Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Kyle Dubas provides clarity on the Penguins' future...sort of

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kyle Dubus came out of hibernation on Wednesday, and Pat and I are going to discuss our takeaways from that media press conference. Plus, recap the game against the Islanders right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:36 I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center in for Wet. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by FanDul.

Starting point is 00:00:57 Make every moment more right now. New customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 if your bet wins. visit fandul.com slash locked on to get started. So let's jump right into what Kyle Dubus had his first media press conference in two months today, the pre-trade deadline press conference, if that's what you want to call it. And he said some things that I liked, but he also said some things that I didn't like. And let's start with the things that I did like because we're going to spread some positivity to start today's show because I know we're going to get into some of the negatives in a little bit. And the quote that I really liked the most out of everything else that he said was that he feels there is a responsibility to Crosby and the big three to continue to try to win by putting the right supporting cast around them.

Starting point is 00:01:47 He is 100% right in that regard. He owes it to those players to try and squeeze every ounce that's left in them before they retire. And then you can begin that full tear down where maybe they suck for quite a few years. but until that happens there's no reason to speed up that rebuilding process and it's all going to come down to that final sentence especially over the summer right the right supporting cast around them you know it i know it everyone else that watches this team knows it everyone else that covers the team knows it the penguins have not had the right supporting cast around the core for quite some time now but especially these last couple of years the bottom six these last two years

Starting point is 00:02:30 have been good enough. The defense over the last couple of years has not been good enough. And that's been part of the reason why the Penguins have missed the playoffs, even though they've gotten some really strong contributions from the core. So at this point, if you want to do a bit of a retool over the summer, you want to bring in some younger pieces that he alluded to and we'll get into that in just a second, that's fine by me. But you still owe it to them to give them at least one more big shot at trying to make the

Starting point is 00:02:56 playoffs and trying to squeeze one more long run out of them. before they end up retiring. That was the quote that I found the best from Dubus's press conference today. Absolutely. It's one of those things right now where you have to do this for this group. He's absolutely right because it's not like a lot of people want to believe. A lot of people have somehow convinced themselves that this core is cooked and that they're done. And that's just extremely not the case. They are still very productive. They are. are somewhere between very good and great. They're not elite anymore, and that's perfectly fine.

Starting point is 00:03:35 That is what the aging curve does to players. Time is the only undefeated entity in all of sports, and it comes for everybody. So you look at the way Crosby's producing this year. Is he probably going to produce that much again next year? He's probably going to take a little bit of a step back, if I had to guess. The same is going to be said for Chris Latang, and the same is definitely going to be said for Hvgeny Malkin.

Starting point is 00:03:58 But the big key here is what you said. He's got to find the right pieces to surround them with. It has to be productive players. It can't just be replacement level guys because this isn't 2012 anymore. This isn't even 2016 anymore where the talent those three have is going to paper over other issues on the roster. That's just not where they are anymore. The other thing I look at it in this way, because we'll talk about it here a little bit, is I said it to you before we hit record. This has been a disappointing season in so many ways.

Starting point is 00:04:40 And I think one of the problems there is everybody that has been brought in this year has been disappointing in some way, shape, or form. Eric Carlson and the power play. I've said it a million times to expect another 100 points. season out of him was absurdity. That was an extreme outlier, but you expected him to be better on the power play. Riley Smith, he has never played with a center of the caliber of of Guany Malkin, and he is completely disappointed this year. Then you look at the bottom six guys.

Starting point is 00:05:12 Nolachari and Matt Nietto have a solid track record of being good bottom six contributors in between not being able to stay healthy and completely being underwhelming. Two other guys you took a bet on, and it didn't work. and then there's the elephant in the room of Ryan Graves. I know that a lot of people were kind of lukewarm on that signing, and I get that maybe there were some flashing morning signs that he wasn't going to be that good, but nobody could have called him being this bad.

Starting point is 00:05:44 So it's to the point where everybody wants to make this a, oh, Kyle Dubus failed in the off season. He set this team back and all of that. That's easy to say right now. That's easy to say when you look at where this team is on Wednesday, February 21st, 2024, because we're over halfway through the season. But going into the season, I don't think anybody logically thought this team was going to be where they are. So it's the fact that, yeah, maybe you took some risky bets in a lot of those guys that I named,

Starting point is 00:06:19 but there was no way to predict it was going to go this poorly. No, I never thought it would get to this point this season. We both had this team as a playoff team heading into the season, as did quite a few people in the fan base. I know a lot of people in the national media also did too. And then you have other players who have also disappointed. You know, we've talked about Ricard Raquel a lot. I mean, did we have him at this point in the season, Pat, not even having 10 goals this season? He's had no goals in his last 14 games now.

Starting point is 00:06:52 I mean, I didn't see that coming heading into the year. I praised the Riley Smith trade quite a bit, and he looked great to start the season and then completely disappeared. I will admit, I was higher than some people were on the Ryan Graves signing because I thought he brought a specific skill set to the Penguins that was going to benefit the team, but he has been a complete disaster this year. And there's really, I don't think, any hope that this is going to get better moving forward, even though he still has five more years left on his contract. And that's something I do think is worth criticizing is the term. And I've said before that on July 1st, you always overpay.

Starting point is 00:07:34 That's just the price of doing business with unrestricted free agents. But I didn't like this. I didn't like the six year term. But at the same time, that's the business of July 1st. So if there is something to truly look back on and. criticized for Ryan Graves. It's a six year contract, but you paid him essentially what the market rate is for a player of what was his caliber on July 1st, that money. So essentially, yes, there was an issue there, but at the same time, I'll keep saying it, did not expect it

Starting point is 00:08:11 to go this poorly. I agree. And my only hope, I guess, going forward is that he learns from these mistakes heading into the offseason because with the cap space that they will have, and they're still going to be a good amount of it, it won't be as much as they had this past summer, but they'll still have a good amount of money to spend. You still have to spend that wisely, and I want him to learn from his mistake so that he can surround this core with better players. And that leads into my next point. He said he wanted to get younger during this press conference.

Starting point is 00:08:43 I agree with him. I am all for that. But it's funny that you can say this now, but you spent a lot of money July 1st on players who, let's face it, Pat, they're not that young. I mean, Nootari, Matt Nietto, Ryan Graves. Heck, I'll even throw Eric Carlson. And I know Eric Carlson is one of the best defensemen in the league. But it is funny how a lot of his acquisitions were made on players who are quote unquote,

Starting point is 00:09:07 not younger players. So, I mean, if you want that philosophy heading into this offseason, great. And I support it. want to move out some players near the trade deadline. I know they've been getting some calls, then, okay, that's fine. You can bring in some younger players at that time. But it's just interesting to me how he says that now, and it's not even been a full year since he brought in players who were a bit older.

Starting point is 00:09:31 I just want to know what changed from that. I mean, I think part of it is what I was saying that the guys he brought in have disappointed. And I think that is to what you're starting to say, learning from his mistakes. because he said when he got hired, he wasn't brought in to be the guy to take this team into the post Crosby-Malkanera. Now, I think he'll do a phenomenal job once we get to that point, because he has a track record of doing a really good job with a rebuilding team. But I think he knew, like you're not going to be able to,

Starting point is 00:10:06 especially where they were last seat, going into last off season, going to be able to go out and get those young productive players because they just didn't have the assets to move at the time, nor the true actual cap. They had the cap space. They didn't have the assets. So essentially, that leaves you in a position where you've got to use free agency

Starting point is 00:10:26 and trades for older players to fill out your roster. Now, this summer and going into this trade deadline, you have some productive assets that you could move for prospects, draft picks, that you can then again use this summer to flip for younger assets because you will have more to offer to some of those teams that may decide it's time to start a rebuild, teams that are already rebuilding and have more to offer you. So I think now he's actually in a little bit better of a position going into this offseason,

Starting point is 00:11:01 especially because a lot of the money coming off of the books this summer, unlike last year, is impactful money for players. I know I'm not saying Jeff Carter is a huge impact player. but you get an albatross of a contract off the books. Everybody wants to say, and I think we're going to talk about him here in a sec, that if Jake Gensel doesn't get re-signed, you lose them for nothing. Well, no, the most precious commodity in the modern day NHL is cap space. What you lose him for is more cap space. I agree.

Starting point is 00:11:31 And speaking of Jake Gensel, Dubas's answer regarding that didn't give me much confidence that he's going to be here after the trade deadline based on his answer. it sounds like he's going to look to move him at the deadline and try to get what he can for him. I know I've been a bit pessimistic about a potential trade for Genslo, and I would say that's rightfully so because I think a lot of what you're going to get back is Magic Beans. And I also think at the same time, it is going to be really hard to replace him. 40 goal scores, believe it or not, people, do not grow on trees. it's going to take more than one player this summer

Starting point is 00:12:12 to replace what Gensel does if he gets traded or if he walks for nothing if he doesn't get dealt. If it were up to me, and I know I am definitely not qualified to run the Pittsburgh Penguins here, people. If it were up to me, I would try everything in my power to re-sign him

Starting point is 00:12:29 because, yeah, you'd be locking him up for a good chunk of his 30s, but he also hasn't shown any inkling of slowing down. He's been one of the best wingers in the NHL since he came into the league. And if you keep him and you move out other players on

Starting point is 00:12:48 this roster to get a bit younger, I think that helps this team, especially next season, to contend. That's where I kind of stand on the Gensel situation. Obviously, they may very well deal him, and if they do, I'll have to accept it. We'll have to see what they get

Starting point is 00:13:04 back. But that's where I personally stand on that. I know people are going to disagree with me, and I'll be ready for it in the comments on YouTube or people DMing me on social media. But that's where I personally stand on Gensel just because of how great of a player he is. They also will have a cap space to sign him over the summer. And even when you do,

Starting point is 00:13:22 you'll still have cap space to make other moves while potentially opening up other cap space. Even if this team falters even more down the stretch here, you can move out some players. And with that, you'll have more money to work with over the summer. basically let's run the quick scenario of if you do move him and then don't bring him back. You can't miss on what you replace him with. You can't end up trading him away in not replacing him adequately.

Starting point is 00:13:55 You can't miss on that. However, here's the other thing. You look at this year's trade deadline market. It's a seller's market and there's only a handful of teams that are truly out of playoff contention. I think that strengthens Kyle Dubus's hand should he decide to deal Jake Gensel, because everybody's going to go to the Chicago's of the league to try to pick them apart as they continue to rebuild. People will go to Buffalo and Montreal and a couple other teams like that. Nobody really is expecting the penguins, at least not to this present moment, to be a selling team.

Starting point is 00:14:33 so that gives him a little bit more leverage to get into that market and leverage what he has. Finally, you also do have the opportunity on July 1 to bring him back. If he decides to go to another team and doesn't like it, you can talk to him and bring him back. There's no role against bringing him back. So we'll see what happens with that. But I do think with his stated goal of wanting this team to get better and get younger, that you have to give to get. It is a rare sighting, and we saw it last summer with the Eric Carlson trade.

Starting point is 00:15:09 It is extremely rare that you can trade all your bad players for good players. You're eventually going to have to give up something of value to get something back of value. And right now that pretty much is Jake Gensel and maybe Alex Nadalcovic. Now, granted, if this is a pure hockey trade and it's not just for futures, maybe you could sell me a little more on it. Again, people, I know I've been very pessimistic about this just because, you know, let's face it. I do have a little bit of a bias. I love Jake Nsel. I've loved him since he came into the league. He's been such a great winger for Cindy Crosby. It's going to suck to see him go if he does get moved. But I will say, if this is a potential hockey trade compared to a futures trade,

Starting point is 00:15:52 I would feel a little bit better about it, though I still would very much prefer if you signed him long term, either before the deadline or after the season. But that will do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to get into more of what Kyle Dubas said to the media. Plus, recap this game against the Islanders. And later on in the show, we're going to get to Warrior Helmet Wednesday and a very weird Mike Sullivan quote as well.

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Starting point is 00:17:48 If you need to hire, you need Indeed. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Locktown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my host, Patrick Tam. So let's get into a couple of things I didn't really like from Kyle Dubas. He expressed a very big vote of confidence,

Starting point is 00:18:07 I would say, for the coaching staff. He kind of took the blame for the power play problems. And that goes against what I wanted him to really do in this presser. Why didn't you challenge the coaching staff to fix this? Challenge the players to fix this.

Starting point is 00:18:23 You don't need to die on that sword, you assembled a powerplay unit when you obviously got Eric Carlson to be one of the best units in the league. That's not your fault there, so to speak. I mean, it's maybe your fault for not moving on from Tara Reardon about maybe two to three months ago. But other than that, going into the season, he assembled what should be a very good power play unit. And for him to not even challenge Reardon or even Sullivan and even the players to get that right. That's very annoying to me. I think that's a waste of opportunity, in my opinion.

Starting point is 00:19:02 A little bit. I mean, I said yesterday I didn't want him to do the whole falling on the sword routine. I knew that it was going to happen just because that's who he is. That's how he operates. He is not the kind of guy who goes out and passes the buck or tries to deflect things in away from what's going on with his team. I would have liked him to be a little bit more forceful about it. At the same time, though, you know, he did say that it hasn't been acceptable.

Starting point is 00:19:30 He did say that it's been a disappointment. And, you know, he essentially said, like, we can't ignore it. It's been that bad this year. It's the obvious thing to talk about. And make the change. Fire the power play coach, buddy. No, I agree with that. The other thing I always say about that is, you know, we lived through the Hextall

Starting point is 00:19:51 in Rutherford eras. And as much as much good as Rutherford did in the nightmare that was Hextall, the one through line between the two of them is they loved to whistle past a graveyard. They loved to tell you that your lying eyes were telling you something different. Because I remember the Jack Johnson saga when they were telling us left and right that actually he's good. You guys are, we don't know what you guys are talking about. And you had Hextall saying like, oh, we like where our team is.

Starting point is 00:20:20 We like whatever. We like what's going on despite disappointment. So I can't appreciate the fact that he didn't run from it. He didn't try to poo-poo it or downplay it and say, no, no, these guys are doing a fantastic job. We're really happy with it. Like he said, hey, it's disappointing. And considering the previous two guys in charge,

Starting point is 00:20:37 I will take that as an improvement. That's fair. But again, to me, actions speak louder than words. You have the ability to do something as the general manager and the president of hockey operations. Saying it's unacceptable, saying it's not good enough, that's not good enough for me. You've had an ability to change something throughout the first 52, 53 games. You haven't decided to do it.

Starting point is 00:21:02 Again, actions speak louder than words. And that leads into my next point as well regarding Mike Sullivan. Dubis really defended Sullivan during the press conference today. And it honestly goes into something that I've been saying the last several weeks that I don't think they're going to make a coaching change this season. Heck, they may not even make one during the off season. Whether that's the right call, we can all debate that, especially with how Sullivan has been doing, especially these last two weeks.

Starting point is 00:21:28 But Dubus, by all intents and purposes, doesn't seem to think there's a problem with how Sullivan is doing. And to me, that is a problem because he does share a blame for how this season is going, the decisions that he has made. We're going to get into some of those in just a second, especially one that happened in the Islanders game. But to me, man, I don't know. that's just not a good enough answer for me, especially when there's been a lot of head coaches that have been fired and a whole bunch of other things that have happened so far this season. I will say this.

Starting point is 00:22:00 I agree that he is not at all blameless in what's happening this year. At the same time, though, I do think he deserves and has earned the ability to try to get this team back to the playoffs and back to a contending status. just because I've said it to you before and I've said it to the podcast listeners. Other than 2019, I really cannot place much blame on him for what this team has gone through. And a lot of that has to do with prior management. So I think he deserves a kick at the can. And I think this also gets into what you and I have discussed before,

Starting point is 00:22:41 that I think he gets put on notice this off season because once the extension kicks then it seems like a lot more palatable. Plus, I think everybody kind of knows. This team is not going to the postseason. If they do, it would be miraculous. It would be a masterclass from Mike Sullivan. But at the same time, what's the point when you're going to retool this roster in the offseason? So I think at this point, they're letting him play this season out.

Starting point is 00:23:13 He also said that Dubus said that he and Sullivan will evaluate the, coaching staff this offseason. So I think we could see some movement on the bench and have a whole new cast of characters around them come next season. Right. And I think at the very least, you have to gut almost all the assistance on the bench during the off season. If you are intending on bringing Mike Sullivan back when this new deal kicks in.

Starting point is 00:23:40 You can't have Todd Ritter into Mike Belucci back there. Now, whether Sullivan deserves me back, again, that's up for debate with how he, he's been doing lately, especially with this game against the Islanders. Honestly, I'm kind of leading towards no just because of how bad that was. And honestly, let's just get into that right now, Pat. The end of that game, after the Penguins tied it, was a coaching disaster class from Mike Sullivan. The biggest decision that I absolutely couldn't stand from that game was what happened in overtime. We all know how overtime has been a theater of pain for the Penguins this season,

Starting point is 00:24:16 and how they have just been brutal in three-on-three. And it continued in this one because the penguins didn't even touch the puck during this three-on-three session. And part of that was because of the decision that Mike Sullivan made to put Riley Smith and Lars Eller out there with Chris Latang to start overtime. You want to put Chris out there, that is totally fine. He's one of your best defensemen on this team. But Riley Smith, who has been brutal all season and Lars Eller, even though he did have a good, game, you're putting Lars Eller out there to start when you have a well-rested Sidney Crosby on your bench.

Starting point is 00:24:54 That's bad coaching and that's not putting your team in the best possible position to succeed. Because again, right when he put those three players out there, the Islanders won the face off and they had the puck for the entirety of the overtime. I know it was only for a minute, but the Penguins never saw the puck after he did that. That's not good coaching. and I just don't know why he decided to do that. So I want to start here.

Starting point is 00:25:23 I agree. It's a dumb decision. It was not smart of him to do. However, what I'm taking issue with is you know that I am a fan of Mike Sullivan. I have been pretty much since the day he was hired. He's been my guy as well. It's hard because I've always liked him as a head coach.

Starting point is 00:25:42 but throughout this season he's been making decisions that have really baffled me and have kind of started to turn me in the other direction. And that's not to say that I think he's above criticism, that he's perfect and infallible, none of that. But the biggest critique that I have been getting from people on social media via text message, whatever, is that he is not holding players accountable. He's letting guys slide. And similar to what we talked about about the new look lines yesterday,

Starting point is 00:26:16 nothing has been working. So he did something different. He also rewarded two guys yesterday, three guys really in Latang as well, in Eleanor and Smith, who played a very good game yesterday. A lot of other guys were passengers yesterday. Let's be honest about that. So if you're going to sit here and tell me that he's not holding guys accountable, he's not disciplining guys, well, he just did it.

Starting point is 00:26:40 you don't get to change the way you think about things just because. Because I've also heard from plenty of people. Oh, this core is cooked. It's over. It's time to start the rebuild. So then why should they start overtime if they're cooked? If they're not going to be effective, why start them? So at this point, I want people to understand this.

Starting point is 00:26:57 It was a dumb decision. It was not smart to leave those guys on the bench. But if your main critique, and this has been the main critique I have been seeing of Mike Sullivan all year long, is that he's not holding players accountable. and he's not rewarding players who do play well. Well, guess what? He did that last night. Was it dumb?

Starting point is 00:27:15 Yes. Did it backfire? Absolutely. But when nothing is working, you have to try other things. And like you said, it has been a house of pain in three-on-three overtime. So at this point, why would you keep doing the same things over and over again? He tried something different. It didn't work.

Starting point is 00:27:33 And if they go play overtime tomorrow night against Montreal, don't do the same thing. Do something different this time. but it's a dumb decision, but there's so much more around it that you can't look at that decision in just one singular vacuum. See, I understand what you're saying with that. Trust me, I do. But he also decided to demote Matthew Phillips towards the end of that game on the Malkin line for Jeff Carter, who wasn't having a good game.

Starting point is 00:27:58 I don't understand that coaching decision either. It just seems like, I don't know, he like picks and chooses what he wants to do, just picking stuff out of a hat. And I'm like, that's not putting the team in the best possible position to succeed. And that's where my biggest gripes have been with him this season. Because there was no reason to make that move either. I thought Phillips was having a fine game next to Gino and Drew Conner. I thought Drew O'Connor was a man possessed in that game.

Starting point is 00:28:25 By the way, he could have had the game winning goal with only a few minutes to go in the third period. But replacing a younger player on Gino's line who was getting that opportunity for a that, who wasn't playing that well in that game, that is annoying to me. So again, I get what you're saying, but he's also making other weird decisions that kind of go against that where, you know, why is he rewarding Jeff Carter for playing kind of a mad game and then demoting Matthew Phillips, who I honestly thought was pretty okay in that game. Some of these decisions just don't add up to me. Yeah, and I overall agree with you there. He has made a lot of head scratching decisions this season. And I also think we're in a very similar spot to where we were last year to where he's doing everything short of throwing up his hands and going, what else?

Starting point is 00:29:15 What do you want me to do with this roster? Like his top contributors continue to perform. It's everybody else around them that stinks. So it's like he can arrange the chairs however he wants. The Titanic's still going to sink. But at the same time, like I agree that there have been a lot of baffling coaching decisions. but I think a lot of it is born from he has had two extremely flawed rosters the last two seasons. I think that is part of it.

Starting point is 00:29:43 I definitely will agree with you on that. And I think it also falls on him and the front office to better evaluating talent over the offseason. I think that's another big thing that we're missing here, Pat, is that Mike Sullivan, he is involved in these discussions with the front office, with how powerful of a figure he is in this organization. And he needs to do a better job of helping Dubus and company, evaluate talent and players for his system so that he can run it to the ability that we all know he can run it. Because these last two seasons, I don't think he's had players, especially in the bottom of his lineup, that have been able to run his system effectively. Maybe in those meetings, he said to management, both management groups, oh, I think this player could be good.

Starting point is 00:30:30 But then once the games come around, you're seeing the opposite. it. So it falls on everyone to make better decisions when it comes to this roster over the offseason and even in season during games, better in-game decisions from this head coach. Again, it really falls on those main parties, I would say. As for the game itself, I mean, you all saw the issues yet again. They stink in overtime. They stink on the power play. The power play was honestly hilarious toward the late stages of that game. They couldn't even game the zone. The power play heading into the third period, I especially thought was the funniest one yet. They couldn't set up at all. You saw Brian Russ passing up a glorious one-timer

Starting point is 00:31:17 opportunity to force a pass to the middle of the ice. And I'm like, buddy, that is a perfect one-timer opportunity. And you're just letting that pass for reasons. Why? Why, man? I don't understand it. But if that game didn't sum up this penguin season as a whole, then what game does, to be honest? It was bad. It was really bad. And I think the worst part overall to me is that putting the power play aside and all of that, it's a game where if they just show up for 60 full minutes, they win that game handily. They took the most of the first period and some of the second period off.

Starting point is 00:32:00 and then next thing you know, they're chasing the game again. If they play a full 60 last night, we're sitting here talking about them crawling back into the playoff race and getting a huge two divisional points. And instead, they go to overtime and lose. And I think for one of the first times this season, goaltending killed them. Alex Czalkevich was terrible in this game. Yeah, you can make all the excuses for how the overtime lineup looked and how they played in overtime. but an unscreened shot from that far out.

Starting point is 00:32:31 For a guy who hasn't scored a goal yet this season, that's on Alex Nadelcovic. And I know everybody wanted to flame Eric Carlson for that turnover. That puck cannot go in the net. Ndolkevich has to be on his post. Period. End of story. You ought to come out a little bit more in challenge Pellick there.

Starting point is 00:32:47 There's no reason for that puck to ever go in when there's not a screen there at all. And finally, can one of those two players there, Pat, step up and take away that shot to, I mean, get stick on puck there, I think. That is an easy opportunity to get stick on puck, and you're kind of just letting

Starting point is 00:33:02 Pellett come in for no reason, just unimpeded. It's one on two. So you have that, but the blame for me mostly falls on Adelkevich. That's not good enough. And he even said after the game, he crapped a bed, a couple other goals that I think he would have wanted back. That was by far his worst start of the season, and it came at just a terrible time for this team. Penguins got a point, but they weren't able to get the extra one in this one. Do you have any other thoughts? regarding this game. I mean, I will say Marcus Pedersen played a fantastic game in this one, outside of Brock Nelson making him look silly. But Nelson is a very good goal score. He also kills the Penguins every time he plays him. But Pedersen, I thought, was a man-possessed in this

Starting point is 00:33:40 game. I thought Drew O'Connor was tremendous. Valteri Pustin has his best game in at least a few weeks. Great stuff from him. But still, a lot of the same issues plaguing this team yet again. And it's just unfortunate the way that this is going at this point. But that'll do it for this second segment coming up to end the show. Mike Sullivan had a very weird quote to the media today, and it showed me, I think, why his seat is scorching hot or should be scorching hot right now. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about eBay Motors. Passion drive and patience, what brings home the winning trophy is also who keeps your ride

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Starting point is 00:35:10 Join my co-ist Patrick Gam. So Mike Sullivan had a very bizarre quote to the media today. He was asked a question about being on the wrong side of so many one-goal games a season. I know you have the full quote in front of you. so I'm going to hand this over to you. I mean, I have the full quote in front of me, too, but I also know that you want to read it. So shout out to Wes Crosby,

Starting point is 00:35:31 my former classmate, shout out Penn Hills High School. Because undoubtedly at this point, everybody has seen the original tweet where he put a clip of the quote or a snippet of the quote out and everybody reacted to that, rightfully so. But he then shared the full quote, which does not make it much better. So Mike Sullivan, when asked about being on the wrong side

Starting point is 00:35:50 of so many one goal games this season, said, quote, it's a question that I answered a few days ago. I think it's easy when guys like yourself come in and point to one statistic and then try to draw conclusions from it. What that lacks is context. So for example, you could look at it in a way that the face of the fact that we're in so many one goal games, how many multiple games did we turn into one goal games because we pushed back and got back in the hockey game and gave ourselves a chance to win.

Starting point is 00:36:16 So I'm not sure there's a valid answer for the question that you have. I think that it's a flawed question when you point to one statistic and then try draw an explanation. I think it's a very flawed approach because it lacks context. When we look at statistics, we look at multiple different statistics to try to gain the true story of what's going on. The one thing that our coaching staff that may be a lot of you guys don't is context, end quote. So that's a lot of words. That's just a lot of words. A lot of words to basically say, I'm not mad. Don't put in the newspaper that I got mad. That was perfect, by the way. Yes. That is exactly what Mike Sullivan is saying.

Starting point is 00:36:52 there. And it's funny, are you basically saying it's a good thing that, oh, we've come back from multi-goal deficits only to lose by a goal in overtime or a shootout or at the end of regulation? Is that what you're saying here, Mike? Because at the end of the day, newsflash, you're not getting results. So that's a disgusting quote to me. And I tweeted this already. Seems like someone's feeling the heat of his seat getting scored. And I mean scorching hot. That's just not good enough for me. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:37:27 I would absolutely agree because you see that with a lot of coaches when they know that they're under the microscope and that they're on the hot seat. One of the first things they'll do is lash out at reporters. And I don't think that Mike Selle, I think what Kyle Duba said today, excuse me, is that I do think he has faith in Sullivan, but I do think he's probably had some come to Jesus moments with him already. and we know that Kyle Dubus is not a guy who buries people in public, whether we like it or not. So I do think that's a sign of a guy who knows he's being watched. He is being evaluated and under a microscope because he very easily could have gone in there and just said, you know, some bounces haven't been going our way.

Starting point is 00:38:10 It's a tough time. We're in these one-goal games. Sometimes we don't get the puck luck we need or things like that. And instead he went with, hey, you know, there's games where we could have lost by four or five. and instead we only lost by one. I don't know, man. It was just a very weird quote overall. I just don't really understand the need to say that.

Starting point is 00:38:31 Again, just a bunch of words to really not say anything. So not a good look there, Mike. If I were you, I would just start helping the team trying to get results. But hey, you know, I'm not the head coach of a hockey team here. I probably never will be. But finally, to end the show, because I know we're running really long. this is probably going to be one of our longest episodes yet. Pat, who gets the warrior helmet for this past week? Real easy one for me after last night. Got to go with Marcus Pedersen. Two-goal performance.

Starting point is 00:38:59 He played extremely well. Like you said, he was a man-possessed. And he's been one of the most consistent players on this team all season. He has just been an absolute rock on the blue line. So nice to see him get rewarded last night. I know that's a little bit of recency bias, but heck of a game from him last night. So I got to give it to Marcus Patterson. I agree. He's scored back goals. A really nice release from him. He also set up one of the other goals as well. And again, yeah, I know he kind of got locked by Brock Nelson, but he's been great for basically this entire season, Pedersen, that is. And while I do expect changes to happen during the offseason, one of them better not involve Marcus Pedersen. I know you have the core four of 87,

Starting point is 00:39:39 71, 58, and 65. I don't think those guys are going anywhere for quite some time. But I would throw Pedersen there. I consider him to be a core player. this team. And I know his contract situation is interesting going forward. He only has one year left on that deal, but I am looking to extend him if I were Kyle Dubas in this front office. I think he is someone that you do not let go. I kind of shudder to think about what this defensive group would look like without the services of Marcus Pedersen on there for a full season because they do not have anyone that can do what he does on a nightly basis. I don't even need to have the underlying numbers in front of me. I can just use my eye test for that because he has been

Starting point is 00:40:21 tremendous all season and they better be keeping him over the summer and hopefully after next season as well. If I had to give part of the warrior helmet to someone else, how about Yarmu Yager? I know he doesn't play for the Penguins right now, but Yager night was such a great success. If there's not a player on the current team that I would give my warrior helmet to, I would give it to Yager. That's a very good call. That is a very good call. But I think, that would do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We really appreciate all of you listening to slash watching this episode. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Thursday to preview the game against the Canadians, and then on Friday, we'll recap that

Starting point is 00:41:00 game, get you all set for Penguins Flyers this upcoming weekend for Patrick Namp. I am Hunter Hodes. We will talk with you all on Thursday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Kyle Dubas provides clarity on the Penguins' future...sort of

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