Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Rob Rossi joins the show to talk ALL about the Penguins struggles

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

It's an off day and one that was badly needed for the Pittsburgh Penguins. With that, Hunter is joined by Rob Rossi of The Athletic and they go all into the Penguins' struggles. They first touch on Brian Dumoulin and what the Penguins can do to help him out. Should he get bottom-pairing minutes? Is he going to be scratched by Mike Sullivan? If he comes off the top pairing, who should replace him? After that, the two look at Jeff Petry's season so far and why the Penguins need A LOT more out of him. Is he going to figure it out? What's missing from his game? The two then look at the struggles of the special team's units and what the Penguins need to do to correct them (especially the PK). Hunter wonders if the PK just figures it out, then that could get this machine rolling once again. Rob also makes a great suggestion about who the Penguins should run their power play through more often before they look at the goaltending struggles. What does Casey DeSmith struggle the most with? Is Tristan Jarry going to get back in form? Finally, the two end the show with a discussion on the supporting cast as a whole, plus a look at if the Fenway Sports Group could consider a management change if this continues.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, happy Thursday, November 3rd. No, the Pittsburgh Penguins do not play today. So it is a great day for all of you, Penguins fans. Of course, I'm Hunter Hodes, the host of the Lockdown Penguins podcast, and I'll be bringing on Rob Rossi of the Athletic for today's episode. He hasn't been on the show, and I think over a year at this point. We're going to get into all of the Penguins struggles and how they can claw themselves, claw themselves, excuse me, out of this hole.

So I'm going to get into all their struggles, the road ahead, potential trades, Mike Sullivan, all that right after this drop. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone. I'm Hunter Hodes here with another episode

of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Follow me all on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. also follow the show's Twitter at Eleanor for Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. Joining me now is Rob Rossi of the Athletic. As I said in my intro, I don't think he's been on the show. I think over a year now, but so it's long overdue that you are back to join me. But I wish it was under better circumstances, Rob,

with how just brutal this team is playing right now. Six straight losses, O and 5 and 1. Probably should have won these last two games. in your eye, what's been the biggest struggle for this team during this stretch? Oh, boy. What if there would be just one, right? Yeah. I think part of the problem right now is structurally this team is a hot mess.

I attribute that to their top six forwards trying to do too much, and therefore they're getting a bit careless with the puck. They're chasing the game a bit because their bottom six has been so insufficient. for the most part at dictating territorial play. And their defense on any given night has three guys that just aren't playing very well. That starts with Brian Dumlin and Jeff Petrie who have both been very bad.

And when you have two guys like that in your top four that aren't playing up to par and a bottom six that isn't flipping the territory, I think you are going to have the top six guys, the Crosby's, the Malkins, the Gensels, really getting away from their strengths and trying to do too much. I think that's why you're seeing sort of some of the sloppy play. The neutrals are in turnovers, the blind passes in the offensive zone.

I think that's the biggest problem they're having right now. But as you can tell, Hunter, those all speak to other larger issues, you know, at all. Yeah. I mean, there's plenty more than that, to say the least, with the Penguins. And, you know, you touched on Brian Dumlin, you know, a player that honestly, last year I thought looked washed. He was maybe going to give him a chance to redeem himself coming into this year. Rob, right now, he's almost just looking like a late version of Rob Skadari.

I'm not going to go full Jack Johnson mode like some fans are. I know that was a very bad time in Penguin, Penguin Land, just because he was on the ice for basically every goal. But, you know, Dumlin is kind of almost there. this point too. What is the solution to that problem? I was talking to my episode last night. If you can shelter him or something, move him down to the POJ minutes. I don't know if you move POJ up to play with Crystal Tang has been playing better lately. I just don't really know what the solution is because I don't think Mike Sullivan is going to scratch him at this point.

No, I don't think Mike Sullivan is going to scratch him. I think the Penguins have too much respect for everything Dumlin's done. And if the penalty kill is going to write itself, it's going to have to be partly because Brian Dumlin writes himself somewhat. But what concerns me is a number of times he goes down to one knee or is on all fours just trying to block shots. His positioning is not well right now. I mean, he looks like a guy that's had multiple surgeries to his ankle and foot. And I think when you have that, it's very tough for a guy whose strength was really his skating and his stick play. Both of those things are going to be affected when you lack mobility. He's in great shape. He's been busting his butt since the summer. I saw him a couple times at

training, before training camp at the facility, just really putting himself in prime shape. It's just a matter of does he have that first step anymore? And I don't think we see it. I mean, what I would do is take Marcus Pedersen and put him with Chris LaTang, which I don't think Chris LaTang really would feel comfortable with, but oh, well, I think that would be the best thing right now. And then maybe moves POJ up to that second pairing and then go with a Ruta and Dumlin sort of shut down third pairing. I think Ruta's mobile enough to make up for some of the deficiencies there. And I think he's playing well enough to make up for some of the deficiencies there as well. But I think they're going to give Brian a chance to play his way through this.

And what concerns me about that is I think we've seen enough. now to know that might not even be the best thing for Brian. And it's certainly not the best thing for Latang, who they have to get righted in short order. Yeah, I thought last night at least was a step in the right direction for Latang. Usually he doesn't have this many struggles early on in the season, but I do kind of want to see, to your point, is this mainly because of Dumlin or is it just him just off to a slow star?

I think it's honestly the former for me. You know, Pedersen being up there, he has been, I think they're close. you can argue that he has been their best defenseman this year, either above Chris Tang or below him. But that one would be- He's been their most consistent defenseman this year. Yeah. No, he's been great.

I looked at like the 5-E-5 numbers with hockey viz and there are 5-5-expected goals against when he's on the ice versus when he's off the ice, way lower when he's on. Like he clears out the front of the net. He's been a great, he's having a great start. Yeah, his positioning's been better. His stick work's been better.

other than the Boston game where, you know, I think all the Penguins defensemen got pushed around a bit. That's just a tough matchup for them. I think his physicality has been better. I mean, he's been everything you've wanted. I mean, he made the decision to keep him this offseason look very shrewd by management. I may be one of the few things management look shrewd for doing based off the decisions made this offseason. Yeah, I think that's a great point too. And, you know, sticking with the defense, I guess we'll just do a theme here.

Jeff Petrie, Rob, I mean, I like that trade coming into this season. I thought he had even more to give. He, 21 points and 30 games under Marty St. Louis. His numbers really improved after that slow start. But so far under Mike Sullivan, he's looking like an old man who's making too much money so far. He's always been out of position. Offensively, he's not really been doing much. He's been taking a lot of penalties each game.

I think he's top five on the team in penalties right now to begin this season. And it's really not good when two of their higher paid defensemen are stinking up the joint. And they got to figure that one out too because they gave up a lot to get them. Mike Matheson had a great year last year. They don't have John Marino out there because he got traded for Ty Smith, who's down the miners right now, but I'm not sure how long that's going to be the case for. What do you want to see more out of in terms of Petrie and do you think he can turn it around? I think Petrie can turn it around.

I think that sometimes the toughest adjustment to make is a defenseman is going to come to a new team in the top four minutes and try to learn a new system. They haven't had that many practices. They've been playing a lot. I think sort of this stretch here where they have the game against Seattle on Saturday and then don't play again until Wednesday will benefit them. I think they'll have some, you know, they'll have some practices under their legs. I think Petrie is still too proven of a player in this league to wash out right. now. But, you know, I remember when Sergei Ganchar came to Pittsburgh and it took him half a season to get used to sort of just being in the new surroundings, really playing as opposed to overthinking

out there. I'm not comparing Petri to Gonschar. I mean, they're different in age at the time, different in skill set. But I think Petri right now is most guilty of. I don't think he's comfortable with a system, comfortable with his reads yet, comfortable with his defense partner yet. And I think he's just, he just needs more reps. I don't think we would, I think part of the reason we're focusing as much as we are on Petrie is because LaTang is off to the slow start and Dumolin's been so ineffective. So it's like basically three of their top four defensemen aren't giving them what they need. I think if you were getting more out of Dumlin or getting something out of Dumlin and getting more out of Latang, you could live with these growing pains of sorts.

So I'm not ready to write off Petriette, but certainly after what was really a great first game for him against Arizona, he hasn't been up to par. I think he's one of those guys where I think once he gets a few practices in, gets away from the games for a couple of days. And Todd Reardon and him can just sort of hit the reset button. I think we'll see a slow turnaround for him. And that would obviously be big for, you know, not just the defense, but, you know, he gets a lot of reps with Hedganne Malkin. And I think that's, you know, I think that's probably the best defenseman.

He'll, he's got a lot of minutes with in quite a long time because usually Chris LaTang gets hogged by Sidney Crosby. I mean, that's just, that's the nature of things when it comes to the penguins. Well, you know, the other thing that might be hurting Petrie 2 is, and this is where one area where I think Mike Sullivan has made an error is I disagreed with the breaking up or they're not going back to Rust. Malk and Zucker and keeping Rust up there with Krosby and Ghent. So I understand why Sullivan did it. He feels like that's their best line and they were struggling. But, you know, the, if you look at the chances generated when those five players are on the ice, Pedersen, Petrie, and then the forward line of Russ Malkin and Zucker, they were really dominant. They were the second most dominant, you know, grouping in the league at the time. So I think they should go back to that. I think it would

I think it would do a service to Petrie. I agree with that. I mean, I think Raquel just works better with Crosby. And honestly, I think Raquel has been one of their most consistent forwards this season. I think he's close to tied for the team leading goals with five. He's been a player that showed up every game. So I would put him up with Crosby and Gensel any time, to say the least. Real quick, Bob, before we get to our first commercial break, special teams.

I really do think that if they can get the P. P-K under control. I think a lot of this stuff, you know, falls into line. And right now, it's a bad unit. They're giving up basically a goal per game. They're almost, if not dead last in the league at this point. And penalty kill percentage, this was a unit that was top five in the league for most of the last argument of season.

Though I'd also argue that because Tristan Jari finished in the 99th percentile for goals saved on the penalty kill, that number was kind of inflated a bit. And when you're not getting that kind of goal tending on the PK, this is, kind of what you get a little bit. But I also do think the personnel is not doing them any favors. I think the structure that they have on the ice with their little diamond or wedge plus one, whatever you want to call it, it's not good enough. What would you change about that unit you know, after these first 11 games? Because it's obviously like Louche, whatever he's telling them to do. It's just not happening. Yeah. And I, you know, to be fair to Volucci, you know,

he's stuck with a personnel he's stuck with out there. And I think you have to look at the way management constructed this team and really ask, did they leave them in a place where they have enough quality penalty killers? And I don't know that the answer to that is yes, frankly, from what I've seen. I don't like, for the personnel that they have, I don't like the diamond dish setup that they're using. It seems like that penalty kill is designed to have everybody moving in cohesion, and that's not what's happening right now. Again, I don't know how much of that is some of your defensemen are struggling. So therefore, maybe they're cheating a bit, but it doesn't seem like they're working as a unit,

which they did well last year. It doesn't help that the goaltending hasn't been as good as it was in the first four or five games. Frankly, you need your goaltending to steal games right now, and that hasn't been happening. But it also looks like the goaltenders are expecting penalty killers to be in a certain area, and they haven't been. And what's frightening is it's not like they faced, you know, the, the, the, the, 78 Canadians in terms of power plays here, right? I mean, this is a, this is a concern.

They've given up a power play goal in all but two games. And I would argue that if this penguin's team is to go anywhere this year where the expectation is anyway, they have to be dominant on the power play and be executioners on the penalty kill. And they are just not doing that right now. And I think structurally, they have to move away from that diamond design based off their personnel. Yeah.

No, I agree with you. And I understand why they run it because they have a guy at the top that causes a little bit of havoc. And then they kind of use the other three as like almost like a triangle to protect the house, which is, you know, 15. For those I don't know, that's 15, 20 feet from the net front, the net mouth in. They just don't want to allow those chances in the slot. Have a lot more to get to for this episode with Rob Ross where you get into the

power play a little bit in the next segment. And also Mike Sullivan, the goal. attending, of course, just because that hasn't been good enough. But before we get to that, my wonderful little thing up there for bet online, it's your number one source for betting football and the start of the new basketball season. You can find all the latest player development's, team matchups, news, podcasts, and the end-up analysis on every game. And as always, bet online remains your continued source for all of your sports ways of your information with live betting and up-to-the-minute scores for every sport out there. It's the fastest, easiest way to

check out on all of your favorite games and events, including MLME, MMA, boxing, golf. You can head to the website today or use your phone to more and more. That has been online where the game starts. All right. I'm back in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. That right there is Rob Rossi of the Athletic. So, Rob, I touched on it before the commercial break here.

The power play, it's just been kind of, you know, it's a cease. Well, I just did a terrible seesaw reference there. Sorry about that. Watch on YouTube. You know, up and then it's down. And then it's up. And it's just, it's just like, it repeats itself. And they have a good couple minutes where they're getting a lot of chances and they're scoring goals.

And then they have a bunch of other power plays where they can't gain the zone. They're firing the puck to each other way too much. They're not getting any quality chances. And the future unit's off basically not even halfway through Mike Sullivan's season enough and puts the second unit on there. What needs to change in your eye for the power play to start also stealing some games? Well, I've described the penalty kill as a tire-fired engulfed in a sink, I'm going to describe the power play as a merry-go-round stuck in reverse. And really, that's what it reminds me of.

It's supposed to be going one way, and it goes the other way. And that other way can sometimes lead to enjoyable results, but it's not because anything's working correctly. If you can follow that convoluted reference right there, Hunter. But, you know, I think this power play lacks two things for me, and they don't have the, and one of them is correctable. The other one is a personnel issue. The one that is correctable is,

I don't know why they don't run it through of getting Malkin more. They don't try to look more for his one-timer or even a slap shot and sort of a clear the lane a la Ovechkin style. I think that's their most dangerous weapon on this power play, especially if you're going to have a player like Brian Rust on the power play who can make himself a guy around. the net along with Jake Gensel, who does that more with skill, where a guy like Russ can do that more with banging bodies. I think that makes more sense to sort of clear the way, create some

traffic, and let Malkin grip and rip, especially when you have Chris Lattang, who doesn't seem prone to really want to be a trigger man on the power play. So that's one adjustment I think they could make, and then it becomes incumbent upon Malkin to be the alpha on that unit and not want to cater to some of the other guys. I think sometimes his problem is that he's a little bit too unselfish in that situation. So, so that's one area that's correctable. The area that's not correctable is they overload the power play to one side so often. They don't have a reset option. They don't have that player like they did with Phil Kessel, who they could get the puck to and reset the power play on the other side of the ice. The reset guy does not always have to be the guy at the point.

It can be a guy on the half wall or the off wall. It can be anybody you want it to be. But that guy has to be a guy that can create his own shot and also be a guy that can create a scoring opportunity or at least create movement opportunity with a pass with precision passing. Kessel could do that. I'm not endorsing that they should have brought back Phil Kessel. I'm just he's the last guy they had. Really, one of the guys that could do that for them was Evan Rodriguez. last year. And without that, they've lost that element. And they don't really have a guy on the

power play top unit right now that can be that guy. A guy I think that maybe could, it is worth an opportunity to try, is Ricard Raquel. And I think Raquel, if you put him in the spot where maybe Rust is, could do that. But they seem reluctant to do that right now with the top power play unit make those two switches. So I think in lieu of doing something like that and trying it and really changing the way they do a lot of things structurally, I think they have to maybe explore more of this this Malkin idea I suggested earlier. That would be good. You know, I used to call those the Gino bombs from the point just because he does have a booming slap shot and I would love to see it used more. I remember the last time I think they used it this season was the game in Montreal when he just

bombed it from the point and Montembow had no chance on it. So I would like to see them use that more. You make a great point about Phil Kessel. He really, honestly, I feel like he quarterbacked the power play when he was here. Letang, I know he's the guy at the point, but when he got it to Phil, that release is something else, and his passing was very underrated. He could fit that puck through a lot of lanes, and teams had to really prepare for that. With him gone, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

it's hard to fix. And I know Crystal Thang is great at the point, but he's also a bit older. Crosby, Malkin, obviously they're great densals at the front of the net. I also think not having a prime Patrick Hornquist there is hurting it because he cleaned up a lot of garbage goals. Well,

they got a lot of the same shots on that top unit too, you know. But also simplifying would help. When you see that second unit on the ice, they do nothing but try to push the puck towards the net. And you see the penguins end up, you know, their puck movement can be mesmerizing, but they can also be very stagnant on that top powerplay unit hunter. And that's, you know, it's sort of the maddening thing about watching it. When they score power play goals, you get the sense they score it just because they out-talent opponents.

And it's not because it's a bad design. It's just because I really don't think they have an alpha out there. And Kessel was unafraid to do that. Kessel was unafraid to be the guy that was like, no, I'm going to keep the puck on my stick and let it run through me. And they don't, you know, they, if you look at them, the way they try to pass that puck, it's like every once in a while you'll see Malkin keep the puck on his stick and dance a little bit. And you start seeing things open up. But you don't see that enough from that power play.

I feel like they try to Harlem Globetrotter it too much. They're just looking for that perfect play. Like, oh, we're going to be on SportsCenter the next day, right? Because obviously ESPN's big in the hockey now. But, you know, I think that, like, that's what I usually see, especially when they're trying to do too much. And the zone entries, I feel like that's a big problem too.

They just, they can never, I see some of the better power plays in the Ler, like Colorado, for example. They're passing the way they get into the zone and they set it up just in the snap of a finger. It's so quick, but the penguins on a lot of their power plays,

they're just not able to do that. And it's just easy clears for the opposition. Yeah. I don't know what it is. Like you have so much talent out there. And I understand that they do that little drop pass. They've been doing for years at this point. point, which I hate.

I hate the drop pass as his own entry. I've talked to coaches about this, and coaches will try to make an explanation for it. And I keep going, why would you go backwards to go forward when you have the advantage of the extra player? I would dare suggest the penguins would be better off just getting the puck, dumping it in and letting Russ go get it. I mean, really, I think, you know, in a Chris Koonitz-type role. Yeah, I mean, he's probably their best foretaker on that unit, to be honest. with you. He's awesome. But yeah, I mean, that's got to be turned around pretty quick. It was great just to open the season. It's just since then, it's been a tire fire.

And lately, speaking of tire fires, Rob, I feel like lately the goaltending has also not been good enough. It started out, they started off the season. Really good, Drus and Jari, started out with a 940, say percentage. Casey DeSmith had a really good game in Montreal. He's played well in Seattle, but lately I think both Jari and DeSmith have not been good enough. I truly think if they just got to save in either of those two games, they win. They went back to back games. They get four out of four points. And everyone's celebrating them saying that they're back.

But you know, you're up five two. I'm sorry, you should be able to not have your goal. You allow three goals in the final half of the game, two of which came in the final 12 minutes. Yeah. And I mean, I think Jari had been one of their more consistent players, but certainly that Boston game was not his best performance. I think the fact that Boston was able to so freely get in his grill and get,

under his skin. You saw that really? I mean, Jari's been a more feisty player in the crease this year. He's been certainly more active with his stick, you know, defending his area, so to speak. But I think Boston got to him a bit. And look, Boston's going to do that. That's what the Bruins do. They go to the crease and they try to pester the goaltender and get him off the game. And I think they successfully did that against the penguins. You know, I think I'd also, when you're giving up that extra goal a game because your penalty kill is so bad. I think as a goalie, you try to end up doing much like the forwards are trying to do too much. You try to be too perfect as a goaltender. Instead of letting the game come to you a little bit, you're forcing the game a bit. And I think

you're seeing that from both goaltenders right now. When it's with Jari, you see him back in his crease more, not using his athleticism as much. With the Smith, you see him out of the crease more, right? You know, he's chasing a lot. I'm not as worried about their goal. because I think, you know, they've proven if those guys can stay healthy, they'll revert to form. But playing in front of this team, you got to remember, they're giving up, what, 36 shots a game, I think, the last I checked. I mean, it's, I think it's worse than the league. If not, I can't imagine there's many teams that much worse than them. It's, it's something that you haven't seen in recent years. I think people would be surprised to know how good a defensive team they've been the past

three seasons in terms of shot suppression. And they've reverted back to where they were in sort of like the 2019-20 season or the 2018-19 season, excuse me, when they weren't a good shot suppression team. After that, they really found sort of a defensive rhythm. But yes, when you are struggling where they are struggling, Hunter, what you need is your goaltenders to steal you some wins. And that has not happened the past few games. You're absolutely right. And speaking about that Buffalo game, three or three to one, basically, as you enter the third, Jake Ensle gets you the goal. And then DeSmith is, to quote Jesse Marshall, he's in Akron, Ohio for two of those last two goals. And it's just like, I'm sorry.

I know that Owen Power fake slap shot was really nice. You should not be all the way over on the other side of the crease when Victor Olives in his time of the game. Same kind of thing with Tage Thompson. I don't know, I don't know if he's just, it looks like he's just bad at tracking the puck from what I'm watching sometimes. And he was just way out of position, didn't give himself or the team a chance in that third period. And, you know, those are usually, well, I shouldn't say usually. I think most of the time their saves for a goalie, he just shouldn't be giving up that wide open of a net. If he's able to slide over there in time, I think he makes those saves and it's a different game.

Yeah, you know, you need that. I mean, you know, they signed Casey to Smith this summer expecting him to make those saves. The Penguins have had a tough schedule here. I mean, their last six games have all been back-to-back games. So, you know, three sets of back-to-back games. That's going to continue. They're playing four home games between now and Thanksgiving. So they're going on the road a ton.

I mean, they're going to need their goaltending to be, quite frankly, at an elite level right now, if they're going to avoid being buried by the time American Thanksgiving happens on her. And as we all know, by the time we hit Thanksgiving in this country, If you're out of the playoffs, there's about a 75% chance that that's where you're going to be. As I wrote the other day in the athletic, you know, you can ask anybody who any, anybody who's anybody will tell you if you're out of the playoff picture come Thanksgiving, you don't usually eat at the adult table come postseason time.

And the penguins have their work to do. I mean, now, I'm not saying it's doomsday. I mean, there's time to correct this. But they really need to get a win Saturday. And they need to get their goaltending maybe to steal that. game Saturday so they can just stabilize a bit. Take advantage of the days they'll have to practice before their next game on Wednesday night. Next Wednesday night.

Yeah, that'll be the game, I believe, against Washington. If I recall correctly, I believe it's down here in D.C. But no, you're absolutely right about that, Rob. They need that win for a lot of reasons. But that will wrap up this second segment. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into the bottom six struggles and why the players are just not doing enough down there. Teddy Lugar's potential return,

and of course we'll get to Mike's. A discussion on Mike Sullivan and why he's just not going to be fired because they just obviously signed him to an extension. But that's all coming up right after these messages. Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Lockton Penguins podcast. I'm your host Hunter Hodes. Of course, I have Rob Rossi here from The Athletic with me. So, you know, Rob, we were kind of talking last night, you know, off the show.

So, you know, the bottom six is just, it's not good enough right now. And I think Ron Hextall made his bed there in the offseason, and he has to line it right now. And I don't think it takes, you know, an idiot to see that the bottom six is not nearly as good as it was last year. Take Adam Rodriguez away and a couple other players. And you replace them with the players they got now. And it's not good enough. You know, Brock McGinn hasn't done enough this year. He's still signed for two more years at $2.75 million.

At least Josh Archibald has scored three goals. That's at least good. I didn't expect him to have three goals so far. Other than that, he's been taking some penalties. Ryan Paling, I thought had a decent game against Buffalo. Geez, I almost forgot for a second. Buffalo, but I think the biggest problem right now down there, it's Kisperi Kappen.

He's eating up $3.2 million in cap. He has one goal this season. I read in Josh's article this morning. Three goals in his last 50 games as a penguin. Look like a bad decision at the time. I certainly said it was and it's looking terrible now. Is there any quick fix to that problem just because there's so much up against the cap as it is? I feel like they would have to make a move at some point, but it'd have to be dollar in, dollar out just because of how tight they are.

Yeah, they don't have the cap space unless they can make a swap, you know, dollar for dollar player for player swap. I would love to have seen them not had to expose Radim Zahorna on waivers. I think that was a critical asset mismanagement there. I would have loved to have seen a situation where Drew O'Connor, who I felt had a pretty good training camp, could have played his way onto this roster. You know, you mentioned Caspari Caput, and he's giving them nothing. He's a drag when he's on the ice.

The best thing I can say about Jeff Carter is, in his absence, you haven't noticed him being absent. That's another problem area for them on their third line. Right now, their best bottom six player has been Danton Heinen, and then you would have to say it was be Josh Archerbald or Ryan Poling. And, you know, when you think about it, think about what we're saying right there. Those are bargain basement guys in terms of what they're commanding, whereas the three highest paid guys in this bottom six, and I'm talking specifically about Caponin, Carter, and McGinn, those guys are not producing where you need them to produce.

and you don't notice them enough on most nights. And I think those, you know, those are all Ron Hextall decisions. You know, he could have cut ties with Casperi Capitan. He could have let Jeff Carter walk and he didn't have to sign McGinn. And he did all those things. So when this Penguins management tells us they're going to be tougher to play against and they don't end up being tougher to play against, then you have to look at that bottom six.

And Hunter, I firmly believe what coaches have to. told me for years, you don't need your bottom six and necessarily score a lot of goals, but you need them to be able to stym momentum, right? You need them to be able to sort of not only stymie momentum, but you need them to be able to create momentum of their own. And you're just not getting that from that bottom six. All the pressure, it bubbles up to that top six to produce and to also be the territorial domination. They're just, when they put those bottom six guys on the ice, it's giving them nothing. They are chasing the play constantly. They're rarely giving you offensive looks.

They're rarely giving you defensive maneuverability out there. If I can use that term, if that makes sense. They're not really nimble enough with the people that they've put out there to be a defensive presence. So I don't know what you're getting from them. And I don't think there is a quick fix for this because once you get Teddy Blugher back, which will help, you know, he'll probably instantly become, if not your best bottom six, player, one of your two best bottom six players, you're going to have to move a Drew O'Connor out, and you're going to have a situation where you're only going to be able to carry 22 players

because of their cap management. So I think this is just a bottom six that we have to live with right now in Pittsburgh and hope that you can start getting better performances from some of the players we mentioned, but nothing I've seen from Kaepinan or Carter or McGinn makes me think those performances are around the corner. It honestly just feel similar to the bottom sixes towards the late stages of the Dan Bilesman ratio or where you're just throwing out. Craig Adams, Tanner Glass, Joe Vitale, Brian Gibbons, Lee Steffianak. And it's just like, that's just not good enough when you have a prime Sydney Crosby and a prime of getting him off. I mean, those are their peak years.

I mean, they're older now. But, you know, they just didn't do enough from them then. And this new management group, they're not doing enough now. I think you hit the nail on the head when, you know, these are mostly Hextall's guys that he signed. I mean, that just goes to show at least for me. me, their roster evaluation is so weird. Like, I just would love to be in one of those rooms and be like, what are you seeing in some of these players that makes you be like, okay, I'm going to sign Jeff Carter to your extension.

I'm going to sign Brockman again to. I'm going to, you know, bring Kasperi Kappaninan back two years and basically almost give him a raise after how bad he was last year. I would just love to know what they were looking at to like. Yeah, the captain. I mean, I don't know anybody that wasn't puzzled by it. And to be perfectly candid, I don't know anybody that had expectations for it to work out better. So I'm not surprised by his play.

I mean, frankly, there are times I question if he even wants to be an NHL player. I just don't know that his head and heart are in it as much. But, and, you know, I think Carter gives you everything Carter can give you. And there's going to be days where you notice him a lot. but let's face it at best he's a guy that's going to have to sort of pace himself for sort of the more important games. Yeah, I would love to know what this management team thought when they were making those decisions too. We don't hear enough from them. And frankly, we get these sort of canned answers when we get to talk to them.

But, you know, what I don't want to hear is that there's cap trouble because every team has cap trouble right now. And what I don't want to hear is that this is like a situation they inherited because it really isn't. They've changed this roster over quite a bit. No, they haven't. And probably they had cap space this summer if they felt. Even though they brought the big guns back, they didn't have to give Casperi Cabin $3.2 million. You could have let him walk and you could have used that money somewhere else. I mean, you know Niederwriter, for example, signed a few days or I think a week after a free agency opened and went to what, Nashville for $4 million, something like that?

Well, yeah. You look at Josh Archibald signing. I mean, it was just, it seemed like a quick signing for what reason. I mean, and I mean, I just say, you know, people, and I get it, people out there question bringing back the band. But I've, as I've liked this said, or as I've liked to have told people the past couple of days, Hunter, you know, it's not the band. It's the supporting musicians. Yes. No, you're 100% right.

I mean, it's people, people have been coming in my mentions on social media too. Well, this is what happens when you bring the core. back and you bring almost the same team back, it's not the course fault. They're averaging a point per game. Jake Gensel is one of the league eating goals scores. Rickel has been great. Brian Russ has been awesome. Jason Zucker has eight points in nine games. Look at the players below them. Look at some of the defensemen. The goal tending hasn't been good.

Like that those are- Yeah. If this were an NHO video game and you only played your top two lines, the Penguins would be fantastic. Yeah. They'd be undefeated. Heck, Rob, if they had a three-on-three basically almost the entire game, Yeah, they just ran their top two lines. They'd probably win almost every game in the week. But obviously, that's not the case.

But yeah, they got to figure out something at some point. I mean, again, like they don't have any cap space. So it almost seems dumb to even ask about trades because I don't think they're going to do anything right now. But I will ask you, Rob, some people are getting upset with Mike Sullivan as my wonderful dog here wants to come in the room. Say, hello. Hi, I'm throwing the show here, buddy. I know you're excited. So there's no chance that Mike Sullivan is on the hot seat, right?

No, no, none, zero. First of all, I think Mike Sullivan might be the second most influential and powerful guy in the organization behind Cindy Crosby. The Fenway Sports Group ownership loves him. He's one of the highest paid coaches in the NHL. He got a three-year extension. So he's now locked up for five years. I mean, I mean, you know, I know.

it, you know it, your dog knows it. Anybody that's paying attention knows it. Mike Sullivan's job is safe as it should be. I mean, he's earned the right to have a bad couple of weeks. I don't think this is a structural problem with them. I think this is a problem where they aren't executing the way they need to. And let's face it, he asked the play the personnel he has. And as we've, you know, illustrated, I think, you know, endlessly here, that they have some personnel issues. No, no, they absolutely do. And I agree.

I mean, he's probably just searching for answers at this play. He probably doesn't understand what the heck's going on. I mean, I almost just feel, they look like they're playing the system. It's not like they're just getting blown out every game. They actually are controlling a lot of the underlying numbers. Corsi, scoring chances, high danger chances. Heck, even in the game against Buffalo,

they allowed three high danger chances against at 5B-5. How's the case where they were chasing the point? play a lot. I would be more concerned, but I don't think that is, I don't see that from the penguins. I see some mistakes. I see some breakdowns. I see some carelessness with the puck. I see some goaltenders not making timely say. I see some defensive inadequacies. And I see, you know, the atrocities that have been both the power play and the penalty kill. But I, I don't see this as a thing where you can point to coaching and going, yes, it's the coach's problem. In Pittsburgh, there tends to be this thing, fire the coach at first opportunity because the penguins have

won the Stanley Cup when that's happened. But they've also never had a coach as rooted and whose system is impregnable across the throughout the entire organization as they do with Sullivan. I would agree with that. I just think he has such a stature in the organization that, you know, he just got extended. You all talk about it. He top five. in money. I think an average money per year that he makes among all coaches. He's going to stay for a very long time. Now, I will ask you this, Rob, a different question. Do you think the Fenway sports group, if this continues, and hopefully not for the fan basis sake, are they going to look at a management regime change? Because they're a new ownership group. They inherited these Brian Burke and Ron

Hextall. They're obviously very big into analytics. If you look at what they've done with Liverpool, if you look at what they've done with the Boston Red Sox, they were not hesitant to move Mookie Betts, for example. Would they look at a potential regime change if this continues? Well, I find it hard to believe they would do something in season because I don't know what that would affect. But I could definitely see if this continues in the peng. Look, if the penguins miss the playoffs,

I think absolutely you would see management change. Because remember, these weren't their guys. but I think right now what you want is some sort of stabilizing factor. So I think talk of a management change right now would be, you know, you know, antithetical to what could probably get this ship righted. But that said, I do think management has to recognize what the problems are and be more aggressive than management than this management has been. They've been a little bit slow to react in recent years to make moves.

If there are moves to be made, I think they need to make them sooner rather than later. because again, the Penguins only play six home games the rest of this month. They haven't been a very good road team. This could get away from them very quickly. And I think, Hunter, it's going to take, it takes a leap of faith to think they're going to have one of those, you know, 15, 3 and 4 runs or whatever that they typically go on because the East is just so much better and deeper than it has been in recent years. Yeah, I mean, I'm still not, you know, speaking to my man, I'm not, I'm not fully sold yet on New Jersey. Thursday, for example, but I will say that the East is better so far this year. I mean, Philadelphia got off to a hot start, but I'm not really too worried about them yet.

But no, you're right. The East so far. There aren't as many easy wins out there now. No. In the East, whereas in the West, I think you could maybe sustain a slow start a little bit more. For sure. I definitely do think the East is more competitive this year than the West. I mean, I did see the staff today.

The thing was they only won five of 15 games last season, and then after that they went on a 17 and 2 and 1. I think I've seen that kind of play in them at the start of the season, but you're asking a lot to get points at 18 of 20 games. You just can't rely on that every single season, to say the least. It looks like Rob that Teddy Blugers expected to return on Saturday from long-term injured reserve. I think that that should make a difference, especially on the fourth line. People have been telling me, well, maybe this is what turns around the PK. Maybe, but I also kind of think that-

Can't hurt. I'm excited to get him back at least. They'll get closer to being fully healthy. But last thing I got for you, do you think they do turn this around? I think they at some point stabilized, but I'm not sure that it isn't going to be a little bit of an up and down situation here for the next couple of weeks.

I think by the end of this month, they will be playing better hockey. But I think to get back to that, it's going to take a little bit longer. I don't think this is going to be one of those, you know, and they suddenly, the switch here. I think there's too many problems that they have to address for that to be a reasonable

expectation. Yeah, I mean, I think that's fair to say. The schedule, you know, it gets very tough coming up. They're going to have to run the gauntlet with all these road games. And they can just get to Thanksgiving like they kind of did last year when they were a little below 500, but they were kind of still in the race. And you get more home games in December and throughout January and stuff. I think they should be able to bank some points, but, you know, they got to start to that ASAP at this point. But I think that does it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I really appreciate you coming on, talk about all these struggles.

In case anyone is not following your work and following you on social media, you know, where can they find you? I'm at Real underscore Rob Rousey on my social media platforms. And of course, you can go to theathletic.com or the athletic app to read all my work. Yep. So you can go find his work there. You can go follow him on. Twitter and Rob, I'm going to make you like the Robo Penguin jersey at some point.

That's going to be very tough, hunter, but I admire your efforts. It looked good last night until, you know, the gold tending decided to curse that jersey again. All I'll say is they were on their way to a really hot start before that thing reemerged. One of these days, I'm telling you, that curse is going to be broken, and it's going to be, it's going to be the greatest feeling for all the naysayers out there about it. It will be the coming together of the two portions of the fan base. It'll be like to delight in the dark of the force. Yes, absolutely, to say the least.

But again, that does it for this episode. Rob, again, thank you so much for coming on. For Friday's episode, I'll get to preview the game against the Cracken and get into them and go through that game last week and just because I didn't really fully recap that one look for keys for the Penguins to win. So that's all coming up on Friday's episode. I'll talk to you all then.