Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins' selling should start ASAP after Monday's dud

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins dropped their third game in a row on Monday, losing 2-1 to the San Jose Sharks. Hunter and Patrick discuss what was an unacceptable effort in San Jose on Monday and how this team continues to trend towards being a lock for a top 5-10 pick in this year's draft. After that, they discuss how their mistakes were self-inflicted, another theme of this season before giving their thoughts on the goaltender interference call and the Cody Glass penalty at the end of the game. Finally, they discuss FSG potentially adding a minority owner to the Penguins and what it would mean.Link to Josh and Rob's story: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6093260/2025/01/27/fenway-sports-group-looking-to-expand-penguins-ownership-group-sources/?source=emp_shared_articleSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.  Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Pittsburgh Penguins seven game road trip went from bad to worse on Monday night with the loss against the San Jose Sharks. And Pat and I are going to recap that game right after this. 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 episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

joined by my co-st, Patrick Dampe. You can follow him on all social media platforms at the Sinom Verwet. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L.O. Owners for Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by FanDul. Super Bowl 59 is here, and there is no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDul's sportsbook. New Conspers can bet just $5.

And if you win, you'll score $200 in bonus bets. download the app and head to fandul.com to get started. So Pat, Penguins Road Trip got even worse on Monday night, dropping a game to literally the worst team in hockey, a two-to-one loss to the San Jose Sharks, a team that had come in losing six in a row and nine of the last 10 games in the Penguins looked pretty pathetic for most of that game. They turned it on ever so slightly in the third period,

not nearly enough. But they were kind of just skating around very lethargically in the first 40 minutes, really just not doing much of anything, which is pretty unacceptable. I understand that this team is not very good. The stretch that we saw for the three to four weeks, you know, in December through, you know, the end of that month was a mirage. But considering how they lost to Seattle and Anaheim, they were badly outscored in both of those games, I figured they would come into this game against the sharks with at least

being a little fired up. They weren't even close to that in this game. they had a small smidge of energy to start first three minutes. That fizzled out pretty quickly. And then they were just kind of skating around not really doing much of anything. This was a very boring watch for the first 40 minutes. And the Penguins' mistakes, they were very self-inflicted. You get Ryan Shea making a pass to literally no one in his own zone.

McCaulein makes him pay in the second period. I don't know what he's doing there. And then the same thing with Marcus Pedersen. Only a few minutes after the Penguins tie it, thanks to Cindy Crosby, who at least still gives a damn. That's Evergreen. He is always going to give a crap in this league, and especially for this team.

But Marcus Pedersen, he's behind his own net, fires a pass to literally no one in front, intercepted, puck goes in the back of the net. Just two very self-inflicted wounds. It summarizes how the Penguins have been in their own zone this year. I thought Alex Nadelkovich played perfectly fine in this game, gave them some good goaltending, gave them some timely saves, but he had no shot on those two goals that went past him,

just because the two defensemen behind the net, Ryan, Shane Marcus Pedersen, just were completely out to lunch there. And now you've lost three games in a row to three teams that are not very good. You end this road trip on Wednesday in Utah. I mean, this is a team that's going nowhere fast right now. And as I tweeted last night, Pat, you can start to sell off right now because it looks like once again,

this team has quit. Well, I think we can safely say now that this team's little run there to end 24 was nothing but a mirage in the desert. That is not who this team is. This team looks very much, again, like a lottery team, like a team that is in the middle of a retooling on the fly that has a couple moments here and there. They're not a completely terrible bottoming out franchise at this point, but they're also not a good hockey team.

And that's kind of what for the most part we expected. granted, as we have said on the show, they talk about wanting to get back to the postseason, and that's all well and good, but you look at a lot of the moves, you look at a lot of the way the players have conducted themselves this season, and we don't see that happening. There's a stat that stood out to me from last night, and excuse me, I'm going to have to turn over here and read it, so I get it 100% correct because it was hard for me to believe.

the penguins were outscored 1-0 in the second period, and they managed five total shots, four of them at 5 on 5, and that comes against the San Jose Sharks, a team that allows 32.5 shots per game. They're just as bad defensively as the penguins are, if not worse. And the penguins, if this team, and I understand you don't have Evgeny Malkin, I understand you don't have Blake Lazot. there is either there's illness and injury running roughshod over this team right now.

And that's all fair. But if there were if there was ever a night to just say, screw it, we're going to throw caution to the wind. We're going to play a million miles an hour. We're going to focus only on offense. This is a night it could have worked. And they just didn't. It was just a lifeless, list list list performance.

And I think you can kind of tell now this team knows it's over. Yeah, I 100% agree with that. And again, like, even for most of that first period, all that second period, they just weren't doing anything in all three zones. I mean, I even tweeted this last night. They had 15 shots against this Sharks team 35 minutes into the game. 15 shots, man. Like, what are we doing here?

The Sharks, you look at their record. Yeah, again, they have some really good young pieces. Macklin Salarini once again showed that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with for a very long time in this league. But they are horrendous defensively. And you're only mustering out 15 shots. Yeah, again, Evigani Malkin's a bit banged up like Lazada's hurt. But what are we doing here?

I know you can generate more chances than that. And it just felt like they never really got off the bus for this one. They kind of, even though they've lost two games in a row to bad teams, they were kind of like, eh, it's the sharks. They're just going to roll over. That's not going to happen. Even though the sharks have been really bad this year, they have lost six in row going into this game nine of ten,

they're still going to give you their best. These players are playing for jobs next year. Some of these guys are. Some of these other players are playing for jobs on other teams next season. They are still going to give you their absolute best. And you saw that on display last night. The Penguins, again, couldn't even match that effort against the sharks, man. It just, it boggles my mind.

And yeah, if this keeps up, this is going to be a bottom five lottery finish, which, you know, we keep getting questions about this. Like, you know, would you be good with that on all that stuff? 100%. Like if they were to keep this up and they were to bottom out, which again, obviously Pat and I, we're not going to root for this team to, you know, lose every game or anything like that, just considering everything that the score is accomplished. But if they were to keep losing like this and get a top five pick, I will obviously welcome that with open arms because you will get someone hopefully

that can be on this team next year and for more years to come. So if that does happen, time me up for it. Because that is a situation that penguins have not been in Pat in a, very, and I mean a very long time. So I will be totally good with that. We'll have a lot of draft prep, draft, excuse me, for that. When you look at this year's draft,

it's not as deep as last year's, but there's a hierarchy of players that I definitely think could be NH already for next year. I would say the top four to six guys that get picked out of a handful, maybe eight to ten in this draft that are really good.

The top four to six, I feel like to be NHL ready next year. If the Penguins are in that somewhere in that order, I think that that's going to be huge for them as they continue this soft retool slash rebuild on the fly. I don't want to cut your legs out on anything you're saying because for the most part, I agree with what you're saying. I would welcome this team getting an infusion of youth like that and having a top five pick going into next season.

But it comes back to something you and I have both said on this show. I don't care if you lose, especially when you're in a retool rebuild. on the fly. At the very least, against Anaheim and against Seattle, they didn't not show up. They played, they had moments where they played fairly well. We talked about it with the Anaheim game specifically. They had a lot of really good moments. And I would say through 60 minutes, they were in fact the better team. The difference was Anaheim capitalized on chances and John Gibson turned the clock back for a night. And when you're a team in the position that the Pittsburgh penguins are, you are going to have nights like that. You're going to have games where

despite your best effort, you get beat. But that is the key phrase right there, your best effort. Last night was a sleepwalk. That's all it was. They were, they knew that they, they, they seem to know that this season is going nowhere fast and they played like it. And again, I don't care. This team is not tanking. This is not a tanking team. If it was a team, if it was a team in that regard, I would expect an effort like last night. I would be perfectly fine with with an effort like last night because you're tanking. Who cares? But they're not. They're wanting to play at least somewhat meaningful hockey. They at the very least want to keep themselves in the conversation, or at least that's what they say they want. And if that's the case, there is quite

literally only one thing you can control in professional sports. And it's your effort. And last night was an in-excusing. effort. I hate questioning effort and heart for professional athletes because I am just some dumbass sitting in a bedroom with a microphone I bought it best by and a webcam I got on Amazon. So what do I know? But when I watch a game like that after having played hockey all the way through college and having been a hockey fan my entire life, I know what bad effort looks like. And that was bad effort. Especially after again, losses where you are outclassed by two bad teams either below you or right with you in the standings and you follow up those two games with a dud of a performance like this. Again, even if they

had won, we would have come on here and be like, yeah, it's the sharks that doesn't really mean that much, but it still would be better talking about a win compared to whatever the heck we saw last night, which was just a piss poor effort. And heck, it was a worse ever than what we saw against the ducks and the crack. And which is saying something because the penguins looked pretty, again, it's, in my opinion, porous in those games. And you brought up tanking. That's the last point I make before we will head to break here and talk about a couple other things from this game.

If they're tanking, Pat, it's by accident. Like that, I think is truly what the case is here. Because heading into this season, you know, Kyle Dubas, he visited me to, you know, no one is picking us to make the playoffs. We get it. You know, I have a plan in place with my staff. We're going to continue execute that said plan. But then you saw the players, like they kept talking about, yeah, you know,

we want to get back to the playoffs. Like, we like the way we ended last year. We want to carry that momentum. into this year. Like that's the way the players were talking because the way they ended last season with that really nice mini run that got them within a few points

of making the playoffs. But right now, I don't see another mini run like that in them unless it starts kind of right now or over these next couple of weeks. But again, if they're tanking, it's by accident. Because this team was at least not fully designed a tank,

you know, like the sharks, you know, even the Blackhawks of years past, even the Red Wings of Years Pass as well. You know, obviously the Sabres and the McDavid draft Pat, like some of those teams, they were designed to tank. This team, while they weren't designed to tank, they still weren't designed to be that good. But again, they weren't designed to be, you know,

the worst team in hockey. So just wanted to make that point before we ended a show. And then also, I know everyone's going to come into the comments and in the DM saying like, you know, Mike's solving this, Mike Sullivan that. Again, people, I've made my point clear about the head coach. I would have moved on several times by now.

I don't even think his seat is remotely hot right now. That's just strictly my opinion. I could be wrong. That is just strictly my take. I don't even think his seat is remotely hot. Same thing with the football team in this town. I don't think my Tomlin seat is remotely hot. It's kind of similar, Pat,

how both franchises with head coach that have been here for a while, they've won championships, but haven't done a lot in the postseason for a while, kind of on similar trajectories where their seats aren't hot at all in my opinion i didn't think we're going to talk about this today so you know what let's do this hunter let's take our first break because i can talk about this for quite a while so take us into that break and i'll have some thoughts well pat has some thoughts about that and he also has a special guest in his room aka penny his own wonderful new dog that is just sitting on that bed wanting

to be in the show maybe she'll get in the show at some point today pat but we'll also talk about You hear some shuffling in the background. It is my new dog who I welcomed home yesterday. Penny, our nice little black-nosed curhound, she's four years old. She's adorable, but she's still getting used to the new house. So if you hear some shuffling, that's probably what it is. Well, Penny's just going to have to be a guest on the show at some point during this season, just because of the way this season is going for the Penguins.

And coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to discuss the goaltender interference call that took away Michael Bunting's goal, plus Cody Glass's penalty and why he just cannot be taking that penalty. that late in the third period. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Fandul. Super Bowl 59 is here, one game, two teams, endless possibilities, and there's no better way to make every play more exciting than with Fandul's sportsbook, whether it's predicting the first touchdown, calling the MVP or even betting

on the coin toss. Fandul makes it easy to get in on the action. With live betting all game long, you can adjust your bets as the game unfolds and feel the thrill from kickoff to the final whistle. The live betting feature lets you say, involved in no matter what happens on the field in the app is very easy to navigate. Plus, knowing that you can place a $5 bet and potentially win $200 and bonus bets for the Super Bowl, that's the icing on the cake.

Down the app or head to fandle.com to get started, bet just $5. And if you win, you'll score $200 in bonus bets. That's fandle.com bet with fandle, an official partner of Super Bowl 59. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. join by my coes Patrick Dam. So Pat, let's discuss the call regarding Michael Bunting before.

I know you're going to get into that stuff regarding Mike Tomlin and Mike Sullivan. So it looks like Michael Bunting ties the game with a little over five minutes left. And then San Jose challenges it for goaltender interference. They were correct with the call. Goal gets taken away. The Penguins end up losing 2 to 1. That call is interesting because I can see why the refs took it away. There's definitely some contact there with Anthony Bavillier.

my thing is, is it really enough to take away the goal? And B, I think he was kind of pushed into him a little bit. That's an area with this rule that I really want to see cleared up in future seasons, is pushing a player in. I feel like those types of goals that get taken away should potentially not be because it's the defender, just basically having goal to interference himself, even though he's pushing an opposing player into his goalie. It's really the defender that's doing the goaltender interference, if we're being honest.

So again, I get why they made the call because it was goalie interference, but after watching it a few more times, I'm kind of like, really? I don't know. Some of these calls are so black and white. You really just spin the wheel with this because it's really a 50-50 call. But I feel like Beauvilliers kind of got a tiny bit screwed there, because he was pushed into the goalie. You hit the nail on the head.

We do need more clarification for what this rule is in one way or another, especially when it comes with what happened with Bavillier, because there is definitely a world where they have, you know, they go back and forth and there's some jostling in front. And you can put the onus on both guys and just say, listen, because this was both the players going at it, and it turned into goaltender interference, and they were unable to, they were unable to give the goalie the space to play,

and you can take that away. But then you look at last nights, it was definitely way more of a case where Bavillier gets not thrown into, but guided into the opposing goalie by a defender. And at that point, the official should have the discretion to say on the challenge or just when the coach tries to challenge, hey, your guy pushed him in there. So he has to be aware of the space as well because if it's in the blue paint,

I can even be persuaded of like, listen, blue paint off limits, can't go there. This is how it, this is how it's always been. But on the other hand, when you have what you had last night with Vivalier, I don't like that call. But again, and this will transition nicely into what I'm about to talk about. I like Sullivan's response as well where he basically said, do you know what goaltender interference is? Neither do I. Again, Pat, it's really, like I said, you really just spin the wheel because it's a 50-50 call it.

Like I said on Twitter, I can see why they took it off. Like I understand what the rest are looking at. I just wish that they also took into account, okay, this player was also low-key pushed into him. You need to take that into account a bit more when you're thinking about, okay, should you really be taking this goal away? Again, like that's just my main thoughts on the goaltender interference stuff and just for that in the rest of the league. As for Cody Glass, you can't take that penalty there in the third period.

The Penguins are having a pretty solid shift there. He comes in, delivers a cross-check. While you don't see it called in that moment because you're the trailing team very often, considering how NHTS refs with the score, you can't put yourself in a position for the ref to potentially change scores and be like, okay, I'm going to call that there because that is a textbook penalty. That should be called every time. You just don't see it cold every time, especially when a team is trailing because

they want to keep the game close. And you saw it literally 30 to 40 seconds later. They called another penalty on the sharks to make it four on four. Penguins had a power play to end regulation. They just weren't able to capitalize. But for Cody Glass there, you can't put yourself in that position for the ref to make a call there, especially when you are trying to tie this game and at least salvage a point late in regulation.

It's very similar to what happened to Chris LaTang against the crack end. You don't see it called very often, but when it's that textbook, you have to call it. because when they showed the original play against Seattle where Latang gets called for a cross check, the initial footage, I was like, oh, come on. Like, you're really going to call that? And then they show the reverse angle. And yeah, two hands on the stick. You use the force to push forward.

And it's a cross check. So, yeah, you don't want to put yourself in that position. It's a stupid play by Cody Glass. He needs to be better aware of the situation and not take that penalty. No, 100%. Did you want to add anything on the, Sullivan Tomlin stuff during the segment before we get to the FHG report from yesterday. Yeah, I mean, real quick, and it's kind of going to be a warmed over thing of what I've

said on the show plenty of times, what I've said on social media even more. I understand blaming coaches. And I think there are oftentimes when it's necessary. If you look at the last guy who coached the Pittsburgh Penguins before Sullivan, Mike Johnston was square peg round hole. They tried to bring in a guy who preaches a defensive accountable system and that team is just has this team has never been built to be that ever in its history, especially post-Mario Lemieux. Since then, it's been all gas, no breaks in Pittsburgh. And I do

think he has his shortcomings. I do think he is stubborn at times. But I think you also see the way this team has played for the most part this season. This isn't a case of a team quitting on a coach. This isn't a champion in waiting that just needs the right coach. It's not a very good team. And they've had moments sporadic as they are where they play pretty well. And we know what, we know what it looks like when a team quits on a coach. We have seen it at the end of the Dan Bilesma era. We saw it for the majority of the Mike Johnston era. These are, do they need to keep them forever? No. Because depending on where this franchise goes in the next few years, it might just be smart to get a fresh voice in there because you're going to be likely going into a new era.

But for right now, I mean, sure, you could get a new coach or do whatever on that, but you look at all the possible options, whether it's guys in Wilkeshire, guys and Wheeling, guys on the bench currently. And there's not many, there's not many encouraging options. And what's it going to do? I need to get you out of a lottery pick, maybe. So I, I don't really. had like there's so many other things that are worth talking about that ail this team right now

that don't have to do with coaching i hear you to a degree and i understand that sydney crosbie and the core probably don't want to play for another coach at their stages of their career right now but again i feel like a new head coach would at least you know bring in some fresh new ideas bring some more innovation in there to potentially fix some of the issues that is playing the team obviously again you know talent that that's the biggest thing. They're not nearly as talented as they once were. But there's still little things that I see on a nightly basis that I still feel like a new coach could come in here and be like, okay, this is how you change this up. This is how we be more responsible on our own end at times is how,

you know, take away some of these more aggressive pinches that are, you know, 2575, get those out of here. Again, there's just, there's little things that I do feel like a new coach could come in here and get them to clean up those bad habits. That's like, I think, the main thing that I wanted to say. Again, I would move on. I just don't think Kyle Dubus and the ownership group have any interest in doing that at this juncture, my opinion. And speaking of the ownership group, sounds like FSC might want to sell a little bit of a minority stake in the Penguins. We're going to discuss that coming up here to end the show right after this. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my co-s, Patrick Dam. So, Pat, Kevin Weeks, confirmed his little thirst trap picture from last week. he posted on Twitter that it sounds like that the Fenway Sports Group ownership group, the main group that owns the Pittsburgh Penguins, they are looking to add an investor to its ownership group, basically a minority owner. No people, FSG is not selling the Pittsburgh Penguins to another majority owner. They are keeping the controlling interest in the Pittsburgh Penguins, according to Emily Kaplan and Kevin Weeks, and later was confirmed by Josh Yoey and Rob Rossi of the Athletic.

Again, they have served as the Penguins primary owner since 2021, Ron Berkle and Mary Mew own a smidge of the team. But again, it is mostly owned by FSG. And basically, as Rob and Josh write in their article, it's kind of like the Pittsburgh Steelers here, another Steelers comparison, Pat, where, you know, the Rooney family, they control the team, but there is a minority owner in there as well. I think that's what they're going for here and that. So, Pat, your thoughts on FSG looking for a minority owner to sell a bit of a stake in this team, too. I do have to echo a lot of what Rossi said because he is obviously far more well-sourced than I am on anything. But he kind of confirmed my thoughts when this started kind of percolating yesterday was that they're basically just looking for an infusion of capital at this point.

It's not like they're suddenly not interested in the penguins. They suddenly don't care about them and they just look at them as another piece of their portfolio. they're just looking to get an infusion of capital in the organization and how you do that is by dangling out minority shares in the franchise. People love paying for shiny toys like sports franchises. So you can get a solid amount of a return by selling those shares. So that's pretty much what it looks like to me. The other thing I will say, though, it is a little weird that it's happening with FSG already because it's only been about. five years since this has happened, little under five years since they became the controlling

owners of the penguins. So that's certainly eyebrow raising and a little bit to me because usually you see this 10, 15, 20 years down the line when you've come in, you've set your culture, you've set the organizational structure the way you wanted to be structured, you put your hand and fingerprints on it. And then you go, okay, we've got this all solidified and figured out. now we're going to go look for a minority owner to come in and give us an infusion of cash, an infusion of ideas. So really curious timing. But I mean, at the end of the day, it just feels like they realize they've got a pretty

valuable asset. Because if you remember, they bought the penguins for just under a billion dollars. It wasn't like they bought low on the penguins. They bought pretty darn high. So this is a team that still has a lot of monetary. value the potential investors. I'd actually be curious to see what the team would go for right now if they tried putting it up for sale again. Like literally, Pat, like I would be curious to see what the price would be if they were to do that. They're not going to, but you got to think it would be higher

than the price that they paid for even just a few years ago, especially with how you know, you see some sports teams being sold for today, Pat, with the money that's going around. In my opinion, I think it'd be for more. But yeah, this is nothing more than just you said, getting some more capital, getting some more money into the organization. That's really it. I know people have their thoughts on FSC. I certainly have mine. But I think that's for a different day on this show.

But do you have anything else to add about this? Anything else? Penguins related before they end the seven game road trip in Utah tomorrow night? Here's the thing. I'll add this to end the show about something you said earlier in the show where if they have any hopes of climbing back out, it's got to happen immediately. obviously you got Utah coming up tomorrow, but also you end this stretch before you go into the Four Nations face off break. It's not going to be very easy.

You've got Utah, who is a scrappy team. They're not very good, but they're very scrappy. They're going to give you a game. Then you've got Nashville, who regardless of their struggles, there's a lot of talent there, and that's still a team that can decide to turn it on for a night. And then you end it with nothing but Metro games before you get out. the devils, the Rangers, and the Flyers. So we're going to find out over the next week and a half

if this team is truly six feet deep and buried, or if this zombie can rise up from the ground one more time. I don't have a lot of confidence that they can rise up again, but hey, I'd love to be proven wrong. But again, they've just been playing really poorly these last few weeks. And they keep this up. Once again, man, they're going to be in the left lane going all the way to a top five pick in this year.

year's draft. But again, I think that'll do it for today's episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show of you all on Wednesday to get you all set for that game against Utah and give you our picture warrior helmet Wednesday and discuss everything else in the land of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunters for Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We will talk with you all again on Wednesday.