Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Someone take Jim Rutherford's phone away

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby underwent surgery on his wrist today and Hunter is back on Locked On Penguins to give the details about that and how long the recovery time is. That definitely explains why Crosby was not at training camp for much of the return to play and why he didn't look normal during the series against Montreal. Hunter also touches on Elliotte Friedman's 31 Thoughts Podcast and how Friedman aid he doesn't think Jack Johnson is available for reasons that are out of this world bad. Hunter also gives his thoughts on what Jim Rutherford had to say on Pierre Lebrun and Scott Burnside's podcast on The Athletic today as he touched on the trade, the goaltending, the core, etc. Could there still be a core player moved? Which goaltender has he likely received a couple offers for? It's all in here for this episode of Locked On Penguins. 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 Tuesday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L-O-O- underscore Penguins. Happy September to you always. We are now in the ninth month of this ridiculously crazy year. But, you know, that just means we're that much closer to 2021, which hopefully is going to be a much better year than 2020.

There was some Penguins news today, well, starting with Sidney Crosby. We were going to get to that in this episode. We're also going to get to Jim Rutherford. appearance on the podcast with Pierre LeBron and Scott Burnside. And we're also going to get to some stuff about the 31 Thoughts podcast, Elliot Freeman, as he was talking about, you know, some Jack Johnson stuff, Jared McCann, Matt Murray, all sorts of that. So that's mostly what's going to be on the show today. It's probably going to be a bit of a shorter episode than a lot of the episodes that have

happened, I guess, for this show of the 150 episodes. This might be honestly the shortest one. But we'll see how much we can fit into this one. But to start off, Cindy Crosby was announced today by the Pits for Penguins that he went successful arthroscopic wrist surgery. And he will be out for a minimum of three to four weeks. Or is that the recovery time? I think the recovery time for it is three to four weeks. I mean, that's not really surprising if you ask me.

Sidney Crosby did not look himself in the playoffs against the Canadians. I mean, he also missed most of training camp with a nagging injury. It didn't really look like it was the hernia. It looked like that was healed up. It looked like it was something else. And sure enough, that this explains it. I really don't even think he played that much in the exhibition game. And like I said, he just wasn't really himself in the qualifying round against the Canadians.

I mean, we're not going to make excuses for why the Penguins lost. The Penguins played like absolute dog shit, you know, despite Crosby and Malkin, both being hurt. But, you know, it's good that Cindy Crosby went through this today. He got this surgery done and he'll be good to go going into training camp. It looks like it's not too serious at all. Though, according to Josh Joey, it was related to his previous one. If you guys don't remember his previous wrist injury, I believe that was during their series against the New York Rangers in 2013-14 where he just, he looked really, really bad.

I think that honestly, I thought at the time he broke his wrist, but apparently it was not a broken risk. He just did something else to it, but it was really, really impacting him during that series. He had only one goal in the 13 playoff games for the Penguins that spring. He scored more than a goal in this five-game series against the Canadian, so this one definitely wasn't as bad. But in any case, he'll be missing three to four weeks of offseason training. He'll be good to go for training camp and then a season, which will start December, January. I mean, who knows at this point, you know, the conference finals are getting ready to start pretty soon.

And then after that, you know, systemic a final and then, you know, the crazy offseason begins. But, you know, I think it's going to be around sometime Christmas, maybe January. Hell, you know, a cool idea, maybe start the season with the winter classic. You know, I've seen that floated around by a couple people. I would love that idea, you know, get to start it outdoors. Probably not going to have many fans there, if any at all, but still I think it would be a really, really cool way to open the season. I don't know how they're going to fit 82 games in the next season, but they're just, they're going to have to figure something out. But now, let's get to Elliot Freeman's 31 thoughts podcast with Jeff Merrick. So they were discussing the, the Kappaninan deal. And apparently,

so according to Freeman, if you guys didn't listen to it, the thing was they were, it sounded like they were kind of trying to get Matt Murray to go back to Toronto, but Toronto was worried about his arbitration rights and how he could take them to arbitration and then, want six million per season and then Toronto was basically just like yeah you know we're really not interested in that and you know I can see why you know Toronto is a cap team they still have Frederick Anderson there who I think has just one year left on his contract who knows what his long-term feature is going to be there I mean I don't really think he's going to be on that team after next season hell you know there might be a chance he could be traded this off season you know

it sounded like the Carolina Hurricanes are very very interested in him and you know that's to be expected the hurricane's goaltending really squashed them this season James Reimer and Peter Marazik just, you know, they ain't it. That's just not going to fly for another season. You know, with a team back good, you know, with Shveshnekov breaking out, I know he's a restricted free agent going into this coming season, but they just, they got to improve that area, and it would not be surprising to see Frederick Anderson go there

if the Maple Leafs are wanting to trade him there. But still, of course, there was no Matt Murray trade there, but, you know, it sounds like, you know, Elliot did say, you know, they're still getting a lot of calls on Matt Murray. You know, we're going to get to Jim Rutherford's comments to peer liberal and Scott Bernstein in the next segment. But, you know, here's the kicker from Elliott on the 31 Thoughts podcast. Jeff Merrick asked him, you know, you said Jared McCann was on the trading buck in the

blog. What about some other names out there besides Matt Marino, Jack Johnson? And this was the line that, of course, set Penguins to order on fire. Freeman goes, I don't think he's available. He's like, Jim Rutherford has bend over backwards to defend him. I think he really, really sees something in the player. He's probably not going to move him. And I also don't think that's a contract that can't.

be moved. And it's just like, Jim, like, what are we doing here? I know this is probably like the 500th million time that I've said this on this podcast, but I mean, the incompetence and the negligence here to just not move on from this player and just have it be personal. It's just, it's comical at this point. It's just like, how can you tell people that tell Elliot Freeman and all these by hockey insiders that, oh yeah, like, we really like the player and he's not available after seeing what he's done the last couple of seasons. Like, what are your eyes looking at exactly, is my big question. I mean, it's obviously something really different than the entire fan base.

A lot of the Penguins media, a lot of the analytics people around the league are looking at. So I would just love to know on that. But, you know, going back to the Kappenden thing as well, sorry for jumping around a lot here, people. But it sounded like Elliot also said that some teams wanted to do this trade on draft day because they think that maybe moving a first-round pick then was much more better than now. Some other teams apparently balked at Kyle Dubus' asking price was a first-round pick and a prospect. But, you know, Jim Rutherford swooped right in and said, hey, you know, I'll take him because I like this player a lot. I think this package is good enough to get this kind of player.

And Kyle Dubis took it because that's exactly what he was looking for and then a whole bunch more in this trade. But, you know, I'll just, I'll say it again. I just, I think Jim Rutherford overpaid for him. There was really no reason to trade that top 15. pick for Casperi Capitan. You could have just gone out there and just get an upgrade for your defense. You could have actually gone out there and get a bona fide top six forward for that 15th overall pick plus Philip Hollander. Cassberry Capitan was just, it just was not it. And I'll still question that asset management until the day I die. I just really, really don't understand why he had to do

that. I think that's all I have for this segment. We're going to get into more of Jim Rutherford's comments to Pierre L. Ronan Scott Burton's side on the athletics and HL podcast in the next segment. but first, now is a good time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving autopart customers online for 20 years. You go to rockado.com to shop for auto and body parts of hundreds of manufacturers. The catalog is unique and remarkably easy to navigate. We can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brands. Specifications and prices you prefer.

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It was interesting to hear those comments to Jim Rutherford today. One of my buddies texted me was basically just like, you know, what did Rutherford say? And I'm like, well,

you're not really going to like it. And, you know, kind of put him in a bad mood, especially when I told him what he said. So Pierre LeBron, of course, asked his usual question. He's asked him this before, you know, are there going to be any of Guinea-Malkan trade rumors?

You know, with a core player and the annoying thing about it was that Jim Rutherford really didn't shut it down all the way and it's just like Jim what are you trying to prove here you know he had he also brought up the stupid thing you know Wayne Gretzky was traded he was traded once in his career and it's just like that was so long ago in such a different era in such a different time that those kind of trades just don't work now the league was just so different back then very very rarely when you trade a star player it will work out for the team that traded that star player you know you know when you trade that sort of player, that just means you don't have him anymore. And chances are your return

for him is going to be pretty dog shit. So, you know, just shut down these rumors. We all know you're not going to trade Chris LaTang. We all know you're not going to trade Evgeny. Speaking of Chris LaTang, I have no idea why he was in the top 10 on TSN NHL's trade list today from Frank Cerevelli. That was just absolutely ridiculous. I could not believe that. I was just stunned that Frank actually put him on there. There's just, there's no way he's going to get traded. I would be absolutely stunned if he was. I would eat a lot of crow if he was. You know what?

It would be a total Jim Rutherford thing to do to trade freaking Chris Lattang over someone such as Jack Frickin Johnson. But in any case, you know, back to Rutherford's comments. He basically was just like, you know, I'm not going to shop them, but, you know, I'll listen if someone calls. And it's like, I really don't think anyone's going to be asking you about Chris Lattang or of Gennie Malkin. And chances are, if they do, and they put together an offer, it's going to be a really, really

shitty offer where you could just hang up the phone and just never call them back. I mean, that's most likely what's going to happen. But, I mean, yeah, I'm getting walked in will finish his career here in Pittsburgh. We all know Cindy Crosby is not going where. Chris LaTang, I think it's likely he will finish his career here too. You just, you don't trade those kind of players. I don't care if they're getting into their 30s right now. I don't care if you've had two bad postseason in row. Just stop the nonsense. Just say, you know what? We're not trading them. Even if someone calls me, I'm not going to listen. You don't have to be like, well, you know, Wayne Gretzky was traded. And then, you know, he had the comment about basically

potentially players, you know, not caring if they've won two or three Stanley Cups. I can actually play that clip for you guys right here from Jim Bertha. This was just the tease on Twitter that I got from the Athletic when they put it out. So here's a part of what Jim Rutherford said about, you know, the Cups and everything with Crosby and Malkin and Latang. You know, watching Washington when they, when they were getting eliminated, to me, there were a lot of similarities. They didn't have the same juice. They didn't have the same. They didn't have the same drive as when they were winning when they were losing that series and it it reminded me of

our team it looked the same and you know you wonder like like guys and this is not the same for all our guys because sid he's going to he's going to drive and give it all he's got right through to you know win as many cups as he can but you wonder about guys like like you win two three cups and you have a great legacy already and you know do you you still want to win again but do you have that same drive as when you were trying to win the first one and the second one and the third one and uh you know i sit there and wonder sometime and with that being said we have a lot of guys that are are still really good players and and are capable of doing it but but it's hard to maintain it i mean you can go through every sport

every great athlete and look at how many times they've won championships. It's hard to win. It's hard to win one. It's hard to win multiple. But you start getting up in that area of trying to win your fourth or fifth cup. It makes you wonder. It's just like, Jim, shut the hell up. I don't know what he was trying to accomplish with that statement.

You know, sometimes, you know, you don't have that same drive. I mean, he's basically just taking an indirect shot at someone potentially, such as they get any Malkin or Chris Latang and it's just like you really don't want to go at these core players we all know how much they care they've done so much for this franchise along with Sidney Crosby the three of the best players to ever play for this franchise and all their jerseys will be in the rafters of PPJ Paints Arena

after they all retire they will all be in the Hall of Fame after they retire and it's just like Jim there's just no reason to say that just stop talking that's just not something that you say you know when you're talking about potential like trade rumors with like a core player like I said. Penglin's Trade a Core player, you know, you're just going to send this franchise back to the void. You know, it'll be, this franchise, it's going to go dark soon.

We all know that it's coming, but, you know, you'll just accelerate it to the void if you do this now. There's just no reason to do it. Stop talking about it. Stop trying to say things like, oh, yeah, well, you know, if someone calls, you know, I'll listen to offers or, you know, maybe their drive to win isn't the same after three Stanley Cups. It's just like there's no need for those indirect shots right there. Or just close the door on it. We all know you're not going to do it.

Just stop. But he also has had some other interesting stuff on that podcast to say about the goaltending situation. Apparently, they already have trade offers for one of their goaltenders. Hint, hint, it's most likely Matt Murray. He's not going to trade Tristan Jarrett people. He's the younger option. He played better than Matt Murray for a lot of this season.

Matt's older. He has arbitration rates. He's a restricted free agent. He's going to want a lot more money. They're going to trade him. But he did say, like I said, he has a couple trade offers for one of the goal But they're not up to his liking just yet. So he's not going to pull the trigger on it until he gets an offer that he really,

really likes. And, you know, I think it's, I would speculate on what their return could be for someone like Matt Murray. But it's just, it's foolish to, I think, because the goalie market is just so weird. You know, you can have a team give up a first round pick plus a roster play and a prospect for a goalie, or you can have a team give up, like, a mid-round pick plus like a bottom six forward or whatever, or like a bottom prospect or something for a goalie. It's just how much does the team value the goaltender?

That's what it comes down to. Teams are just very, very different when it comes to goaltending. I mean, you have a team like the Panthers. They went out and signed Sergey Babrovsky to a eight-year deal worth over $10 million per. And then you have teams such as Arizona who signed Darcy Kemper. He's making like not even $5 million per season. He also could be on the trading block. So, you know, it's just a lot of teams just look at it differently.

A, a lot of teams do a 1A, 1B. I could definitely see a team that wants to do a 1A, 1B taking on someone like Matt I'm not really sure he's geared to start like maybe 55 to 60 games for another team. Just because, you know, his injury history, his inconsistency in the early parts of the season, and no, he can turn it on in the playoffs. He was mostly, I think, fine in the series against Montreal. He was not nearly one of the biggest reasons why they lost. I'll continue to die on that hill.

But yeah, you know, the goalie market is going to be very, very fascinating this off scene to see, you know, what pieces teams give up to get a goaltender in a trade, or if teams just want to be like, you know what, I don't want to get. give up pieces in a trade. I'm just going to go sign someone, you know, such as Robin Lennner or Corey Crawford or maybe Henrik Longquist if he gets bought out in New York and just, you know, so much more. So that's who you basically had to say about that. They also talked about the Casperi Capinen deal. This one, this was a little frustrating too. I was texting my buddy what Jim Rutherford said. And one of the quotes from Jim was that, you know, when I want someone, I'm going to go get him.

And it's just like, you know, so you're going to pay that price, which was a bit of an overpayment just because you want to go get your guy. I mean, okay, Jim, you know, you could have gotten a much better player for that price and include more in that package for a better player, but you do you, man. And I love his comment, you know, I've known him my whole life, you know, because his dad played under me. And it's just like, okay, like, I guess whatever. And, you know, my buddy actually, this was the last text he sent me, you know, Jim's commitment to special feelings is greater than his commitment to winning a cup. And honestly, I don't think true words have been spoken than that. he's just he's letting his personal feelings for some players just dictate how he's going to go about his offseys, you know, such as Jack Johnson.

He thinks it's personal that people don't like him and that people always go out of their way to shit on him. And then, you know, just because he knows Kisbury Kaepernan so well in this whole family, he's just going to go out and get him over better players who I'm sure are going to be available on the trade market. So yeah, Jim Rutherford, man, just sometimes it's better to just shut up, close your mouth and just not be as candid as you normally can be. because I think a lot of people in this fan base right now are pretty, pretty scared of what's to come. Maybe if you can get a good return from Matt Murray, it'll calm people down a bit.

But yeah, after some of these comments today, it's just not looking pretty because I'm sure some people are getting a little nervous that a core player could potentially be moved even though I really don't think there's any chance that's just going to happen. I mean, he talked about it at his end-of-season press conference. You know, I want to move forward with the core.

I want to keep contending with them. So if he's saying that, then they're most likely all going to stay. but that's not to mean that they won't have other changes because they absolutely will. They're going to have a lot more changes coming this offseason, but I just wanted to share my sentiment on that. But that's basically it for all of Jim Rutherford's comments on the podcast with Pierre LeBron and Scott Burnside. Oh, no, no, no, there was one thing. They did ask about the assistant coaches and, you know, where they're going to go with that.

He says, you know, there could be an announcement coming in the next couple weeks of who they're going to hire. They basically just, they met as a hockey operations group basically with Jim was saying and they just thought they needed fresh new voices in the room and there's nothing wrong with that there really is nothing wrong with that i get firing mark reckey he was terrible with a power play you got to bring someone in that's better with the powerplay hint hint todd reardon like i said i keep saying i would be surprised if he's not brought in as an assistant um they want someone to work with the defense and the penalty killing but the big thing was you know they just wanted fresh new voices in the room fresh new ideas and that's never a bad thing especially as the core is getting

a bit older. Sometimes hearing the same message just gets stale. So, you know, like I said, I have no problem with that. But if something doesn't change next season with, you know, the system and the philosophy, I think Mike Sullivan could also be on his way out during the midseason. But that's also if the team is struggling. All right. So we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Just for this little time, we're just going to go around and lead talk about the playoffs some more. It's good to see Tampa Bay finally get back to the Eastern Conference final last night. Well, finally. I mean, it's the second time in three seasons. But still, you know, they absolutely crushed Boston in that series.

You know, you hate to see Boston fans mad. You just hate to see a team in Boston struggling after all the championships they've won. You know, that they can't win a championship ever, you know, as some Boston sports fans like to say, is they, you know, they just keep struggling as if, you know, they don't have six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and the Boston. Red Sox have won a bunch of World Series in the Boston Celtics with the NBA championships and the Boston Bruins with going to the Stanley Cup final. But, you know, like I said, hate to see the Bruins going home.

Tampa deserves it. And I'm going to keep saying it. This is Tampa's year to get to the final. There's no excuses for them. I think they're the favorites right now. Though I do think Vegas can beat them. I think they're the only team alive remaining that can beat Tampa in a seven-game series. Vegas can go blow-to-blow with Tampa.

Their depth is virtually almost the same. I think Tampa's defense is a bit better than Vegas is. But, you know, Vegas has the equalizer. And that with Robin Lanner, if they start him for the seven-game series, I think they would. Mark Andre Fleury. It was funny to see all the Flurry stands coming right back out after he had that win in game forward, even though I think his Sabresendage was barely above 900.

You know, you had to have the hockey media bending over to defend him like it's nothing. It just, it absolutely blows my mind how much special treatment Mark Andre Fleury gets. And not just from the media, but from the Penguins fan base. And look, you know, I love Mark Andre Fleury. He's the greatest goaltender in Penguin's history. He did a lot for this franchise. He was very, very good for a lot of years. but you know he was also very very bad for years and it's just you know i've never seen people move

the goalposts for a player more than mark andre flurry it just it baffles my mind there's just tweets on twitter all the time about mark andrew flurry and now people just keep moving the goalpost for him and it's just like you don't do the same for any other players so just stop like you guys got to stop like defending flurry with the homerism and everything like that but okay that's just my rant for the day. I had to get that out there because I had noticed that a lot from the last couple of days. It was just absolutely hysterical. But yeah, tonight we also have the Islanders series. The Islanders are going to be looking to wrap that up against the Flyers. I think they will. Varlamov is going tonight against Carter Hart. Last night, we also had the Colorado Avlinch.

They stayed off, they staved off elimination against the Dallas Stars, and they kicked the Star's ass in that game. I think they had four goals in non-even four minutes. There was a stat last night. I'm actually looking to find it right now. now, and I think it was from Dan Rosen on Twitter. Let me find this real quick. Man, I didn't realize how much Dan Rosen tweets. I think it was from a quote tweet. So Kenny Albert put out this stat here.

They scored four goals in two minutes and 36 seconds, one second shy of the NHL playoff record. And Dan Rosen said that was the fastest four goals in a playoff game since 1944. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. It is very, very hard to score four goals in not even three minutes. The avalanche just took it to Dallas last night. just look very disinterested, I think, for a lot of that game. Poor Ben Bishop, too.

He came back for his first game since he was not able to play, and he just gets lit up like a Christmas tree, but also the Dallas, their defense was just absolutely putrid in front of him. Game six of that series will be, I believe, Wednesday night. And then tonight as well, we have the Vegas, Vancouver Game 5, as Vegas is looking to go to the Western Conference final for the second time in three years. I think Vegas will get it done tonight. I think they're going to win it in five.

I know I picked Vancouver in six, but just seeing how Vancouver is just, their top players aren't getting it done against Vegas. I just don't think they haven't in them to force game six against the Canucks. I just, I don't really see it. So I think that will do it for this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode. Hope you guys enjoyed with this one. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins, and I will talk to you all then.