Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins surrender two leads and their season after a Western swing

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins are officially done after back-to-back losses to the Stars and Avalanche, and both Hunter and Pat are here to discuss what went wrong. They start with the game against the Dallas Stars and how the Penguins let a good start go to waste. They go into how Michael Bunting got things going before the team became fragile again after the Stars got a couple of goals. They analyze how the Penguins power play could take a couple of lessons from the Stars one before looking at how Tristan Jarry wasn't good enough when he needed to be. After that, they recap the 4-0 blown lead to the Colorado Avalanche and discuss how the team wilted after a very strong first half of the game. They look at how the team wasted Sidney Crosby's vintage performance and how this loss is the cherry on top for this season. They look at how things got started for the Penguins before they wilted, plus how the goaltending was also not good enough. Finally, they have a full discussion about the March goaltending to end the show and if this raises questions about Jarry for next year.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.IndeedIndeed knows when you’re growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count. Visit Indeed.com/LOCKEDON to start hiring now. RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer.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 LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. 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.

The Penguins are officially dead after back-to-back losses to the stars in Avalanche, and Pat and I are going to discuss both of those games, plus look at the week ahead right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.

you can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Join by my co-host Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Cinnon for Wet. And you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Understore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, down the GameTime app,

create account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase of the Penguins. They get blown out in Dallas, and then they blow a 4-0-0 lead in Colorado. on Sunday because of course they did and that will basically wrap up the 2023, 2024 season for the Pittsburgh Penguins even though it's been over for a couple of weeks here people. But we're going to start off today's show with the game in Dallas. The Penguins get off to a pretty solid start in that game. Michael Bunting gets another mini Patrick Hornquist slash Chris Cunitz type goal. Also brilliant feed by Evgeny Malkin from behind the minute, kind of like a no look past to Bunting, Bunting in his spot.

about literally right in the goal mouth and is able to tuck that one past Jake Ottinger. And after the Penguins were able to get some chances, Ottinger stands tall because he can play at that level. I do think when he is on his game, he is one of the 10 best goalies in the sport, even though he struggled a little bit this year. But then there's a bad balance that's in the back of the Penguins net. And then the Stars make 2-1 on the power play. And then right after that, basically two goals in less than a minute,

just because this is the most mentally fragile team, Penguins team, I should say, of course, since probably 2015 overall. When the smallest thing goes wrong, it just spirals, and they're not able to control it. They go down 3-1. They eventually go down 4-1. And by that point, the game is over. But not enough chances offensively overall.

I mean, this team barely even had 10 shots by the halfway point of regulation. Penalty kill was not good enough against a potent star's power play. And the Penguins' power play overall was also pretty horrid. And I should throw in there that Trishonjari was also not good in this game. So the Penguins played all of the really bad classic hits in this game that led to another loss. Yeah, it's, I will say this. I don't disagree with you on the overall point that this

is a fragile Penguins team that when things go poorly, they go very poorly and it just spirals out of control. But I will give this to the Dallas Stars. They are keeping pace with a monumental team who will talk about in the next segment in the Colorado Avalanche. So you do have to give them their flowers to an extent because that is just a simply great hockey team in Dallas and they have the ability to turn games on their heads at any moment. But you look at the way the penguins played against Dallas and they were very solid in the first period.

They played a very solid hockey game against a very solid team. And Joe Pavelski's goal in the first period to tie it. about seven minutes in was just a fluky bounce. That was him being both a great net front guy and the puck bouncing exactly the way it needed to bounce to go into the net. So, you know, I'll give the penguins this. They picked themselves up after Pavelsky's goal and continued to play fairly well. But like you started to say in the second period, Pavelski scores two goals in just about

two minutes. And from that moment on, they took over the game. and the penguins never really pushed back. And that proves your point that when things go poorly for this team, they go very poorly and they spiral out of control. So overall, I mean, for about seven or for about 25, 26 minutes in this game, I like the penguin's effort. I like what they were doing.

I like how they came out. But as it has all season long, they couldn't sustain it for a full 60 minute. effort and you get the result that you get a four to lost the Dallas stars. And like you said, all the same greatest hits, lowest hits, lowest moments, lowest lights, whatever you want to call it came to fruition once again. Power play goes 0 for two.

And the penalty kill only goes 50% one for two. Then you only get 22 shots on goal. And you get no real sustained pressure after this, after Jamie Ben's second goal. And that really sums up the entire season, maybe to me, even more so than the Colorado game yesterday, because if Dallas is a very good hockey team, I would say Colorado is probably the favorite for the Stanley Cup right now

and maybe the best team on the planet right now. But I just, you're out of things to say. And then we have it on the rundown. Maybe we'll get into it in the third segment. Maybe we won't. But goaltending has officially been. become a problem for the Pittsburgh Penguins. If Crosby and goaltending were papering over other deficiencies early in the season, now it's just Crosby. And goaltending has faltered right along with

the rest of the team. Yeah, I mean, I shuddered to think about what this team's record would be if they had gotten the goaltending that they were getting right now at the beginning of the season. I mean, they'd probably be, if I had to guess, a bottom five team in the league with that type of goal tenning. It was just both Nadelcovic and Jari were so good throughout the first half that you're right. They masked a lot of the deficiencies on the team. But now as both have regressed, especially in the month of March, and we'll hopefully get into that a little bit later, you're seeing just how flawed this team is overall. I mean, we have, we have that example. It was the first month of the season. Jari was genuinely bad in October. And it was very easy in

October to, you know, make our analysis and excuses for the team in October, but I said it on the show, and I even wrote it in a column early in the season on KDCA. Jari couldn't make a save in October. And it didn't matter what the problems were with the power play, with the penalty kill, with the depth, whatever. Anytime that team got themselves into a situation, into a close game, Jari was not making saves when they needed them to make saves. And it really hurt this team right out of the gate. luckily he came back to life up until about this last month and it kept this team afloat. But now it's genuinely a problem. No, I mean, I 100% agree with you.

And I don't want to harp too much more on the powerplay just because I know we've destroyed it all season. But the way you saw the stars powerplay operate versus how the Penguins power play operated, it's a night and day difference. both powerful opportunities for the penguins. I should honestly mention just one of them. The penguins had the puck in the star zone for two full minutes. And I'm not kidding.

The stars only cleared it when there was about five seconds left. So I'm going to count that as a full two minutes overall. And the penguins are just playing patty cake. What the fuck? You take it. No, you take it. No, you take it. And it's all perimeter.

Nobody is moving. Nobody is firing a shot on goal. But then you look at the Stars power play, which is a similar setup, but it's not stagnant. Everyone is moving around. They're getting quality scoring chances. They have a net front presence. They have a shoot-first mentality. Just the difference between the two units was so apparent.

And I'm like, again, we have 12 games left in the season at this point. And you have the puck in the zone for almost basically two full minutes. And that's the result that you're getting. No shots. All perimeter play. Way too stagnant. playing patty cake with the puck, it's ridiculous still with all that talent. I know we've been saying this all year long, but it still baffles me every time I see it,

that they're just not doing anything about this unit. It's the urgency. And, you know, I'm still, I'm not giving Mike Sullivan or Todd Reardon a pass on this. They absolutely have to wear it. But urgency comes from within. You cannot coach heart. You cannot coach effort. you cannot coach anything like that.

You either have that or you don't. And when you watched the Stars Power Play on Friday, like you said, it's a very similar setup to what the Penguins run. And what they did was they had guys moving at all times, so they were able to exploit mismatches. You can blame the Penguins P.K. Sure, it's fair. But the system that, or the system that Dallas runs compared to the way they play it,

they pull defenders out of position because they're always moving because you force the penalty kill and the penalty killers to make a decision. Do I stick with this guy or do I let him go? And most times teams make the correct decision to stick with a man because he will go to a threatening area of the ice. But then that pulls them out of position and gives you mismatches. you combine that with a willingness to put someone in front and shoot the puck, you get the Stars power play. Then you look to the other side of the ice and you see the Penguins power play where guys pretty much have decided, okay, this is the spot I'm in on the power play.

I will go here and nowhere else. And what teams like Dallas and other teams that we've seen the Penguins play this year, what they do is they just say, we're going to play either our box and we're going to stick in our quadrants or we're going to play a diamond and we're not going to move. And the penguins are never going to get quality opportunities because they're not moving. And again, I'm not giving Sullivan and Reardon a pass, but you either have that mentality as a player or you don't. You can't coach that.

You can't teach a guy to care. You can't teach a guy to try. And I'll give Sidney Crosby this. He's the one guy on that unit that's trying. You see them all over the ice on the power play. But everybody else gets to their position and doesn't move. And when you have four to five guys standing stagnant and static, that's an easy job for the PK because they don't have to move.

They just have to close off the middle of the ice and keep you from getting there. And if you're not going to move, you're not going to get there. Right. They don't have to do anything. They can just stand there while the penguins just pass it along the perimeter. And they don't have to do anything. They honestly could be like, okay, we'll let you fire a puck at the net. We know you're not going to score because we'll just stand here and block it.

That is, it doesn't even matter if it's the Dallas penalty kill. This could be the Sharks penalty kill, the Ducks penalty kill, the Blackhawks, any other very bad team in the league. No one respects this unit. That's been very evident. Nor should that. Yeah, you're right. I mean, this is one of the worst power plays in the league.

And these players, when it's a five on four situation, they don't have to do anything when defending the Penguins Power Play, just because the Penguins Power Play has never put the fear of God into anyone all year long. They can do a diamond. They can do a box set up. They can do honestly whatever setup the coach tells them to do because they know that the Penguins power play is not going to score. But I think we've said enough about this game against Dallas coming up in the second segment. Yes, even though it is unfortunate, we do have to discuss how the Penguins blew a 4-0 lead to the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday after looking like this was going to be one of their more impressive wins of the season. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about game time.

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So the Penguins get off to a dream start in Denver on Sunday. I think that was the best first period this Penguins team has played since December. And I don't think that's a hot take at all. They were all over the avalanche in those 20 minutes. They were making the avalanche look like a pee-wee team, to be honest. And that's no small feat considering how good the avalanche have been this season. I think right now they are the favorite to win the Stanley Cup, in my opinion. But, you know, you get goals from yes, he, Pol Jarvie.

Beautiful backhand, by the way, from Cindy Crosby to get that thing started. Pull Jarvie gets his second goal of the season. And that's why you play Pull Jarvie. I understand that he's still working his way back from injury a little bit. Maybe he's made a couple of mistakes when he's been on the ice in his own zone. But I'll keep saying it. He's one of your best options in the bottom six. You owe it to yourself and the rest of the coaching staff for Mike Selvin.

That is to keep playing it and to see what you have in this player. Because I do think, again, he is one of their better options. He gets a dirty goal right around the far of the net. Really nice job from him. And then Brian Rust makes it to nothing in the first period. What a power move that was. And you can say what you want about a lot of players on this team this year. A lot of people have been really disappointing to flat out bad.

do not include Brian Rust with those players. Brian Rust, excuse my language, has played his ass off every single night. And he is one of the players that I know fully cares

about this team. And his celebration after that goal yesterday spoke volumes to me. He was fired up. He's been great all year for the Penguins. Obviously the biggest thing

for him is his health, but he was tremendous yet again. And then Cindy Crosby, man, Matt, what type of performance was this from Sydney Crosby? I texted it to you yesterday. I don't know if we can call that a vintage Sydney Crosby performance.

That was like a 2011 or 2010 Sydney Crosby performance. Fair. When he was just head and shoulders, the best player on the ice, and there was no comparison. I mean, Nathan McKinnon came on late and looked like Nathan McKinnon again by the end of the game. But that was Crosby pre-concussion yesterday. That was Sidney Crosby who basically came out and said, yes, I'm the best player in the world, and there is no question about it. Because it wasn't just the points.

You watched the way he played yesterday. He was not just great offensively. He was the best player in the defensive zone. He was stealing pucks. He was interrupting plays. He was breaking down the Colorado Avalanche, his offense in the defensive zone. And it was a marvelous performance. and everybody's going to focus on the four points.

But the four points of the cherry on top of the Sunday, everything else was great with him yesterday. Effort, physicality, positional play, defense, physicality. It was marvelous to watch. He wants to beat Nathan McKinnon really bad. Even though they are best friends, you know that Sid wants to beat Nathan and try to teach him another lesson, if you will.

I tweeted that to you yesterday. It felt like that's what was going on. Even though Sid is the old man in this case, it still felt like you wanted to teach Nate another lesson and be like, yeah, this is who I am at 36. This is who I think you wish you can be when you turn 36. But I do think Nate might be that good when he's 36 just because I think he's one of the best players in the league right now. But the deflection for the goal that he had, I mean, that was vintage stuff right there. Beautiful overall.

He did everything in his power to will the penguins to this win. but as we've been saying for most of the year on this show, the team's inability to again play a full 60 minutes cost them. The penguins were great through the first 20 minutes. They got the goaltending. They got the depth scoring. Defensively, they were locking things down. That was a carbon copy of what they did to Colorado at home a few months ago

when the penguins shut down the abs for a full 60. And then you have, for the most part, the first half of the second period. I thought the penguins were, again, playing really well. that goal from sin. P.O. Joseph, congratulations to him. He gets his first goal of the season for the Penguins. And it was that final 24, 25, 26 minutes that really cost the Penguins. Sure, when the abs made it 4-1, I'm like, okay, they get a goal, but if you can get to the end of the second up 4-1, I'll still like their chances. But once that goal made it 4-2, heading into the second intermission, I said to myself, as I was going to get my first tattoo ever, I don't know if anyone

can see that's watching on YouTube. It's the happy, sad face. It's the Theater of Pain cover art for Molly Crew because Home Sweet Home is my favorite song. I posted on Twitter if you guys want to go look at it. But once the abs made it 4 to 2, I was like, okay, here we go again, because

I knew the abs were going to turn it on in the third period, and they did exactly that. Yeah, that was a sleeping giant waking up. And you're right. If they stay at 4.1, going into the third period.

I'm with you. I think they hold on and win that one, mainly because you could see it the last five to seven minutes of the second period. Colorado was frustrated. The way they were playing was obviously very well because they're a great hockey team. But you could see in the way they were playing, they were like, oh my God,

nothing is working. We're kicking their butts up and down the ice, but nothing is working for us. We're not scoring. We're getting chances, but they're not grade A chances. with the exception of a handful. And the penguins are hanging around.

They're hanging around. And even great teams like Colorado, we saw it in the 16 and 17 years where the penguins would just have a night where even though they played well, it just wasn't their night. And you could see the way they played. Like, you know what?

We're in good shape. This is not going to hurt us one way or the other. Back at it next game. And as soon as that second goal goes in, you can almost feel the weight being lifted off the avalanche. And they were like, well, okay, here we go. This is our game now. And the abs cut it to 4-3 to start the third period.

And then I was like, I was following along. I was getting my tattoo. I'm like, okay, it's only a matter of time before they tie it. And as the minutes kept taking down, I was thinking myself, okay, maybe there's a small chance that they're able to hold on. Nope, the abs tied at 4-4 off of a, can I call that a weak goal by Tristan Jari? I mean, I don't think that's a hot take. I know that was a one-timer, but I still feel like he could have made that safe. Am I wrong on that? Yes and no.

I mean, yes, in that, like, you knew where that puck was going. You knew that it was going to be across ice past and Nathan McKinnon, and it was going to be a one-timer. But at the same time, everybody wearing a penguin sweater on that wears it. Because, again, you know where that puck is going. Shut that lane down and make them score another way. and they let a pass through. And I'll give them their flowers.

It was a great pass. It was a great shot. If we're going to be intellectually honest on this show, you can't sit here and go, no, you can't do the, no Penguins team has ever lost. They've only ever beaten themselves. But it was a great goal,

but that again is a moment where, whether it's Jari, whether it's Nadelcovich, you know what's going to happen on that play. You have to get over and make the save. And again, Nathan McKinnon, maybe one of the top three players in the world right now. And he's just feeling it.

So I think, yes, it's fair to say maybe you'd like a save, but we also do have to admit this is a great hockey team with one of the best players on the planet. And sometimes that's just what they do. And I don't want people to think I'm letting the penguins off the hook. This was an absolute embarrassment and unacceptable performance, but I still have to make sure people understand how good Colorado is. No, yeah, don't get me wrong.

I know how amazing Nathan McKinnon is. You're right, top three player in the world, and he has one of the best releases in the world as well. I still feel like Jari could have gotten over there a little bit quicker to make that. It would be true. He's been really struggling in the month of March. We'll get into that in the final segment, Adelkevich has also not been that good either.

And the only reason Jari was in that game, remember, is because Nelkevich had to come out because a concussion spotter told him to go. Like he even said he was fine, but he had to come out for a little bit. He was able to come back in. who knows what the result is if he doesn't have to come out. I mean, maybe they still collapse. Who knows? But again, it's still a save that I would like my starting netminder to make.

And then you go to overtime, you at least secure a point, but you don't see the puck because you lose the face off. And that has been, I feel like, a problem for the last couple of years for the penguins. They just haven't been able to win that opening draw to start overtime. And then they never see the puck again. You put Crosby out there overall. And that's great. You want to put them out there with Latang, rust, whatever combination you want.

That's cool with me. But you've got to win the draw to get possession so you can go into the offensive zone. You lose that draw to McKinnon, McCar, and they don't, there's any of the matter who else they put out there, Ransan, Jewelan, whoever, they're just going to hog the puck the entire time. And that's exactly what happened. The Penguins never saw the puck because the abs were hogging it for the entire first minute of the overtime. And they got a couple of chances. They're able to regroup a little bit.

they get it to Jonathan and Drouin, and then he just absolutely walked Chris the Tang. I mean, I always have been a big fan of Crystal Tang. I think for the most part, he's had a pretty decent season for the Penguins. I will say to people that I know are going to come at me in the comments. He has had a very rotten last few weeks to the last month, but I feel like the entire team has had a very rotten last few weeks to the last month. But overall, you cannot get walked like that by Jonathan Drewan. This is not Nathan McKinnon.

This is not Nico Ransin. It's not Kelmokar. It's not Connor McDavid. It's not whatever great player you want to put into there. It's Jonathan Drew-in, Chris. You cannot get walked like that on an overtime game winner. Not good enough gap control. I understand he doesn't want to take a penalty, though he ended up.

That was going to be a Avalent power play anyway. But you still need to play that a lot better than what you did. For sure. I will say this. I don't have the numbers in front of me. But the last two or three weeks, Jonathan Drew-Anne has actually been on an absolute tear with the Aval He's playing like the rest of the avalanche, a great brand of hockey right now.

And sometimes when you have a hot stick, you have a hot stick. But yeah, Chris LaTang did not play that well whatsoever. And you're absolutely right. The last couple weeks for him have been a complete struggle. And I get his rationale in the way he played it. You don't want to take a penalty or allow Drew Ann to get a penalty shot. But you have to let that happen. You do.

You can't just give him that ice uncontested. especially with the way the NHL is and has been as of late. You know that it's a coin flip, whether they're going to call it or not. Because you watch yesterday's game and you look at the breakdown of the game, I mean, the Penguins and Avalanche both only had two power play opportunities. That's four penalties called all game. So you know that there's a very real chance. They're probably not going to call it, especially in OT with the way the NHL loves,

let the boys decide rather than get the officiating involved. So you have to make that play, whether it's putting a stick into him, putting a hand on them or taking them down. And he just didn't do that. And I get the rationale in his head, but it's just not acceptable. And I got to give a shout out to Adam Gretz. I was reading some stuff from him this morning. And he brought this up for the Penguins. They are three and eight in overtime this season.

Three and eight. That's eight points left on the table. Imagine how much better they would be if they had those points. And then you look at the guys who have played the lion's share of overtime in the Penguin's season so far. Crosby's been outscored 0 to 5. Le Tang's been outscored 0 to 4. Brian Rust, 1 to 3. And before he got traded, Jake Gensel, 0 and 4.

So I know that everybody, I know that everybody wants to have their hemming and hawing about overtime and everything. But you still can blame the guys who are playing, especially the big guys. because you pay them to score. You pay them to come up in these big moments, and they just have not. I agree. And to go off that a little bit, I was having a conversation with the legendary Bob Grove

on Twitter on Sunday, and he's the absolute best. The stats that he's able to pull out are, again, amazing. And I was talking about how the Penguins have had. It feels like just some face off trouble in the last couple of years. And he did say, for this year, game side and an OT,

the Penguins are one in three when winning the opening draw. two and five when they lose it. Sid is two out of five on opening draws, two out of seven and draws taken in overtime. So he's definitely not been good in the faceoff circle in overtime, but it also doesn't matter if they win or lose the opening draw, that is. They're still losing overtime just because this team is so rotten in three on three. And this goes back to last year. We had the same discussion a little bit when the standings were a bit closer to the Penguins this time last year.

If they would have just won a couple more three on three games last year, they would have made the playoffs over the Florida Panthers, and of course the Panthers were not even gotten to the Stanley Cup final last year to play the Vegas Golden Knights. So they have been rotten in three-on-three for the last couple of years, and that needs to change very quickly heading into next year. I know this team is a bit older right now. The core is not as young as it used to be when three-on-three was first introduced,

but you still need to make some tactical adjustments to how you approach three-on-three, in my opinion. I know it's not something that teams fully practice that much during practice. You do a lot of five-on-five work, special teams work, but I still want to see the Penguins actually do some three-on-three work during practice because it feels like they never do it, even though they've really struggled these last couple of years. But one more thing before we get to break, and we talk about the goaltending. Mike Sullivan spoke after the game. And again, I'm not someone who usually looks at a lot of post-game quotes.

Most of the time, I feel like there are a waste of time, but I do want to bring this one up. Mike Sullivan, when asked about the game, I thought we competed hard, you know. That's one of the most explosive offenses in the league that we played against. We knew they were going to push back. We competed hard all night. Mike Sullivan, my man, what the heck of kind of response is that? Show some bark. Show some fight for God's sake.

You might lose your job at the end of this season with the way that this is going. They're going to miss the playoffs for a second straight year. and that's the response that you have after blowing a 4-0 lead. It's the second time in the last two seasons that they've blown a 4-0 lead. I was at that game against Detroit at PBG-P's Arena when they got gritted on in overtime by the Red Wings. That's the response you have? Come on, man. That's Bush League.

Listen, if he would have said this to you before we hit record. If he would have said that after the Dallas game, I can hear it. I really can. That's a great Dallas team. And sometimes you just play a team that's better than you. And that's how it goes. And if this would have been a 5-4 overtime loss that went back and forth and eventually Colorado gets the win in overtime, again, I'm with you, dude.

Like sometimes you play great teams, teams that are better than you, and they just beat you because they're better than you. But blowing a 4-0 lead is not compete level. It's the opposite of it. Now, again, I've been saying it all segment. You have to give the Colorado Avalanche their flowers. They are a genuinely great hockey team. But when you have a team, no matter how great they are,

down on the mat at 4-0, you do not let them get up. You don't. And the penguins did. That's not compete level. And this says to me one of two things. Sullivan either knows that he's cooked and he's out the door once this season ends, or he's untouchable. Neither of those are sustainable right now.

I get it. I have been saying it all season. He is a genuinely great coach, and he is going to be in the Hall of Fame one day. And when the NHL players and its people are back at the Olympics, he is going to be on the bench for Team USA, if not be the team's head coach. But this is just ridiculous, man.

I don't even need him to because you guys know me. I think the days of the Tortorella go out there and call them all terrible and call them all out. The Michelle Tarian, they're soft. Those days are long gone. Professional athlete is a full-time 24-7, 365 job these days. So the guy who goes out and kicks their ass all year long gets tuned out by the halfway point of the season. But at this point, you have to sit down after the game. You don't have to call out individual people.

You don't have to call out individual players. You don't have to shame people. But you have to go out there and say, we had a 4-0 lead on the best team in hockey and we let it slip away. That's an unacceptable effort. It doesn't matter who they are. It doesn't matter who we are. But when you have a 4-0 lead, you cannot let that slip.

You have to send that message. Even if this season is cooked, which it is, you have to set a standard. I will give John Tortorella this. You know when things flipped for him in Philadelphia? They lost a tough game and he went out and said, you know what? Yeah, we didn't play well. It wasn't acceptable, but this team plays hard. This team plays hard.

And this team knows what they need to do. And that's when the team wakes up the next morning and goes, well, we play hard. We know where we stand. When you go out and say this after blowing a 4-0 lead, we competed, we played hard. You think those guys are going to go out and play hard the next game? No, because they know what the answer is going to be.

I don't disagree with you at all, but what I keep coming back to, it's the same response no matter how they lose, whether they blow a 2-1 lead, 3-1 lead to the flames, 3-0-0-0 lead. It doesn't change. He has the same type of response. And again, it's like you coached under John Tortorella, and I don't need you to go full scorched earth like he does,

or as you said, Michelle Tarion, but send a message to this team. that this is not good enough, that this is not Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, that this is not what this team used to do when you first took over the job in late 2015 heading into 2016. It's just such a far cry from where the team used to be when he first took over versus where it is now. And it just feels like he's changed as a coach and not for the better.

And that is, again, one of the main reasons why I would move on from him after this season overall because that's just that's not the right message to send like wow yeah we competed hard you lost five four in overtime and you had a team pinned down about to tap out and you let them get back into it ridiculous it's just ridiculous and yeah you know that's that should be the final quote for his season at least in terms of after the year because he should be getting let go in my opinion but that will do it for the second statement coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to look at how the goaltending has really regressed in the month of March and how it is definitely not a strength of the Penguins anymore,

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conditions of fly. That's code Locked on NHL, C-Sleeper's terms of use for details and locational availability. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my host, Patrick Dam. So the Penguins goaltending as of late, Pat, it's not good to say the least. And you look at some of the numbers for both Jari and Adelkevich in the month of March. Jari in the month of March so far, 870 heading into this game against Carolina on Tuesday, March 26. And you look at his last recent few appearances.

800 against the Avalanche, I know he only played for 10 minutes. 800 against the SARS, 868 against the Devils, 739 against the Rangers. four starts in the row of sub-900 goal-titting. You even go beyond that. He had a few decent starts in the month of March, but 8-18 against the Capitals, 800 against the Flabes, where he was really bad to end the third period.

And he has just folded when the games have gotten a lot bigger. And we could say the same for Alex Delfievich as well. He's 843 in the month of March overall. He was 838 against the Oilers, though the Penguins were really rotten in that game overall. 7.14 against the capitals. He came in, he played 30 minutes in that game. 7.83 against the Bruins, 893 against the Red Wings, and then 840 against the

average. There's a couple of okay starts in there as well. But when the calendar turned to March, both goalies just hit a wall and they have flat out stunk. They have. And of the last 25 games, the Penguins 5-on-5 save percentage is 894. And at this point, I hate to do this because, you know, I think talking about and blaming goaltending is the lowest hanging fruit because it's really easy to look at a team's record and a team's

results in when they lose. It's easy to say, oh, well, was goaltending because they gave up more goals than they scored. But I will say this. I mean, it has to be a legitimate discussion right now of whether or not Tristan Jari has what it takes to play in the big games. Because we have seen this from him consistently over the past few years. The fact that when the calendar flips to March, if he's healthy and then into the playoffs, he falls off a cliff. And maybe that's just coincidence. Maybe it's just burnout because we know up until the playoffs.

this year. He didn't really have a viable backup. He had a guy in Casey DeSmith who is, by all accounts, just a backup goalie. He's not a 1A. He's a guy that you have there for, you know, every fifth or sixth game to give your goalie a break. But at this point, I mean, it feels like every time we get to this point of the season, we're talking about whether or not Tristan Jari can handle it. And the longer we keep talking about it, the more it, the more it becomes a thing. And Alex Nadelcovic has always been a one B guy. He's he has shown us that he's probably not a legitimate full-time starting goalie. I would say he's a spot starter, a guy who you can rely on for a couple of weeks if you have an injury or your goalie's going through

something, but he's not going to be your 55, 60, 65 game guy. So at this point, like I said at the top of the show. Whereas this season, a lot of it, the goaltending papered over the other deficiencies, right now it's a deficiency. It's been that way for the last month. You can even go back to February a little bit as well. I was making this point about Tristan Jari last week when it was one of the shows that you were not on for where you're getting your wisdom date taken out.

And honestly, even in the month of February, you know, Jari was 9-07. He was okay, but his numbers still dipped compared to how good he. He was in November, for example, 932, even December, 909, dipped a little bit in January, and then, I mean, went up a little bit, I guess, in February, but it's still right around the same, or 907 and 904. But once the games, again, got a lot bigger in March, which is usually when the playoff push is in full swing, he folded. And that's been a concern of mine for the last couple of years.

I know there was the talk that, oh, he folds after January. I don't know if that's the case because in January he was still giving them at least quality gold turning February it was telling off a little bit but it didn't fall off a cliff like it has in the month of marsh. And their overall say percentage for all goalies in month of March right now, 863. That's according to Dan Hopper, one of my favorite follows on Penguins' Twitter, by the way. If you're not following him, that's my dude, he's great. But this is now another question that the Penguins are going to have to ask themselves this summer,

can they get a full consistent season out of Tristan Jari? Because he was making both of us eat quite a bit of crow for a lot of this season, but then the mixed results came back into play in March. So they need to ask themselves, this will be the first year of this long-term deal. Can they get a fully consistent season out of someone who's making over $5 million? And right now, I'm not really sure they can when you look at his history. because he's been fully healthy this year, and this is the results that he's giving this team.

It's going to be a really fascinating situation to watch once the summer gets underway. The one escape hatch that he gets is that this is not a good team in front of him. And this isn't, say, the Islanders series in 21, where the team in front of him played exceptionally well, and he was the one thing that held them back. So at this point, I do think, and I know a lot of people won't like this answer, is that I think he gets next season to prove himself just because they have to build a better

roster in front of them. Kyle Dubus and his team have to build a better roster in front of them. There has to be better depth. They've got to make some changes on defense. And then if it's the same old story, same old song and dance like Aerosmith likes to say, come this time next year with a better. roster, then I think we have our final complete answer on Tristan Jari. But at the very least, I'm not going to give him a pass, but I am going to look at this with a little bit of a side eye

and say, okay, we do have to keep in mind that the team in front of him is not very good. And he's not, with that in mind, he's not a Igor Shisterkin. He's not a guy who will carry a mediocre or less than good team across the finish line because he's that good. But he can't be this. He can't be this guy who's doing, who are giving sub 900 performances consistently because this is not the Pittsburgh Penguins of the 2010s where they can go out and score five goals a night.

They're going to score three, maybe four, and he has to keep the other team to two or less. Agreed. And I'll be also fascinated to see what else they do at the position for the offseason, you know, does Ndalkovich come back, but he's probably going to be getting a pretty hefty race for how most of his season has gone outside of the month of March.

Does Joel Blumquist make the team out of training camp next season just because it feels like he could be NH already with the way he's playing in Wilkesbury? But those are discussions for the all-season, though. At this point, we basically almost already are in the all-season with only a handful of games left. But I think that will do it for this episode of the Locktown Penguins podcast.

Yes, I know we went a bit long today, but I think it was prudent for how this team played over the last couple of days and how much we needed to rant a little bit more about this team. But as always, we appreciate everyone listening to slash watching this episode. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday to get you all set for the Carolina Hurricanes. And yes, Jake Gensel will make his return to PPGP's arena and we'll get a rocking ovation when he has a video tribute play for him overall. But for Patrick Damp, I'm Hunter Hode.

thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all on Tuesday.