Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 1/23- Chad Brings The Heat!

Episode Date: January 24, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Chad (aka madchad412) from Penguins twitter joins the podcast for the first time. He touches on how good he thinks this team is, what trades they should make, and also brings the absolute heat on the Murray/Jarry stuff that's been going on lately! 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 and welcome to this latest edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes. Me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show on Twitter at L-O-U-U-Score Penguins. Today we have another guest on the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Probably one of the best follows on Penguins' Twitter that I would say. He has a lot of really good content that he tweets out during the games, a lot of good jokes as well. Mad Chad 412 or just Chad, how are you doing today?

Just, Chad. How are you doing today, Chad? I'm doing good, man. Yeah, Chad's fine, Matt, Chad. As how most people know me, although I dropped that moniker a long time ago, but yeah, Chad's fine or mad Chad, either one. Yeah. Doing good, Matt. You're having me. Perfect, yeah, of course. I wanted you to come on the podcast for a long time, and it's great that we can finally talk some penguins.

But, you know, how would you assess the team through the first 50 or so games? You know, how do you think they're going to do going into the second half now of the season with the 32 games left? Man, I mean, this team has really exceeded all my expectations, especially after the last two years. I'm so happy that they have gone back to embracing what was already a proven work and formula of embracing, you know, speed, skill, youth. They got rid of a lot of what I would call dead weight and added on a lot of guys that have made, you know, big impact. John Marino, I mean, no one saw this coming. He honestly, I know Jesse Marshall, he's a big friend.

He's a friend of mine. He's big a drum at the athletic. I mean, he is a legitimate Calder trophy, and he's not only that. I mean, I could have made a case for him to maybe even been an all-star this year. He's that good. Brandon Tannis, I mean, I'm not going to lie. I didn't think he was anything more than maybe a depth, bottom six guy. He's a legit top nine forward that's making a nightly impact.

I love his speed. I love his game. Dominic Cahoon, again, getting motto for Cahoon. That's a big win for this team. He's a guy that is making plays. You know, and this team is dominating possession, dominating shot quality. Their speed is so good. And they're getting goaltending now, which I'm sure we're going to talk about.

So, yeah, I mean, I think this team is another top six addition away from contending for yet again another stealing cup. Yeah, and I think they're going to get that top six winger. There's just, there's so much smoke. There's more smoke today, of course, with Jason Zucker. I feel like that's going to happen sooner rather than later. Whenever Jim just gets on one of these players, he kind of just doesn't let them get away with the Philcastle thing. But, yeah, I think you hit the nail on head with everything.

I mean, yeah, John Marino, no one saw this coming. He should definitely easily be a Calder Trophy finalist. I always love reading what Jesse Marshall has to write about him for the athletic. I hope we can have him on at some point to probably discuss about that. Yeah, the shot quality, the underlying numbers are absolutely outstanding. and the one of they think the biggest things, the biggest differences from last year's team to this year's team, is just how good defensively they are when the underlying numbers there, the shot quality against, scoring changes against.

I think they're top five in the league for almost every defensive metric right now. And a lot of that, I think, has to go to, obviously, Mike Sullivan, who should be the runaway favorite, I think, for the Jack Adams at this point. Yeah, I mean, you're not going to find a bigger Mike Sullivan guy than me. I mean, I've maybe criticized him here and there for, you know, minor, minor things maybe playing Jack Johnson too much. But, again, you've got to kind of play with the horses that you're dealt with. And he's done that. He's made the best of any situation.

But, yeah, I mean, and this is a good thing about, you know, the stats people versus the eye test is to me the penguins pass both those tests. You can easily watch the play on a nightly basis and see the speed, see the system that they run, where it's based on, you know, You know, getting the puck out of the nice zone, nice green exits, you know, in a good transition. But then the stats, think back tonight because you don't have this like, well, look, see, they're doing it this style. No, they had the formula. They, you know, Tom Wilson ruined everything. Tom Wilson ran over everybody and broke Jack, Zach Asson's face. And Jim Rutherford went out, and he was like, we got to, I don't know if he was Rocky or what the hell.

He was like, we got to get tougher. And we got to get bigger and stronger. And they brought in all the guys. And, like, last year's Penguins team played versus this year. I mean, this was funny lap guys last year. And the stats back it up as well because

last year they were terribly, they were terrible 5-15. And they survived on, you know, shooting percentage and good goaltending. And this year they have the 5-1-5 presence, but they also are getting the goaltending as well. Mike Sullivan, yeah, absolutely. He should probably be,

the coach in the year, although if Columbus makes the playoffs, that S.O.B. Tortoeroa might have something to say about it just because I've probably going to name like eight guys on Columbus's roster at the moment. But with all the injuries and everything, I mean, Sullivan, I mean, we've got to start talking about if this guy carries them to another cup, you know, we're going to start talking about maybe he's one of the best coaches of his era, let alone in the NHL right now. Yeah, no, absolutely, yeah.

I think he'd probably go down. I think if he wins another cup with his team, I think you could probably say that he's probably the best coach in franchise history above Badger Bob. I think he probably already has a case for that right now, and I know a lot of people love Badger Ball. I sadly was not alive for that era of Penguins Hockey. I'm too young for that, but I mean, I did go through and watch the other games and whatever. But, yeah, Chad, I think another big thing going into these last few weeks coming up after the break is, you know, what is Jim going to do? Is he going to make a trade?

I mean, I think he will. But we all know he's going to make for a Ford, but I think you could also make a case that he can make a trade for a defenseman. And I know some people will be like, oh, well, you know, they don't really need to. You know, Jack Johnson's been better this year. And it's like, well, has he really been better or is he just not sucked like he did last season? And I feel like they could use an upgrade over him, but I just don't think the coach would. I just don't think they would actually like just take him out of the lineup.

for the playoffs because defensively you can raw, Dumlin-Latang, Pedersen Marino, and then if you want an upgrade over Jack Johnson, you could, and then you could probably keep Justin Schultz on the third pairing, since I think that's probably where he is best suited right now.

Anyway, coming back, he's just been so in and out of the lineup with so many injuries these last couple years. Knowing Jim Rutherford, and this guy is, you know, he makes trades. That's kind of his MO. So I think they were already going to trade

forward even before Jake Gensel got hurt. And now he's not coming back unless they maybe make the conference finals. He might be back, you know, whatever, sometime and around there, unless they go in a long one. So now you've got to replace him because they don't have, you're not going to go into the playoffs with Crosby playing McCormquist and Dominic Simone. That's that can't happen. Yeah. And I'm not, I'm a, I'm a Simone fan, but that can't happen. So you're going to go get a guy for Crosby.

But now I think take who can maybe get a, a top six forward and maybe a bottom six forward as well because here's the thing. Galeniac does not fit on this team. He's not good and he doesn't fit on a team. So I think they're going to move him in a trade for a forward. But then also you have Nick Bootset coming back. Does he fit on this team? What is his role?

Is he going to play the third line center role? He's not really, he doesn't really fit the team to me because this team again, we talked about it, is built on speed and transition game. not really his game. And they've won. They're doing so well. He's hardly played at all. And he actually does have some value. So

today, I'm reading, well, Bukestead could be involved in the Minnesota wild trade. And then you swap Galcenaic to another team for maybe a guy like Pagu from or how do you say his name? From Ottawa. John Gabriel Peugeot. Yeah.

Yeah. I think they're going to trade for two forwards. One guy like Zucker, even though I'm still kind of of one of the Tyler to Foley train a little bit. Tyler To Foley has a little bit better underlying numbers, and he does seem like he's... And plus, the one thing that scares me about Zucker is the dude is

coming off a broken leg. That's true. So it does scare me a little bit about him. But yeah, I'm fine. I'm not going to be like, I can't believe I got Jason Zucker. I'm not going to be mad about it. It's going to be a great addition. But, yeah, I think

they're going to do two trades. And yeah, so your defenseman, you got Lattang and Dumlin, Schultz, and Johnson is probably going to get a pairing, and Braynum and Pedersen. What if one of those guys gets hurt? Do you see them winning a Stanley Cup with Chad Ruehdle, or UCRocula playing 15 minutes a night? Or do you think they need a guy like,

a guy that I like is Alec Martinez from the Kings, who's on the trade block, and he'd be a rental. You probably get him from nothing more than a third-round pick. Why not? Why not? because they have the cap space with Gensel out. So why not get yourself a nice little safety net knowing that you have an injury riddle team?

Yeah, no, I know. I agree. I think, like with Zucker for the top six forward, I like him probably a little bit more than Tufoy because I like that he has like three years left of term. I know that, of course, he's coming off the broken leg. I actually had to look it up a few days ago that Zucker had three years left on his contract. and I know Billy Garron kind of knows the system pretty well.

I mean, he would, obviously, since he's been here so long. But I really don't think that they would get as much of a return as he probably thinks he could, considering just for a player like that. And yeah, you said it, well, that's the best about it's Gow Chinnik. They need to dump him. He's just been a disaster ever since coming over. And it's not for a lack of effort. I can actually see that he, you know, he puts the time in and is actually trying out there.

But it's just, it's not working out. And that's another 4.9 million in salary cap space that you can dump for potentially getting a forward. I mean, at least a draft pick. I love at bottom six four. You know, I think Jean-Gabrielle Pajot is probably going to get an okay return for Ottawa, considering he's had a bit of a breakout season. But yes, also someone like Alec Martinez would be absolutely awesome as well. I think if you have them as like your number seven guy,

know maybe is your number six playing on the bottom pairing, I don't really think that would be too, too bad, and also the Kings are a team that they're one of the worst teams in the West, of course, that they're looking to sell. I wouldn't be surprised if they look to sell more pieces. The one thing I'll say about trading, though, so I'll saw people on Twitter today are like,

would you give a first round pick away for Peugeot or for Zucker? And I saw Penn's fans on her saying, no, no way, those guys aren't worth a first round pick. The NHL draft is so, random. I mean, look at some of the guys in the Penguins, their third round picks.

Undrafted rookies. Marino was a sixth round pick. Jake Guntsa wasn't a first round pick. Brian Rush wasn't a first round pick. The Penguins are trying to win a Stanley Cup. Who gives that damn about a first round pick? I'll trade my first round pick for Jason

Zucker, a guy that if he plays with Cosby Malkin, is probably going to score around 60, maybe even 70 points a season, and he's a great two-way player, and he's going to make her team better, are you trying to win a Stanley Cup? Are you trying to build for the future? If you're trying to build for the future, that's fine.

But if we're trying to win a Stanley Cup this year, then yes, you do what it takes outside of going crazy and giving away, you know, all of your best prospects. I'm fine with Dragics. Send them away. The only guys that I really want to hang on to is like Kailen Addinson and Pullian. Those guys, I want to keep anybody else.

Dropkins, they're all fair game. Yeah, those two, I think I would love to keep around. I think they were probably pretty intrigued about P.O. Joseph. I'd maybe like to keep him around as well. I don't know. Maybe there's talk about Hollander, but I don't really know too much about him. But, yeah, I mean, Jim Rutford, he's shown time and time again that he doesn't give a shit about, you know, trading a first round pick. Because he does it.

He's done it so many times. He did it in the, I think he did it in the Derek Brassard trade, too. I think he gave up a first round pick for that. Phil Kessel, you know, gave up his first round pick for Ryan Reeves, of all people. But, you know, I'm not – yeah, I don't really want to talk about that either. But, yeah, like, I just – I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does. He's going to make this team better. And, man, let's face you know, they get a fourth cup.

This is almost at the – almost at the immortality stage for Crosby and Malker at this point. Like, three, that's – you've done your job. But, you know, four, I mean, that – that's just – that would just be awesome but also chat i want to get into of course what came up this past sunday the murray stuff during the game the the the bronch cheers and the murray jari debate i've long said on this podcast that i don't understand um why people can't be objective when evaluating matt murray but yet they weren't like that when they evaluate tristan jari because you know if he gives up a couple bad goals and he's also struggled as of a bit lately he gave up that he's given up three goals and

six of his last seven starts something his eight percent just going down I just don't get why people won't be as objective as they are about Jari as they are with Murray. Yeah, I mean, this is something that this is probably the thing that I am, you know, enamored with the most of this fan base. So, few things here. So one thing, yes, you said correctly. Tristan Jari was a big reason, is a big reason why the Penguins are where they are, because Matt Murray struggled in the first half of the season, and Tristan Jari played at a time.

which was a Vesina level goaltending and helped them keep afloat. That being said, as all goalies do, because goalies to me are the most tricky positional players and maybe all of pro sports, where they go through super highs and super low. We've seen the last run where it's completely flip-flop. And now Matt Murray has won five straight,

and he's operating around a 9-25, save percentage, and Tristan Jari's safe percentage has dropped 11 points in the last couple weeks. And he's down to, he was operating in a 909. So these goalies, they go through highs and lows, but the great part about having a tandem like this, just like it was with Flurry and Murray, is when one guy's slumping,

you play the other guy more. Yes. And he's funny. And that's literally what Sullivan did. And it worked, and it helped him win a Stanley Cup of all things. And I don't understand the emotional bias that people have for these goals

because I don't give it damn. I know, I have my favorites, of course. But if Matt Murray's out there sucking and Jari's playing, play Jari. I'm not going to sit here and be mad. They rent my favorite goaltender. I don't care. I'm trying to win.

These guys, I don't know these guys. They're not my friend. And that's what, like, social media. You know, I try not to be, I see like boomers talk about like, oh, you know, these millennials, these kids, they think that they know these people.

But I do see that. sometimes, especially with the Flurry stuff, because that's where all this Murray hate comes from. If we're being real, it's because Matt Murray played so well and was young and cheap that they were like, well, what the hell do we need for him for? Because he's making $7 million a year now in Vegas, and he's almost, you know, he's like 35 years old. And he's not even having a good season himself, by the way. He got the coach fired. Why would we keep him when we have this young goaltender? But that's the business one of of one. You have. Now they have, I mean, look, if you look at the cash

change right now, we want to talk about, oh, they can go out and make free trade trade right now. The big reason they can do that is because between Murray and Chari, they're paying these guys like $5 million a year. So you don't have a ton of money invested in your goaltending, yet you still try to know a guy that's already won two cups. And then a guy that looks like he's going to be, you know, an all-star caliber bully. And he was supposed to beat it out the gate. but that's where all this resentment come from is Murray took Flurry's job and these people

that hold that against him I'm sorry, you guys are weird I'm just willing you know listening to this podcast you are with Mark George Flurry is not your friend you don't know him you don't know his family he doesn't give you money

you benefit nothing from pretending like you're this big Flurry like support because are you a furry supporter are you a penguin support I think a lot of these people need to look in the ear and be like, what am I? Because you can go to move for Vegas.

They're not even in the playoffs right now as those people. Yeah, that was perfectly well-seated. Yeah, and me personally, you know, I grew up a Mark Andre Fleury fan, but you know what? When it was time to make the action. Me too. Yeah, when it was time to make the decision, there's no hesitation. You go with the younger, cheaper goalie. You see what happened down to the year.

Every single one, that same decision, by the way. Every single one, all 30, all 31. Absolutely, yeah. You look what has happened down in Florida. They're lucky that they're in a playoffs spot right now because Sergey Brobrovsky has gone down to the tank when they're paying in, what, $10 million per season? And yet their other goalie down there is actually not doing too bad at all. They're still in a playoff spot.

You have Montreal with Kerry Price. They signed into what, an eight-year term with $10 million per year. I can't wait to see what the Braden-Holpey contract is going to be after this season. Some team's going to make a massive mistake with that. So it's just... And here's the thing. I'm a big Murray fan, and I, and he ball out and won the Stanley Cups. He comes in a paying one this summer and says, I want more than $6 million a year.

Guess what? I'll be reading Twitter saying, I would love for another team to be able to pay Matt Murray that because he deserves that contract. But I don't want my talking team to give him that contract because I know that it's going to hurt my team long term. Yeah, you let you let him walk in that situation. I'm really, really curious to see what, how that negotiation is going to go with. summer. I think it's definitely going to go to arbitration. I really don't see it, not going to arbitration. Who knows? Because Murray, here's the thing, though. So, and I want to answer your one question about, you know, the booing. For one thing, those guys paid their money. You can boo, do whatever you want.

I think you look like clowns, because one of the goals, his own defenseman shot in the puck, so we're going to blame him for that. Okay, so he let up one soft goal and one questionable goal. They won the freaking game. So you look like it. clown because you're billing your own bully and honestly he played pretty freaking good the rest of the game he won them the game he won them the game he made 34 saves against probably

to me they're I know Washington's good I would rather play Washington in the seven game series than Boston just because in a way Boston plays that's a tough team maybe Jari played them that you know actually people although Jari shouldn't that he lost he played them for a third day

and lost So are you blaming the team? Are you blaming the goal? And again, I've said that could we show right now with this whole Murray-Jari thing, you see it on a weekly night where, you know, our deflection goes against Murray, and he sucks, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Jari will give up a goal, and it's the defense's fault. It's the same thing.

I don't even care, but I just don't understand why you would root against your own goalie. I really have to question it. Other than you want to know that if he does well, he does bad, you can say, I told you so. But I hate Jack Johnson as a player. But I hope he wins a scint. I hope he scores a cup winning goal. Oh, God, I'd be here for that.

I'd want to see Twitter burn. I will change my name to Jack Johnson's fan account on Twitter if he does. I swear to want. That would be, I would pay to see Twitter. It would melt down so hard if that happened. But no, I completely agree. There's a lot of weird people. on Penguins Twitter that will root against Matt Murray, you know,

the same could be said about Penguins Chronicles with Crystal Tang. He actively roots against the number one defenseman because I think Chris LaTang was like with his girlfriend or something before he met him or something. I don't know. It's a weird obsession that some people have with rooting against players are only looking at them when they're at their worst, I guess. And you can do that to a point. You can say, you know, yeah, they won.

I don't, you know, I don't prefer the play of this guy. But to me, if you're that, if it takes your joy away, at that point, I mean, why are you watching? Yes. Because, you know, I work. And I'm a father. So the three hours that I go and watch a Penn's game and interact with people that I enjoy to interact with on Twitter and have fun and make jokes and do all stuff, that's an, it's called an escape from reality.

Same thing we do when we go watch a movie. Why would I, why would you waste three hours? of your life on something that just makes you miserable. I've never in my life understood. Yeah, it truly does not make any sense at all. I'm really glad that

you brought all that up because you really did hit the nail on the head for it. But last thing, Chad, before we do end this episode of Locked on Penguins, you know, you mentioned it briefly earlier, you know, forgetting, the Penguins are obviously going to make the playoffs. It'll be another record setting season. They'll still have the longest playoff

active streak in the league. I think there's only maybe two teams, maybe one in the east that I think can take it from Pittsburgh. I think they beat the Islanders. The Islanders are not nearly as good as they were last year. The Capitals, I think, can potentially beat them, but Penguins have always, they usually beat the cap. It's just, the way Tampa has come on, they're starting to get a little scary, but also they have to shake off, you know, being kind of being the new capitals, I should say, with the way that I haven't been able to put it all together. But, man, if I don't know about you,

but sign me up for seven games of Penguins Bruins in round three with Jake Enselback in the top six edition because I think that is the one true team that I think can take it from the Penguins in a seven-game series. That would just be a lot of fun to watch. Yeah, I mean, hockey's always been like that. It's always been about matchups, not like this team is the best and this team isn't.

The penguins, the penguins to me, I would much rather face, I don't care if Tim Bego is undefeated in the second half of the season, and they might, because you're right, they are, they are hot, and they have the players, they have the horses to do it. But the best case scenario, yes, that the penguins proceed out of the metropolitan division, they beat the Islanders, they beat the Capitals in the second round, which is always fun. If they play Boston, I really think they will lose that seven-game series, but I think I would be confident that they would be able to beat Tampa in a seven-game series. And what I'm really hoping for, if the Penguins do make it, is giving me a Penguins

avalanche Stanley Cup final product. That would be best for business, in my opinion. But yeah, if you're ranking like teams, I'm afraid of, Boston's definitely number one. Washington would be two, just because Washington is, they are tough for the fact that the way they built their team is they did what Rutherford had originally thought he was going to build. They have the speed and skill, but they are still. big and hit they hit you all night so they are a tough team to play so yeah but if the penguins if they

if they pull us off the way that i think they're going to i mean this is going to go down as as a magical season but even if they don't win the cup this season overall has still been so much more fun and refreshing the last two years that i'm just enjoying the ride for the moment yeah absolutely this has probably been the most fun penguin season since the second cup season and i mean yeah it's just it's been so much fun to watch this team progress into what they are now and how their speed just pisses off other opponents. And yeah, with Boston, I just, I feel like they have a way that they can get under the penguin's skin. It was just evidence in the three games this year that the penguins, I just don't think they like, they just don't like them at all.

And I just, I still have a little too-the-last flashbacks from the decade before in that series. Oh, for sure. Yeah, that series, of course, kill me because I was supposed to go to game five of that series personally, because I was actually out of school that year. But yeah, it would be a fun series, but I just, I think, I just don't like that matchup. I mean, I like the matchup a lot more. Like you said, against Tampa. They proved and they can beat almost basically all that cast of characters.

I know it was a few years ago, and there's a lot of new faces on Tampa, but a lot of the core players are still there, and the Penguins have beaten them. But overall, Chad, thank you so much for coming on for this episode of Locked-on Penguins. you provided a lot of great insight on the Murray-Jari stuff, the trades, and how far you think this team can go. It was a lot of fun hearing your perspective on it. Yeah, man, I'm happy to do it. I've been listening to your podcast.

It's definitely, you know, the show is getting better and better. So keep up the good work on there. I'll continue to listen. And if you ever want to have me on again, I'll be down for that as well. Yeah, I'll absolutely have you on again probably as it gets close to the trade deadline. Or definitely when the playoffs get here is, well, maybe we'll talk about the playoff. match up a bit more. So we'll have another episode coming tomorrow, I think.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do for that, considering it's now the all-star break and the Penguins still don't play for a week. This 10-day break is absolutely a killer for doing a daily podcast. But thank you guys so much for listening, and we will talk to you all soon.