Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Should different players be on the PK next season for the Penguins?

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

Happy Thursday! Despite there not being any big news, there are always things to talk about in Penguins' land. Hunter starts the show by hammering the Jack Adams finalists and why it's been time for this award to change. Hunter touches on why it's all about who has the best goaltender during the season (cough, Gerard Gallant) and how it's never about what coaches are able to do when injuries hit or when a coach takes over a team that doesn't have playoff aspirations, but still does well. He advocates for both Mike Sullivan and Todd McLellan after their jobs and even touches on Jay Woodcroft for how good of a job he did. After that, Hunter goes into this awful rumor about Kris Letang from 93.7 The Fan and why he's NOT asking for a seven-year term before evaluating the penalty kill this season. What does Hunter want to see differently from the unit in 2022-23? Should there be different players killing the penalties? Is it time to go back to being aggressive? He answers all of those questions before ending the show by reviewing Rickard Rakell's season and why Hunter would pick him over Bryan Rust to re-sign.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 “LOCKED15,” 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!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Hello, happy Thursday. Welcome back to another episode of this podcast for today. We're going to talk about the Jack Adams Award finalists and why it was kind of a joke that Mike Sullivan was not one of those finalists and just why I don't really like the award that much. We're going to get into the penalty kill today, review that from this season, what I would like to see more of for next year and just talk about what wrong in the playoffs. And we're also going to debunk some weird Chris Tang rumors that I saw on social media today. and if I have time, we'll get into why Ricard Raquel, you know, if it comes down to between him and Brian Russ, why it's the easy call, I think, to bring him back, especially with the numbers that he put up for this team. So that's all coming up 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. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host. Hunter Hodes, I'm going to follow me on Twitter. Hunter Hodes, follow the show. Hewerex, Twitter, at L.O. Arn's Sport Penguins.

And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. No, just watch the second period of that Panthers Bolt series. And compared to the Battle of Alberta, this is probably like a 1.2. There's just, like, no intensity in it. I thought this was going to be a pretty spirited series. But, you know, both these teams don't really look. like they're, it looks like they're not even rivals, to say the least. But Panders are able to tie it late in the second period as of this recording. I'm sure by the time everyone listens to this,

the winner of the game will be decided. So to kick things off, let's get into the Jack Adams Award finalists. So today it was announced, you know, Mike Sullivan was not one of the finalists. Gerard Gallant was on there. And, you know, the biggest thing of this award for me, is, you know, it's this. Well, I'll say the final. Andrew Bennett, that makes sense. I think he did a great job. Darrell Sutter, I think that's mainly fine, too.

But, you know, I will say this about the Jack Adams. Show me a good goaltender, and I'll show you a good coach. Gerard Golan has no business being on that ballot. I think most people thought the Rangers were going to, you know, contend for a playoff spot this year, if not get into the playoffs, just because of the talent that they already had. I mean, everyone knows how good Adam Fox was. Everyone knows how good Artini Panarin is.

Mika Zabinajad. Chris Fiders had a career year. I mean, sure, no one expected him to be that good. But, you know, there's still plenty of town. I mean, Schisturkin was already pretty good in his tenure going into this year. But, you know, Galat literally rode his coattails. He was 940 for the entire year. System-wise, you know, the Rangers really didn't do anything that blew the doors off teams. I mean, you know, sure what they're doing has worked for them. You know, their power play is one of the best in the league. Shestergens were the best goaltenders in the league. I know they stink at 5E5, but, you know, I don't think just because you have a rock saw of power playing, you have a goaltender that wants to play God, you should be at the, as a Jack Adams finalist.

You know, I'll give two coaches, you know, I'll give a coach outside of Mike Sullivan, who I think should have been a finalist. And that's Todd McClellan with the Los Angeles Kings. I mean, this team, you know, some people were high on them, some weren't, but they not, they made the playoffs with, you know, I shouldn't say relative these, but a little more. more easy than I thought some people, than some people thought they were going to. And they push the Oilers to the brink. I mean, especially without Victor Arvinson, Andrew Dowdy for that entire series.

The Kings took a lot of strides this year. And that's a team that's going to be set up for, I think, a lot of future success. The Kings, you know, they don't really have a lot of, you know, even on their team right now, they don't have a lot of star talent. I mean, they have good players, but there's no bona fide elite player on that team. and McLevelin was still able to guide them to the playoffs and come within one game of winning a series against a team that, you know, they looked down and out

in the Edmonton Oilers. So, you know, in terms of, you know, that award, I think someone like that should have been nominated. Jay Woodcroft of the Edmonton Oilers, he took over for Dave Tippett, who was the head coach halfway through the year. The Oilers were not even a playoffs spot. Yes, you should be expected to make the playoffs with the Oilers

because you have Connor McDavid and Leon Drysidal. But, you know, the team was not, playing well outside of those two players when Dave Tittitt was coaching them. And he was, you know, and Woodcroft was able to come in and, you know, change things up systematically and get some of the players like, you know, Zach Hyman and Kowlervi and Nugent Hopkins and some of the other defensemen to really start playing better hockey. And the Oilers only made the playoffs. They made it with relative ease down the stretch.

And now they're in the second round. They're down one-nought-nought-to-the-calgary flames. But, you know, for a while, they did not look like they were going to get in just because they were out. They were outside the playoff picture, but they were able to, you know, rile off a lot of big wins down the stretch. And, you know, I think Woodcroft did a great job.

So I'm sure he's probably going to get the full-time game going in the next year. And then, you know, Mike Sullivan, obviously, this was a Penguins-centric podcast. I thought he did a terrific job this year. You know, Evan Rodriguez and Jeff Carter were their top two centers for a good chunk of the first half the season. If Kenny Malkin had to miss the first half the year, Sidney Crosby hasn't had to miss a bit of time with the wrist injury,

also had to miss some time with COVID. You know, Sid was not really playing at all for that first month of the season. And, you know, Mike Sullivan was able to keep the team afloat and in contention, even though if they were getting some loser points, they were still getting points and staying in the playoff race. And then when they started to get some guys back from COVID, then they were able to run rampant throughout the league. So, you know, I like coaching jobs like that over someone who literally,

just, you know, rode the coattails of one of the best full-tending seasons of all time and a power play that, you know, that's just really fucking good. I don't really understand why Golan is on there. I mean, I think it's the Broadcasting Association that votes on that award. I thought it was the PHWA at first. I believe I was wrong. I think it's the National Broadcasting Association that does it. Again, you know, just a really odd choice. Daryl Sutter, I'm more fine with that just because the flames, you know, they were fine last year, but, you know, they needed to show something this year. And he was able to coach them to one of the best records in the Western Conference, really turned them around. I mean, Johnny Goodrow had his best season of his career under Sutter.

Kristana continued to play well. Jacob Marshall had a great year. You know, Sutter has always been a great coach. So I get that one. Andrew Bennett, I understand, but also at the same time, this Panther's roster is absolutely loaded. Joel Quenville was, you know, before he had to step down. as the Panthers coaching rightfully so.

I'm glad he did with the whole Kyle Beach situation. The Panthers were already gunning for that tall spot in the Eastern Conference. So, you know, I think in a perfect rule, you replace him too

with someone like McClellan, Jay Woodcroft, Mike Sullivan, maybe someone else out there who, you know, potentially did a better job. You know, maybe even, you know, bonus from Dallas,

you know, the stars were not really a sexy pick to make the playoffs this year. And they gave the flames one heck of a fight. And the first round, Jake Hottinger was just absolutely ridiculous, to say the least. So, you know, I don't tend to get too amped about the NHL war just because I know they're for the regular season. But, you know, sooner rather than later, I would love for Mike Sullivan to actually get nominated for this award because he is a top three coach in hockey.

Again, I understand, show me a good goal tender and I'll show you a head coach that usually happens with every head coach that wins. that it were. But I just wish that, you know, more of the people that vote on this war, especially the broadcasters, they can, you know, look at the body of work that, you know, coaches have had to face like, you know, COVID outbreaks and injuries and, you know, an aging roster coming into this year, a roster that, you know, people didn't really expect to make the playoffs and they ended up making it, you know, just, you know, stuff like that over, oh, hey, this guy had a really good goaltender or, hey, this guy took over a team that was already going to make the playoffs or, you know, at least those are, you know, at least those are,

the two that I'm not really, you know, thrilled with and to fly on my screen. Again, Daryl Sutter, totally fine with. But, you know, I think at this point, in order for Mike Sullivan to, like, when you be nominated for the award, like, both Latang and Malkin have to literally, like, be gone. And then they make a playoffs with Cindy Crosby, Jake Gensel and no one else. And then the broadcasting association's like, oh, yeah, we'll nominate Mike Sullivan now. It's like, no, why don't you do that the last couple of years where he literally has guided

the team to a top three finish in the Metro. well, at least it's a tough finish in the Metro this year. Last year they freaking won, excuse me, the East Division when they have the most man-games lost due to injury. It didn't matter. Mike Sullivan knows what he is doing. And it's still a farce that he has not been nominated for this award in the seven seasons that he has been with the Penguins.

I will never understand that. So that wraps up this first segment of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I wanted to get into that. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into. some of the penalty kill talk, what I want to see next year, potentially deployment-wise. And we'll also get to that weird Creseltang rumor that I saw on 93-7, The Fan, and I'm going to debunk that. I'm a little quick. But before we get to that, I love brownies, but you know what I love more?

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I am your host, Honour Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Ernstall Penguins. So let's get to that weird Chris Laetang rumor that I saw it. This came courtesy of 937 the fan. I can find this tweet here real quick on my time.

So Chris Mueller put this out. Beautiful ratio, by the way. 17 quote tweets only 10 likes. And he had Gord Stelich on his show, former Leach's general manager, New York assistant, former New York assistant general manager as well. I think he comes from Sportsnet. And the tweet says he suggests that term, not salary, might be the biggest issue. He says Latang could be looking for a seven-year deal. And then Chris Oates, Would you want the Penguins to give Chris Stang a seven-year contract? Where are these rumors coming from? And I don't know.

This is straight up propaganda. Chris is saying even said at his press conference, yeah, I'd like to play for four to five more years. Josh Joey B. Athletic, he's been saying, yeah, it's probably going to be a four-to-five-year deal if he comes back. You know, Elliot Friedman said the Penguins offered him a four-year deal. Money was a little below his current AAD. He is not going to sign a seven-year contract to go into his age 42 and 43-year. That is absolutely ludicrous. The guy is not 30 or 31 years old here.

He is 35 and he's going to be 36. Like, what planet are we on? Like, and I understand that Mueller is probably trying to rile up the masses a little bit just because, you know, he's on the afternoon driver, whatever that show is with him. And I think it's Pony. Andrew Philopony for 93-7, The Fan. But, you know, all I can say is this.

Get better guests. I mean, at the end of the day, that's ridiculous. I mean, Chris is not going to be signing a seven-year deal with any team in free agency if he gets to that point. I mean, that's just that's not happening. When he signs, it's going to be probably a four to five-year term. I had to spend at least a couple of minutes talking about that for today's episode. Again, if the Penguins do bring him back, it's going to be for four to five years.

It'll take him to his age 39 to 40 season. And then, you know, if he wants to, he can retire. But, you know, he was ratioed here, rightfully so. That's absolutely ridiculous that, um, who had a yon come. Oh, sorry about that. The first time I think I've yawned on this podcast in a long time. Um, there's just, there's no chance that's going to happen. Anyways, moving on to the penalty kill.

Again, another key area where the penguins just, they got bullied in that series against New York Rangers. And, you know, I want to see a better deployment next year. I think at times this year, the penguins, you know, Mike Voluzzi. who runs the penalty kill as one of the assistant head coaches. Speaking of him, I think he might be getting some head coaching interviews at some point. At least that's what Elliot Friedman said. You know, some of the players that they were putting out there, I didn't really understand.

Like, you know, say, for example, Brian Boyle. Sure, he has a long reach, and I personally don't think he's going to be on the team next year. Nice story. I know I love the guy to death. I don't think you can bring him back. You know, and maybe for a 13th forward, but I don't really want him playing on an every night basis. I'm not sure like he was for a lot of this year.

I just think, you know, that his legs were, you know, totally shot by the end of a year. But, you know, and you could definitely see that on the penalty kill. You know, he was not getting his stick into the shooting lanes. He wasn't doing as good of a job blocking shots. Brock McGinn was not really playing that well on the penalty kill either, especially when he came back from his injury down the stretch. I'm fine with Teddy Lugar on there because he's usually one of the best penalty killers.

But in the playoffs, he's been really bad the last couple of years. Something has not been right with him. You know, I saw this flown around a little bit, I think, on social media during the series. Why didn't they play Kaspari Kaptner in a good bit on that PK? You know, for starters, he did it a lot when he was in Toronto. And it makes sense. The guy is super fast. He was good defensively this year.

The metrics were really good for him in his own zone. I'm sure he has no, you know, no problem throwing his body around. and he's a threat short-handed. Not only is he a fast skater, he has one heck of a shot when he's using it, right? I know he struggled a lot this year, obviously. But to get more confidence going, why didn't the penguins do that?

Just because, again, Capon did it a lot under both Mike Babcock and Sheldon Keith in Toronto. I felt like it was an opportunity wasted there. I also do want to see Sidney Crosby and maybe Jake Gensel on the PK a bit more. Mike Sullivan has used them at times. on the PK and, you know, it's worked.

You know, they've actually scored a few short-handed goals together and they've gotten chances. I know Sid, you probably doesn't want to lay his body on the line too much, but he's still one of the best defensive centers in the league. I'm sure he would have no problem killing penalties. You know, this is always my biggest thing when it comes to, you know, the PK. Anyone can do it. I don't think you necessarily need PK specialists in order to win.

If you are good at 5E5, you can kill penalties. I really don't see. you know, why you can't. I just, you know, I guess some people think you have to be like a Craig Adams type player to kill a pound or something. And I'm not saying you can put him getting Malkin on the PK. I think that would not be a good idea. So not, I mean, you know, he's obviously not as good defensively as some of the other players

I'm throwing around. You would maybe get some chances, but again, are you really expecting him to put his body on the line there? Probably not. But I still stand by the fact that, you know, basically anyone can kill a penalty if they're really up for it. You know, I also want to see the P.K play a lot more aggressive. In that Rangers series, especially, they were given them all day long.

I don't know if Volucci was coaching them to be passive, but it was not working. The Rangers Power Play in the Masters series going into game six or seven, I believe it was six, five for 15, 33.3%. That's not good enough. And I believe it was over 25% when it was all sudden done. You cannot win a series. if your power, if your P.A. is giving up a goal 25% of the time. It's, it's not good enough. You know, they were not pressuring Adam Fox at the point nearly as much.

They were giving up way too many easy zone entries. They were having to rely on the goaltending too much. And, you know, it's one thing for Tristan Jari to bill you out. It's a really other thing for Louis Deming to bail you out because he was not doing that. MS. I mean, you know, just we watch Game 7 with the power plays the Rangers got. So many failed lazy clearing attempts, and Jari had to make gloves saved after pads save,

after all these other saves, just to kill off the penalties. And he was probably their best penalty killer this year, in my opinion. So that's definitely going to have to be something that changes going in next year. I just want it to be more aggressive. I want to change up, you know, the usage for players. You know, maybe you don't use Brock McGinnett as much.

You know, Brian Boyle coming off, I think is going to be decently. You know, what do you change up? you're the defenseman you want to put down there, Brian Dumont, is still on the team, do you take him off? Maybe put someone like Mike Matheson on there, who was great at skating the puck out of his own end.

I think I would love to see them do that. I don't think he really got a lot of PK time that much this year. They mainly had, I think, John Marino on there. Brian Dumont, Chris Lettang, and I'm fine with Latang. I'm having PK minutes. I mean, he's also great at moving the puck out of his own zone. But, you know, I still, you know,

would love to see someone like Matheson on there. a little bit too. So again, we'd love to see some of the more top players kill penalties. For example, Brad Marchand in Boston, he's one of their best penalty killers, Patrice Virgeron. He also has killed penalties throughout his career in Boston. You know, Jonathan Taves, I think he did it in Chicago for a lot of years before he started to get a little washed up in the windy city.

So, you know, I want to see more of that on that unit. I thought it was good during the regular season, but whatever, whatever happened, going into the playoffs just completely stopped. And I think that's one of the main reasons why this team is not playing in Raleigh. I'm going into game two tomorrow. So still a little more to get to for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. We're going to get into why it should be Ricard Raquel over Brian Rush, just by a look of the numbers at least for this season.

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bet online where the game starts. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hutter Hoodies. You want to follow me on Twitter on your hoodies. follow the shows Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. So let's get to Ricard Raquel's overall sample size with the Penguins. 19 games after coming over from Anaheim, 277 minutes at 5E5. He was on the ice for 54% of the shot attempts, 61% of the actual goals,

58% of the scoring chances, 60% of the high danger chances, 11, high danger goals 4, 5, high danger goals against, His on-ice shooting percentage was about 11%, which was up two whole percent from when he was in Anaheim. This was his highest shooter percentage since 2016-17 when he was with Anaheim. And on-ice-A percentage for the Penguins goal tenders on 9-21. So he definitely did have some good goaltending, to say the least. You know, he was absolutely electric this season for the Penguins. And again, if you're deciding between him and Brian Ross,

and this is, you know, this comes, you know, a little courtesy off of a D.K.'s Daily Shot that I was listening to this morning. You know, he definitely inspired me to spend just a couple minutes bringing this up. You know, for me, I'm going with Raquel. Brian Ross, again, I think he has priced himself out of this. He's going to go make a lot of money. Rightfully so he deserves it. It's probably going to be a six-time-six deal.

Obviously, replacing that production is not going to be easy. you know, a player that scores 20 plus goals for numerous seasons in a row, they don't grow on trees. But they do have a player in Raquel that I think can do that. And he was also electric playing with Jake Gensel and Cindy Crosby. You know, their expected goals for it well over 60%. Of course, he was well over 55%. High danger chances wise, you know, I believe well over 60% as well. he was just such a seamless fit on that line.

I wanted to see more of it in the playoffs, but no, obviously Raquel got hurt off that dirty hit in game one. It could not even return until game seven. It was so unfortunate that the Penguins really couldn't see Raquel for a full playoff series just because of that gross set. I really think he makes a bigger impact in that series if he doesn't get headshot there. Because I believe that was a concussion. I know I read it was a head injury.

and I assume it was. I mean, he was skating a little bit, but it looked like his symptoms weren't going away. I stashed or some other players out, but, you know, it also took about a week or two is it's not uncommon for a player to come back from a question. Contract-wise, again, if, you know, he's definitely on my must-resign list,

I would go, you know, a three-to-four-year term, you know, 3.5 to 4 million per. I think that's fine. I don't think he's going to ask for five. You know, maybe a comparable is like, the Brandon Sadi. I think Sada is signed for 4.5. If you can get him for a bit below that, that would be big, in my opinion.

He was just such a, he was a great fit on either the Sidd or the Malkin line. He was the winger that this team was desperately lacking, heading into the playoffs. And, you know, I didn't, I liked the move at the time. I thought it was going to be good. I didn't think it was going to be that good. Where again, you know, underwriting numbers wise, 61% of the actual goals, 60% of the high danger chances, 54% of the shot attempts, you know, 58% of the scoring chances. I mean, compared to where he was in Anaheim, 50% of the scoring chances this year at

them. I mean, this was the highest number. He's the highest underlying numbers for most of his career since basically 2014. That was the last time he had a scoring chance for rate higher than 58%. That's the only time. Actually, you know, I kind of think he rediscovered his module a little bit. I do remember listening to the Jeff Mirich show, Brian Burke came on. And he talked about how I think Raquel had some sort of like condition that was like affecting his play.

I want to say it was something to do with like his diet or something like that. I can go back and find the clip. But it was something that I don't think had ever been reported about him. And apparently, you know, Burke said they were, you know, they've been able to get it under control. I think this season. And then when he came to Pittsburgh, he found a bunch of magic beans. And he was looking like the Ricard Raquel that, you know,

at least Burke had been watching for several years, because obviously he has a lot of ties to the ducks. He watches a lot of their games. But it was interesting that, you know, we was talking about doing their homework on that player, that, you know, that was a story that had not gone out about him. And you know, you could definitely see the difference that, you know, switching from Anaheim to Pittsburgh make,

you know, going from a system that I don't think, provides a lot of offensive ability with Dallas Eakins to a Mike Sullivan system where, you know, it's go, go, go, go, go. So I would love if he's able to come back. He's on my, again, after Let's hang in Malkin, he is my number three guy that they have to resign, at least in my opinion. And again, three to four year deal if you can, 3.5 to 4 million would be really nice to lock him up for that.

I would absolutely love if they could bring him back. And yes, you know, right now, if you're comparing the two, between him and Brian Russ, I'm taking Ricard Raquel, just because, you know, he's younger, and I don't think he's going to get, you know, worse as that deal goes on, unlike Brian Russ, who I do think some, I shouldn't say some bad years could be coming for Russ, but I think some not as good years could be coming just because, you know, his age is obviously a big factor and just how hard he plays. And all that. So that'll do it for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. I appreciate all of you for listening.

you this one. I'll be back with another episode on Friday. Monday, Danny Shirey of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports is going to join us. Can't wait to pick his brain on what to expect for the off season, talking about that series against the Rangers, so much other stuff that I have planned for that one. I haven't brought Danny on, I think since the beginning of the season, to be honest. So I'm really excited to have Danny back on for that. So again, another episode coming Friday. Danny comes back to the show on Monday. I hope you all have a great rest of your Thursday, and I'll talk to you on Friday.