Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan tapped to lead Team USA

Starting point is 00:00:00 Team USA's officially got their man behind the bench, and we know him all too well. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:40 And we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we are your team every day. And we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. So I am back from the city of brotherly love all the way across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, of Philadelphia after a great wedding weekend. And as you can see, another odd show for the two of us today because Hunter is not in his normal location. Therefore, I'm jumping right back into the fire and hosting today.

Starting point is 00:01:10 We will be back to our normal type of episode on Tuesday. So we appreciate you guys sticking with us and sticking through us all through all of this as Hunter and I have life happen around the show. But this is what we do on Locked on Penguins. We make sure we get episodes in the can so you guys can. get your content because you're sickos like us and you love the Pittsburgh Penguins. So let's get into today's topic to start the show. And that is over the weekend, it was made official.

Starting point is 00:01:39 Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan will add another type of head coaching job to his resume come 2025 and 26. And that is head coach of Team USA for the 2025 Four Nations Cup and then the 2026, Winter Olympics. I know I'm going to start here. I know that people here in Pittsburgh have been down on Mike Sullivan lately. The two of us are included in that group. But when it comes to candidates to coach the Americans at the Four Nations Cup as well as the 2026 Olympics, there really isn't much better out there than Mike Sullivan. And I'll start it here with that point. I think a lot of the issues that have been plaguing him as well as plaguing the penguins

Starting point is 00:02:29 for the last couple of seasons comes down to nothing but roster construction. We saw what happened between 2015 and say 2018, 2019 when he had a guy like Jim Rutherford putting together a very, very deep, very solid roster and he was able to turn those teams into absolute buzz saws in those seasons. Now, when you look at all the talent that is possible to make Team USA over the next two years and going into the Olympics, Mike Sullivan, should he keep his mojo the way he had it when the penguins were winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, he is going to have Team USA absolutely buzzing at these two tournaments. I said it over the weekend, but this was the easiest slam dunk, I think, of all time for USA hockey. I've already seen what a Team USA looks like under John Tortorella. I don't need to see that again, no offense. Peter Wavillette, you can make an argument for him just with the way the Rangers have played

Starting point is 00:03:33 throughout this season. They're in the conference final, and he has been a very successful coach in all of his stops. But no offense to him, I don't want to watch Team USA run a one-three-one for most of that game. And frankly, a lot of his teams are kind of boring. This Rangers team, I think, is one of the more fun teams that he's coached, but this is still a very big slam dunk for USA hockey and Mike Sullivan. I know what people are going to say, Pat. Oh, he's not going to use younger players, all this, all that. He's not going to have a choice when you look at the roster that Team USA can put out.

Starting point is 00:04:11 Austin Matthew Cachuk, Matthew Cachuk, Brady Cichuk, Jack Eichle, Jason Robertson, Charlie Macduy. Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes, Jack Hughes. Do I need to keep going? Jake Gensel, obviously. But this, I think, is the deepest talent pool that USA hockey has had in my lifetime. I just want them to focus on bringing the right players over, or I should say, just the best players overall, over to the Four Nations face off, and over to the Olympics. And then once the decision makers do that, let Sullivan Cook just because you've seen what he can do, with a very effective team. I think this is something very much up his alley.

Starting point is 00:04:54 Have I been a lot more down on Sullivan over the last year or so? Absolutely. I've said numerous times on the show that I would not have brought him back for the 2024, 2025 season. Obviously, Kyle Dupus and the rest of the front office disagrees with me. But there is still a good coach in there. And I think you will see that on display at the Four Nations face off and at the Olympics the year after because this team, if he gets them to play his style,

Starting point is 00:05:23 they're going to be really hard to beat. For sure. And you also look at one of the people at the helm for Team USA, that's Bill Garon. And you can have your thoughts on him and everything that's gone on with Minnesota and how he exited Pittsburgh from the front office. But Bill Garon, for the most part, when it comes to front. office roster building philosophy is more modern than you would expect from a very cliche old school hockey guy. So he's not going to make the same kind of mistakes that say Burke and

Starting point is 00:06:00 Tortorella did all those years ago for the World Cup of hockey and then the 2014 Olympics, where you're going to think, they're going to try to galaxy brain it and go, oh, instead of getting the best players, we're going to, they're all going to try to recreate the line from Miracle that was never one that actually happened. Disney just wrote it themselves about, I'm not looking for the best players, Craig. I'm looking for the right ones. You go back and look at the stats of the guys who played on the 1980 team.

Starting point is 00:06:29 They were far and away the best American collegiate players in the country by a mile. I hate the way they did it for the 2016 World Cup, because that was the last main competition where we saw NHL players, right, Pat. but they decided to bring role players and grinders and all these other types of players. It's just like bring the best players available and see what you can do. Obviously, a team like Canada is going to be deeper than you, but bring your best guys and see what you can do in that level of competition. Now you have the right head coach in place.

Starting point is 00:07:04 Yeah, I mean, we're going to have so much time between now and then to break down Team USA, but just as a nice little appetizer before the main course. If you look at just the potential center depth alone for the United States going into these two tournaments, Austin Matthews, Jack Hughes, Jack Eichel, Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, and there's a handful of others who you could just push to wing, but for the first time in a really, really long time, there is a gigantic talent pool available for the United States. And if you thought that 2010 was a great year for the U.S. Olympic team, 2026, man, this could be their tournament. They very much could go into it as the team to beat.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Well, I do think at the end of the day, Canada will be the number one ranked team. There's not going to be a lot of wide. There's not going to be very much of a gap between them and the United States. The biggest advantage that the U.S. will have will be a net. look at Canada's goalie options. I mean, we could really be sitting here and potentially looking at Tristan Jari starting for Team Canada. I mean, you look at for Team USA, just a few here for everyone.

Starting point is 00:08:21 Connor Hellebuck, Jake Ottinger, and Thatcher Demko. All three of those goalies blow anyone that Team Canada will have available to them the Four Nations face off or the Olympics in 2026. So the U.S. will have a big advantage there. I know Foreswise, Canada will have the advantage. I mean, Canada's fourth line can probably be everyone's first line for the most far. There's a very real chance come 2026. Sydney Crosby is Canada's fourth line center.

Starting point is 00:08:52 I don't know if I'd go that far. I still think he's going to be in the top nine, but I know why you're saying it's just looking at Canada's center depth. Yeah, like I'm not saying that is a negative thing either. They, no. Grosby could very well. They could just say, hey, you know what, we want to use you, but we know at that point you're going to be almost 40. So you're going to play third or fourth line center and we're going to play 12 to 13 minutes a night.

Starting point is 00:09:18 But all 12 of those 13, 12 or 13 minutes per night, you're going to dominate the opposition. And they're going to have no answer. I mean, I could, I could see. I mean, he'll obviously be a little bit older by then. But, I mean, having him even in your bottom six, that's such a luxury that basically no other country. have overall, but just getting back to Mike Sullivan, again, very easy decision by USA hockey. It's well deserved after everything he's accomplished as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what he can do with this young talent.

Starting point is 00:09:49 I know. I'm going to make the jokes about how he hasn't used some of the young talent in Pittsburgh. He doesn't play them as much as veterans. But with USA hockey people, he's not going to have a choice. No, he really isn't. But we've seen what he can do, like I said at the top, with a talented, deep roster and like you said a little bit ago, a team that has depth and goal. You give him those kind of options.

Starting point is 00:10:11 He is going to get the absolute most out of that roster. So in conclusion, I'm right there with you. I believe we're both in agreement here. No better choice to coach Team USA on the international stage over the next two years than Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan. And just as a quick little thing before we had to break, we're only saying that about Team USA. We understand the gripes that everybody has with the penguins. We're right there with you. We're talking strictly Team USA. So even though I'm sure you're typing your comments right now, we'll still read them, but we're talking Team USA, not Pittsburgh. But that is going to do it for the first segment of today's episode. When we come back, we're going to do another season in review. And it's for the guy that took over the net when the team was trying to make a run to the playoffs. And that is Alex Nadalcovic. But before we do that, we're going to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is policy genius. PolicyGenius is the country's leading online insurance marketplace.

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Starting point is 00:12:20 to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. That's PolicyGenius.com slash Locked on NHL. all right we're back here on the monday edition of the locked on penguins podcast i'm patrick damp joined as always by hunter hodies and we got to talk about another season in review for a guy who really came on strong to end the season and i don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say kind of saved the penguin season a little bit down the last month and a half of the year and that is goaltender Alex Nadelcovic. If you look at his top line stats this season, pretty solid piece of work for a guy who

Starting point is 00:13:03 was brought in to be the backup or even the 1B depending on your prerogative. 33 starts put up an 18 and 7 record with seven games going to OT, a 2.97 goals against average and a 902 save percentage with one shutout. But as we know, the biggest storyline with him, as I said, was down the stretch. as this team was fighting to possibly get into the Stanley Cup playoffs with Tristan Jari once again hitting that late season slump. He stepped in admirably and played extremely well to help this team's chances stay alive pretty much until the last day of the season. Yeah, I don't think his 902 say percentage tells the full story. I mean, you look at that number. That's basically

Starting point is 00:13:48 right around league average goal tending for this year, give or take. But he started the season, red hot for the penguins just because they were managing his workload a bit more. Heck, he only had made two starts in October, but he ended the month with a 9-14 save percentage in November is the same thing. 9.58 save percentage, though, just because he had a shutout against the Golden Knights at home. I thought that's one of his five best starts of the season. Loses against Buffalo, but he was not the reason why the penguin's also like game finished with 9-12 December.

Starting point is 00:14:17 His saber sentence went down a little bit just because he got a little bit more games, but still 9-15, the first half of the season, I thought he was true. tremendous. 901, same percentage in January, 901 in February. Sure, it went down a little bit in March and April, but the thing you have to look at is, Pat, he got way more starts down the stretch compared to the first half of the season, just because this was when Tristan Jari really started to go down. And then Mike Sullivan was like, okay, if Tristan isn't going to give us at least average

Starting point is 00:14:46 goal-hitting, I'm going to go to Dedelcovich and ride him for as long as I can. And you saw that happen once March hit. and once they really started to find something in that final four to six week stretch of the season. Sure, you look at April and his 889 percentage. I know that's not good, but that also doesn't tell the whole story, just keeping that theme going here. He was great against the Rangers, great against the Devils, especially in that Devils game.

Starting point is 00:15:13 I mean, I know the Penguins are down 3-1 and during the third period, but he was making big save after big save to keep the Penguins within striking distance, and then boom, they go on that big run in the third period. Heck, that game against Washington, that 4-1 win, 9-68 save percentage. He was awesome. And another example, I know this, he only had an 882 save percentage against the Lightning on April 6th. The Penguins won that crazy 5-4 game after going up 4-1 into the third period. They blow that lead in basically 10 minutes.

Starting point is 00:15:43 But he wasn't the reason why they blew that lead. The Penguins just kind of fell asleep in their own zone, and they gave the lightning way too many power plays in the second half of the game. that game. A good chunk of these starts down the stretch, his numbers kind of look a bit unfair just because of the way the Penguins were playing defensively. Yeah, at times, he definitely looked like he was a bit gassed. I mean, we said on this show that we would have given maybe Jari another start down the stretch just because we didn't want him to be gassed overall, but he was still playing, I thought, at least, at a fairly high level. And no matter

Starting point is 00:16:17 of what I think he is going to get paid by some team come July 1. I'm not sure at this point if it's going to be the Penguins. I mean, I don't think you're going to ride this tandem back for next year just because I think that's going to be too much money overall. But for what they signed him for, the value that he gave the Penguins, the play that he gave this team, A plus signing by Kyle Dubus. 100%. And obviously, you know, high insights 2020.

Starting point is 00:16:45 So it's easy to say a lot of this. knowing the outcome, but we spent the first segment of the show talking about Mike Sullivan. And if there's one issue I take with the way he ran the goalies this year, I think there has been enough evidence at this point to speak on the fact that Tristan Jari does seem to fall apart down the stretch. He does seem to wear out. And you saw early in the year, obviously, you know, this was tough because how well Jari was playing in October and November and into December. But if you know that he wears down and you have a guy like Ned who was giving you solid goaltending every time he got a start, I feel like it would have been better to give Ned more

Starting point is 00:17:29 starts in those dog days in December, January, February, and give Jari some more time off. Hopefully keep him fresh and ready to go for the rest of the run throughout the rest of the season. but obviously that didn't happen. And then, you know, we got where we were. But I'm also right there with you. Unless they do something with Jari in the lead up to July 1st, I don't see them bringing Ned back. I just think he has earned himself a bigger payday. If nothing else, maybe not so much a bigger payday, but he's earned himself some job security.

Starting point is 00:18:08 And that's a two, three, four year deal where he doesn't have to. go out and move around the NHL every year or two at this point. I think he has pretty much gotten himself to the place where he can get a contract that keeps him with the same team for multiple years. He should. I mean, it should be at least, I think a two to three year contract. I don't think a team is going to give him four to five years on a contract. I mean, I'm not a big fan of that.

Starting point is 00:18:33 I'm not a fan of giving goalies term unless you're, I think one of the six to seven best goaltenders on the planet. But I do think ones for agency comes just because I don't think he's going to be. back with the penguins for this season. He is going to get a multi-year deal, and it's going to be around, if I had to guess, two to three million per year. And he'll deserve that. He'll he's going to go to a team where he can make 30, 35, maybe even 40 starts.

Starting point is 00:18:57 He can be kind of in a platoon type situation where he doesn't have to play 50, 55 games. You can have him be a 1B. Maybe that's a 1A at some point. You can rotate him with another goalie that a team has. and I think that could be a really good move for whatever team gets him this all season. Again, I don't think right now it's going to be the Penguins. Crazier things have happened, but I think he's kind of priced himself out of Pittsburgh at this point. I would definitely agree.

Starting point is 00:19:25 But overall, a great signing by Kyle Dubus damn near saved the Penguins season down the stretch. So we hope that he can strike another deal with another goalie that can do the same for them. This year should Tristan Jari remain on the Penguins. but that'll do it for this segment. When we come back, we're actually going to talk a little bit more about Ned, but it's going to be more about the IAHF World Championships and how he's doing with Team USA, as well as giving some quick thoughts on the Eastern Conference Final.

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Starting point is 00:20:43 Exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fit only available to U.S. customers. All right, we're back here on the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. And what do you want to do first here, Hunter? I'll leave it up to you even though I'm hosting today. Do we want to do our quick thoughts on the Eastern Conference final or do we want to take a look across the pond to what's going on at the World Championships?

Starting point is 00:21:07 Let's just do the World Championships and keep up with. the Nadelkovich talk because he did struggle in his first start, but he has been really good since then overall. I mean, 2.02 goals against average. He stopped 35 of 40 shots. I know that's only an 875% overall after you do the math, but he has bounced back in a big way after having that first start. And he has been, I think, by far Team USA's best goalie overseas. He's been fantastic. Again, outside that first start. Yeah. He's been. He's been really good. And USA right now sits second in group B.

Starting point is 00:21:45 They are five points behind team Sweden with a record of four one and one. That's one win, one overtime loss and one regulation loss for 13 points. They've scored 31 goals, only given up 13. But then you look right above them to Sweden. And boy, oh boy, have they been dominant this tournament? You look at how they have done. They've got six wins. That's it.

Starting point is 00:22:09 18 points, 29 goals, 8 against, they are just cruising. We said heading into this tournament that Sweden was going to probably be the top team to beat, and they are proving us right. So I think I'd kind of be surprised if Sweden did not win gold at this year's World Championships. That team is loaded with talent all the way through. And it's going to be fun to see how they do at the four nations face off next year with even more talent and at the Olympics the year after as long.

Starting point is 00:22:40 But just one more thing about Ndilkevich, if there's one thing that I wish we had gotten during this season, it was maybe him just being a little more healthy after that game against the stars. That was very early on. He got hurt during that 4-1 lost of the stars on the 24th. He didn't play again until November 19th against the Golden Knights. And I feel like if Ned had stayed healthy during that time, he would have taken away more starts from Jari and potentially,

Starting point is 00:23:06 Jari is maybe a little more fresh heading into February, March, etc. I did want to add that in there for this episode too, just because he did, Ned, he missed a little bit of time during the season. For sure. And then back to Sweden real quick,

Starting point is 00:23:24 one of the players leading the way for them, Eric Carlson, four goals, three assists, seven points in six games. And this is going to be a lot of fun because even with Sweden playing the way that they're playing, the top three point scores in this tournament are Americans.

Starting point is 00:23:40 You've got Matt Boldie with five goals, seven assists for 12 points, Brady Kachuk, six goals, five assists for 11 points, and Johnny Goddrow with three goals, eight assists, and 11 points. His most recent assist actually made him the top assist getter in Team USA hockey on the international stage. So congratulations to him. But a lot more hockey to be played in the IAHF World Championships, and we're going to keep an eye on that throughout the rest of the tournament for you.

Starting point is 00:24:08 But now that we've had that appetizer, I know you've been itching to talk about this since we knew the matchup. The Eastern Conference final is set. We know who's going to be playing for the right to represent the East at the Stanley Cup playoffs in about two weeks. And that is Florida versus the Rangers. These are the top two teams in the conference. They've been there all year. I know I picked Carolina to beat New York. in seven games. And I discussed on the show on Friday, what a terrible collapse that was by Carolina

Starting point is 00:24:39 in the third period. But the Rangers with the way they played in that series, they deserved to beat the hurricanes in six games. And now they go up against a team in the Panthers. They made the Stanley Cup final last year. And I'll repeat it again. When the Panthers are humming, I don't think there's a better team in the East than them. They're fast. They're skilled. They're deep. They can piss you off. They have a very active defense. group. And also, Sergey Bobrovsky may not be as good as Igor Shasturkin overall, but he has shown an ability to play at an elite level in the playoffs. I think he can come very close, if not

Starting point is 00:25:19 potentially equal, the level that Shasturkin has played at in the playoffs. That's going to be a really fun, goaltending battle overall. Special teams obviously will play a huge part. Can the Panthers slow down that red hot rangers power play? Can the Panthers? Can the Panthers? vice versa, get some goals on the Rangers' pelticill, which has been a pretty solid unit throughout. But I'm really looking forward to seeing how Matthew Kuchk goes up against the Rangers because I think he's going to really piss those fans off and just I think the team off overall throughout these next couple weeks. This is kind of a coin flip series for me overall, but I'm going to take the Panthers and

Starting point is 00:25:59 seven. I think they're just a little bit deeper than the Rangers. I think they're playing at a little bit of a higher level than the Rangers are right now. I know the Bruins just gave them a little bit of a scare in the second round, but I'm going to go with the Panthers in seven games to go back to the Stanley Cup final. I'm right there with you, and you brought up a point I'm really going to watch. And I know that a lot of people are going to roll their eyes when I say this, but it's the Matt Rempey factor.

Starting point is 00:26:28 Because the way, and I don't look at it as what kind of impact will he have on the series should he draw in, but will Florida irritate the Rangers enough that they feel like they need to let him loose? And I feel like if they do that, they're going to play right into the Panthers' hands. Because if you are the Rangers, you look at the way you have been humming along this postseason. Yes, Carolina gave them a scare, definitely exposed a couple of flaws. But overall, they were the better team throughout the majority of that series. and they just played their game. If they feel like they're going to get sucked down into the mud

Starting point is 00:27:07 with a lot of the agitating players, the Sam Bennett's, the Kachucks of the Florida Panthers, and they feel like, okay, it's time to let Rempey run, then you have played their game. And if you're the Rangers, you've got on paper the better goalie, your depth has been maybe a little bit worse, but maybe just on par with Florida's depth.

Starting point is 00:27:28 And there's a reason they won the president's trophy this year. They are that good. They are a very good team. So if you're the Rangers, don't under any circumstances, get drawn into that because that's exactly what Florida is going to want to do. And I'm there with you. I got the Florida Panthers in seven in what is going to be a fun,

Starting point is 00:27:50 fun Eastern Conference final. Yes, just because, you know, we do a Penguins podcast. Obviously, we will not be rooting for the Rangers to make this Stanley Cup final on here. I'll be very much on the Panthers bandwagon.

Starting point is 00:28:01 for that. But I'm still, as just a total unbiased person who loves hockey, I'm very much looking to forward to how this series goes. And one more thing, Vancouver and seven tonight, baby. Come on, this is it. I am so excited for this game. It sucks that Brock Besser is not going to be able to go. I really hope everything is okay with him overall. After seeing that really scary report over the weekend, Pat about the blood caught situation, and just hope he is okay. Note that Dr. Demkover, Vancouver, but I said Vancouver and seven from the start, give me the Canucks to win this game.

Starting point is 00:28:37 And also so that I can just get back at least 500 for this round. If I lose in this series, I'll have predicted only one second round series after going eight for eight in the first round. Yeah, this series, man, has it been as advertised. It has been the most back and forth fun to watch series, both on and off the ice, because everybody has been all in on this one. So I would love to see Vancouver do it. Half because I like that team a lot, just like you do. Half because, man, I can't wait for the takes out of Edmonton

Starting point is 00:29:08 if they don't get to the conference final this year. That will give us a lot of fun content. But yeah, I would love to see Vancouver do it. But Hunter, unless you've got anything to add, that is going to do it for the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast for Hunter, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. And we'll be back with a fresh episode for you on Tuesday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan tapped to lead Team USA

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