Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Some choice words from Jim Rutherford yesterday...and he's right

Episode Date: August 12, 2020

Hunter is back with another episode of Locked On Penguins and he starts off the episode by talking about the 5 OT thriller between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Tampa Bay Lightning from yesterday. He talks about how great the game was, plus just how awful it truly is to watch the Blue Jackets play as they're one of the most boring teams in the league. He also touches on Mike Milbury's awful take about wanting to end playoff games in shootouts and his hilarious tweet about it too. He then goes into Jim Rutherford's comments to the media yesterday and how it seems he's finally figured out one of the biggest issues plaguing the team. Finally, he goes through Josh Yohe's article on The Athletic about the most likely players to stay and leave and gives his thoughts on some surprise players in different categories. 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, welcome to a new episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. As always, this show is brought to you by rockado.com. We are back on this Wednesday morning. I'm sorry I didn't have a couple episodes on Monday and Tuesday. Went back to the beach for another social distancing beach trip because, you know, why the

hell not? Especially after the Penguins lost in four games to the Canadians, you know, you can wash that all away with going to the beach and just having a few drinks with your family while also not going out and just having a good time. So that's what we decided to do. It's also been a lot of fun to just watch just so much hockey, especially that five overtime thriller yesterday. We're going to get to that later in this episode.

Also today we're going to talk about Jim Rutherford's comments to the media yesterday for his end of the session media conference. He was not happy. You know, like I said, we're going to dive into it. I'll share my thoughts on what I think is going to happen with after Jim Rutherford made those comments. Also touch on a little bit of the Lexus Lafranier. I know it's a little bit late.

I know it happened on Monday, but still I figured we would talk about it. And also for the last segment, Josh Yoey had an article come out today, basically, you know, who is most likely to stay, who was most likely to go from the athletic. So I figured I would go through that for you guys and look at some players who are in some groups that, you know, I guess I would maybe not expect. So that's basically on tap for today. So today's show, excuse me. I also did want to say, you know, that last show on Friday was the most viewed show ever.

So thank you guys so much for listening to that, especially as I just basically roasted the team and talk about what I think is coming next. but in all seriousness, thank you guys so much for always listening to these shows. It really does mean the world to me. But let's just get out right into it. You know, what a start to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Well, the official Stanley Cup playoffs, I should say, I'm that five-over-time thriller yesterday, guys. Wow.

I'm at the beach at 3 o'clock. We usually stay from like 11.30 to 5. You know, we're one of those families. We stay kind of close towards dinner time because, you know, why not? You're on vacation. You can bring drinks down to the beach and just have a good time and just social distance between people. And I remember I get back from the beach at around 536 because it was the closest story in raining and I'm like, wow, this game is really still going.

And then, you know, as dinner comes, you know, it's still going. And then, you know, you get past dinner with dessert and then it's still going. And it's just like, what in the hell is going on? And my mom actually told me her side of the story of the Keith Primo game from 2000 because this is now, this was officially now the fourth longest game in NHL history. It was two minutes away from being the third longest, which was, of course, the penguin. Flyers 2000 game and the whole time I was just like yeah you know if this could go to six overtimes and break that record that would just be absolutely incredible I will still forever hate Keith Primo for that goal I was only two years old when it happened I know a lot more people

are way older than me and actually remember seeing that goal live I've watched it way too many times to remember I hate Keith Primo for it that goal is just that goal makes me mad and I wasn't even old enough to basically start watching it so just the entire time I was just, come on, I was like, come on Tampa, just get to 100 shots, and then we can call it a game. And then you can score on like your 100 first shot or something. That would have been honestly hilarious. I wanted them to get 100 shots so bad. They were stuck on 87 for a long time.

And I just want to say this right now, watching the Columbus Blue Jackets play hockey, not just in that game, guys, but like just overall, it literally just makes me would rather watch paint dry than watch that team play. Because it's just, it's so boring. Travis Yose had this absolutely awful tweet yesterday. Usually his hockey takes are pretty, pretty good. It's his food takes that are just absolutely awful. And, you know, for those that aren't on Twitter, and for those I just didn't see it, you know, he basically was like, how can you not love this Columbus team

and the organization? It's easy to define a winning culture by having a gazillion stars, which if you can, it's much harder to get what they have here. And it's just like, Travis, they play some of those boring hockey around. Like, forgive me if I don't want to watch a team, block shots every shift, collapse in front of the goalie, have their goaltender, bail them out every single game. That's literally exactly what happened against the Maple Leafs.

And I know we all love to shit on the Maple Leafs because it's really funny when they lose and the Toronto media always go off on them. That's always hilarious. But, I mean, I did honestly feel bad for the Leafs in that series because the Columbus goaltenders at 5 on 5, I think had a 980s percentage. I mean, like, I don't know what else you want the Leafs to do there. They outplay them basically in every single game. And yet Columbus, just because of how godly their goaltending was and just how they block shots in front. in the net, they got it. And they're just, they're such an offensively in net team. They play the sport in a way, which I do not like. And I really hope that a lot of teams just really don't

do that. It's just, like I said, it's just, it's boring hockey to watch. It's really, really bad. I loved Ryan's response to me. If you guys are on Penguin's Twitter and you do not follow Hayek and hockey, please do. He is literally one of the funniest people on Penguins Twitter. I don't know how you can define winning culture by winning a couple rounds in a couple years. Yeah, I mean, that's basically hit some set up right there. You know, little brother likes to think, oh yeah, we're so good, yet they've won one playoff series in their existence. I'm not

really going to count a qualifying round. But if you do, you know, two playoff series in the span of, however, I don't know how long they've been in the league for. So, yeah, it's just, yeah, John Tortoella hockey, it's just garbage. Tampa was just dominating every single overtime. And it was just like, I'm waiting for

Columbus to score a goal off someone's ass, off someone's skin. Whatever fluky way that the Columbus could win, I was just waiting for it because the takes would have been hilarious. Also during the game, Mike Milberry had another awful take. I know, guys, that's a shocker. Mike Milberry having a really shitty take, especially with his awful tweet. We're going to get to that pretty soon, too, because if you guys did not see Mike Milberry's tweet, please go look at it.

But basically, during the game, Mike Milbury, he says he thinks the NHL should go to a shootout and playoff overtime because people get bored. So people get bored by watching play till you win every shift just standing on your feet just like hoping something amazing happen. So Mike, you would rather have a shootout decide a Stanley Cup playoff game or a Stanley Cup final game over play till you win. I'm sorry, that's got to be one of the worst takes anyone has ever said about anything in this sport. I don't care who you are. If you think a shootout should decide a Stanley Cup playoff game, a Stanley Cup final game, whatever, you should honestly. never talk about this sport ever again. That is one of the worst takes anyone could ever have. A shootout is one of the worst parts about this sport, especially in the regular season.

I'm of the belief that they should just play three on three until you win. Some team is eventually going to get tired. It's not going to go past 10 minutes most of the time. Hell, a lot of the games now end in the five minute overtime because, wow, yeah, it's three on three, and there's a lot more space out there, and there's odd man rushes almost every ship. If you extend that, make maybe five more minutes, a team is going to win. You don't even see that many shootouts now, regardless in the regular season, because most games end in the three-on-three overtime. So why should we bring more shootouts back, even when the numbers for them are going down in the regular season? That just makes no sense.

No one gets bored watching playoff overtime. If someone actually gets bored watching playoff overtime, then they really don't know anything about this sport. And they honestly should just stop watching it. That's just my take on that. I think that's absolutely ludicrous. But, you know, this game went so long that they had to cancel the Bruins hurt. Cateon's game and postpone it to today at 11 a.m. So yeah, that's perfect beach and hockey, you know, at least for me. I also saw an outstanding analogy last night from one of my good

friends from Rangers, Twitter, Nick. I'm not really going to try to pronounce his last name. Z-A-R-A-R-I-S. So, yeah, I'm just, I'll mispronounce it, even though I've known him for years now. Overtime periods are like tequila shots. Two or three are pretty fun, more than that, and things get messy. I mean, yeah, that's pretty accurate. I mean, if you drink more than two or three tequila shots, you will probably be gone by the end of the night, and you'll probably wake up up with a massive, massive hangover. I know I have plenty of times in college, I'm sure

some of you guys that listen to this podcast do have as well. And, okay, finally for this segment, we're just going to close with this Mike Milberry tweet. So he just, this tweet is just awful in so many ways. On another worldly night, space needle is an appropriate backdrop. Well, this is

also not the space needle. He totally messed that up. Insane, come-on Miss Tampa Bay Game. God bless both teams for a great effort. Enough, though. I believe we should end these games sooner via three on three or shootout after a time. What do you think? Like, that tweet is just godly because it just goes from one thing to the next.

He doesn't even have the right name for whatever the hell he's taking a picture of in the background. It is not the space needle. And then everyone is just flat out roasting him in the replies. Travis Yos, Twitter will focus on the space needle, but I want to know if your camera is off the iPhone 3 or the iPhone 4. Dmitri Filovic, whenever you're by the space needle, you've got to flip your motor. Roll a razor out for a picture. John Shannon, hey Mike, this is the space, you know, and your idea goes downhill from there. Dmitri, again, like with most great works of art, I'm really picking new things up here on my fourth and fifth times going through this tweet.

I mean, it's just, everyone is just owning him in the replies. I'm all here for it. He just, he needs to learn what the actual space needle looks like, and he needs to just realize that any take he makes on Twitter people are just going to shit on him. And especially with just really, really bad takes, such as going to, you know, a three-on-three or then via a shootout. That's just an awful, awful idea. I still don't know how Mike Mulberry is employed by NBC and NBC has said. But I think this is as good a time as any to talk about rockado.com. It is a family-owned business that's serving auto-part customers online for 20 years. You can go to rockoaddle.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of

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All right, so we're back here on this episode for the locked on Penguins podcast. So for this segment, we're going to talk about Jim Rutherford's comments to the media yesterday at his end of season press conference. And yeah, everyone, if you were hoping that Jim Rutherford was going to be pretty pissed off, you got your wish. He was definitely not happy yesterday. were some pretty damning quotes in there. Josh O'I also tweeted out, you know, there is something wrong.

Changes need to be made. J.M.J. He also shot down the idea of trading Evgeny Malcon or Chris LaTang. I'm trying to move forward with the core. That's really, really good news. I know the Chris LaTang trade rumors are going to come about, like Penguins Chronicles, who was just one of the worst accounts on Penguins Twitter. Evgeny Malcon, we always see those trade rumors every single summer. It's not going to happen. They're going to keep the core intact for however long they want to

keep the core intact, just keep it going. This team is really, really good going into the season. There's no reason to trade a core player at all. But, you know, let's just get to the spicy stuff now. So Jim Rutherford was asked about the third defensive pair, and this was his answer, which, of course, pissed off a lot of people, but I'm here to tell you why you really should not be pissed off with this quote. He said, I know everybody picks on Jack Johnson and may have for a long time,

but I think in that pairing, Justin Solz had a lot more to give. And you know what? I get why some people were a bit upset about that, because, you know, he's continuing to die on the Jack Johnson Hill. But, guys, here's the reality of the situation. Justin Schultz is walking. He made that pretty clear in that press conference yesterday that Justin Schultz had a lot more to give,

basically saying, yeah, Justin Schultz sucked during that playoff series. He's not coming back. He was, I think it was, what, $5.5 million against the cap? There is no way the Penguins are resigning him. Just take that to the bank. But here's the trick, guys. Do you really think Jim Rutherford was going to go into that press conference and say, yeah, guys, Jack Johnson,

sucked when he's more than likely going to trade him this offseason or at least engage in a lot of talks about it. Like, why would a GM openly say that about a player that he is trying to trade? That makes no sense. It just comes off bat. Of course, he's going to try to save phase talk up Jack Johnson just a little bit while also showing the door to Justin Chultz. I think, guys, if this role was reversed and Justin Chultz was in Jack Johnson's situation,

and Jack Johnson was in Justin Chultz's situation, he would have said the exact same thing about Jack Johnson yesterday as he did about Justin Solz where he had a lot more to give because obviously they both did have a lot more to give they both sucked ass but I just wanted to clarify that for everyone please guys just take a chill pill we all know Justin Schultz is gone I think Jack Johnson is going to be gone to just send him to the sun I think Jim is going to make it happen this all season it looked like he finally recognized one of the biggest problems for this team was that just the third pairing was just absolutely dreadful moving on from that bit here's another really big quote

yesterday. Seth Rorbauch tweeted out the whole thing from Jim Rutherford. Basically talked about Game 4. He was asked about the eliminating game. Jim said, we don't have that same drive as we get closer to elimination. It was so disappointing in game 4 to see wherever we're at. You're waiting for the desperation from the drop of the puck and it didn't come in the first

period. It didn't come in the second period. It was even worse in the third period. There's something wrong if you don't have that drive to win in that point in time to win this series. I don't know. Did some of the players feel that they didn't want to put in the extra work and stay in the bubble longer and prefer to be with their families? knows the answer to all those things, but it's very disappointing and changes need to be made.

Yeah, so that's a pretty damning quote from Jim Rutherford. He's not happy. I mean, can you blame him for that kind of quote? I saw some people getting mad about it. It's like, you know what, guys, that's a perfectly fine quote. He's pissed off with the lack of effort that the Penguins put in during that eliminating game. Everyone else saw just how bad they were. It looked like they wanted to be anywhere else. They wanted to go get drunk with their friends at home, go out to eat, you know, like Jim Rutherford said, go spend time with their families, literally anything else than be. It looked like, there at that game and it was just it was embarrassing you know it was embarrassing to the probably mario and ron who's been embarrassing to the coaching staff embarrassing to jim and just

embarrassing to the fan base so i mean i totally understand where jim is coming with that as it was just absolutely embarrassing to watch and you know like he said this is now two years in a row where in an elimination game they just do not look the same as they did earlier in the season and jim even said like that's a problem i don't know where it lies like two players just not really care when they're up against the wall? Have they, like, just been here long enough and won two championships where they're just at the point where, you know what, I don't need to win anymore. My will to win is not as high as it used to be.

I don't know. Jim Rutherford needs to discover that for himself, but yeah, a lot of questions going into this all season. He also touched on the goalie situation yesterday. It's going to be really hard to keep both, especially with the flat cap, basically saying, you know what, goodbye, Matt Murray. You know, he's not going to come back. It's going to be Tristanjari's net.

I mean, he didn't directly say that yesterday, but if you read between the the lines for what he said. I mean, it's basically all but confirm that Tristan Jari is going to be the number one goaltender going into next season. Also, sorry, there was some background noise. I'm actually on the patio recording this right now. And for some reason, someone's doing work on a house, like two, three houses down. But thankfully, it stopped, I guess, for now. So, apologies about that. But in any case, I really don't think there is anything more noteworthy during that end of media press comments with Jim Rutherford. I know he didn't commit to the whole coaching staff coming back. There were reports coming out yesterday that they

are going to change the coaching staff. My thought, on that. I think Mark Recky's gone. There's just no way you can bring him back with how bad the power play has been. Jim Rutherford even said in his press conference that, yeah, we have to find ways to make the power play better. It was unacceptable with the talent that we have, that the power play is that bad, even with losing Phil Kessel. I mean, I think Marky's going to be on. What I would do, I would have Gonshire kind of coach the defense, and also having Gonshire coached the power play. Gonshire was one of the best power play quarterbacks as franchise has ever seen. He was just so smooth at running it. I would absolutely be here for it if he were to do that. And then I think,

I think Jacques Martin is definitely going to stay. I don't really see that their way that they're going to fire him, to be honest. He runs the penalty kill really, really well. He coaches the defenseman as well. Pretty, pretty good. But, you know, regards to Mike Sullivan, everyone knows my take on it. If you guys have been listening to this podcast, I would keep him going into next season,

but if the team really does struggle, I would not hesitate to fire him mid-season and then hire someone like Gerard Gallant if he is available. So that's my take on that. And that will wrap up this segment of just basically touching on Jim Rutherford's comments to the media at his end of the season media conference. All right, so we're back here on this short little last segment of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We're just going to go through Josh Joey's article on the athletic, talking about, you know,

who's most likely to stay, who's most likely to go. There's no surprises, really, for the Untouchable Division, Cindy Crosby, Gino, Jake Gensel, John Marino, Brian Dumlin, Sam Poulin, and Tristan Jari. But, I mean, is that really surprising to anyone? We all know he's the goaltender of the future. He's not going to get moved. They're going to trade Matt Murray for some. It's just really not that surprising at this point.

Highline likely to leave, you know, Brian Ross, Jason Zucker, they just acquired him, Brandon Tanev, there's no way they're trading him. Teddy Bluger, Marcus Pedersen, P.O. Joseph, Chad Ruehiel. Yeah, nothing really surprising there. So long, farewell. Justin Schultz, yeah, he's gone. Nick Bukstad? Who?

No, I'm just kidding, but yeah, Nick Bukstad, he makes $4.1 million for one more season. He is definitely going to be walking, or, well, not walking. He's definitely going to be getting traded by Jim Rutherford. A team will take him on, but, but, I mean, I mean, would you guys really expect a big return for someone Nick Bukestead who really didn't play a lot this season? I wouldn't just take whatever return you'll get. You'll get the cap space needed there, especially for a team like the Penguins who is in dire need of it, because it's going to be a flat cap this year.

Patrick Marlow, yep, he's gone. Yuselika, I'm still not sure with that one because he is an RFA, but for some reason he's in Mike Sullivan's doghouse. So that could go either way. And then, Josh, the only really interesting one from that one is Connor Sherry. I think honestly the Penguins are going to bring Connor Sherry back. I thought he was pretty good. After being reacquired from Buffalo, he found his magic.

Well, a little bit of it with Cindy Crosby and Jake Gensel. I could definitely see them resigning Sherry to like a two, three-year deal. Just a couple million against the cap. I don't really think he's going to be asking for a lot. So to see Connor Sherry in that so long for a well, I don't agree with that at all. For his restricted but returning division, no really surprises there. That's just mostly the RFA's. I've been Rodriguez, Dominic Simone.

The potential. the move division. Jared McCann, you know, I've touched on that a lot on this podcast. That's just going to be tough because I think maybe what you do, maybe give him a bridge deal, you know, a two to three year deal, a couple million against the cap, maybe upwards of three million. If he's going to ask for four million, you kind of walk on that. I really don't think he is going to ask for four million, though. He was definitely not worth four million during the season, especially after January where he just really, really struggled. So that's going to be a really big situation to watch you guys know. If you guys listened to my last

episode if they were to move on from McCann. Someone like Craig Smith from Nashville would be a great, great addition for the Penguins. He would just fit Mike Sullivan's system very well. He's a proven goal score, proven point producer, really good underlying numbers. Nashville's probably looking to blow it up a little bit. That will be one of my big targets if the Penguins were to move on from Jared McCann. Really don't understand why Zach Gaston Reese is in this to the potentially on the move division. His underlying numbers are great.

Defensively, he was absolutely outstanding this season. I know he wasn't that good in the playoffs, but he forms a great shutdown line with Teddy Blugher and Brandon Tane. I really have no idea why he would be on the move. I would be stunned if he were traded. So then it might be time division. Chris La Teng, for some reason, is on here. Yeah, guys, Chris Lentang is not getting traded.

He's basically in the untouchable division for me. That's the big surprise from this article. There's no way Chris Lentang is getting traded. I think maybe at some point you could have a discussion about it. I hope I don't get killed for that take, even though I think Chris Lattang overall should retire as a Pittsburgh penguin, but at some point there could be a time to talk about a Chris Lattang trade, especially if his play really, really starts to dip,

and it looks like they found his successor in John Marino, but that's still a few seasons down the line. Crystal Tang is still untouchable at this point for me. The Patrick Hornquist is also in this. I mean, that's going to be a very interesting situation for the penguins. He makes over $5 million against the cap. I thought he was really, really good during the season when he wasn't hurt. He kind of had a resurgent year.

The only way I see him being traded is if they really, really can't trade anyone else, such as Jack Johnson, or if they don't really want to buy him out, that could be one of the next players that they would trade. It gives them a lot more cap room. I know it creates a hole for a third line, right wing, but I think they can fill that void in free agency or through the organization pretty easily. So that's going to be a situation worth monitoring a lot this offseason. I just don't think Jim Rutherford hasn't had him to trade Patrick Harkas, especially after he just extended him to, I think it was what, a five-year contract. And then the last two players on this list. Apparently the beats the hell out of me division for Jack Johnson. This line here just really makes me mad.

I've been told it recently as 48 hours ago that the coaching staff is pleased with how he's performed. I really don't know how the coaching staff can believe that, especially if you watch those four games against Montreal. Beg on the ice for five of the eight Canadians' goals going into game four is absolutely unacceptable. He was directly causing those goals. No idea what Mike Sullivan, Mark Recki, and Jacques Martin were watching. Had to have been a different game on a different planet and a different universe. there's just absolutely no way they were watching the same Jack Johnson as the rest of us.

And then the Chains of Senior Division, the player that we all know is going to be likely betrayed or just not signed, is Matt Murray. He's definitely gone. So, yeah, those are basically my thoughts on that. I figured I would just go through that article and off from my thoughts on some of the players who are going to stay and who are going to leave and some surprises through it. So I hope you guys liked this episode of Lockdown Penguins. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode. I honestly may dive more into Jared McCann tomorrow, talk about, you know, what are other options they could have for them.

We'll also talk about the Stanley Cup playoffs from my thoughts on some of the series. I made my picks yesterday on Twitter. If you guys did not see them, go to my Twitter at Funter Hoodies. I also made the picks on the Lockdown Penguins Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. So go check that out. If you guys disagree with me, send me your picks. I always like seeing, you know, who picked who in each series. I did really, really bad in the qualifying round.

that was just absolutely brutal. I looked like freaking Mike Francesa when he does his NFL picks on New York Sports Radio. Whenever he makes a pick against the spread, it always goes the wrong way. So yeah, I definitely had some Mike Francesa vibes for my pick. So yeah, that was just absolutely awful. But in any case,

thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked on Penguins, and I will be back tomorrow, so I will talk to you all then.