Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Remembering Penguins and Red Wings Stanley Cup Final rematches!

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

For the first time since 2008-2009, we've got a repeat Stanley Cup Final, so let's remember when the Penguins and Red Wings put on an epic two years! Patrick begins the episode talking about how, for the first time since 2008-2009, we've got a Stanley Cup Final rematch. He draws on the parallels between the 2009 Penguins and Red Wings and the 2025 Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers. Then, some reports have come out that DJ Smith is still in the mix for the Penguins' head coaching job. He dives into how this would be a misguided hire, but how Smith may be pitching himself to the franchise. Finally, Fan Take Friday returns, and Locked On Penguins listeners delivered. We talk about Jake Guentzel, free agency, trade ideas, and more!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!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.

They say that history often repeats itself and history oftentimes rhymes. And with the Stanley Cup final set, it's a rematch. So let's look back on the last time the Stanley Cup final was a rematch. You're Locked-on Penguin, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host Patrick Damp. I am flying solo once again

as Hunter is on the road. Just a programming note, we did try to do a 32-thought-style Elliot Friedman car cast with Hunter, but technology unfortunately failed us, so we decided I would run solo for this episode. And with that in mind, you can follow me across all social media platforms

at Synonym 4WET. You can give our show's account a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. And of course, as always, we appreciate you making this show part of your daily routine because we're your team every day. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. And if you're following us on YouTube, make sure you've hit that notification button. That way, you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. As I said, on my own here today,

But as I said at the start, the Stanley Cup final is officially set. And it is a rematch of the 2024 Stanley Cup final with the Edmonton Oilers defeating the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final and the Florida Panthers defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final. So they will go head to head once again. But with that finals matchup set, all of you who listen to the show are obviously asking the question, what does this have to do with the Pittsburgh Penguins? Well, all of you already know, it is the first repeat Stanley Cup final since 2008 and 2009,

when our Pittsburgh Penguins took on the Detroit Red Wings in both of those finals. We know how those went. 2008, the young penguins make their first Stanley Cup final with their core four at the time, of Sidney Crosby, of Gennie Malkin, Chris LaTang and Jordan Stahl. You could even say it's a core five as Mark Andre Fleury was still the goaltender. They don't win the 2008 final. They lose at home in game six to the Red Wings. And then a year later, they return the favor and win in game seven at the Joe Lewis Arena,

getting their revenge on the Detroit Red Wings. So there are a lot of similarities. when you break down these repeat championship rounds, including the biggest one of all. And for me, obviously when we get Hunter back next week because the Stanley Cup final does not start until next Wednesday, so we've got quite a few days until the championship round begins.

But when we do a full breakdown, we'll get into the X's and O's, give our predictions. But for now, let's talk a little more narrative, like I was saying, One of the biggest parallels to me is that Connor McDavid can now join two of the all-time greats in what is a great Stanley Cup final narrative. In the 1980s, Wayne Gretzky with his Edmonton Oilers lost to the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup final, only to go back a year later and defeat those same islanders at the end of the New York Islanders dynasty. Then 2008, Sidney Crosby and his Penguins lose to what was one of the best teams of the early salary cap era in the Detroit Red Wings.

One year later, Crosby and the Penguins go back and return the favor and get their first Stanley Cup championship. Really fun narrative to me because I always say that the first best and original reality show is always been professional. sports. And you love those stories. And it's why I'm going to probably be rooting for the Edmonton Oilers in this year's Stanley Cup final because you do like to see the all time greats eventually get their first title. And Connor McDavid certainly is one of the modern day all time greats, gets his 100th playoff assist in just his 90th game, making him the second fastest to get that mark in NHL history behind only. Wayne Gretzky.

The other thing I look at narratively when you compare these two back-to-back finalists from the obvious of the superstar gets his revenge, wins the Stanley Cup. Obviously, that has not happened yet. We're still waiting for it to start is that there's a lot of similarities here when you compare these Florida Panthers to the Detroit Red Wings of the early or late 2000s, excuse me. And if you remember, both teams going into that Stanley Cup final in 2008 made an absolute mockery of the conference playoffs.

The penguins, they win 12 games, obviously, but they only lose two games. They sweep the Ottawa senators in the opening round. They beat the Rangers in five. And then they beat the Flyers in five, putting up a 12 and two record, which, was unbelievable at the time when you compare that when they were in the 2007 playoffs, they were really humbled and welcomed to the next level by the Ottawa Senators just a year earlier. As for the Detroit Red Wings, only had lost four games going into that final. And while you compare it to now where we've got this Stanley Cup final rematch,

the Florida Panthers are defending champions. This is their third straight Stanley Cup final. And the comparison to me is obviously Detroit did not make the 2007 Stanley Cup final, but they were very, very good in that year prior. They lost a hard-fought Western Conference final to the Anaheim Ducks who went on to win the Stanley Cup that year. And that was kind of as they were reaching their apex in the late 2000s as the Detroit Red Wings. They were very, very, good in 2007. They were better in 2008, and they were probably just as good in 2009. There's absolutely an argument to be made that the 2009 Red Wings were probably better than the 2008 Red Wings, and the Penguins being able to get that victory in seven games was a massive, massive

moment for that team. You look at the Florida Panthers, and Hunter and I have said this on the show multiple times. Hunter may have predicted at the start of the season that we were going to get repeat Stanley Cup final. But when you look at the totality of the season, the way the Panthers were playing going into the Stanley Cup playoffs and just everybody seemed to doubt them, including us. I was on record as saying, I thought Tampa Bay was playing a lot better. Florida dispatches them like it's almost nothing. Then they have a pretty hard fought seven game series. saved for two games against Toronto, and they really just laid the hammer on Carolina in the Eastern Conference final. This looks like a really, really good Florida Panthers team. But then on the

other side of it, you've got Edmonton who didn't really, I don't want to say it was a huge struggle for them to get to the Stanley Cup final, but they get a scare in the first round against LA. They dispatch Vegas pretty handily. I know that there's going to be a narrative that they kind of walked over Dallas, but Dallas still hung right with them. The puck just didn't go in. It was, I think, a harder fought series than a lot of people are going to give it credit for. But at the end of the day, this is a team on a mission just like the 2009 penguins were. Obviously, the similarities aren't one to one. Same coach. They have a lot of the the same supporting cast.

They've got a couple additions here and there, but realistically, this is a team that is on a mission. And so were the Florida Panthers. Obviously, next week, we're going to preview the series at large, give our predictions, but really, this is probably the two best teams

that were in the Stanley Cup playoffs, making it to the final round. And it's going to be a great one. I'm really looking forward to this real quick before I end this segment. Got to do a little bit of waxing poetic on 08 and 09. One of the funniest things to me, looking back on these two series, is the goal tending question.

Maybe not question, but you know what I mean. 2008, if the penguins were able to push that series to seven, I believe that there was a real case to be made for Mark Andre Fleury to win the con smite trophy as MVP. because in that final, the penguins were not in it very much. They get crushed in the first two games. They hang tight in the rest of the series before Detroit ultimately wins it in six. But a large portion of that was the play of Mark Andre Fleury.

He was an absolute brick wall in that series. And that's not to say that he was bad in 2009, but there was certainly a regression from the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs. to the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs. So I was obviously a senior in high school when they win. They win the Stanley Cup one day after I graduate high school. And that was also the same year. The Steelers won the Super Bowl.

So that was one hell of a senior year. So I hope that there are some kids up there in Alberta if the Oilers are able to pull this off that have graduated high school. They're getting ready for college. in their send-off into summer vacation is an Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup win. But we will preview the full series next week before it gets going and give our predictions. But that'll do it for this opening segment. When we return, there's a little bit of an update on the coaching search, not a ton,

but just some things that we need to talk about. And we will do that when we come back right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Fandul. The NBA playoffs are in full swing, and every night delivers highlight-worthy performances, especially in the Indiana Nix series. That one is an absolute barn burner of a series with major momentum shifts, can't miss moments, whether it's a game-winning shot or a breakout player, there has never been a better time to get in on the action. And Fandul makes it easy to stay in the game before tip-off and live with player props,

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from Elliott Friedman on the coaching search of the Pittsburgh Penguins. While there has been a lot of reporting and chatter from many out there that Mitch Love appears to be the leading candidate to be the next head coach of the Penguins, he did say on 32 thoughts that people have said to him, don't underestimate DJ Smith. He referenced things such as the prior relationship that Kyle Dubus has with Smith from his time in Toronto. And he also brought up Ottawa. So I want to start with this when it comes to Ottawa. I have said it multiple times on the show.

I will reiterate it once again. I do think that there is a case to be made for DJ Smith in the sense that When he was the head coach of the senators, it was still the Eugene Melnick era of the Ottawa senators. And that team was a complete and total mess. So a lot of the failings that happened under Smith, you could again make a case that they didn't fall totally on his shoulders. There was an owner looking over everyone's shoulders, making haphazard decisions. and the franchise as a whole was just not in a good place. And a lot of times it's easy to pin a lot of the blame on the coach

when the owner, the guy who is signing the checks and making everything possible is the one in charge and that can lead to a pretty hostile environment. However, I don't think that is all there is to be said when it comes to DJ Smith. I've got to reference Hunter here who did, text me his take on DJ Smith saying, I'm going to read this directly from my messages so I don't misquote him. I think DJ Smith is probably saying something along the lines of, hey, I help

develop these young guys in Ottawa, even though they made the playoffs after I left. That's what I can do for you. That's kind of what I believe as well. I do think a lot of his pitch is probably that he played a hand in developing some of these younger guys. with the Ottawa senators, and that's all well and good. But problem to me when you make that pitch, if you're Kyle Dubus in the Penguins management team, they didn't really take that big of a step. They developed, sure, and I think a lot of that is probably more on the fact that these are extremely talented players.

You've got Kachuk, you've got Stutzla, you've got a few others. and they are maybe not all world superstars, but they are certainly very good to elite players. And regardless of the development or not, they are suited for NHL play. Putting them with a good supporting cast, developing good habits, and things like that are what you have to do

away from their talent just taking over. you look at a team like Buffalo. They have had several very good to elite talents come through the program over the last decade, and they have turned into very good players. They have turned into even elite players such as Jack Eichael. Problem is they had no supporting cast. They didn't have much of a direction. And while, again, not all of that falls on the head coach.

The head coach still has to play a role in it. And I do believe that there is a benefit, as I've said, a benefit of the doubt for DJ Smith in that he was in a dysfunctional organization. And that does hamper a lot of the effort. The same can also be said for Buffalo. But realistically, at the end of the day, let's bring this into the penguin's tent. If you look back on when the penguins began this era 20 some odd years ago, they started with Eddie O'clock. check. And no disrespect to Eddie O, he wasn't the guy to develop these players. The Penguins noticed that. The Penguins understood that. And they replaced him with Michelle Tarian. Now, you can have your

takes on Michelle Tarian, the way he coaches, his style. I certainly do. But Michelle Tarian, when you, to connect this to the first segment about the back-to-back finals, there was a lot of Michelle Tarian in the 2009 Penguins. He taught a raw young group that was high-octane offense, very talented offensively, and taught them how to play NHL hockey. He brought them a structure. He brought them the ability to play a 200-foot game that didn't stifle their offensive abilities. Now, that started to happen in 2009 when the team was struggling. They were trying, it's very similar to the Johnston to Sullivan moment when you were stifling their offense at the sake of defense.

And obviously they changed the Dan Bilesma. He unlocks that. They go on to win a Stanley Cup. But with DJ Smith, with the Buffalo Sabres, eventually it all has to be put together. And I'm extremely skeptical that DJ Smith can do that. Now, it doesn't mean that he's a bad coach. It doesn't mean that I don't think he can't have a coaching career in the NHL. He might work out somewhere else.

He was very good as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, as seen by their power play when he was there. Yes, a lot of that is that they had very elite talent, but he taught them the structure. He ingrained it in them, and they were able to turn it into success on the power play. So when I look at this team, when I look at where they are now, as we have been saying on the show, it really does feel like it is Mitch

Love's job to take if he wants it. And I think that is a much better option for this franchise, because he has a good track record of development at the AHL and junior levels. The Penguins have said on multiple occasions that they are looking for a youth movement over the next few years. And when you have a candidate like DJ Smith at your disposal, should he take the job, that's the best candidate. When it comes to DJ Smith, I think if our belief of what his pitch will be is that he worked with the young guys in Ottawa, there are a lot of holes in that argument. They didn't take a ton of steps forward. They didn't really make a ton of progress.

And then the next coach comes in and look where they are now. So while I understand that he has that argument in his pocket, he's got his relationship with Kyle Dubus, I still believe that it would not be the right decision for the team to take DJ Smith over even Jay Woodcroft, who I think would be the second best option for this team going into the future of the Penguins organization. So we will obviously keep an eye on this. if there is a hire made later today over the weekend, Hunter and I will jump on and do an emergency episode breaking down the hire and everything that comes with it.

And obviously we'll talk about it as the draft, free agency and everything else in the offseason comes our way. But that is going to do it for this middle segment of the Friday edition of Locked-on Penguins. When we come back, it is the return of fan take Friday. and who boy, I got to say you guys brought us some real good ones in our YouTube comments. We will get to those when we come back right after this. Welcome back to the Friday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp, riding solo once again.

We will get Hunter back next week. He will do his shows from the beach on his vacation. But for now, let's get into one of my new favorite segments that we're doing on this show, and that is fan take Friday. If you are new here on Thursday, after our shows, we post on Twitter as well as our YouTube page, a call for you to give us your takes. They can be anything from questions to hot takes you want us to react to and everything in between. And goodness gracious, you guys did not disappoint this week.

I have got to start with one of my favorites, a bit that has evolved. from our good friend Maddie NCS. If you have been in our YouTube comments, you know his bit about getting tired of seeing Mike Sullivan chewing gum behind the bench. Now he's getting tired of not having a head coach behind the bench. I just had to throw that one in here. One more quick one I wanted to get into before we get into some of the hot takes that you guys sent our way.

Obviously, if we don't get to all of them, doesn't mean we don't want to, Read it doesn't mean we don't like it. We just have a time limit. And that actually gets into this one from Penn's Fan for Life, 1986, asking, do you guys have a max time limit on episodes? I feel like they aren't long enough. They go by so quick. We actually do some inside baseball here for you.

We try to do episodes anywhere between 30, 35 minutes max. Anywhere between 27 to 35 minutes is usually what we try to show. shoot for. We know that there's so many podcasts out there these days. And we all listen to a lot of them. So we want to make sure you're getting everything you need in a quick and easy episode to make sure you're ready and know everything going on with the Penguins. Here is a very fun one from G-Tots that I think is, it's the spirit of fan take Friday. We want you guys to give us some hot takes. We want you guys to give us some stuff that might be a little bit out of the box. And don't hold back because this is silly season. This is a transitional period for the Pittsburgh

Penguins. We're allowed to dream again. We don't have to just plug holes because it's a cap strap team. We can have a little bit of fun with this. And like I said from G-Tots, Penguins will not sign Mitch Marner because Dubus wanted to trade him in Toronto. We will sign Sam Bennett in trade for Bo Byram. Now, I will say this. The first part, Sam Bennett, I don't think that's happening. I do, it does kind of connect to me to the Marner thing. It doesn't feel like the timelines match up just yet. If this was a year or two down the road, I can absolutely see that. The thing you got to remember right now is the penguins are trying to get younger. They're trying to continue to draft well. And if they do what they have done the last

couple years where they either just make the playoffs and losing the first round or sniff around the playoff picture and ultimately don't make it, that's going to be a little tough for them to continue this retooling transition, whatever you want to call it. Because if you're picking 15, 16, 17, you're going to get somebody useful from the draft, but they're going to be more of a project. They're going to take a couple years to develop. They're maybe spend some time in the minors, and they're not going to help you as soon as you would like them,

I guess is the way to put it. Bo Byram, on the other hand, if they can pry him out of Buffalo, and it's a good trade where you're not giving up too much, sign me up for that right away. I think he would be very much a part of what they're trying to do. I know that he's got some shortcomings. I know that he needs an elite defense pairing with him.

But realistically, he's young enough. He can develop enough that he could turn into a very useful defenseman in the next three to four years, which would fit right in with their timeline. And I think being out of a pretty rough environment in Buffalo actually would help him quite a bit. So very good hot take here. This is one from Ryan Cunningham that I want to read in full to you because, again, right there in the spirit of what we're trying to do with fan take Friday. It's a hot take. And as Ryan says, it's a bit petty.

So let me read this one to you verbatim. So excuse me for not looking right into the camera. I got to look at my other screen here and read it in full. I don't want Jake Gensel to ever win another cup. I loved him as a penguin, and I can't overstate how massive his contribution to this team was. He was incredible for us, but he and his agent put Dubus in a situation where he either had to overpay him, let him walk for nothing, or trade him. It wasn't about money because he took less money and term from Tampa than he was reportedly

offered in Carolina as well as in Pittsburgh. He didn't see a future with the penguins, so I'm not going to cheer for him in Tampa Bay to win another cup. This might be a surprise to some listeners. I like this take. I agree with this take. And it doesn't mean that I dislike Jake Gensel. It doesn't mean that I'm damning him forever and he's an enemy now.

But I really thought if the Penguins were to hold on to Gensel and not even in the context of the trade or any or the rebuild or anything like that, it really felt like if Jake Gensel were to have stuck around with the Penguins. He was probably going to be the Penguins next captain once Sidney Crosby retired. Because I've said it about Jank Gensel plenty of times in writing on this show. He is the epitome of a coach's son the way he plays the game. Very honest player does not take shortcuts. And he just has that scoring touch that you either have or you don't.

It's not to say that he doesn't work hard. it's not to say that a guy like Brian Rust just made it work because Brian Russ worked his butt off to get to where he is. But Jake Gensel just looked like he would have been the next penguin's captain. But he's not here anymore. He's not a penguin anymore. Tampa, just like us here in Pittsburgh, they've got their cups.

They've had their runs. That's enough for me. That's enough. So, Ryan, I'm right there with you. and I'm not going to root for him or Tampa to ever win a Stanley Cup again. So let's move on to another, this time a question for Fan Take Friday. And this is from Wilbert Matthews on YouTube. How active will we be in trades during the off season?

Now, this one is a little hard to handicap because there are a lot of things that they could do, but it's going to involve another actor in the game. We have talked about it at length on the show about two players, and that is Ricard Raquel and Eric Carlson. Now, for Raquel, don't think there's a particularly right answer with this. I think there's nothing wrong with holding on to him. Again, I talk about this with rebuilding and tanking and all of that. As much as people want to tank and tear everything down, you do still want to have a culture in your organization. where you're not just putting the burden on one or two young players to figure it all out.

You're still going to need veteran presence, guys who have been there, guys who have done that, to be a safety net for these younger players. And with a guy like Raquel, he's on an affordable deal. He's not counting too much towards your cap. He keeps your captain happy. And he's a player that you can hold on to until you get the right price. And I think that's what Kyle Dubus is doing. When it comes to Eric Carlson, there's interest there.

You have to weigh how much you want to retain, how that fits into your future plans. And if there are teams that want to pay the price to get them. So I think we're going to see activity no matter what. I think some players are going to get moved. I do think that they're going to be active at the draft because there's going to be moves to be made with a rising cap. I do think they're going to continue this plan of trying to get young players as well as draft picks. And that means you'll probably see some deals that look like head scratchers. They may take on a contractor too that we don't like in order to get younger players or more draft picks.

So I think we'll see some activity this summer. But I don't think it's going to be a particularly active offseason for Kyle Dubison company because they're setting into motion what they want to do, and they don't need to make any panic moves or big signings. They can kind of coast along a little bit, so to speak, because you've got plenty of draft picks, you've got some young players you want to develop, and you'll probably see the same thing we saw last year.

A lot of one-year deals, a lot of guys that are going to sign to trade, and they'll go from there. So you'll see some activity, but I don't think it's going to be, a really, really active summer. But we will see some trades. And obviously on this show, we will break down those trades and talk about maybe what the purpose was behind them. But that is going to do it for the Friday edition of Locked-on Penguins. Hunter will be back to start next week.

Again, if we get any coaching news, either today or over the weekend, we will do a bonus episode breaking down that higher. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick. Thank you as always for tuning in. Have a fantastic weekend and we will talk to you on Monday.