Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan gets his 4 Nations coaching staff

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Four Nations face-off is coming up this season, and we know that Mike Sullivan is Team USA's head coach. Now he's got a coaching staff around them, and it's a lot of familiar faces. Hunter and I are going to talk about that and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Hello and welcome back to another edition of the Locked On. on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Sinanam for Wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, thank you so much for making us part of your daily routine because we're your team every day. And don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. And before we get going today, today's episode is brought to you by fans. Now through September 22nd, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV.

Starting point is 00:01:14 Visit fandul.com slash locked on to get started. So Hunter came out today that our good pal and head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as Team USA head coach for the Four Nations faceoff, as the rest of his coaching staff set for that tournament that takes place from February, 12th to the 20th in 2025 in both Montreal and Boston. Joining him on the bench will be Penguins assistant coach David Quinn. He will be on the staff along with him here in Pittsburgh and when they play in that little international tournament. Along with him, there will be John Heinz as an assistant coach and everybody's coach

Starting point is 00:01:57 that they just love to hate. John Tortorella will join them on the bench. So that is your team USA coaching staff for the four nations face off with Mike Sullivan serving as the head coach. And honestly, not a lot of surprises here. For as much depth as the United States has for players that they can put on the roster, the coaching staff doesn't have as much depth. They're not that many American-born coaches in the National Hockey League at the top level of the sport. So you figure that these three names were somehow going to be in the mix.

Starting point is 00:02:33 one way or another, especially Tortarella, who has quite a lot of experience, both at the NHL level and he has done some international coaching as well. David Quinn and John Hines, you can have your opinions on them, but like we said, there's not a very deep pool of American coaches right now. So overall, I think this is a fine enough staff. I've been saying this both on this show and just in general. I think at the NHL level, David Quinn is better suited to be an assistant coach than he is a head coach. You give him a focus of just a couple things, whether it's just the defense and the power play or the forwards and the penalty kill, however you want to position that.

Starting point is 00:03:17 I think he's better suited at the professional level to do that because we know the successes he had as a collegiate coach in developing younger talent, getting them to the next level. But then you have John Tortorella who, regardless of how you feel about him, players love him. you may not be a fan of his coaching style. You may not be a fan of the teams he's coached, but every player that plays for him at some point or another says they'd run through a wall for that guy. In John Hines, he's been around.

Starting point is 00:03:46 He has some international experience as well. Overall, I think you have probably the best for American coaches you can get at this level for a tournament like this. I think that's pretty fair. I mean, for me, John Hines, I don't know. I mean, I don't really know what John Hines has done. to maybe warrant being an assistant on this staff, but I also know it's only the Four Nations face off.

Starting point is 00:04:08 We'll have to see if he's on the staff for the Olympics, but that's really the only one that kind of made my eyebrows raise a little bit. Tortoella, you also have to consider Pat, him and Mike Sullivan best friends. You know, when they're not coaching against each other, these two are very good friends. They've coached on the same staff before at the NHL level. It's not a surprise to see them on the same staff for this tournament.

Starting point is 00:04:32 I'm glad, though, that this time it's Sullivan as the head coach, not Torrella. We've seen Torz be a head coach on the international level for USA hockey before. It didn't go well. I just don't want to see his full style of play in this tournament and for the Olympic tournament. I think with the way Mike Sullivan coaches the Penguins and just how he's coached throughout his career, it's a better style of play for Team USA compared to how I think Torts coaches his teams up. I definitely think at least for the first two to three years of his tenure for torts. His players will run through a wall.

Starting point is 00:05:06 After that, it kind of gets a bit dicey. But really, no problems for me on this staff overall. If you wanted to add maybe another coach, Pat, Peter LaVuillette, I think that makes a lot of sense for USA hockey. Maybe he comes on at another point. But I think if there's one coach that's really missing from this coaching staff, it is LaVuillette. Yeah, that's a massive miss by me, not naming Loviette.

Starting point is 00:05:30 Alet, but I do think he would probably be better suited at the Olympics than he would the four-nish base off just because you look at the way La Villalette coaches and very similar, I mean, not only to Torrella, just to coaches in general, he's one that absolutely always has an expiration date, but you look at all of the teams that La Villette has coached, especially in our lifetimes, those teams, he gets the absolute most out of them. And it might not be for an extended period of time, but it's for long enough that those teams frequently play above their ability because you look at some of those Flyers teams he coached in the early 2010s. They had a ton of talent, but you look at those teams and think,

Starting point is 00:06:19 well, I'd put them in the mix as a playoff team, but then they go on a run. They go on deep runs in the playoffs. They make an appearance in the final. And the same thing goes for Tortorella. But that's where I get, I think Portobella is better served for this tournament because you're only going to play a handful of games. This isn't going to be a two to three week tournament where you're going up against the very best. We saw what happened with Team USA in the 2016 World Cup of hockey where he was the head coach. But that was also a big management disconnect where they tried to outthink themselves and go with this, oh, we want to be this. gritty, scrappy team, and everybody else just took their best players. Notably, Phil Kessel was not part of the 2016.

Starting point is 00:07:06 I was so mad watching that tournament at USA hockey with the way they decided to build that team. It was just so, we're going to pick the right players. No, take your best players. We all know you're not going to stack up against Canada. Heck, even this USA team for the four nations face off in the Olympics, they're not going to fully stack up against Canada. But you know what?

Starting point is 00:07:25 I'd rather take all my best players and see if they can pull an upset rather than take the quote unquote right players. I was so fed up at USA hockey for that. They're not going to make the same mistake twice here, but I'm sorry. I had to get riled up for that just because it still makes me mad eight years later. No, that's totally. You're totally right. And this will be another chance for Quinn on the international stage. He was the head coach of the 2022 US Olympic men's ice hockey team. That one, that was the last year that we've seen where we did not have NHL players because that was when the NHL was not going to the Olympics. And we kind of knew that it was going to be kind of a MAA Olympics because when you don't have

Starting point is 00:08:09 the best players available to you, it's going to be an odd tournament. So I don't totally hold that against him because he kind of didn't have the dearth of talent available to him to really see what he could do on that stage. He was getting a lot of collegiate guys, a lot of minor league guys, guys who were playing in Europe while all of the American-born talent was still playing here in the NHL. So, I mean, overall, for the Four Nations face off, I'm perfectly fine with this coaching staff. I am very curious, like you said, to see what they do once we get to the Olympic level, because I still believe overall Mike Sullivan is the right coach to lead Team USA in the Olympics just because we've seen

Starting point is 00:08:53 what he can do with a roster that is just brimming with talent like he did when he came on the scene with the penguins in 16 and 17. He's going to have even more talent at his disposal once we get to the Olympics. So very excited for that. But now I'm curious to see what they do once we get to the Olympic time. Right. And remember, he is going to be the head coach of the 2026 Olympic team. I would assume he'll bring LaVuette onto his staff for that and Torrella as well, especially if the Four Nations face off with him and Torrella goes pretty well. I think if you have those three as coaches on Team USA's team, I think that goes a long way,

Starting point is 00:09:31 even though you're maybe not stacking up fully to Canada's coaching staff, because Canada's coaching staff is also going to be very strong and obviously the roster will be too. But you've got to bring the best coaches to that tournament. And I think you will. Obviously, with no lobby left for this one, it's a little, I guess, weird, but they're not going to make, I guess, that quote unquote mistake for 2026 overall. But really not too many complaints about this coaching staff.

Starting point is 00:09:57 And I'm just excited for, you know, international hockey to make its return with NHL players for the first time in quite a while. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm very excited like you are that we're finally going to get good actual international competition back on the men's side. Because we can't ever forget how good the women's side has been for the last 10 or so years. It's been absolutely incredible to watch. But that'll do it for the first segment. Four Nations face off. Sullivan has Quinn, Tortarella, and Heinz on his staff.

Starting point is 00:10:26 Again, that's February 12th to the 20th, 20, 25 in Montreal and Boston. So we will keep our eyes out for that. When we come back, we got to talk about a little something that we missed last week. And that was Alex Nadelcovich's media availability, where he had quite a good bit to say about coming back to the penguins for this season. and we will talk about that right after this, and we will tell you about our first sponsor, and that is Indeed. We're driven for the search for better,

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Starting point is 00:12:27 I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. Thanks for sticking with us every day during the dog days of summer when we're all starving for a little bit of hockey content. And we got that last week. When Alex Nadelcovich returned to Pittsburgh, of course, you guys probably all saw the TikToks and videos. of him having some fun at the Lemieux complex,

Starting point is 00:12:46 but away from having some fun in his return to Pittsburgh from that dastardly place of Cleveland. He did sit down and make a media availability where he talked about his season last year, what he thinks about the penguins this year and coming back to the penguins and kind of discussing how he went from being on a one-year prove-it deal to being shown that, hey, you proved it, last year. You showed you could be a reliable goaltender, and that's why the penguins brought him back.

Starting point is 00:13:19 But the big thing that stood out to me was that, and I know that a lot of this stuff, people will look at as canned and look at as cliched or however you want to describe it, he talked about what a good fit that he felt in Pittsburgh. He kind of felt like this was a place that he wanted to be, saying he enjoyed playing with this group. He really wanted to come back. He liked the coaching staff. And he, like us, was very encouraged by the way the penguins end the season, saying, I think if we're a little bit more consistent throughout the year, then there's no doubt in my mind, we can be a playoff team and surprise a lot of people that maybe counted us out. Alex Nadelcovic dropping, maybe he listens to Locked on Penguins and has heard us counting them out. But Hunter, your thoughts overall on what Ned had to say.

Starting point is 00:14:08 Honestly, man, I liked it. I liked a lot of what he said to the media last week. And, you know, another quote that really stood out to me as well was he even said, I have a great relationship with goaltending coach Andy Kyoto and Tris and Jari. I thought we pushed each other really well throughout this past season and I wanted to do it again. Well, I do think that is going to happen this upcoming season. Both goalies are going to be pushing each other for playing time this year. It's very much is, again, at least for me, a 1A, 1B situation.

Starting point is 00:14:34 Pat, you've said on the show a few times during the off season that this should be closer to 50-50. I'm kind of right there. I think maybe 55, 4.4. potentially for these two goaltenders where it's not a full 50-50 split like you saw in Boston with Allmark and Swamen before Allmark got traded. But maybe it's like, okay, Jari starts a couple of these games and then Dahlkevich gets one. And then Jari gets another one or two more maybe. And then Ndilkevich gets a couple in row.

Starting point is 00:15:03 You have to really just do well with this workload. I remember at the early portion of last season, I felt like they weren't starting to Delkevich enough. at the time. And yes, I understand he got a bit banged up a little bit after. But I felt like they weren't going to him enough just because of the way Jari started out the month of October. Then again, Ned got hurt. So Jari had to play a lot more. And then once Ned came back, he was his usual self, but they were still riding Jari quite a bit until his play dipped a little bit in the second half of the season. And then that's when Ned started getting all those starts,

Starting point is 00:15:34 especially late in the season where you could tell he was really gas. That's the big thing for this year for me. You don't want either one of these goaltenders being gassed when the games get super, super important. Obviously, each game of the A2 game schedule is important, but you really don't want them full on tired, you know, early March, mid-march, late March, into early April, where if you're potentially in a playoff race, every point is precious that they just can't go out there and be their usual selves. You have to have a good split with these two goalies if you want to prove people wrong and make the playoffs. So we'll have to see what happens. But yeah, he seems excited. I'm excited for him. I'm hopefully, excuse me, that he's able to build

Starting point is 00:16:18 off the year that he had overall. Absolutely agreed on the workload. I've said it enough. I don't need to dive into it again. The other thing that stuck out to me on this interview was that he basically came out and said that the message Dubus gave to him when he resigned is that this is a competition. It's not just going to be, hey, you're here to back up Tristan Jari. You're not going to be a backup who only plays a little bit. These are going to be two guys who push one another to be better, to take over the starting job,

Starting point is 00:16:53 and to keep each other fresh and playing well. And this isn't from a negative place either. It's not like Dubas put it in his ear that, hey, you know, you play well. You're going to take this over from Jari. Because Nadelcovich reiterated that once he resized, one of the first people to reach out to him was Tristan Jari, basically congratulating him, welcoming him back. And they have pretty much understood between themselves that,

Starting point is 00:17:20 yeah, their teammates, and obviously they're going to celebrate the successes of each other and push towards that goal of getting back to the Stanley Cup playoffs. But they're not going to just sit there and seed the job to the other. It's not going to be Nadelcovic, you know, coming in and being the cheerleader for Tristan Jari or Tristan Jari feeling threatened by Alex Nadelcovic behind him. These guys are going to really have to push one another to be better. And this is the last quote that stood out for me because it shows that Nadalkovich and Jari understand the assignment coming into this year.

Starting point is 00:17:58 Now obviously, a lot easier said than done. But Nadelcovich says it's a long season and we're going to have some up and downs. If the two of us can be consistent and gives us a chance to win every night, I think it'll go a long way. That's exactly what we have always been saying about Penguins goaltenders. They don't have to be Igor Shasturkin. They don't have to come out and win games. But you absolutely cannot be the goalie who loses them. So if these guys can play in and around league average, a little bit above it, they're in an okay spot.

Starting point is 00:18:30 Right. That's really all they need to do for this year. You know, if they're around, you know, 9-10, 9-9-5. both of them, I will gladly take that just because I think that's good enough goaltending if this team is able to keep finishing their chances to at least have them in the race throughout the season and have them at least fighting for a chance to potentially get in to the playoffs. So yeah, I completely agree with you on that. And the last thing for this that you and I have talked about plenty of times is we need to

Starting point is 00:19:01 make sure, and this has nothing to do with either Jari or Nadelcovic. If they split the workload correctly, I think they're in a good spot in net, but the shooting percentage has to improve because you've brought this up multiple times. It was a little bit of a mirage at the end of the year for Alex Nadalcovich being the better of the two goalies. The difference wasn't that he was the better of the two goalies. They basically had similar statistics. They almost mirrored one another. The difference was the penguins remembered how to score,

Starting point is 00:19:30 and Adelkevich, for the most part, began to make the saves they needed to. to make. It was just the fact that they were getting, if we can cross sports here, run support. They weren't being the, they weren't in a position to be the guys who had to win the game. Buddy, that's the best I've seen the Penguins finish their chances over a few week stretch in probably three years. That's how long this has been here, people. I joke about it at times on Twitter. They say, like, oh, I've been waiting for this team to start finishing their chances like normal again for the last three years. It's true. This team was once very, very, good at finishing their chances. They've been a consistent top five to 10 team in finishing,

Starting point is 00:20:09 except these last few years where it's just completely gone away from them, even though they've had pretty strong underlines, you know, with expected goals, shot attempts, high danger chances, etc. The puck has just not been going in the net. So if they're able to take that stretch over into the season, that's going to help things quite a bit as well. We'll have to see if it can last for a full season, but it was nice to see it return at least for a few weeks earlier this past season. It was very nice and it gave us some meaningful hockey into the end of the year, which we always appreciate. But that'll do it here for the second segment. When we return, we're going to touch a little bit on a couple of milestones that Sidney Crosby will be chasing down here in

Starting point is 00:20:52 Pittsburgh, hopefully once we get that extension. But Hunter and I will talk about that right after this and we'll tell you about our next sponsor. And that is Fandall. You've heard us talk a lot about Fandul America's number one sports book. Well, we have something a little different for you. Now through September 22nd, all Fandul customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from

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Starting point is 00:21:30 download America's number one sportsbook. All right, welcome back to the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. One more time, I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. Thank you, as always, for joining us here in late August. You can smell it. You can feel it.

Starting point is 00:21:47 It was a little bit chilly today in Pittsburgh, and that means hockey is right around the corner. Buddy, it's been chilly all week here. I was noticing this on Tuesday. Same with Monday. I don't know when October started coming around in late August. But yeah, that's been happening this week here in Pittsburgh. You just got that brisk fall air that you can feel. You just know that football is about to start.

Starting point is 00:22:12 So go check out our pal Chris Carter on Locked on Steelers, getting ready for week one. And of course, that means hockey is coming up right behind it. So we're getting right there. We're a couple weeks away from training camp opening. But let's look even further ahead, shall we? There was a tremendous piece today on Pensburg, one of the best penguins websites out there.

Starting point is 00:22:34 And one of my good pals hooks or pick wrote a great piece today. Same name on Twitter. Absolutely a great follow. It brings a lot of the insights that you need. But Sidney Crosby, we're going to operate under the assumption he is going to sign an extension and remain a penguin for the rest of his career. We would all be shocked if he did anything else. But until it's not, until it's done, it's not done.

Starting point is 00:22:58 But we all know. number 66, La Magnific, the best Penguins player in the history of the franchise. For now, because right now, Lemieux leads the Penguins all-time points in, or all-time with 1,723, Sidney Crosby coming up right behind him with 1,596. Lemieux, 690 goals. Sidney Crosby, 592. And then here's the one that we will probably see. him break this year. Lemieux 1,33 assists, Crosby with 1004. Now, we're not going to deep dive into

Starting point is 00:23:40 the whole story. You got to go read it yourself. It's great. We don't want to steal any of his thunder, but just we're going to talk about this real quick. I think it's pretty much a foregone conclusion this year. He's going to pass Lemieux in assists. Wouldn't you say the same? Yeah, assuming he stays healthy, which I mean, I think he obviously will. I do think he will pass. Knock on wood or whatever else you got around. Petter Rabbit's foot. We have seen too many injuries in Pittsburgh.

Starting point is 00:24:06 All right. I just knocked on wood for that. But yes, assuming Crosby stays healthy, he will pass to the Mew all time and assist. And will be the Penguins all time assist leader for this year. Goals, it's still probably two to three seasons away. He's not. Hey, Pat, is Sidney Crosby going to score 90 plus goals this year to overtake that? I mean, it'd be kind of fun if he did.

Starting point is 00:24:25 But not's not going to happen. I think it's probably going to happen either 25, 26 or the season after that. But I do think he will pass Slim Ewan goals. Yeah. And I think as well, I think the points record is attainable for him. It's only about, I think if I did the math right, 127, I think he can rack that up in two seasons because we keep saying it on the show. Until he slows down, he hasn't slowed down. Now, is it going to be the Crosby of the 2000s where he's putting up 115 point seasons?

Starting point is 00:25:02 Highly doubt it. But if he's putting up 70, 80, even into 90s, I think that points record is absolutely attainable for Sid. But I look at this and I think about it this way, right? We remember thinking Wayne Gretzky's goal record, never going to get touched. No one's going to come close, never going to happen. Well, Alex Ovechkin knocking on the door. He very well could. I think he will.

Starting point is 00:25:29 And then you look at Lemieux's totals as a penguin and you think untouchable, never going to happen. Now, 690 goals. I'm skeptical. I think he could do it. But I think that one has the most outside shot of the three. But points, the way Crosby continues to rack up assists and just constantly put up 70, 80 plus point season. into his late 30s, absolutely think he can do that too. I mean, I think if Sid does score, you know, 2530 for these next three seasons,

Starting point is 00:26:02 goals-wise, I do think he can pass Mario by the time, in goals at least, by the time he calls a career in three to four years. Again, just with how much he trains during the off-season, how he has really shown not too many signs of slowing down, I do think he will pass Lemieux in all three. of these categories. And then after that, Pat, I'll say it here on this show. I don't think anyone is going to touch those records. I know everyone said that about Lemieux, but I don't know if anyone's going to be touching those records for a long, long time. Yeah, I don't think we would see any if

Starting point is 00:26:39 Sid is to pass them, which I think he can. I think that'll be generations before we see it again, just because as good as the NHL has become with the influx of really talented young players, who are so much further ahead than even the Crosby generation. And with the way the game is being trained, the way it's being taught, the way players are being developed, we're going to see a great influx of offensive talent bring up the rear, especially now in this Connor Bedard generation, this Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon generation.

Starting point is 00:27:12 These guys are playing at a level that we previously thought not possible. So the game's going to keep developing. But just I don't know if the penguin will have the lucky rabbit's foot yet again to get yet another generational talent right after Crosby. So we will see. But like I said, we're not going to deep dive into it. That is the top story on Pensburg.com right now. Sidney Crosby's pursuit of Mario Lemieux's all-time franchise scoring records from Hooks, Orpick. Great read.

Starting point is 00:27:43 Well worth your time. Moves quick too. There's a lot in it, but it reads fast. So it's really enjoyable. Check that out. But that will do it for the Wednesday edition. of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you, as always, for joining us here in the dog days of summer.

Starting point is 00:27:58 Like I said, when we're starving for hockey content, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. For Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thanks again, and we will be back with a fresh episode for you on Friday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan gets his 4 Nations coaching staff

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