Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locker clean out day came way too early

Episode Date: May 29, 2021

The last episode of this week deals with another upsetting thing...locker room cleanouts. Hunter touches on what the players said, namely Kris Letang, as he wants to retire with Crosby and Malkin as Penguins for life. Bryan Rust also gave an interesting answer on his future with the team as he's one year out from being a UFA. Could he be on the trade block this summer? Was Marcus Pettersson happy with his game? Hunter also touches on Elliotte Friedman's 31 thoughts podcast where he talks about the Pens...does he foresee big shakeups? Does he think they'll add a veteran goalie? Finally, the show ends with some Mike Sullivan talk as he should start to be on the hot seat for next season, but not fired yet.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Lucy.CoGo to Lucy.co and use Promo Code LOCKEDONNHL to get20% off all products on your first order, including gum or lozenges.  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.

Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hi everyone, welcome to this Friday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes, remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore, Penguin. So we are finishing off this week's of episode before we get you into the holiday weekend, at least in the United States, is Memorial Day weekend, this weekend. Today's episode is brought to you by Lockroom, download that and join me this week. I'm actually going to be doing something,

I think, tomorrow for Boston, New York, game one, to get in on the action locker room, changing the way we talk sports. So today was Lockroom Clean Out Day. That is going to be the main focus for today's episode. We're just going to get some quotes from some of the players on what I took away from some of them, and just a couple other things,

such as also some talk about Mike Sullivan and where my stance on him is going into, next season. But let's start out with some of the locker room quotes as the Penguins had to clean out their lockers today. I score back here on my Twitter account. You know, Kisbury Kappan, I did see this video. It was tweeted onto my timeline from a person called Megan, a girl called Megan from Penguins'

Twitter. Please follow her. Her ad is actually at Kisperi Kappan's, which is, you know, she probably must have made that today just because of the video. I actually had no idea if she did. but I'm assuming she did. But Captain got really emotional talking about how much, you know, Pittsburgh in this team means to him.

I mean, he obviously was drafted by the Penguins. Of course, he went to Toronto. But he even talked about it in his press conference day, like, yeah, you know, I had fun in Toronto, but with this group of guys in this city, because I've never had this much fun and I just, he can't wait for next season. And it looked like he got Tyrionad. And, you know, it just speaks to show just how much he truly loves this team and loves the city and how much.

he wants to succeed here. As for the outfit, he's wearing this purple, almost like a purple Nike shirt. It looks like almost like the emperor is on there, but it's something else with a beach hat and almost aviator sunglasses. So I even tweeted out, looks like Kisperi Kappen is going to the beach this weekend just because he looked to be in offseason form already. Mike Matheson also spoke to the media. He said another thing that I thought was true. He said five of the six games, we outplayed them for large stretches. to be sitting here not playing is really tough to digest.

And I even said he's 100% right about that. I thought the Penguins were the better team easily in five or six games. Obviously, game four was the outlier because the Islanders controlled play that entire game. But game one, Pittsburgh should have won outside of Trish and Jari, basically giving that away. Obviously, they won game two. Game three, they were good enough to win even though Jari allowed four goals. Semyon Barlamo was not that good. Game five, definitely well enough to win.

I mean, they out attempted the Islanders by over 30 attempts. They outshot them by over 22 shots. They led in high danger chances 14 to 4. Scoring chances 4, I think they outscored chance. They basically led in that, I think, by over 15 to 16, if I'm not mistaken. And, you know, they still lost because, of course, at the giveaway. And then they badly outplay the Islanders in game 6, though I know the Islanders kind of turtled in the third period when they were up to, and they just were playing pre-vent defense.

But the Penguins were trying to take it to them as much as they could in that period. And so I definitely see where Matheson is coming from. and why the group of players are just so upset because, I mean, they definitely did outplay them for large stretches in this series. And again, you know, if it wasn't for Tristan Jari screwing it up with Pittsburgh and that Ilya Sorokin also being God on the other side,

Pittsburgh would still be playing today. Again, people, I can't be more clear than that. I have already seen Islanders fans on Twitter try to say, oh, well, yeah, man, there's other reasons as to why we won, you know, Adam Pelich owns Cindy Crosby. I mean, that's just flat out not true when Cindy Crosby was on the ice, I think, for more goals for than goals against,

he was there, more high danger chances for than high danger chances against, more scoring chances for, more scoring chances against, and shot attempts and shots on goals. So I really don't know where that narrative is coming from. I guess he's just talking about how Cid didn't produce actual points-wise, but, you know, if it weren't for Ilyos Roken, again, being really freaking good, Sid would have had a lot more points in this series. But, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's still really tough.

I even tweeted it out, you know, that they outchance them. I attempted them and had more high danger chances, expected goals for basically this entire series. So I really understand where Matheson is coming from there. I also saw he had a really good quote here as well. He actually pointed out that his confidence was shaken going into this year. And his actual quote was personally, I think I was playing some of the best hockey of my year,

come play on time. And, you know, he's not wrong. If you look at the data and you watch the games for basically that last month to a month and a half before he got hurt going into the playoffs. He truly was playing his best hockey. And if he didn't got hurt, I would have been really curious to see how he would have finished season. I'm sure he would have continued his hot streak.

But the I test and the data both back each other up to say that Matheson was playing some really good hockey and was really starting to figure it out during that last stretch of the season. Because it definitely was a bit ugly to start out. You know, that first month to a month and a half, he did not play well as basically a turnover machine in his own zone was not really contributing anything offensively either. But, you know, what a talent that he is. You know, honestly, outside of Chris Latang, I think he's the best puck mover on this

defensive core. They just had to get his defensive issues cleaned up. They definitely did that. And I'm really curious to see where Matheson goes next season. I've already seen people think they should try to dangle him. I'm on that board a bit. You know, it's just what team is going to take, what, five more years of that contract at 4.8 million per or whatever.

much he makes. I just really don't see a team training for that contract because apparently on Elliot Freeman's 31 thoughts podcast today, apparently he has talked to someone around the league who thinks that the cap is not going to go up for another five years and we're going to have a flat cap for the next five years. So hashtag not great Bob on Twitter for that one. That is just really bad. I mean, it's the only league that's going to be facing this problem.

The NBA, MLB and NFL are not going to be facing this problem. Of course, you know, the NHL though they just can never get out of their own way. But again, really nice quotes from Mike Matheson. Jake Gensel, though, was hard of himself and rightfully so. He did not produce. His quote was, I have to find a better way to produce and do my job here. I take a lot of responsibility for that. I let a lot of people down.

I have to find a way to put the puck in the net and make plays and be better there. And as Danny said, I remember this stat from the other day. He also tweeted this out on his personal Twitter. He was first on the Penguins and shots on goal with 25, second on the team and 23-squaring chances for. First on the team in high danger with 11 chances. and then first in expected goals at 2.08. So, and as Danny put points at the end, have to think if Jari could make a say,

we would not be having this discussion. Or also, Danny, if Ilius Sorokin stopped playing like God, I don't really think we would be having this discussion either. But I understand why people are a bit upset with Jake Gensel. That being said, again, everyone, the fact that people want to trade Jake Gensel, stop. I mean, that would just be tremendously, tremendously stupid. I did see the tweets out there, maybe looking at a trade from Matthew Kachukh for Jake

Gensel. I was like, oh, okay, you know, maybe makes a little bit of sense. I was like, you maybe have to think about it. Then I think Mad Chatham from the 412 Sports Talk put out a couple charts with their underlying numbers comparing them. And it's like, yeah, Jake Gensel is just miles better than Kachuk. I think everyone just loves Kachuk for obvious reasons. You know, he's a physical player, good defender, but he can also put up offense and

he's a big body. But, you know, Jake Gansel is one of the top five, 10 peer goal scores in hockey. and he's cheaper than Kachuk. I know he's a bit older, but, you know, he is cheaper, and, you know, he always has a history of producing, not just during the regular season, but the playoffs as well. But overall, everyone, please stop with these Jake Gensel trade rumors.

It's not going to happen. I would be flat out stunned if Jake does get traded this year. Marcus Pedersen had a couple interesting quotes. I mean, he talked about Latang. He played his ass off for us every night. He also talked about his game. He did say that he felt like he didn't take the necessary step needed this year for his game. And I'm glad he called himself out for that.

You know, I'm sure he's going to train hard this offseason. I understand that, you know, Pedersen was the whipping boy for a lot of people on Penguins' Twitter this year just because he's not good offensively. He just basically kind of there for defense. You know, he's just kind of that guy in the defensive zone who's just going to, you know, play the puck like it's mud almost. Basically just play the defensive zone like it's mud. I think is my best way of putting it. But, you know, hopefully we will see more offense from him out of next year. If he is here, you know, he is definitely a big trade candidate for Ron Hextall if they want to get him out and put P.O. Joseph onto this team going to the next season so you can maybe have Joseph and then maybe Chad Ruido as your third pairing unless they don't want to bring back Cody C.C. A couple other quotes. Brian Rush spoke. He says, I love it here. I've been here my whole career. I don't want to go anywhere. But he did also say this. He's like, at the end of the day, family is most important to me and that's going to drive my decision. He might be gone this season, offseason, excuse me.

I could definitely see Ron Hexton and Brian Burke trading him, not just because he's just a skateboard or something like that. It's just because he has one more year left on his contract, $3.5 million per, obviously one of the best bargains in hockey. But the big thing here, people, is that he is probably going to command 5 to 5.5 to 6 million per on his next contract. And you could totally see a team in Vancouver with Jim Benning if he's still there paying him that much.

You do not want to be paying Brian Russ for the next five to six years after that contract is up. He will be 30 years old. Paying for someone from 30 to 35 or 30 to 36 is just not good asset management. I know Russ has done a lot for this team, but this probably will be his last season here if he is not training. I just really don't see Pittsburgh resigning him. Chris LaTang spoke as well. He said he reiterated at the end of the day that him, Gino and Crosby want to fit. finish their careers as penguins. I'm sure Ron Hexton, Brian Burke feel that way as well. I was

listening to Elliot Freeman's 31 thoughts. He said it's basically for a general manager to trade any of the three, it has to be in writing from Mario Lemieux and Ron Berkel. So you need ownership's blessing to do that. Again, I don't think Mario Lemieux is interested in that and I really think that all three of them will retire here at the end of the day. Brian Jimlin also spoke, talked about the core. They're the ones that established the culture in Pittsburgh without them we don't have that culture again he's 100% right as well i mean that's mainly it from locker room day mike sullivan did confirm the injuries are there really only two casey de smith had a soft tissue groin injury that kept him out of the playoffs i mean that sounds like it's definitely got a

freaking hurt and then he finally confirmed well we've known for a while that now that afghani malcon was dealing with a very serious knee injury as rod rossi reported on the athletic i was told earlier earlier in the day um by a source um not obviously going to reveal who it was, and it did come to a fruition, because I was just wondering if they were going to talk that Ron Hextel and Brian Burke were not going to speak today. Definitely seems weird that they didn't go into the holiday weekend. I guess they didn't want to get their media availability out of the way yet,

but hopefully they will do that sooner rather than later so that we can hear their thoughts on it and what they plan to do for this offseason. But that does it for this segment for talking about the locker room cleanups coming up in the next segment. I'm going to touch on a little bit about Mike Sullivan and a couple other thoughts that I heard on Elliot Freeman's 31 thoughts. But before we do that, it's time to talk about Bilt Bar.

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All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoadies. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. So as I normally do, Friday, I listen to Elliot Freeman's 31 thoughts to the podcast because outside of, you know, my podcast, which I think mine is pretty good, but you know, it's definitely not up to par for 31 thoughts. I think 412 sports talk is obviously great. The Nick and Nick show, Tyler and Zach

for around the 412, they do a great job. There are so many content creators in this city that do wonderful podcasts. I think, I know I'm forgetting one right now. It's going to come me during this episode, I know, but I'm going to get to hers probably a bit later. But overall, please listen to all these other podcasts because they all do a great job as well. But going back to what I was saying about Elif Vem and stuff. So they got to the Penguin series and, you know, Jeff Merrick asked Elliot about his thoughts on the series. And, you know, he actually echoed what me and a lot of other people were saying and that,

you know, he didn't want to, you know, harp on Jari too much because he knows he's down really bad. But the Penguins lost this series because of gold tanning. and he feels like they shouldn't overreact to that just because Ilya Seroquin was really good and Tristan Jari was really bad. He even said that he thought Pittsburgh carried the play for a lot of this series and that they played pretty well. Again, the numbers backed that up, the I-Test backs that up.

And he just kind of said that he felt a little bit for the Penguin just because they weren't rewarded for their good play. Ben got to some of the rumors that obviously were circulating the team. He also said he does not expect Sidney Crosby of Gany Malcolon or Chris Latine to go anywhere, though he did talk about the goal-tending stuff. He said, of course, they tried to trade for Florey last year. Could they do that again? Me personally, I don't see the Penguins doing that because Jim Rutherford is not here anymore.

I really don't think Ron Hextall, because he has no loyalty to anyone in this organization is going to call up Vegas and say, hey, you know, are you potentially moving Flore? I think it's more likely, as I said yesterday, that they may look to trade for Robin Leonard because I think with the season that Flurry is having right now and how he'll finish him, he'll definitely, one, potentially get the Vezna, and two, I think Vegas will definitely want to keep him for next season as he's obviously under contract

and I don't think they'll look to move him, even though, excuse me, we'll have, what, $12 million locked up into goaltending. He did also make another, he kind of said he was talking out of his butt, but he did wonder if the penguins can maybe look at trading for Jonathan Quick. Again, that is a hard pass. Jonathan Quick used to be a really good goal. You know, for a time, he was also considered the Mark Andre Fleury of the West because, you know, I mean, he was just really inconsistent, especially in the playoffs. But, you know, I'm trying to find this tweet here from Chad where he talked about how bad, quick was this season.

So, yeah, he had a goal saved above average of minus eight this past season, and he's 35 years old. I mean, his save percentage was also well below what it's been in the past. Again, that's a hard pass. And he also has a lot of term left, I think, on his contract. He's definitely not someone that you want to bring in, especially for a trade. I don't know why he would give up assets to go get Jonathan quick. I know they're going through a rebelling Cal Peterson, I think, is going to be their starter really soon. But he's definitely not someone that I would target.

I've set a few targets. Linus Olmark, if you want to go big and try to get John Gibson, you can do that. Tuka Ras, though that's probably not going to happen because Boston's going to resign him. Peter Marazek makes sense, Antirontah, Darcy Kemper from Arizona. but Friedman did confirm that he thinks Pittsburgh will look to get a veteran goaltender in there for the short term to try to push Jari for next season in like a 1A, 1B role.

What that means for Casey DeSmith? I don't know, but he did confirm. It sounds like that Pittsburgh wants to do that this offseason. We'll see what Ron Hextall says when he and Brian Burke meet with the media for the first time after the season. That was basically it. You know, he talked a little bit about Brian Jim. One said he's always been underrated.

also talked about Mike Sullivan, which I am going to get to actually in the next segment. But, yeah, again, everyone, this team does not need to overreact this offseason. And even Elliot said on his podcast, you know, they could overreact and do some really weird stuff, but he thinks it would be foolish to, considering the season that they did have and that they only lost in the playoffs due to the biggest X factor, which is goal-tending. So again, I think you're really mainly looking at a couple tweaks for this team. going into the offseason, I really don't think

Hextall and Bertha are going to blow this team up, especially with, I mean, even Hextal said after the trade deadline, he said with how we were playing, you know, the team convinced us that we had to go out and make a trade to try to go for the Stanley Cup. I think with how they played in the playoffs,

I mean, normally if you get average goaltending, Pittsburgh would have won that. I think if he sees that and he sees how they played, he's going to go into next season trying to give this team another run and make the necessary moves in order to do that. that. But that would do it for this segment as I touched on

Elliot Freeman's 31 thoughts and just gave you all some info from that. Before we do get to the next segment, though, it is time to talk about Betterline, the fastest, easiest way to bail on all your sports action. Baseball season isn't full swing, and you can track all the action at that online. Get all the latest news, odds and info for your sporting needs,

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and receive your 50% off volume of bonus on your first deposit. That's been on one, your online sports book experts with the promo code locked on. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes follow this show's Twitter at L-O-N-Sore Penguins. So I did want to touch on Mike Sullivan here for a few minutes before I call it an episode

and talk to you all on Monday. I keep seeing these takes that Sullivan should be fired, I saw it after the bubble, saw it in 2019, which was really foolish in. I still think it's foolish now. That being said, I do think Mike Sullivan should be on a bit of a hot seat going in the next season. If they go into next season and he's the coach and they have a really good regular season and they get bounced in the first round again, I really think you will see Mike Sullivan fired. And I think Hector would be like, hey, we know what you've done for this franchise, but I think a new fresh voice is needed.

And also, you know, going back on the podcast with Elliot Freeman, he really said the only way he sees Sullivan fire this offseason, even though he called it unlikely, is if Hechtall and Burke think that they need a fresh voice. I mean, I personally don't think that just yet. I think you probably are looking at another year of a bad playoff exit in the first round before Mike Sullivan does get fired. But like I said, he definitely is on the hot seat.

Dan Balsma survived five years after he won the Stanley Cup. And you remember everyone, 2009-10, they lost in the second round to Montreal. Next year they lost in the first round in Tampa Bay. Again, though, bad comparison there because Sidney Crosby and McGregney-Malkin were out. Then they had the two really embarrassing runs in the first round when they got crushed by the Flyers. Actually, no, I don't even, it's so late at night. I am being so stupid right now, everyone, I apologize.

Had that bad first round against the Flyers, got to the Eastern Conference final, and got embarrassed by the Bruins. and then next year loses in the second round after they blow a three to one series to the North Rangers. So he blew two three to one series leads in two separate years before he got fired. And, you know, they just needed a change of voice there because it had been five years. And I understand, you know, the same, I guess, comparison can be made here because it's been almost five years since Sullivan won a cup here. And I know it's been three straight first run exits. But I think his system works.

I mean, you can definitely have a few tweaks to it. Maybe the defensemen don't pinch as much at times. but you saw how well it was working against the amateurs, which is one of the stingiest teams in the league. They were taking them to school in five of those six games. So I really don't think it's the system. I think it'll come down to, as I said, does Ron Hextall think this team needs a new voice?

If he doesn't and everything that I've seen him talk about with Mike Sullivan and Brian Burke, the same, it points to that Sullivan is going to come back. And rightfully so this team endured a lot in this regular season. But again, you know, the Pittsburgh Penguins are not built for just regular season success. This is a Stanley Cup contender. They only have a couple more years before that window is slammed shut entirely. When you think of the penguins, you don't just think of them making the playoffs. You think of them going on a deep run in the playoffs and ultimately winning the Stanley Cup

as they have five times since 1991 and three times since 2009. So Sullivan even said his such day, you know, he even said we had a lot of regular season success. but at the end of the day, that doesn't mean shit if you bow out in the first round. He knows that. I'm sure he's going to make the necessary adjustments for during this offseason. And again, I understand people are also going to say, well, you know, he just lost again to Barry Trots. That's now three in a row since 2016 and 2017. But I really don't think Barry Trots did anything to beat him in this series other than just switching to a goaltender who just went God mode.

He was 4-0 in this playoffs with a 940 to 950 percent. That's why they won. was nothing Trots did systematically that hindered Mike Sullivan's system in any way. I just, I truly don't believe that. And again, I'll say it for the 5,000 times. They really only won because of the goaltending in the series. But I still am a believer in Mike Sullivan, and I think he is the right coach to bring this team back to the promised land at the end and win another Stanley Cup championship.

I think he is right there with Badger Bob Johnson for the best coach in franchise history. I know a lot of people will still say Badger Bob because what he did with the 9th. team. I 100%. Understand that. But again, with what Mike Sullivan has done with this team ever since he took over with back-to-back cups and how much he's won with this team, I know they've lost four straight playoff series. He definitely deserves to be

in the conversation for the best coach in franchise history. But I'm excited to see what he does in the offseason. I don't expect there to be a lot of coaching changes. Though one, I will say, they need to fire Mike Buckley because this is now the second goaltender that has regressed under his time here. Matt Murray

really regressed as soon as as Mike Buckley became the coach and Mike Bales left to go, I believe, to the Carolina Hurricanes where I think he still resides today. So I definitely think that if there is one coaching change the Penguins should make,

it is in goal with Mike Buckley. But that'll do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Again, everyone, thank you all so, so much for listening to me blabber about this team for the entire season. We basically have now wrapped up season two

of the podcast, but again, the content does not stop there. episodes Monday through Friday through the month of June. July will have to see. I think it'll start out as Monday through Friday before going to three days a week. Definitely in August, it'll be three days a week. I mean, that's just the dog days of summer. And then it will really start to ramp up again in September. Then, of course, October as the next season gets underway. But thank you so much. This has been such a wild ride. And hopefully next season is the one where I can really talk Penguins Hockey with you in a deep playoff run for the first time. I thought it was

going to be this year. I really thought this team was going to go far. And it's just really unfortunate that, you know, it's over and that they did lose again to the New York Islanders. But again, thank you all so much for listening to this episode of Lockdown Penguins and all season long. And I'll be back with another episode on Monday.