Right, at the end of the day.

They're really struggling. They can't score. Well, yeah, that's a problem too, but like their crease coverage has been terrible. They've just been letting people get behind them and it's just not been good. So I think they've got to start doing it. If they can't do a better job in front of their net and wide, they're going to get eaten alive. And look, I know like refs miss penalties. the theme of the NHL playoffs, but you cannot go out of position to complain about it.

You can't. You're going to get destroyed, and that's exactly what happened over. Scott Mayfield, you know, he left his man wide open and Jasper Foss crushed him for it. So lesson learned. If the call gets missed, you're better off swallowing it and walking away. These refs, they'll burden you for it. Yeah, no, I mean, you're right. And that was a penalty, obviously, but, you know, you're right. You can't be skating out of your way to bark at the ref when there's a scoring chance coming in. I also thought Sorokin was terrible in that game. That was a very off day for who I think is one of the three best goaltenders on the planet.

They're up a creek. Even though Carolina is down to Ravina and Svetnikov, they should be able to win two of these remaining five games. You're right. It's a bad match with the Islanders. The Hurricanes, they can do what the Islanders do. They all shut you down. That's how they are. But, you know, it's also like watching paint.

It's also like watching paint dry. Your water boil for pasta. it is a tough watch. I was impressed by what Florida did to Boston game two. I was sitting there to myself. I was like, oh, tie game going into the third period. With the Penguins have won that game, Jesse? Nope.

I don't. I would probably have said no. And honestly, it's just watching these games. Other than maybe the Islanders, I don't think the Penguins are better than any of these teams. Nope. I think they probably would, I think they would have gotten destroyed. I think if you look at the way some of the goals,

I posted a montage on Twitter yesterday of like, you know, the far forward scored like three goals in the NHL the other night. Like the four that's like tucked away from the play. The Penguins did such a bad job marking that forward. Like they'd just been eaten alive by it. You know, it's just like I was just thinking that myself when I was cutting that video like all of these goals are like goals the Penguins allowed all year long and you probably just gotten crushed. So I'm with you, man. I don't think it would have been very pretty. No.

No, it would not. And yeah, that Jersey Rangers series. Yeah, it's definitely looking like I think Jersey's there a little. too early. They're just not ready. I don't think they're ready for this yet. Very similar to the Penguins in 07 when they got waxed by that veteran-setters team. The Rangers are going to be really tough out. And that's getting a little scary there, that they might have a good draw. If they can win that series and they potentially get a banged-up Carolina team, they may make a run to the conference final or potentially the

Stanley Cup final. They have the team to do it this season. Yeah, I mean, that Colorado series has been great. I didn't think the Seattle will be given them this much of a fight, to be honest, Jesse. I didn't think. Even without, like, Andes Cog, but Colorado's, you know, they're in a war right now and they're going to have to get ready for that, you know, great atmosphere in Seattle this weekend. No, last question for you. What are you looking forward to for the remainder of these series? Anything jump your eye for that?

I'm going to go back to, again, just a Seattle, Colorado piece. I think if you're interested in like systems or coaching, it's a good one to watch. It's a lot of audibles getting called, a lot of, not a lot of space. So it's very, you know, chaos in the hockey playoffs is what we expect. But I think that because of the environment and the systems has been ratcheted up to a level, maybe just a little bit higher than the rest of these series right now. Yeah, it's a late one. So you have to stay up to watch it, but it's the weekend.

You have no excuse. It's not. Yeah, it's not the week day. But that would do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Jesse, really appreciate you coming. on why don't you tell everyone where you can outside the athletic where they can read your work because you are doing a lot of league-wide stuff right now yeah so uh i'm at mckeens n-hL general stuff um at mckeenshockey dot com and then at the athletic it's penguin specific

stuff um then i do a little everything on the old twitter at j marsh f of yeah so follow him there follow all this work at the athletic in mckeen's hockey and you know jessey thank you so much for coming on We're definitely going to have to do this at some point again during the off season, probably more than once. And I hope you have a wonderful weekend. We'll see what happens with these series. We'll see if we get any more rumors or in the Penguins' GM search. Until then, I'll talk with you all on Monday.