Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What does the Penguins PK need to be better about doing next season?

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

Happy Wednesday! It's another action-packed show for the listeners as Hunter starts out with another silly season trade idea. Yes, it's a Penguins-Canucks trade but NOT for JT Miller. It's for a forward and it requires the Penguins to send two players to the Canucks. He looks at how this player would help the forward group a lot, and how it also saves the team some cap space going into the next season. Next, he reviews the coaching performance of Mike Sullivan and how his system clearly still works. He looks at how great of a job he did during the season to get the team back to the playoffs and how he was able to get the team to flip the switch that quick yet again. Finally, he looks at the Penguins' PK heading into the next season and what they need to do a better job of doing.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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, everyone. Welcome back to another episode for this podcast. Wednesday, what is today? August. Geez, the days are going by that I don't even know what day in August it is. August 3rd for today's episode we're going to do, we'll get into a few things today. A trade proposal that I think would potentially work for both these teams. It was something that me and my buddy were still falling about, and I think it will be cool to talk about this on the podcast. you know, get your feedback, the listeners, of course, on. I think you would also come close to solving the penguin's cap problems, just because if this were to happen, they would shave some off the cap. They would probably just have to do a send down to Wilkesbury, one or two players, and then boom, they would be under the cap. At that point, we're also going to dive into Mike Sullivan's season review,

why I still think he is the coach for this team in the present. in a feature and we're going to get into a discussion about the penalty kill and why it needs to be better next year. It was good this year, but what it needs to do to be great next year. So it's all coming up right after this drop. 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 your host, Honor Hodes. Want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes? I also follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. And, of course, thank you so much for making this your first listen of the day. Outside of today and Friday's episodes, this will be the last time. For those on YouTube, we'll see me from this view on the Outer Banks. I will be back to your regular scheduled, beautiful view for my PC.

and you can see all the artwork in the back and all that. But, you know, let's start out today's episode with something a bit fun. So was spitballing this trade with my buddy, it would help the penguins get a decent forward. It would also help this other team get a defenseman because this team has been wanting, I think wanting to get a defenseman for a lot. I think both teams potentially get what they want in this trade. And what I'm suggesting here, you know, it's a dream. It would be a dream for the Penguins.

Maybe it's not as much a dream for the Canucks. Well, I gave it a while. I gave that away. So what I would be suggesting is sending Sam Poulan and P.O. Joseph. And again, I know I talked about last night how he would be on the top hearing if Brian Dumlin were to be traded. But again, I don't think Dumlin is going to get traded. I think they want him to have a balance back here.

So in this situation, I would be trading POJ. and Sam Poole and the Vancouver Canucks for Niels Hugglunder. He makes, I think below, just making sure I have this right. Yep, 891K this year, a player who, you know, back-to-back years, he's basically been at double-digit goals. He's only been in the NHL for two years, which is just absolutely. He's 21 years old, very young and up-and-coming player, would instantly make the penguins

a bit younger, forward-wise, this would actually be a step in the right direction instead of just getting older everywhere. You know, it was 20, 20, 21 season, played in all 56 games, 13 goals, 27 points, so about half a point per game.

And this past year, 60 games played, 10 goals, 18 points in the 60 games. So back-to-back seasons of double digits for Huglunder. And, you know, he's been talked about, I think, you know, quite a few trade rumors, I think, this offseason.

I know the Canucks have wanting to upgrade their defense. Remember, I think Jim Rutherford's regime, you know, was a lot higher on POJ than this one is. And I know the Penguins just signed him to a one-way deal. But, you know, I'm still not sure he's going to be in the lineup on an every-night basis. I think he may make the team, but I think he's just going to be in the press box every night. And at that point, you know, it's almost like, geez, it's almost like, you know, what are we doing here um basically but you know in the situation the penguins they get a young cost controlled forward who is the potential to put up better numbers on a better team and then the

canucks you know they get a player in poj who i think rutherford likes a lot more than hextall remember he traded for him in the philcastle trade when the penguins also got alks gal chan yuk and who that was a very bad time to say the least and then poulan i think rutherford you know he um I believe he picked him as well. So, you know, two players that he's very familiar with, two players that Patrick Alvin is very familiar with him. He was the assistant general manager when Rutherford was making those moves. So I think, you know, it would be a typical Rutherford moved in that sense.

And I think this would, you know, just have all, both fan bases just come together and celebrate it. Because, you know, these two teams, they've been rumored to potentially making a trade for the last several months now. It was so funny early on in the offseason, everyone, and before the tradeout, everyone's talking about, well, you know, J.T. Miller for, you know, John Marino or, you know, Connor Garland or something like that. And both fan bases, it's just, they want to make a trade with each other so freaking bad. And this one, again, I do think it makes sense for both teams. Hugglunders' numbers, his underlines this year were very strong and played 712 minutes in the 60 games. when he was on the ice,

that Canucks had 53% of the Sean attempts, right about 50-50 in terms of actual goals for, scoring chances, about 52% expected goals. Right about, let me see if I got this right. Yeah, 51% in terms of that as well, high danger, 51% of those. So his underlines very good on a not-so-good team of Canucks. They were not close to make.

Well, I shouldn't say they were not close for a while. Bruce Bidreau came in. They started playing a lot, much better hockey. Closed within five or six points at sometimes. But they just weren't able to just make up all the way. I think they have the potential to be a playoff team next year. Well, I don't know if I said about that. It's going to be closer.

I think Boudreau is one of the better coaches in the league. He's going to have them ready to go. I just don't know what the roster they have constructed right now. that that is a playoff team. But in terms of the penguins, you know, where he fits, slot him on the third line or something like that. You know, if you're top nine now, if you make this trade, and then your defense is set,

if your top nine is Jake Gensel, Cindy Crosby, Brian Rust, Jason Zuckerer of Gennie, Jason Zucker of Guinea-Malkin, McCarrad, Rekyll, and then Niels Huglender, Jeff Carter, and out, Well, I guess because very Kaepinan on your third line, you know, that's possible. You know, especially if Kappan is able to balance back,

if Carter is able to score close to 20 again next year, if he's able to play like the first half version that we saw off Jeff, and not the second half version when he was just total crap. And then your fourth line at that point, you know, Brock McGinn, Teddy Bluger, and then, you know, Denton Hinen, Hinen, something like that. You know, I would honestly just have a third line thinking about it. you know, Hinen, Hoglender, and Carter, and then you can move cap and down even to play with to play with Teddy Bluger and Brock McGinnon.

All of a sudden, your forward step looks pretty good there. You know, I would honestly say that it might be better than last year's. We're very close. You know, Evan Rodriguez would be off his team in that situation. But, you know, compared to where the forward group was right after free agency, if they were to make this move pretty, pretty solid in my opinion. I think that's a forward depth that the Penguins, you know, they can win a lot of games with that top 12. And sure, you know, you can have injuries. Someone like Drew O'Connor is going to come in and play some games where Deems of Horna,

Ryan Payling. You know, I think the Penguins are going to want to get a look at him to since he was a first round pick. Again, don't know if there's much there with him, but, you know, it doesn't hurt to, I guess, give him a shot and have him kind of be like in that Brian Boyle role. I guess, Trey Cajula, obviously going to be there too. That's a two-way deal, so he's not going to need waivers.

But again, you're kind of at that point, 14, 15 forwards deep. So that's a pretty solid group. And, you know, the penguins, it helps their salary-kept situation. POJ actually makes more

at the NHL level than Hoglander does. And, you know, if you're still a little over the cap in that situation, send a couple people down, voila. And, again,

you would have eight defense You can go into the season with 13 forwards, eight defensemen, and two goaltenders. And also, you know, you would give P.O.J. I shot at, you know, maybe a top four role with Vancouver. I don't know when he's going to get that chance here with the Penguins just because, you know, they are so deep at D right now, you know, players ahead of them, Brian Dumlin, Crystal Tang, Pedersen, Petrus and Petrie, Jan Ruta is going to play every night. and then you have, you know, Mark Friedman, Chavez-R-R-R-R-Eidel.

It's just, you know, Ty Smith, of course. I'm almost blamed on his name there for some reason. That doesn't make any sense. But, you know, it's just, it's going to be, he's going to be up a creek, I think, to have a spot on an ever-night base. I think if he stays on the team, he'll play. But, you know, it might honestly be wise to just potentially move him in a deal to get a young cost-controlled forward who, you know, if he has a good year, he's an RFA the next year,

you can give him a little bit of money. You don't have to commit like long, long-term to him, but you should be able to assign him to, I guess, a relatively short-term, decent AAB kind of deal. Because honestly, you know, they're a free agent situation next season for the Penguins. I'm just going to look at cat-friendly now. I don't really think it's that bad, just making sure. You know, Zuckers is the UFA, so that's 5.5 coming off. Teddy Bluger, Dayton Hinen, Josh Archibald, defensively, Brian Dumlin comes off to, and then Tristan Jari is also UFA.

So, you know, their situation next year is honestly, it's fine. So they'll have plenty of space to bring a lot back to the Hugglander if they did make this move. So I would be all in favor. Let me know what you all think in the comments on YouTube, and you send me a DM as well on social media. You know, would you think that's a good trade for the Penguins? And where would you see him on? on an every night basis for the team.

Now, coming up in the second segment, we're going to get into Mike Sullivan's season review and why I still think he is the coach for this team moving forward. But before I get to that, Ben Online is your fastest and easiest play to check out on all of your betting needs. You can find all of your favorite sports and events at the number one online source for odds, lines, and games. You can find reviews and news of every league, including Major League Baseball,

NFL, NBA, NHL, Combat Sports, E-Sports, and even golf. We head to bed online today or to use your phone to remember what the trends in about the action happening today. That is been online where the game starts. All right. I'm back during this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodeys. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hovey. You saw all the shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

So let's get into this. So, you know, Mike Sullivan, you know, for some fans, I think lately, they've gone a bit sad. on him. You know, I get, you know, I guess maybe a smidge about it just because, you know, they've lost in the first round now, what, yeah, four years in row. At this one, you know, a lot of coaches don't usually survive that. At the initial level, you know, this is a job where, you know, there's always firings and then rehirings, all this stuff. It's a very short-term job. Mike Sullivan was one of the longest tenured head coach than the league outside of John Cooper. He's second behind him at this point.

And I thought he did another fabulous job this past year. The fact that the Penguins were that close to getting whole mice from the New York Rangers, despite how many injuries and COVID-related things that went on, it's nothing short of a miracle, to be honest with you, you know, early on in the season, this team is without both of their centers. First game of the year going into Tampa. Game, you never think the Penguins would win. Everyone's betting on the lightning, and they go down there and absolutely done.

on the former two-time defending champions. And it was just like, wow, you know, that's just the kind of game that Mike Sullivan wins with his team. And, you know, in the playoffs, you're like, wow, you know, the Penguins, you don't have any shot of making this even a series against the Rangers. They're up three games to one, and they're speedbagging them through four games. It took a horrific, and I mean a horrific goalie performance from Louis Duming to have the Penguins lose that series.

I've seen people say that Sullivan's system doesn't work anymore. that couldn't be further from the truth. You know, sure, down the stretch, it faded a little bit. I think the team definitely looked at big ass, but, you know, they turned the switch in the playoffs. You know, this team, you know, they have the ability to find that extra gear when it and, you know, I was definitely one of the people that was questioning it late down the stretch season, you know, this is not good.

You know, they look cooked. The vibes are not there. you know, I made myself look like a complete and utter dummy. And the point in also, the Penguins are just, you know, putting up shots left and right on Igor Shosturkin, badly outplaying the Rangers territorially, you know, just underlying numbers, shots on net, anything you wanted to look at. Even just watching the games eye test-wise,

they were by far and away the better team. They were, you know, less than seven minutes away from winning that series in seven games before, you know, we all know what happened, with that one. Heck, they were 26 minutes away from winning the series in five games. That series was over. I'll still die on this hill if Sidney Crosby does not get cheap shot by Jacob Trouba. But, you know, his system, it's a very delicate one, I think, to play. You know, if the whole team is not showing up, they're going to get blown out pretty easily. It's a system that you have to go zero to 100 for very fast, just because

of how much is required of you, you know, getting the puck out of your zone, you know, forechecking aggressively in the offensive zone, low to high, and all that stuff. You know, it's really, you know, dependent on the team, you know, winning these puck battles, you know, in the corner, you know, cycling in the offensive zone, getting it up to the point, setting up some shots in the slot. And then, you know, it's really just going to work and just peppering and pestering the goaltenders. And then defensively, you know, that's just, he usually wants. He wants his team to, you know, go from defense to offense very quickly.

You know, I mean, no team likes to spend a lot of time in their defensive zone. But, you know, especially with first album, you know, he, he always stretches, you know, when, you know, when you have the puck on your stick, you know, you're looking to score. You're looking to, you know, make the right play with it. And I always love his saying, you know, you know, we're at our best when we play the right way. And that's, that's Penguins hockey right there. I think, again, the last couple of years, the team has lost due to things that are really out of his control. You know, he's not going to bring in, you know, the third string goaltender last year, what, Maxime, like I say, or however the heck. I mean, the fact that I barely even remember him just because Casey DeSmith, you know, was hurt for that one.

It's just nothing short of a miracle. But, you know, he can't control Jari just, you know, dumping all over himself. he can't control both Jari and Smith getting hurt this year and having to start Louis DeMing in the playoffs. But, you know, I thought he got the most out of the team, again, especially when COVID was really hitting and their regulars out of the lineup on an overnight basis. This team did not play a single game last year when fully healthy. I mean, that just goes to show how great of a coach he is and how he can always get the most out of them no matter what. I do think though if they lose in the first round again, you know,

at some point, you know, you're going to have to get results. That will be five straight years. I would kind of understand them moving on, even though I don't think you're going to find a better coach on the open market. But again, you know, this is a results-oriented business. And if you're not, you know, doing well with, you know, some of the best players league-wide, you know, you're not going to be a coach for much longer.

I think he's arguably the best head coach this franchise has ever had right up there with Badger Bob. I would put him as a 1A, 1B right there. And, you know, again, I'm expecting more big things from him. I'm curious to see if he changes anything to assist him tactically wise. You know, I loved what they did to the Rangers in the playoffs. You know, they saw what was going wrong in the regular season games. In the Penguins, they were able to take away some of those stretch passes. The Rangers were burying them on during the regular season.

in games, just not letting them get to offense at all in a lot of those games. He really went to the video room to clean some of that up. And, you know, it goes to show, you know, how well he is adjusting to what another team has done to the penguins. I think adjustments-wise, I would put him up against any coach in the league. So I'm fine with hijamp. He did this past year. Again, the fact that they finished as high as they did in the standings, considering all the injuries they have as a miracle. Yes, I'm sure the penguins are going to have so many more injury problems this year.

It's just a curse at this point. But I will say this. He does not get results this year. They don't win at least around in the playoffs. I'm curious to see if Ron Hextall would pull the trigger and find his own head coach because, you know, obviously he didn't hire Sullivan, you know, Rutherford was able to promote him when he was here. So that's going to be, I think, a big topic of discussion when that time comes. Right now, still very high on Mike. He's a top five coach in the league, and I really enjoy the job that he did with his team this year.

Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into the penalty kill for next year and what I want to see more out of from that unit next season. That's coming up right after this commercial break. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoadies, and I'm following me on. Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. So, you know, yeah, this was something I was talking about with my buddies as well. And, you know, he made up a great point to me, you know, just ask me a simple question, you know,

why was the penalty kill so good last year? And, you know, I immediately went to, you know, Michael Lucci making adjustments. And, you know, sure, he did, but, you know, a lot of the penalty kill success, people don't want to like this answer. It came due. to how good Tristan Jari was short-handed. And I'm going to bring up, if I can bring up the numbers here on hockey weapons, I believe, he was one of the best goalies in the league when facing shots on the penalty kill. If I can find the advanced, yeah, metric year. Yeah, so short-handed last year.

Yeah, if I have this. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry about that. Yeah. 917 save percentage when the penguins were short-handed. That's very, very good. That means, again, he is bailing them out most times on the penalty kill. You know, his high danger save percentage on the penalty kill. Again, among one of the very best. in the league. He was the main reason why that unit was having that much success. I think the Penguins next year, especially for this, they need to do a lot better at getting in front of shooting lanes and blocking shots. And, you know, I know that's an old cliche in this forward. And, you know, I know some people don't like players that, you know, just they block shots as a living. And that's basically what Chris Russell is known for. And everyone wanted to trade for him

just a few years ago because, you know, you need that shop-locking defenseman who's not afraid to, you know, get himself injured and all that stuff. And that's not what I'm saying here. But, you know, you need to help out your goalie in terms of that, you know, in the playoffs against the Rangers. I know, Doming was terrible short-handed, but, you know, the Penguins, they weren't doing him any favors. I mean, you know, they're letting stretch passes get through very easily, letting the Rangers get set up very easily. there was no aggressive maneuvering from the Penguins once the Rangers were set up.

When the Penguins PK is actually working, what they run, it's called a wedge plus one. I've talked about this on the show a few times, but for those that are new, or I've not heard me talk about it, what they like to do, they like to have a guy at the top. When it was really going well,

Brandon Tannib was there, and he was just pestering, pestering everyone up there, whether it was the right point, left, point and was really making the opposition, it was just making it hard on them to actually get clean passes to the other players. Actually, the Penguins were not doing that as much, especially in the playoffs.

I know, I think Brian Boyle was one of the main guys up there. I think Brock McGinn was at times two. And they're just, they're sitting there. You know, they're five, 10 feet back,

just giving the Rangers clear, you know, lanes to shoot at. And it's like, I don't know who came up with that strategy, but that's not, you know, what you're supposed to be doing.

And then usually in the penguin's good, you know, scenario here or just their ideal deployment with that wedge plus one, they have the other three guys, you know, kind of just creating, you know, almost like a box, you know, box out the slot, part of the ice. So you give your goaltender the best possible, you know, look at a shot. And so also the shots don't come, you know, 10, 15, even 20 feet out. the whole point of this structure is so that the goalie gets these low to medium danger shots. And the penguins, they were not doing that nearly in the regular season and in the playoffs. The PK was legitimately good in the first time. Sure, Jari was playing really well, but it was legitimately good. And then, you know, once they started to, you know, just allow a lot more shots,

playing, you know, more passively, you know, it went down because, you know, sometimes, you know, that's what happens when your goalie can't bail you out on every day basis and he's seeing a lot more shots from the slot area. He was able to do it at a time, but sometimes you get worn down from facing all those kinds of shots. So I bought the Penguins, I want them to get back to actually getting into shooting lanes and blocking shots, being more aggressive on a penalty kill, having that player up at top, just causing all that havoc. I think when Tana left via expansion, that created a bit. big hole for the Peking. I'm not really sure who that player should be this year.

But it's something that I think Volucci is going to have to get right. If I don't see more improvement from the PK, this year, you know, would kind of not be, you know, too mad if Mike Volucci was sent packing in that situation. I think, honestly, he's probably going to get a head coaching job really soon. Anyway, he was a finalist for two to three, two to three head coaching jobs during this cycle, at least. but, you know, it's something that I do think needs to be worked on going into connection. I'm sure Volucci knows how successful the Rangers were in the playoffs against them.

It's unacceptable. How successful other teams were down the stretch was not good. I mean, you know, they were top three in the league, you know, for most of the season, but, you know, before that home stretch and then in the playoffs, they just reverted back to last year. It was more basically, you know, I, you know, I, no, I will say, you know, I have this saying, in terms of this. For the Penguin special teams.

You know, you can win with a not that good power play and a good penalty kill, but you can't win, you know, with a good power play and a bad penalty kill. Let me know if that makes sense to you all because, you know, my thing is like, yeah, sure, you can score on the main advantage, but if you're just giving it back, like, then like, you know,

what are you doing? I think at that point. So, yeah, you can be bad on the main advantage and be really good at penalty and can win the penguins. You know,

they can win a lot of games that way. You know, they shouldn't be bad on the power to play because they have all about talent up front. But, you know, even if they didn't and they were, you know,

maybe just a team fighting to even get in the playoffs, you can be an average, to below average, you can have an average to below average power play and have a really good penalty kill and still be able to make some noise, especially at 5 v5. And also again, of course, if both your special team units are not good, you know, you're really not going to go anywhere at that point. So now, in my opinion, I think it's more, what's the word I'm looking for? It's more important to have a better penalty kill than it is a better power. I may get hate for

that but you know that's just that's how I felt um that that's honestly how I've always felt to be honest with you so that wraps up this episode for um today's podcast um I'll be back with another episode for you all on Friday and take the day off on Thursday um go to the beach and on that stuff um but I'll be back with another one on Friday where we'll talk more things regarding um your favorite hockey team so hope you all have a great rest of your day on Wednesday if you're listening on Thursday hope you have a wonderful Thursday and I will talked with you all on Friday.