Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Talking some lineup changes with Chad!

Episode Date: August 7, 2020

Hunter is back with another episode of Locked On Penguins and he starts off the show by recapping the embarrassing Game 3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens and offering his thoughts on Jack Johnson, Justin Schultz, and why there need to be a lot of lineup changes coming. He also talks about they hypocrisy of Mike Sullivan as he took out Jared McCann from the lineup for performance reasons but didn't do the same for Johnson and Schultz. Hunter then welcomes back Chad (Madchad412) from Penguins twitter and they discuss more lineup changes that are needed for Game 4, plus would starting Tristan Jarry really make a difference? All that and more, on 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 this Thursday, late afternoon, early 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 underscore Penguins. Later on in this episode, we will be having Chad from Penguins Twitter on. He's probably going to bring the heat after what happened last night. I'm probably going to bring it first. We all know what happened last night.

The Penguins very embarrassing 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens to go down two games to one in the series, and they will face elimination tomorrow afternoon on Sydney Crosby's birthday. That will be a 4 p.m. game. So let's just get right on into it. So Penguins, you know, they struggled out of the gate yesterday. They give up the opening goal because, you know, Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz love to be out of position. Matt Murray had no chance. But after that, the team actually looked really, really good.

They get the tying goal on the power play. Then they get another power play. They score again. And it's like, wow, the power play has woken up. They played well at even strength. Just continue to do this. and you'll win this game and you'll win this series. They get another goal later on in the period

to make it 3 to 1 in the second period, of course. Teddy Bluger gets his first ever playoff play off of a wonderful play from Brandon Tanev. I could not, but he just blew past Victor Mette like it was nothing. I will always continue to E. Crow on Brandon Tanef. He has been absolutely sensational for this team. Zach Ashton

Reese, I think had the follow-up, and I was about ready to scream because Kerry Price made a hell of a save, but then Blueger way after that crashed and that went in. So, basically, so it's 3-1, halfway through the second period. It's like, Okay, you know, teams playing well. They're playing mostly good defensively. The top four is looking good.

The forwards are playing good at even strength. I know the third line of struggling. It's like, okay, this is a Montreal team that doesn't know how to score. This should be, you just put them away, right? Well, not so fast. You know, the third pairing of Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz decided to vomit on themselves. Time after time, after time last night. And I guess I'm just going to start there for this first segment.

It's time for Jack Johnson to go. It's time for him to not play again in this series. it's time for him to never play again in a penguin uniform. That should be the last game he ever plays as a Pittsburgh penguin. I know I tweeted last night, he needs just to be sent to the trench. You know, it's just basically like a Titanic hitting the iceberg head on instead of trying to go around it. He just, he doesn't fit. He's been bad for a long time, and this is just not working out.

You know, for so long, we've all been hearing, oh, my God, let Jack Johnson play in the system. He doesn't know it yet. Oh, my God, Jack Johnson plays on his offside. Oh my God, Jack Johnson's playing too many minutes. Yeah, Jack Johnson will be just fine in a sheltered role. And it's these people that just carry the water for the team, the people that don't look at the numbers, or the people that just have a very bad eye test for what they're watching.

And you know what? This guy flat out stinks. And do you think we like harping on this guy for everything that he's been through with his life, with his bankruptcy, you know, his family just being idiots and so much more that it looks like has gone on with his life? I mean, no. I mean, of course not. You know, I've always wanted to eat crow with this signing, but as soon as it happened, people said, you know, including myself, this is not going to go the way you think it is.

You know, Jim Rutherford said, oh, yeah, I know the real reason why Jack Johnson was scratched. Obviously, you really didn't because he's been this bad. John Torrevella was scratching him for the right reasons because, oh, yeah, he's pretty, pretty crap. And this was evidenced so many times yesterday, you know you, the Penguins are up 3-1, Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz for some reason decides to switch places. and Justin Schultz, I mean, we're going to get to him too, but for God's sake, can't even lift Jonathan Joanne's steak, and Ju-N is allowed an easy goal to make it three to two. It's like Justin Schultz, you literally have one job there in that situation, and you can't even do it. And then the tying goal, so we're just going to continue to harp on Jack Johnson.

I know John Marino had the turnover, that can't happen. I mean, that's probably John Marino's first mistake in his life that he's ever made. But when Matt Murray is going from coast to coast, Jack Johnson's just sitting there, not even doing anything, just literally, sitting there. And then Paul Byron's allowed to wrap it around. And then afterwards he gives them a nice cross check. It's like, yeah, Jack Johnson, where's the cross check when he's actually trying to do that? Not after when he's, you know, scored the tying goal. It's just a comedy of errors when he's out there with Justin Schultz. That pairing is just so, so bad. And, you know, I love Mike Sullivan as much as anyone. He's a top five coach in this franchise's history. He's a top two coach in this franchise's history. I think if he wins

another cup for this organization, if he gets a chance to do so, he would be considered the best coach in Penguin's history. I absolutely love him. He is a brilliant tactician, but you know what? These are the kind of moves that get you fired, especially after you're getting swept by the Islanders last season when you continue to play Johnson. And now here, when you're about to potentially lose to the 24th ranked team in the Stanley Cup playoffs, this is the kind of stuff that gets you fired. It's stubbornness, it's incompetence, it's ignorance, it's whatever bad word you want to use. That is what he's doing. It just does not make any sense. The worst part about it is five minutes are left in the game. This was after Jeff Petrie had that ridiculous shot that goes in off Matt Murray. We'll get to

Matt Murray a little bit later. But, I mean, you have five minutes left in the third period. You're down a goal. You're really icing Jack Johnson and Justin Joltz out there with the third line. It's like, are you kidding me? This is not the time in place to be running four lines. I mean, you have to load up on your top line, put Cindy Crosby and Epiggeny Malkin on your top line, put Jason Zucker and Brian Russ out there. And then for the six on four, which they did, and then the six on five, they put Justin Schultz out there instead of Brian Russ or freaking Jason Zucker, who have scored in this series. And it's like, Mike Sullivan, like this isn't 2017 anymore. Justin Schultz was perfect in his first couple years here. He was awesome in 2016-17.

But you know what? The honeymoon phase has been over for a long time. Putting Justin Schultz out there in that situation is just, it's just comedy. It's a stuptu. decision. It's not a decision that you should be making. And it was just so awful to see Jack Johnson who's fumbling the puck late in regulation. Same with Justin Schultz. I think Crosby had like a beautiful pass to Schultz and Schultz basically falls down without anyone near him. And it's like, why is he on the ice in these situations? It just does not make any sense. But going back to Jack Johnson, you have to sit him and Justin Schultz next game, especially Jack Johnson. He cannot play another game in this series. He cannot play another game for this organization. I don't care what anyone's

says it's just it's absolutely ludicrous that he plays another game for this team and going back to justin shultz you know it's the same thing man it's it's going to be really good to see just jostin shultz away from this team next season has not been the same since 2017 he's just he's gone off the rails i'm going to feel really really bad for whatever team signs him i'm hoping that he could work out for another team but you know he makes too much money to be this bad and he's just been a tire fire defensively this series as well so what does it hurt to ice usa rickla and chad rouletal for tomorrow's game. It literally would not hurt. You're being, you're desperate, you're up against the wall, you're facing elimination, put those two players on the ice. I'm sure they could do a better

job than Jack Johnson and Justin Jules. Jack Johnson has been on ice for five of the eight Canadians' goals this series. That is absolutely utterly terrible. And you know what? Sean Gentile wrote a great tweet last day. He goes, guys, it's not that he's just on the ice for these goals. He is actively causing them. Jesse Marshall, who's been on this podcast, I had a really great tweet last night as well, basically saying, you know, you cannot put him on the ice anymore. You know, you're just, you're sinking your own ship if you continue to do this. So, you know, I'm hoping that they get to do that. Before we get to our commercial break, and we bring a chat on, I am going to talk about the goaltending situation.

Sean Dintilly of the Athletic, who, of course, I just mentioned, he also read a really good article saying, you know, he thinks that the penguins should bench Matt Murray. And I can kind of see where he's going for a minute because if the penguins aren't going to make an obvious decision and bench Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz, then just take Murray out of the lineup because he really doesn't deserve this. I mean, it would be really unfortunate if that's how his Penguin tenure ended with all the good that he's done. I thought he was really good in game too. I'm not going to blame him for last night's game.

I know that fourth goal, a little bit of a softie, but also when I went back and watched the replay, that was also a perfectly placed shot. But still, you know, you can't always rely on Matt Murray to always bail out your third defensive pair in your third line, and just always bailing you out in general as he basically was trying to do last night. But, I mean, you know what the hell? If they go to Tristan Jari, they go to Tristan Jari, you're throwing everything against the wall here. I'd also take out Sam Lafferty, put Evan Rodriguez in.

I think that's an obvious decision. I don't know why they decided to put Sam Lafferty in. For Jared McCann, they should have just went out and put Rodriguez in for Jared McCann. And, you know, the thing is, Mike Sullivan explained after the game, oh, yeah, Jared McCann thing. Like, that was a performance-based, healthy scratch. So it's like, okay, so you're going to scratch Jared McCann for performance-based reasons, because he's been dog shit for two games,

but you're not going to do the same thing for Jack Johnson, Justin Schultz, who have been on the ice for almost every single Montreal Canadiens goal of this series. Explain that to me like I'm five. That just does not make any sense at all. And to wrap this segment up, I will say, those last 30 minutes of hockey after the Penguins end up 3 to 1, that was some of the worst Penguins hockey I think I've ever watched as long as I've just been watching this team.

That was just absolutely awful. There was no energy, no loyalty, no spirit, it just an absolutely embarrassing last 30 minutes of hockey for this team. There is no excuse with how loaded this team is to put in a performance for those last 30 minutes like the way they did last night. That was absolutely disgusting to watch. And, you know, they play like that on Cindy Crosby's birthday. They will be out in a hurry. And with that, it is now time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving auto-part customers online for 20 years. Go to rockado.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers. The catalog is unique and remarkably easy to

navigate, you can quickly see all the parts of billable for your vehicle and choose the brand and specifications and prices you prefer. If you go to rockado.com right now and see all the parts available for your car or truck. You can write Locked On in there, How Did You Hear from Us Box? They know we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. That's rock auto.com. All right, so we're back here on this episode of Lockdown, Penguins podcast, and we do have

Chad from Penguins Twitter. He's been on here with Josh Shioa a couple times. He's also been on here a couple times by himself. It's always really great to have his. and come back on the podcast. Chad, how you doing, man? Especially after last night. Yeah, man.

I mean, I'm doing good in general. I was counting on the penguins to give me some touch-needed serotonin, give me some joy and happiness to distract me from some of the stuff that's been going in the world. And I'm glad hockey's back. I'm not going to lie, I miss watching hockey. But that game last night was an absolute dumpster fire. Yeah, it was really bad on all accounts.

So, I mean, I'm just going to give the floor to you, man. I gave my thoughts on in the first segment just, you know, Jack Johnson, Justin Schultz, Matt Murray, you know, the floor is yours. I appreciate that. I mean, the thing about, like, Johnson, Schultz, I mean, obviously, you know, for those of you, I'm sure most people that are listening to the distra on Twitter and follow you or follow me or the same people, I mean, they talk about like beating a dead horse. and I get it like it's it you know the the real life you know what that would be like talking about COVID all the time right like non-sports like oh tired talking about masks tired talking about Jack Johnson tired of talking about Jack Johnson it's not the only guy on the team this you know how to stop to get people to stop talking about a dead horse you stop trotting the dead horse out there you know I'm tired of watching Jack Johnson playing just as much of your speed to be you're tired to hear him

me talk about being tired of watching Jack Johnson play. There's a simple resolution there, and that's to stop playing an objectively bad player. And that's the thing that I don't get. I mean, there are players that we can go back and play with when Dominic's a Mell is a good word. We're like, there are people even in the Alex crowd that will say, yeah, he still doesn't give you the value needed, but we can also look at, you know, some numbers and some a show that he has Jack Johnson.

It doesn't matter if you have someone that's using video to analyze his game. It doesn't matter if you're looking at one of the analytics guy, and it's just numbers. He's bad. No matter how you do him, he's bad. I mean, he can't even do the regular normal things. Just, you know, in positions where, you know, okay, okay, you know, that happens to everybody. I'm talking about the half boards, winning a puck battle, passing the puck back to the point to Jack Johnson.

Okay, right there's possession, where all Jack Johnson has to do it be qualified to park to pass it. Or if he doesn't feel confident in doing that, it's not in everybody's greenhouse, that's fine. Then you just simply swipe the puck back down the boards to maintain the position. What comes to him? What happens? He panics because he knows that he doesn't have a skill to any of those things. mentioned. And guess what? A breakout happens to go to the moment and Montreal scores

gold. It's all series. It's happened during his entire Penguins tenure. He was a limit from the beginning. We told everybody that didn't have Penguins, you know, extra vision on for the tunnel vision with the Penguins. We all said, hey,

this is not a good signing. Then some of us said, okay, we'll give it a year. We'll make Sergei Gonswar. We'll do some of his work, some of his magic on it. But in reality, he was always 11. It's like if you went out and bought a used car, all your friends said,

hey, yo, don't buy that car, man, you're going to throw your money away. $4,000. $4,000 you're going to throw away because you're going to put twice as much that into the maintenance. It's going to need a new motor. It's going to need new brakes and rotors and all the stuff.

And you were like, no, man, I know what I'm doing. I know a lot about cars. I can fix it. I can make it better. Trust me, the other car owners, they didn't know what they had in your car. I mean, that is literally what we have

on the Columbus benched him. The pain ones. Be Columbus. They benched him. They knew that he was bad. He was a minus four in a playoffs series. Now he's a minus seven. In six playoffs, the thing was a seven.

I mean, he is bad. He brings no value to this team. And now they have a chance to lose to a completely inferior team in the first round, embarrassing fashion. And the reason is they continue to do the same thing over and over again. It's embarrassing. And absolutely, they should. about putting some people on the hot seat?

Yeah. You hit the nail on the head, basically, with all that. It is absolutely infuriating that Mike Sullivan, for whatever reason, you know, he's choosing to live on this hill, die on this hill, and just continues to try to them out there, especially in a bunch of circumstances, you know, last night, Jack, five minutes remaining in the game, you're down four three. Oh, yeah, let's put Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz on the ice with the third line. It's like, no, what, you have to shorten the bench.

the top four had been playing really, really good. They almost have to go la Nashville when they had their insane top four, but they're really bad bottom pairing and basically say, you know what, play them eight minutes a night, because that's exactly what Nashville did for a lot of their 2017 run to the cup final. They just rode their top four, and then they just played that bottom pairing, very limited minutes. But no, Mike Sullivan just wants to play them 15, 16 minutes a night.

And it's like, that's just not going to work. and Jack Johnson is just, it's crazy to me how the goalposts have always moved with this player. Oh, no, like you said. Oh, no, it's his first season. Oh, no, he's on his offside. Oh, he's been through a lot in life. Oh, this. Oh, that.

And it's just like, you know, we knew this was going to happen. And it's just, it boggles my mind that he just continues to get playing time. I saw Jesse Marshall's tweet last night. This should be the final shift that he takes in this series, but also, in the series, but also tonight. But I honestly, that should be the final shift that he takes as a member of this organization. He should not come back next season.

Yeah, and what it is is, you know, even further on that, and I think you and I talked about this before where I think, I mean, at this point, you know, people say, oh, it's not Jack Chousin's fault. That's fine. That's a strawman argument

because no one ever said that it's once. I will never blame a single player for a team losing the date, but is the biggest reason why they are down. We're putting everybody, giving everybody a piece of cake as far as, you know, whose fault, you know, we're distributing it as far as whose fault it is on the pie chart, on the cake chart, whatever we call it. You know, Jack Johnson gets the biggest piece.

He is the biggest reason why they're down. So then you have to say, okay, why is he still playing? Why is he still playing as much? Why is he still playing with five minutes down when it's a close game in a playoff game? It's arrogance. That's, there's no other reason, right? I mean, other than the penguins are literally paying someone $3.25 billion to just fool all their fans.

That's the only other conspiracy theory I can come up with is it's just stubbornness and arrogance by Rutherford and Sullivan, who, yes, they won two cups and they deserve a lot of, you know, you get a lot of, a lot of, you get a really long leash in this town. If you win eight years, you win two championships back to back, I mean, for, for, and look, We are. I mean, they lost in Washington, you know, the year after they won back to back Cubs, none of us rational fans, honestly, I was mentally exhausted from playing. They were gas.

Yeah, I was like, yeah, well, that's no big deal. Washington, you know, you knew their time was coming. Okay. Okay. Now you lose an embarrassing fashion to the islanders. And everybody kind of still was like, okay, you know, they're getting slower, crawling out of your time, you're getting older. but you look at this roster on paper and you go

this is still probably a top 12 team in the league top 10 maybe top 5 roster-wise yeah and now they're going to lose to Montreal who if we didn't have a pandemic and weren't living in a bubble they wouldn't even be in the playoff they're not even a playoff team you're losing to a bad team that was really hoping

they didn't even want to be in a playoffs they want to get I don't know what to dream. They're not a cuffing dinner. If you lose to them, I mean, at that point, you've got to start looking in the mirror and saying, hey, we're going backwards. We're regressing. We're not progressing. We're regressing.

And Mike Sullivan has to be great coach. He has not gotten better. All of playing his favorites, look, it works. And he pressed all the right buttons. But you're not going to press all the right buttons every single time you have to adjust. Maybe. Just maybe I might have chosen the wrong thing. Listen, I'm not expecting.

You know, not expecting a cutback with your height. I'm realistic. You have no problem with you're wrong. What I have a problem with is being wrong over and over and over again and then telling everyone else that you're not wrong. That I will not stand for. That, to me, is Mike Sullivan's biggest flaw as a coach. Yeah.

And I'm glad you did bring that up. I mean, it's no secret. I think everyone knows I love Mike Sullivan. I think he's a top five coach in this league. I think he's a top two coaching this franchise's history. But, you know, his stubbornness, whatever incompetence, ignorance to just let this problem go on, it's just, like I said earlier, you know,

it's the hill that he's chosen to die on. And he's regressed in that regard. You know, he pushed all the right buttons, as you said, with the Matt Murray, Mark Andre Fleur thing, you know, when Mark Andre Fleury had a bad 13 minutes in 2017, team, oh, he took him out for Matt Murray. So, also when Jared McCann has a bad couple of games, oh, he takes him out for Sam Lafferty, who then really didn't play well.

But when Jack Johnson has two really bad games in a row and has been on the ice for five of the eight Canadians' goals and is basically directly causing them and you're still not going to scratch him potentially for tomorrow, I mean, that's just, to me that speaks volumes. When he scratches Jared McCann, who's 24 years old and, yes, I've been on, you know, I've talked, I've called out Jared McCann. He has not, you know, he's so, I mean, he's talked about streaky. I mean, this guy

hasn't scored a goal. The last time he scored a goal, we were not even dealing with COVID. That's how long this dude has not scored a goal. Like, he has not scored a goal forever. But guess what? He's a 24-year-old player who has proven to be a definitely more valuable player than Jack Johnson ever will dream of being. And okay,

okay, I have no problem. You scratch him. You know, you don't like the way he's playing. but again, if you preach to me, and I've heard, like some of them talk about player accountability. Okay, if you're going to use the word accountability, then it has to be, everyone has to be held accountable. Don't bench the goalie or Jared McCann, but then continue to try out. Justin Schultz and Jack Johnson, who know other two players who have played worse in those two guys. Objectively, if you think otherwise, I'm sorry, you're wrong. Nothing can say, well back that up.

I don't think they could catch more than it. He's like 70 years old. I mean, you know, so you're preaching about player accountability, but McCann gets benched with Justin Schultz. Probably does he not get missed? He did in game two. He was out to the last minute. Yeah.

But he was the extra skater. Yeah. So if you're telling him, you're saying, oh, player accountability, if you don't play, you know, if you, you, you know, I'm going, well, what the hell is there some shoots on the ice? Yeah. It's, that, that was honestly the most maddening things to watch last night. It was just honestly comical.

I was just laughing at my TV. But the extra attacker comes, that they get the power play as well. You're putting Schultz on the ice over someone such as Brian Russ, who is the team's leading goal score, and someone such as Jason Zucker, who they just acquired,

and, oh, has goals in back-to-back playoff games, and you're telling me you're going to trust Justin Schultz out there, who was handling the puck like a grenade all night. That was a... I think I'm pretty sure that he got the puck and instantly fell down and turned it over. Yes, he did.

I think that was... was a play when Cindy Crosby tried to feed a pass to him for almost a one-timer, and Schultz just basically fell down. It was just unbelievable. But, I mean, Chad, there's no way Yuselika and Chauroedo could be worse, right? There's just no way. I've seen people ask that question. Here's the thing.

They would be better. They would be better. They can handle the puck. They can escape. I mean, listen, they're not going to go out there and be all far guys. They're not. They're fringe NHL players. But here's the thing.

Fringe, being a fringe NHL player, meaning that some nights you might play, some nights you might go out in the HL, you know, you're there if you need to. That status is still better than whatever the hell Justin Schultz and Schultz and Jack Johnson. Right now, they are netting negative results all game, every game.

So even if Jack, or Chad Rueel and Husserickler went out there and they just did nothing. They just, they didn't, they weren't on the ice for a goal, but they weren't on the ice for a goal four and they just like trotted around just completely average that would still be an improvement over whatever the hell these two guys do yeah that and that's the funny thing about it that's i just can't believe we're having that conversation about those two players because they honestly should have been in the lineup by now but for every reason excuse me mike solvin just you know does not want to do it um chat i also wanted you know there's i saw the article

from sean gentilly about um the matt murray situation you I loved how he basically wrote, you know, if you're not going to bench the two obvious players that they need to be bench, you know what, just pool Matt Murray because he doesn't really deserve this anyway. And I know it would be a pretty sad way for his penguin's tenure to end, especially as game three was not really his fault. I mean, that Jeff Petrie goal, I've gone back and forth on it. I think he should have made the same, but also it was a nice shot.

But, I mean, what are your thoughts on that? You know, I mean, starting Tristan Jari. I mean, why the hell not, I guess? Yeah, I mean, anytime you're, you know, So you've gone out there and you're losing to interfere your team. I mean, Tristan Jari had a great year. He made the All-Star team. He was an All-Star goalie.

He had great stats. Although, if we all recall, like, since December, he and Murray were kind of netting similar results towards the end before they went on shutdown. I mean, yeah, why not? Again, it would bug me if I'm Matt Murray and I got benched because, honestly, I mean, he gave up four holes. but a same percentage for this series is decent. It's 914.

I mean, they want a Stanley Cup with a guy posting lower than that. So just imagine if you think that's bad, you know, what they had to overcome in previous years. He has league average numbers. So if you want to make Murray the scapego, which plenty of people obviously do, that's fine with me. I still, my question to everyone else would be

if Tristan Jari had started all these games, do you think they would be up two games in one? I would say no. No. But I would say, okay, if he said yes or no, that's fine. Let me ask you another question. We keep Murray in, but Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz are scratched for a reader and Recola. She thinks there are two games the one in the series.

Oh, man. I'm honestly tempted to lean, yes, because I don't think they would have been on the ice for five of the eight Canadians' goals, to be honest with you. So I'm honestly tempted to lean less in that yes in that work. guard, especially considering how Jack Johnson was basically being a pylon when Paul Byron was doing a wrap around on Matt Murray. And then Justin Schultz had one job on the goal before that and could even lift Jonathan Drewann's stick as he's literally right next to the net and just tipped it in. So I would imagine Chad Ruehdle and Yusovicla could have done a bit better than that so that the penguins could be up in this series, to be honest. But, I mean, I guess it's a mute point now.

They face elimination tomorrow in Cindy Crudley's birthday. Um, do you have any other lineup players that you would just change, I guess. I think one of the big one for me, I would take Evan, put everyone Riega's in, take Sam Alpherty out. I mean, not really sure what you do with Patrick Marlowe at this point. I mean, it was fun to acquire him. Yeah, honestly, it was fun to acquire him. You know what?

Kind of like the Matt Collins situation, you know, try to send him off with the Stanley Cup. He's never won one before. I know Matt Kohn had won one before. But, you know, you're just trying to get this guy a cup and then he can retire. but, you know, I thought he was bad in game one. I thought he was good in game two, and then just took a big step back yesterday. I mean, wouldn't surprise me, honestly,

if they went McCann, Rodriguez, Hornquist. What do you think? Yeah, I should absolutely do that. Moralo, it's a non-react. I'm a big Marlo. I actually, like, when I played all the NHO video games, which I can every year to be for him, like, one of the top wangers I'm trying to get

to play with Crosby and Malkin. If they would have got Patrick Marlow when he was 33 years old, I mean, this team would, common but he's 40 and the skates just aren't there man and the metrics were even worse like i was like i went right on natural and he had the worst metrics on a team as far as all the forwards go he just doesn't have there's no tank left in that gap there's no gas left in the tank yeah so yeah so what did you go get rodriguez for anyways the only reason why they even got more was because jake

denzil was not supposed to be available but then covid happened and they have there's no role for him. He's not a third-line player. That's not the role that he's supposed to go do. So you go get Rodriguez, he's a checking forward. You know, he has all those little things and all the, you know, the Blue Car fans like, should go to him in the line.

That's what you need. You need Klosby and Malcolm's line, to go out there and check and forecheck and back check and try to control the ice while the other, while your two top lines are resting. Yes, you have Rodriguez. Right away, those two guys in the

increase your team speed automatically. Brian Rust needs to be on the first time of play. He leads the team and goals. There is no reason why he shouldn't be on the top powerplay. Yeah. I do not understand why Brian Russ has not been on the power play at all. I mean, I know they like Patrick Hornquist Netford presence there. He does his job usually pretty well.

Hell, he scored last night. But I do think there needs to be room for Brian. You can still have Cornquist on you. You can still have Ronquist, Hornquist, Malcolm, Thornton, and Latang. Yeah. I think that's fine. You can move Jake Gensel to the second unit. Jake has been, I mean, Jake's looked rusty a bit this series,

but, I mean, that's to be expected. He was out for five freaking Munns with a really bad shoulder injury. So, I mean, you can move Jake Gensel to the second unit. I mean, they could also play with John Marino on the top power play unit. Chris LaTang has still looked good on the top unit, but for some reason when Chris LaTang is not on the ice after a big shift and they get a power play, they'll still put Justin Schultz out there for whatever reason to think that it's still 2017.

And even if you're not going to make those, even if Sullivan is not going to make those lineup changes, because I don't want to sit here and get all like, get my hopes of, oh, yeah, they're going to make, you to do all this and make all these adjustments. Because no and Sullivan still with the same damn lineup they went with the other night and maybe just put Jari in. So even if they do that or they just put McCam back in for Lafferty and they put Jari and that's the only change they make, you can still twinker with things during the game. One thing I would like to see is, okay, once we get to a certain point, we're going to shorten our bench. We're only going to play eight or nine forwards because honestly,

there's only eight or nine forwards actually contributing anything worth of them. One of those guys who I honestly was kind of skeptical of is Brandon Tanna. If he's probably the other people who are those forwards in the series, he, okay, once you shorten that bench, let him go out there and have a couple shifts with the big guys because, again, one thing we've noticed is the penguins aren't the fastest team anymore. That's how they won those cups. They just skated by everything. everybody. Well, everybody's caught up with them at this point, including Montreal. I don't know about you, but I don't look at this, watch these games and go, well, if they're not going to keep

penguins, sometimes it looks like the penguins can't keep up with Montreal. So Brandon Tenev is fast. He's good at going to get pucks. He can create chances. I would love to see him just get even a few shifts with Malcolm or Crosby. Yeah, that would be honestly really, really good. I know some, I know I would hate to break up the Aston Rie's Blueger-Tanav line because it has been really, really good. And Teddy Blueger finally had his first out playoff goal yesterday, but I mean, Brandon Tannab, a lot of people dumped on that contract, myself included, I'm still eating crow to this day, but

he has been absolutely outstanding for the Penguins in this series in all season. He's probably one of the fastest players on the team. I mean, you could put Gensler with Crosby and Tanev, move Sherry down to the third line. I don't really think people would really mind with that and then keep the Zucker, Malk,

and Rust line going. I think that would be totally fine, but Chad, I think that might do it unless you have anything else to add for going into tomorrow. I know Cindy Crosby is going to be very superstitious for the game tomorrow since it's his birthday. But, I mean, I have a good feeling if they make the right lineup changes that they're going to force a game five. I'm just curious to see if they actually have the balls to do it.

Yeah, me too. I mean, I think this is a defining moment. Not a defining moment, but I think this is a big, like, if they lose a series, I mean, like I said, you're talking about losing New Islanders, not to back gears, and zero, and losing, what, eight of your last nine playoff games, even if they're going to

five, nine of their last 11 playoff games. At that point, I think, no, you don't fire people after just two, too, too bad playoffs in a row, but then you've entered that next point, well, okay, at that point next season, if things don't get

better, we need to start re-evaluating, because we don't want to waste the last few years. of Crosky and Malcolm's career. Yeah, I 100% agree with that. I don't think Mike Sullivan and Jim Rutherford would be fired after this. You know, I think Mario would keep in the wrong way to keep them around. But, you know, if they start to struggle next season, they don't make the moves needed to in the offseason,

like getting a brand new third pairing that's really cheap, remaking the third line. And if they go out to a slow star, I think you could see some really major, major big changes happening during the next season. But, Chad, thank you so much for coming on this episode of Lockdown Penguins. was a ton of fun to do. Sure, you know, if the Penguins lose tomorrow,

I'm working to have you on during the off season, but, you know, if they do come back and win this series, I'm definitely going to have you back on during this running because it looks like they'll play Washington or Boston if they do come back and win. Yeah, sounds good, man. Thanks for having you on. Go ahead.

Yeah, perfect, man. Thank you guys so much for listening. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode. They'll probably be after the game, so we'll see if the Penguins force the Game 5 or if they will be eliminated. So thank you guys so much for listening and we will talk to you all tomorrow.