Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins are officially eliminated from playoff contention

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

It's officially official: The Pittsburgh Penguins will not be in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second straight season. Patrick and Hunter discuss how the Penguins did not get any help on Tuesday night from the Capitals and Red Wings, spelling the end of their season. They talk about how they got here and how they couldn't overcome a bad start and middle of the season. Next, they preview tonight's meaningless game against the Islanders, and finally, it's the final Warrior Helmet Wednesday of the season!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Pay. The mobile hit twist on classic MONOPOLY.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With no help from their foes in the Capitol, the Pittsburgh Penguins' 2023-24 season is officially dead. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome, Penguins fans, to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet, joined as always by my my co-host Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can toss the show's account,

a follow on Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. And we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day. And we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube. And today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase.

So here we are. Going into Game 82 of the 2023-24 penguin season, and despite both of us prematurely declaring this team dead, it is now official. Game 82 will have no meaning for either team involved, thanks to the Washington Capitals getting a regulation victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night 2 to 1. And even though it did not have an impact due to the Capitol's victory,

the Detroit Red Wings were able to pull out a five to four shootout victory over the Montreal Canadians, thus ending the Penguins playoff chances. So while we will have a ton of offseason content to come, we will dissect this season from just about every possible angle. Before we do that, Hunter, just your quick snap reaction to this team finally being dead and missing the postseason for the second consecutive year. One word disappointment. That's how I really feel about this because I was so optimistic heading into the season.

I loved the Eric Carlson trade. I loved the Alex Nadelcovic signing. Heck, I was one of the few people that was higher on the grave signing than I know a lot of other people were. And I was made to look like a complete and utter fool about that. and I've basically done a 180 on that signing. Like, I know you have, and I know so other people have as well. But with how much hope there was heading into this season,

we expected them to get back to the playoffs because this team really hasn't missed the playoffs during the Sydney Crosby era that often. He was since rookie season, and it was last season, and that's it. Well, now for a third time during this era, the Penguins have missed the playoffs. And it's just not acceptable, man. I mean, wasting this type of season from Sydney Crosby, it's so disappointing.

92 points heading into this final game, he'll have a chance to get even closer to 100 against the Islanders and another team that he has torched throughout his career. And it's a meaningless one because they weren't able to get out of their own way during the first 65 games of the season. I am super happy with the way they played throughout the last three weeks, 8, 1 and 3 in those 12 games, that's great. But Pat, where was this for the first 65 games of this season? Had you played like this for more than 12 games, you would be in the playoffs over that

godawful Washington Capitals team. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where I think this year is a lot more difficult to accept because even though last year it was the same deal, they came down to, it came down to game 81 and they were unable to make the playoffs once again, missing it by a point. And I think last year down the stretch and pretty much throughout the entirety of the season, we understood that that was not a playoff team. That was not a team that we expected to make the postseason. And were they able to make the postseason? They were just going to be cannon fodder for whoever they faced in the first round. This year's a lot more difficult

because we saw the way this team has played over the last month. It has been very very solid hockey. They've been getting contributions from depth guys, the stars, as you have said, Crosby, Malkin, Carlson, not so much Letang. I do think, you know, I have a feeling we're going to find this out once the season's over that I think he's been playing through something. I think there's been an injury there because it just hasn't been the type of Chris Latang hockey we're used to. But you saw everybody start to step up and play solid hockey. You had Alex Nadelcovich really take hold of the starting job. And we're going to talk about that in the second segment as we preview tonight's meaningless Penguins Islanders game. But you could see this team down the stretch for

the last month. Were they a Stanley Cup contender? No, not in any world. They were not going to go on a Stanley Cup run in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It just wasn't going to happen. But I could have very much seen them grabbing that second wild card. And again, maybe not beating the New York Rangers, but making it way more of a series than anybody would expect. So your word, disappointment is absolutely the correct one. And before I pass it back over to you, I do want to give a shout out to the Tribs Chris Adamski, who the other day brought up a incredible statistic

that if you're looking for a little bit of hope, Penguins fans, it's something that will make you at least proud of the team that you root for. Since 2007, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Pittsburgh Steelers have played three, once you count tonight, three meaningless games. And meaningless by, it is a game where they are eliminated from playoff contention. So for almost 20 years, you have seen competitive, meaningful games by both the Penguins and Steelers, with the exception of three of them. The fan bases here in this city are very spoiled, and it's been that way for quite a long time, my friend.

But just going back to our overall discussion, so many people failed Sidney Crosby and the Corps this year. I would say Mike Sullivan failed him and failed the Corps. I would say to a degree, Kyle Dubus also failed the Corps as well with some of the moves that he made over the offseason and a couple of the moves that he made. right before the season or even during the season as well.

And again, you know, some of the players playing this year as well also failed the court. That's why I'm just so disappointed with the way this season went. And also, again, they did this to themselves. Had you just held a couple more leads in the third period when you're up by two or more goals, you would be in the playoffs over that awful Caps team. And I may get old takes exposed to this. God help me if I do. I don't think the cap stand a chance in that series against the Rangers.

I hope I'm right. But if I'm wrong, I'm sure people will come flooding to the comments to clown on me. Yeah, I mean, you think about this team and we'll, again, we'll obviously have plenty of post-mortem analysis of this team once we get there.

But you really think about what derailed this team this season. It starts and ends with special teams. The power play is likely going to finish 31st overall in the National Hockey League this year. And with the talent on this roster, at the very least with the talent that you're going to roll out on that top power play, especially at the start of the year when Jake Gensel was still a penguin, having that little of success with a man advantage is completely unacceptable. It's completely disappointing. And Josh Yohei had a great interview today with Eric Carlson.

and to his credit, he wore all of it. There was no excuse making. There was no, you guys are making too big of a deal out of it. We're working our hardest. No, he straight up said it was a complete and total disappointment, and it did not live up to expectations. And while I don't think he used this word, he came as close to it as you can without saying it.

It was a failure. And to his credit, like I said, I know he's been a polarizing figure for Penguins fans, this season, but he absolutely wore it and took accountability. And as a fan of the team and as a quote unquote analyst, that's really all I can ask of them. I don't want you to deflect. I don't want you to downplay it. I want you to acknowledge the reality.

And I will take that eight days a week. It was a really good article to read, but it was also a really sad article to read because you can tell how much Eric Carlson caters about this team and how upset he is at how this season when. I mean, he even said to start the article, it's been five years since he last played in a playoff game. He came here to play in playoff games. And no, my friends, I do not think the Penguins are going to trade Eric Carlson this offseason. You're probably going to hear a bunch of rumors about it. I expect him on this team for next season. But for the power play as a whole, the players have to wear it, and the coaching staff has to wear it as well.

If this doesn't lead to significant changes behind the bench, then what is going to, Pat? Todd Reardon cannot be on this staff next season. 31st rank power play with all that talent. I mean, he should have been canned well before the halfway point in the season. They stuck to their guns, excuse me, and they decided to keep him for the rest of the season. You can't bring him back for next year.

Mike Volucci, he runs the penalty kill. I mean, I would probably move on from him also just because I think this team needs a brand new coaching staff. But Mike Sullivan, he also, shares the blame for the power play as well. He is involved with that unit. And we have said countless times on the show, I think it's time for a fresh start with a brand new coaching staff for next season.

Yeah. And we'll have plenty of time, as we know now, to discuss stuff like that because we've got one more game to go tonight against the New York Islanders. And Hunter and I are going to preview that right after this. But before we do that, we're going to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is game time.

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download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-K-O-N-N-H-L for $20 off. Download on the GameTime app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price. guaranteed. All right, we're back here on the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes.

And, well, we do have a game tonight. It is game 82 of the NHL regular season. And it means exactly squat for both teams tonight. The Penguins, as we know, are now eliminated from playoff contention. So this will be their final game of the season. and the New York Islanders are gearing up for their first round series against the Carolina Hurricanes. And I'm going to let you take this one, Hunter, because you were getting a laugh out of it before we hit the record button. Who will not be playing for the New York Islanders tonight?

So yes, the New York Islanders are deciding to bench some of their players for this game as they're getting ready for that series against the hurricanes. Hudson Fashing will be out. Pierre Engval will be out. Matt Barzel, who I think is their best player, Noah Dobbin. who's great on the back end and Sebastian Aho, the other Sebastian Aho, not the one on the Carolina Hurricanes people, the other Sebastian Aho. Those will be the players that will not be playing for the Islanders in this game. Ilya Sorokin, who has kind of been Semyon Barlamov's backup for the last few weeks, he will be getting a start for the Islanders in this game. So the Penguins, they won't have to go up against two of the Islanders best players, but it's also a meaningless

game for the Islanders as they gear up for that series against the Hurricanes. And I do think the Hurricanes are a favorite in that series. I'm not going to give you too many X's and O's for this preview. I just want to see the team go out with at least a little bit of a bang. I know they're eliminated from playoff contention. You're probably going to see a lot of very mellowed down celebrations tonight just because they know that after this game, their season is over. But I still want to see Cindy Crosby go out with a bang, 92 points heading into this game. I want to see if you can put together another two to three point night against a team that he has dominated since he came into the league. I want to see of getting Malkin and his season on a really strong note.

Chris Lattang as well. I agree with you. I think it is going to come out once this season is officially over after this game, at least, that Lattang has been playing hurt. He just hasn't looked like the Chris Lattang that we saw for the first half, two-thirds of the season. I want to see Michael Bunting continue his strong play with the team as well. And if we can get maybe a depth goal from someone like Valatari Pustin, who has kind of been a little bit of a ghost for the last few weeks, would be nice as well. I just want to see this team not go down with a wimper tonight, even though they know what's coming after this game. And the penguins are doing a little bit of asset management in this game. They are not playing Emil Bemstrom. I guess they were really worried

about an Emil Bemstrom hack trick in this one, which would turn the sixth round pick that they sent to Columbus in that trade into a third round pick. So good on them for making sure that goal scoring machine coming off a big goal in their last game. Emil Bemstrom will not put up three points. But you mentioned that they are going to likely play Sorokin, who has basically been the backup. Speaking of backups, Tristan Jari will be the backup once again tonight. And again, we're going to have so much time now this offseason to discuss what happened

this year and what they're what they need to do moving forward. But at this point, that's a pretty clear cut message of. how they feel about Tristan Jari that Alex Nadelcovic is going to play tonight in an absolutely meaningless game. Oh, well, thanks for stealing my thunder there a little bit, because that's what I was going to say, not even starting Jari in a completely meaningless game. That tells me what I need to know about how they feel about him heading into the offseason. I could be dead wrong about that and he could be on this roster for opening night for the 2024, 2025 season, but not even starting him in this game and giving to Delkevich his 13th straight start,

what did Jari do outside of just not playing that well before he lost his number one job? It just feels like something is a miss. I mean, I haven't heard anything if I did. I would let you all know, but something just feels off regarding that. And part of me also thinks, man, Jari might have played his last game as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. There's obviously going to be a lot of questions surrounding him and the goaltending situation in the offseason. They have to make a decision about Alex Andalkovich as well. Is Joel Blumquist ready?

The free agent market isn't that good. You look for a trade for another goalie. We have plenty of time to answer all those questions once game 82 is played. But I just don't know how Jari is back next season unless you definitely can't find any taker for that contract as a whole. It just seems like he's played his way out of Pittsburgh. You want to know what this reminds me of, the Kenny Pickett situation with the Steelers. That's what this reminds me of. Remember at the end of the season, he came back from injury. But because he played pretty poorly before he got hurt, the Stewards said, no, we're going to stick with Mason Rudolph.

And we're going to start him in our biggest game of the year in the playoffs. And then Pickett obviously went on to be traded with Eagles and they got Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. But that's what this reminds me of, man, very much like the Kenny Pickett Mason Rudolph situation. And I would not be surprised if something very similar happens with Jari this offseason. I just don't know how he comes back from this, to be honest. I could certainly see that. And I don't think that's a bad comparison, especially if once we see what happens this offseason with him. I will say, though, I want to spin zone this a little bit.

I do know one of Kyle Dubus's traits as a general manager, when especially when he was in Toronto is he does right by a lot of people. And that is a bit of a fatal flaw for him because he was known to deal some guys away that weren't getting playing time that ended up becoming contributors elsewhere rather than holding on to them and eventually getting to use them to help the Maple Leafs. I also think this could be one of those moments where I think they know Ned is due for a big payday. I think Ned played so well over the last month or so and kind of put himself into a conversation for a mid-tier team

or a team that wants to go over the hump and get into the playoffs next year. I know that does apply to the Penguins, but different discussion, different day. And I think they want to maybe give him one more chance to showcase his game and maybe up his value going into the off-season. But I also don't disagree totally with the jari stuff because he has, he was not good. And this is now two years in a row where once the calendar hit March,

he really started to decline. And if you're a team with playoff and even Stanley Cup aspirations, even if you have a goaltending duo where you have a 1A and a 1B, you can't have one of them decline as soon as you get into the most important time of the year. And now we have two straight seasons where Jari's healthy, at least as far as we know. And as soon as the game start getting bigger, he starts failing to perform.

And that's a gigantic problem. I mean, it was also like that down the stretch of the series against Islanders. And then he barfed all over himself in that series as well. I was hoping to get the redemption against the Rangers the following year

because he was playing well for the most part that year. But ever since it feels like that injury during that late stages, excuse me, of the season, he hasn't been able to step up when this team has needed him to. And again, I just feel like it's kind of curtains at this point for his future with this team.

I'm just kind of stunned overall that he's not getting the start. Yeah, it's really surprising that they're going to play Alex Nadalcovich tonight over Tristan Jari in what is a pretty meaningless game. But tonight, Penguins, Islanders, 7 o'clock, UBS Arena in Long Island. so that will be tonight and we will be back tomorrow to give you a recap of that game. But that's going to do it for this segment. When we come back, it is Wednesday. It's the final Warrior Helmet Wednesday of the season.

Hunter and I will give out our MVP of the week in that segment. But before we do that, we got to tell you about our next sponsor and a new sponsor, Monopoly Go. I have been told that I am a competitive person in Hunter. Would you say that's true? Absolutely, man. I mean, you are the MVP of your beer league team this week. Yeah, crushed it. Two goals in the finals, baby.

Big offseason acquisition. All right. Well, yeah, I do have a competitive side that is very true, and it's true for pretty much all of us. My competitive side is also a big fan of Monopoly Go, and I'm sure you've heard of it. It's been downloaded over 150 million times, and it's a great twist on Monopoly where you play on not one,

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game and join your friends. Download Monopoly Go now free on the app store or Google Play. All right, welcome back to the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am Patrick Damp. That's Hunter, hoodies. And it is Wednesday, my dudes. So that means we're giving out our last warrior helmet of the season. If you are new here, the warrior helmet is an homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup Penguins, where they gave out their MVP of the game as a warrior helmet.

And that's what we do for the last week here in Penguinsland. We give out our warrior helmets for the MVP of the week. Hunter, who gets your warrior helmet this week? So this one was tough because there was also quite a few options to give it to. I may surprise some people, I'm going to give my final warrior helmet of the season to big game, Brian Rust. He was awesome throughout this last week, five points in the three games. He had a great goal against Boston, even though they did lose that game, his goal against

Detroit was awesome, vintage Brian Rust stuff coming down. The middle of the ice reminded me of that goal. goal in Game 7, 2016 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, just tremendous stuff there. And he has been one of the Penguins' best players all season, 28 goals, 56 points this season, despite missing a handful of games. He has a chance to hit 30 goals tonight if he's able to score two goals against the Islanders. He did everything in his power this past week and honestly throughout the season to try and get this team into the playoffs. That is someone who I think you keep heading in the next season.

The only way that I even think about moving him is if you get a massive package in return. But I don't know what team is going to give that up for Brian Russ. So I tend towards keeping him for next year. But Brian Rust, he gets my final warrior helmet for the season. I know I could have easily given it to Sid with the way he's been playing last week as well. But I'm going to change it up. Give it to Rust. Yeah, the way this season has gone, we almost have to put Crosby on the old Gretzky

fantasy hockey role where you can't pick him just because it's the obvious one. and he's too good because I as well, I could very easily give it to Sid for this week because he had another absolutely incredible week in this run. I'm going to actually give it to Eric Carlson for this week. I thought, again, I know disappointing season did not live up to the expectation that he had coming in. But in this Penguins resurgence, especially over the last week, I thought he was looking like the Eric Carlson of old. was commanding the puck, scored a goal, added a couple assists.

And he was just great in all three zones, I thought. I know that, again, this is an award for just the week. It's not an award for the full season. I'm not naming him, Penguins MVP or anything. But this week, I thought he was really good. He did everything you expect Eric Carlson to do and more. So throughout this past week, I really liked his game. The points were there in just watching him play.

the last week. It was Eric Carlson. Skating was beautiful. The control of the puck was beautiful. He made great decisions on when to enter the offensive attack. And I do think with that coupled with his interview with Josh, I think next year, the honeymoon is over. And I mean that in a good way. He's not going to be all sunshine and rainbows. Yay, I'm with a better franchise than San Jose. I think we're going to see a really motivated, really ready to go Eric Carlson next year, and that could bring us some good news. The way he played throughout the final three to four weeks of the season, he looked like someone who had everything figured out.

And I know I've been a big supporter of Carlson throughout the season. I do think for the most part he has been as advertised, though there have been plenty of moments in games where he's screwed up. And I know his detractors love that just because It's been like that all year. But I think at this point, he has fully figured things out with this team. And I do think you're going to see a pretty big year from him the next year, assuming that he is on the team.

And I do think he is going to be on the team because I don't think he's going to be traded this off season. I think he'll be better at five on five. I think he'll be better on the power play. He'll just be better overall. And that's a good thing for this team heading into next season, especially if he can stay healthy. Yeah, I'm right there with you.

It's, I think this season especially, given that there was change in the management, there were changes to the roster, and now you miss the playoffs for a second straight season. I think these guys at this point, the core four, as it were, Crosby, Malkin, Latang, Carlson, I think they understand that next year is it. If it doesn't work out, and it doesn't mean Stanley Cup, but it means if you're not back in the playoffs, this ride is over. So that's where I stand on that. Again, we're going to have a lot of time to talk about this offseason and look back at this season because we're going to have plenty of time as we walk to Stanley Cup playoffs. I will tease to this, though, both of the Penguins affiliates,

Wilkesbury Scranton and the Wheeling Nailers are in the postseason. We will be keeping you up to date on how they're doing in the Calder Cup playoffs and the Kelly Cup playoffs respectively. But that is going to do it for this edition. of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. We are going to be back tomorrow with a recap of this game and get a little bit of a look ahead of what you can expect for the off season and probably a brief look back at this season as we say goodbye to the 2020,

23, 24 NHL season. But for now, I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. Thank you, as always, for tuning into the Lockdown Penguins podcast. And we will be back on Thursday.