Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Mike Sullivan gets extended...and rightfully so!

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins surprised everyone on Tuesday with an extension for Mike Sullivan! This new extension will start in a couple of years and will take him all the way until 2027 (if he's still here). Hunter goes into the extension and what it means for the present and future, plus shoots down this wild opinion that the Penguins shouldn't have made this move because "they've lost in the first round four straight years." He looks at the real reasons they've lost, and he always puts a winning formula forward, even if the team doesn't always win. He also looks at how much Sidney Crosby and the entire Penguins core respect him, which is something that hasn't always been the case in this era with other coaches. He then discusses how much confidence the front office and especially the new ownership has in him, based on their statements, and how he's one of a few coaches who probably has a "lifetime" contract with his respective team. Finally, he wraps the show up with news and notes around the league from the last couple of days.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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.

Hey, everyone. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely been what, five days. I think at this point, you know, I've just been dealing with stuff. You know, I don't think I've ever dealt with before, to say the least. You know, a lot of, you know, anxiety, a lot of just, you know, being sad, all that stuff. But, you know, good enough to record an episode for today. At least, I apologize for a little bit of a lack of content throughout the last week with my granddad passing and a couple other things that have come up. So, you know, I wanted to keep. you all in the loop about that. For today's episode, though, basically a full Mike Sullivan episode. Very, you know, interesting timing for the announcement of a new three-year extension for one of the best coaches in hockey. I'm going to give all my thoughts on that, what it means for right now, what it means for the future, you know, where he ranks in Penguins history among all head coaches. All that's coming up right after this trial. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host. Hunter Hodes, want to follow me on Twitter or Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the show, Twitter, at AlonaSore Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. Again, you know, really great to be back. Apologies for no episode on Friday. Apologize for no episode on Monday.

Again, just been dealing with a lot of personal stuff. right now just you know i mean i don't you know i obviously deal with mental health issues you know my my anxiety has been just brutal last four to five days for a multitude of reasons i just have been not able to record but i'm okay right now thankfully had a really good day today for the first time almost a week and i'm really happy to be back according this episode so you know look like there wasn't going to be too much to talk about even though you know i do have you know obviously i've planned topics for every episode but still you know running the dog days of the off season at this point.

And so the Penguins made it a big announcement on about 2 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon when they agreed to a new three-year contract extension for Mike Sullivan. So Sully has one year remaining on his current deal for 2022, 2022, 2003. Actually, no, excuse me. He has two years left on his current deal because this new one kicks in at the end of 2020, 23, 2024. So he has on his old contract, he is this year, and he has next season. and then the new contract kicks in for 2024, 2025,

and then the next couple of years after that. So he currently right now is going to be the coach until 2027 for that. Yeah, he could potentially be, I could be 30 years old, and he could still be the coach. Just for reference, when I was, making sure I have this right, when I was 19 years old, he was brought on after Mike John Stigoff. fired. And the fact that he has an opportunity to be the head coach when I'm at 30, damn, man, that's, that's kind of crazy, to say the least. And, you know, I, you know,

I know, I know you all saw some of the weird talking points from people today, you know, someone from 90s, 3-7, the fan on Twitter. I think it was Josh Roundtree or something, like, you know, what's the reasoning for attending a coach right now after he failed to win a playoff series with at least, you know, three future Hall of Famers over the last four years. And, know, these people, they cannot see the forest from the trees, even if they tried. I'm dead serious. They really cannot. If you are going to sit here and you're going to tell me with a straight face that

Mike Sullivan is to blame, for the last few years of playoff failures, I think you are deranged. Look at this past year. Louis Deming is in net. If they have Tristan Jarnry for one of those three, if they have Tristan Jari for that entire series, that's over in five or six games. I would probably say the same for Casey to submit. He's at least an NHL adequate goaltender.

Last year against the Islanders, if Frist and Darley doesn't crap his pants, they potentially win that series because they outplay the Islanders for most of that series. 2020, COVID bubble, you know, random stuff happens. I can put that past. 2018, 19, the team just wasn't that good. Nope. Crap like

that happens, ERVs. But it's not been his fault. We, You all saw what Sullivan did to the Rangers in this Fest of Seven series. Yeah, I know they lost. Maybe some Rangers fans will come into the comments and say a bunch of 3-1, bro, and all that other, you know, crap. But at the end of the day, he still made the adjustments to put the Penguins in the best possible position for success in that series.

And sure enough, they went up three games to one. I know they got bad goaltending the rest of the way. but you know you look at the you look at the underlying numbers you've watched the games the rangers were barely better at all you know than the penguins and basically any of those games in that series they the penguins were dogwalking them game after game after game and it's all because you know solvin just a great tactician of a coach you know he has ample time to prepare for one team he can usually put together a pretty damn good game plan even against the islanders last not this past he's but the year before

Penguins went up to two games to one. They were actually, you know, looking like a team that can take down Barry Trots' system. And in game six especially, they scored plenty of goals in that one. They were just given right back by some of the worst goaltending. I think the Penguins have gotten in the sit-in-gino era. So at the end of the day, you really cannot blame him for that kind of stuff. That's out of his control. Do you want Sullivan to go in there and play goaltender?

it's probably just going to be worse. And rightfully so, you know, Josh kind of got ratioed on the street. And no, again, it's not Josh Yewey. Thankfully, he actually had a really nice tweet back. And, you know, I even said this too, you know, who is out there that is a better coach than Mike Sullivan? And I mean, and I know he was not trying to say that, oh, they should fire him and all that. But it's like, you know, when you have the chance to extend one of the best coaches in the league for, you know, a couple more years, I say you do it.

I mean, there's no lifetime extension for most coaches in sports. You know, maybe one is, what, Bill Belichick in New England? Something like that, Bruce Bochy with the San Francisco Giants

where he retired. Even Mike Tomlin probably with the steers. He probably will not get fired until he wants to retire. But I think in hockey, this is probably the close one we've all come to seeing a lifetime kind of deal. And he just, he's that good.

There are not three to five coaches in this league who are better than him. Name them. John Cooper, Barry Trots, Jared Bednar. I don't even think you could be Jared Bednar on that list right now, but it's probably John Cooper and Barry Trots that you can put up there with him, and that's it. It's ridiculous that he's never even been, basically what a jack-up Adams finalists. He's never even won the Jack Adams, which is also crazy considering what he's

done with the team. And you all, the naysayers will say, well, you know, he has Sydney Crosby and McGee, McGee, they're expected to make the playoffs and all this stuff. But what about when they're not in the lineup? What about when he has half of the lineup full of AHL players and he is still leading the Penguins to wins? Like, what are we doing here? Like, he should be getting consistent and Jack Adams, you know, finalists. You know, I said that weirdly. He should be continually be getting to be a Jack Adams finalist year after year after year. No, I know it's, and I know that award is a, what have you done for me lately and all that other crap?

But still, you should be able to, you know, have him in your top three, considering the job he has done with his team, you know, ever since. seat so cover. I think, you know, Adam Herman, who does Ranger's stuff. I love this tweet. He goes, Mike Sullivan built a skyscraper using toothpicks and silly putty, and some Pittsburgh are criticizing him for having not built the Taj Mahal. Honestly, Adam is

not wrong. He, I mean, he's not. I mean, you know, again, he has all these players, Sullivan, that are heard year after year to year, they have always one of the top teams and man games lost, and he still finds a way to absolutely kick butt

and usually out-coached the other team in the playoffs. And I loved what Josh Yewy said when he was quote tweeting this. And I can find a tweet here. Crosby loves him. None of the playoff losses have a look of a poorly coached team. They are consistently good to be regular season team. Ownership has billions in the bank. So if they want to fire him any point they can,

he's even said, I can keep going. I do think ownership does have a big play in this. It sounds like they really love him, the Fenway Sports Group that is. And it also sounds like Juan Hectoral is a massive fan of him too. You know, Hextall said in a quote today, Mike is one of the top coaches in the league, and it was important for us to have him sign long term. He is a great leader that finds success to the communication, honesty, accountability.

We know that Sully's committed to continuing winning culture here in Pittsburgh. And John Henry, even had a quote here. You usually don't see the owner of a team have a comment. And he said, this is a wonderful day. for the entire organization with Mike committing to remain as head coach for long-term penguins. He has clearly demonstrated when an effective leader he is, and it's evident to how well players respond to his philosophy

and work ethic night after night month after month. I think that, you know, that speaks volumes. You know, usually when Crosby's kind of, you know, when the Penguins are kind of dumb with the coach, you can see it. Teams lacking in play. You know, they're getting outshot every night. The underlying numbers are really bad. But honor, Solvin, his message, it still still.

sticks and it's been and i think it's going to continue to stick until sit and gino and then want to retire again i love what josh said it's obvious that the core really likes playing for him and i also think it's obvious that even you know the players that haven't even been here for that long um they also respect him a lot so i am totally fine with this move i think the solomon naysayers out there are just weird people i don't pay much attention to them um you know i just i think those are just bad takes, at least for me. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to have more Mike Sullivan talk. I just, you know, some stuff from the media conference that he had today. But before we get to that, are you one of those people who thinks it's okay to drive, you know,

stone, drunk and all that stuff? What's the worst I can happen? You end up driving below the speed limit. It's no big deal, right? Well, wrong. The truth is your reaction times slow. Way down when you're high, you're not only put yourself in danger, but everyone around you. Talked about a buzzkill. Stop getting yourself, it's not okay to drive high or drunk. If you've been using marijuana or alcohol in any form, do not get behind the wheel. If you feel different, you drive different. Drive high, get a DUI.

All right, I'm back on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honor Hoddes. So follow me on Twitter at Honor Hoddes. You can also follow the shows Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. Let's get to a few more quotes that I saw from Sullivan today. He was asked why he loves coaching the Penguins, and he just said, you know, I love what I do. I love being part of it.

Love getting on the ice with these players each and every day. I love being in the heat of battle. Aside from playing, it might be the next best thing. And I loved what Danny Shiree tweeted. He was on the media call. And he said that none of his assistant coaches are yes men. They continually challenge him in that. apparently there are some pretty heated discussions, you know, between them during the season,

I guess when it comes to player development or, you know, roster management and all that stuff. So, you know, they're definitely not, you know, pushovers to say at least, you know, they will definitely challenge Mike when they feel like challenging him. And, you know, that's always great to have in a staff, you know, especially someone like Tar Reardon, who has been an NHL coach for Mike Volucci. he's been an HL coach for numerous years down in the minors. You know, that is always great to have on a staff. You know, you don't want, you know, even, you know, back before those two came aboard, you know,

they had Jacques Martin who, you know, remember, coached the Canadians to a series win over the Penguins in 2010 when Dan Bilesma was the head coach. Mark Recky, I don't think he was a yesman. Either Rick Tockeet, he was definitely not a yesman. Sullivan has usually had pretty good staffs for as long as he's been the Penguins coach. And you're continuing to see that this year. And I'm glad to see, I'm glad to hear at least that, you know, there's no one that's, you know, there's no pushover or anything like that. And I love the question that he got on Krazi, Malkin, and Lattang. He goes, I can't tell you how much those guys mean to me to be their coach.

And, you know, it's pretty crazy. You know, he is going to be their coach. If he finishes out their contracts, well, how do I want to say this? If he is still here when the big three finish out their contract. So Malkin, four more years, Latang, well, at least six, but I don't know if he'll be here, six years from now. Sid, three, that'll have been basically about a decade, if not a little more, as Penguin's head coach. Again, if he goes through that current deal, which ends in 2027, he'll have been here for 11 to 12 years.

I mean, again, that is basically unheard of when it comes to NHL. You see coaches fired all the time. Some even don't even last the full season when they get their job. you know, heck, even Mike Johnston, he lasted, what, a season and a half after he got hired from Jim Rutherford, and Rutherford was loving, you know, Rutherford did, you know, he was loving to talk about him. He thought, oh, I mean, he's going to take the Penguins to Great Heights and all that. They were stinking it up in 2015, 16, he pulls the plug, Mike Sullivan comes aboard, and you know, the rest was history. But, you know, Bruce Cassidy was only in Boston for a few years.

Barry Trott was only with the Islanders for a few years. he's probably a coach that deserves a lifetime contract. You know, John Cooper, well, that's a bad example. He's been there forever. He probably does have a lifetime contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning. You know, even honestly, Mike Babcock during some of the years in Toronto, he wasn't really there for that bond tar reared in and Washington was only there for a couple of years. I think Adam Oates in Washington was only there for a season saying he might have been with

Dale Hunter for two. Coaches, you know, they're recycled all the time. It's like a windshield wiper. basically back and forth. Oh, you get hired. Oh, you're fired. Oh, you get hired. You get fired.

That kind of stuff. And the fact that Sullivan is right now, I believe he's the second longest 10-year-d coach in the league behind Cooper. Again, that goes to show how great he is at his craft. And that, again, if you were to let him go, and I was talking about this, I think it was about a week or two ago when I said,

you know, this could be a big year if the Sullivan does not get extended because, you know, how does ownership feel? Well, ownership definitely, you know, they showed how they felt about him today with both John Henry and Tom Warner releasing statements about how much they love Mike Sullivan. So it looks like, you know, a firing at the end of the season was never on the table. You know, I was on a Twitter space last night with a hockey at Tomorrow stuff with Josh Yew, Jesse Marshall, Josh Getsaw was there, Johnny Shiree was there, Shelley Anderson was there. You know, we were talking about Sullivan and, you know, where he ranks for penguin coaches. And to me, you know, it's at least, you know, a 1A, 1B with Badger Bob.

And honestly, you know, I might put him above Badger Bob at this point. He, you know, he has given the Penguins, I think, their best success in the franchise history. I know what Badger Bob did. I know how inspiring he was. Obviously, he died way, way too young. I know how great of a system he had, but what Sullivan has done, I think trumps that just a little bit. And, you know, what you're seeing on an every year basis at this point is nothing short of remarkable. So I wanted to give my thoughts on that and just, you know, get into more Sullivan talk for this episode.

So a little more to get to for the rest of this episode for Lock, on Penguins podcast and that's all coming up right after this drop all right i'm back here this episode of the locked on meangling's podcast i am your host hunter hodes remember to follow me on twitter at hunter hodies can also follow all those shows twitter at l o arso penguins and of course thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day again you know can't stress enough thanking everyone for listening to this even though again i'm still not a hundred percent but you know i'm just about um back there uh at this point um saw a couple moves around the NHL the last couple of days. Tage Thompson signed a massive deal in Buffalo on Tuesday,

seven times 7.1. Definitely a high ticket there. They're betting a lot on him. I think they're kind of hoping that last season was not a fluke, but when you look at what he did, I mean, this was 38 goals, 68 points to 78 games. Before that, his highest 38 games in 20, 2021, it goals 14 points before that in Buffalo, seven goals, 12 points. Which version you're going to get here, Buffalo? Are you going to get this year's version? Which, you know, if he continually scores 30 to 35 to close to 40, 7.1 looks like a bargain. But if not, he scores 15, 20, that contract starting to look bad.

I know the Sabres have some cap space. They can use as much of it as they want right now. I mean, they're not really in it to win it. I think they're, you know, they're obviously still rebuilding a little bit. But, you know, that contract definitely carries some rest because, you know, you look at a shooting percentage. If I can find that this year, 11%. Actually, no, excuse me, 15% issue, 11% overall.

Before that, his highest shooting percentage was 8.3 in 2020, 2021. You know, is there going to be a bit of regression there? maybe, but, you know, it's a tough bet for Buffalo to make. I don't blame them for doing it. I think they want to, you know, hope that and, you know, they want to hope and they think they know that they're going to get this out of him, you know, year after year. But, you know, we'll have to see, to say the least. We also saw Sam Seal go to the Minnesota Wild, one year 825K contract.

That's good for them. I think, you know, good depth. can play on the third and fourth line. Vegas finally traded for a goaltender, Aiden Hill from the San Jose. Sharks, it looks like he's probably going to be the backup. He's probably going to be the starter or something like that with Mason Thompson, I think, is their other goaltender out there.

You know, Vegas has some trouble next year at goal. That's going to be something else, to say the least. Otherwise, you know, not really much else news around the league, though I will say it was nice to see. I haven't recorded in a few days. Phil Kessel, you know, one year to the Las Vegas Golden Nights. I know it's a bit of old news. I'm sure you all know about that,

but I'm happy for him. You know, he is basically built to play in Las Vegas with how much he already gambles, you know, go check out Josh Yoey's articles and stuff like that, talking about the man, the myth, the legend, Phil Kessel, and how he was always, I think, at Rivers and all that. He was born to be a Vegas Golden Night. he can just go to some of the casinos after the games, you know, have some fun. Obviously, you know, don't get addicted, that kind of stuff.

That'd be bad. But, you know, he sounds like he's always been good at winning in whatever game he plays. And, you know, he can help, you know, put the puck in the net, you know, be a good playmaker. I think, you know, he can be a good fit on the, you know, I don't know if it's on the first line, but, you know, maybe you'd be the second line with Jack Eichel, something like that, maybe the third line as well. I think those would be, you know, solid fits for Phil the Thrill. I'm in Vegas. So definitely really thrilled for him that he is going to be back.

Well, not going back, that he is going to be going to Vegas. Sounds like he had some interest from a few other teams as well. But that'll do it for this episode of the Locks on Penguins podcast. I really appreciate all of you listening. Second or last day in August, believe it or not, N's Thursday is the official start of September, three weeks away from that point until fall. We're approaching the end here. Summer is just about done.

training camp starts in about three weeks. We'll back to daily episodes on September 19th, which is right around when camp starts. So definitely a lot to look forward to on the show. If you haven't subscribed to the show yet on YouTube, go do that. Just look up, Block on Penguins on YouTube and all that. And for those that continue to listen on Apple and Spotify,

thank you all so much for listening. And I'll talk with you all with another episode, either on Wednesday or Thursday.