Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What needs to change on the power play for the Penguins next season?

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

Happy Wednesday! We're still chugging along here and Hunter starts out this episode with an interesting blurb from Josh Yohe's article about the Penguins on Wednesday. He touches on how Fenway wants to know what Hextall's plan is moving forward and how his initial answer may not bode well for him as future of being general manager. Hunter gets into how Fenway may want their own GM and President of Hockey Ops since they're very big on data & analytics when Hextall and Burke likely aren't. After that, Hunter reviews the power play from this season and looks at what he wants to see from that unit heading into the 2022-23 season. He breaks down what went wrong for it in the playoffs, especially the 5-on-3's when the Penguins looked like they were the team down two men. He also looks at how the zone entries did the team no favors, plus how the Penguins did too many "east-west" plays when sometimes less is more. Finally, Hunter ends the show by going back to Josh's article and looking at how some people inside the Penguins organization view some of the players heading into the summer.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!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Well, the off season is where we're chugging along at this point. Ron Hextall has not spoken to the media. At this point, I would assume if he's going to be on the job for this year, I mean, he'll probably speak tomorrow, Friday, maybe sometime during the weekend. But for today's episode, we're going to get into an article that Josh Gioi wrote. And a part of the article that I thought was definitely really interesting. I put it a little bit out. I think Adam Greta's a pro hockey talk put that blur about.

And we're also going to get into why the power. PowerPlay needs to be a lot better what I would like to see from that unit next year and a couple of other things as well. So we're going to get into that episode 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 and welcome back to another episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast.

I am your host, Hunter Hode. He's going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hote. also follow the shows, Twitter at L-Len Square Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this year first listen of the day. I just actually wrapped up watching the Carolina New York game. And, you know, that's what the Rangers get for trying to play prevent defense in the third period. They drop that game one. They go down one game to zero.

And, you know, I'm probably going to sound maybe a little bit salty. I do hope that the Rangers kind of get speed back here. You know, I've gotten over that series for the most part. You know, I'm still a little bit. I guess just upset because, you know, the penguins played so well and they could not win this series. But, you know, the Rangers, they came out well against Carolina of those first two periods. You know, Carolina really had no answer for them.

And then the third period came and Rangers took the foot off the gas. Carolina was out shooting them 13 to nothing, I think. And Rangers only had one shot attempt through the first 10 minutes. It looked like they didn't even gain the offensive zone for the entire period. Carolina is able to tie it with about two minutes of the Sebastian Aahe, and then former penguin two-time second-lekept champion, Ian Cole against the winner. So congratulations to Caroline. in Cole, I will always have good things to say about him.

It's a shame that him and Mike Sullivan did not get along towards the end because I definitely think the Penguins could have used him down the stretch here these last couple of years, especially during the couple of the Jack Johnson years. I would have loved to have him in the lineup over Jack Johnson to say of the least. But that's a whole different spiel. So the big thing I want to touch on for this first segment was this article that Josh Joey wrote today. And basically it was about, you know, where the penguins here?

Where do the penguins go from here? You know, like what's next for them and all this stuff? And, you know, the big thing, this is the big blur from Josh. Earlier this season, Fenway Sports Group, they told Ron Hextall they wanted to see his vision for the team in writing. Hextall, a creature of habit in the middle of regular cease responsibilities, explain that his plan for the penguin's future was in his head and not easily articulated by the written word. So that is basically like, so say you're back in like, you know, seventh, eighth, ninth grade, right?

You know, you have a math quiz. Maths, you're in algebra class, whatever. And your teacher's like, okay, you need to show your work on this, or you're not going to get the answer right. I don't care if you know the answer. And you turn it in, you put the right answer down. You don't show your work. And your teacher's like, oh, well, no wonder why you got wrong.

I told you to show your work and what you had to do to get to this answer. And this is basically the same. exact thing with this with Ron Hextall and Fenway Sports Group. He says he has a plan. He has it at his head. He doesn't really want to write it down, but Fenway's like, we want you to do it. And as Josh says, he was told to write his vision for the Penguins' future anyway. Hextall respected the ownership's request and provided a written summary painting a verbal picture of the Penguins future on his watch. Only the ownership circle knows Hextall's words in his visions. If the Fenway Sports Group is satisfied with it,

he will remain as the GM. If not, an already fascinating summon where it could become more tumultuous. So what does the ending mean? Again, if Family Sports Group does not approve of Ron Hextall's plan, they're going to cut him. They're going to cut him and they're going to bring in a brand new general manager that they want. If they do like the plan, they're going to keep in there.

And, you know, he's going to continue with his duties. But definitely, you know, not the greatest start for the offseason for Ron, at least. My TV's on here in the back. I've been watching the Battle of Alberta. because it's just it's so much fun but again definitely that that's not the note you really want to start off on um i don't think to say it at least actually i'm going to turn this off um as i'm recording this fucking get on youtube okay perfect there again um again not the greatest note there um i think you know you should have just decided to do it the first time and again this goes off what i

talked about on my tuesday episode fenway you know they're probably conducting a very thorough review of the organization right now. Top to bottom, players, all of ICE personnel, everyone in the organization. Because again, you know, they didn't spend $900 million just to sit on their butts. That's a lot of freaking money that they decided to spend and they're going to want to make sure that the organization is in the best hands moving forward. They want the best people in charge for everyone. And, you know, that's the way they see it. And, You know, again, if Ron Hextall is not going to be the guy to lead the Penguins into the future, I'm sure they will have no problem hiring their own general manager,

hiring their own president of hockey operations. There's another member, I think, of the Penguins media that said that Brian Burke may not be back next year. So that's now two people that have said this. You know, I think this one I think was the super genius, of course. I think someone reached with it on my Twitter timeline. His track record is spotty. I know I probably have some Mark Madden fans that listen to this show. I'm definitely not a big fan of him just because of this anti-Geno stuff.

But, you know, that's him and Rossi. You know, Rossi went on 93-7, the fan, and he said, you know, he does not expect birth back. So, again, that's two people right now saying this. You know, I want to see if Josh Yowie reports this. I want to see if Elliott Freeman reports this and some of these other people that, you know, are obviously, you know, some Pittsburgh people, some national people, to say the least. But, you know, the team also has to hire.

a president of the team, not just a president of hockey ops, you know, because David Morehouse, of course, resigned. And, you know, there's still really been not too much on that, I don't think. Um, you know, I think they're probably conducting that internally, very quietly. Um, and again, you know, this just goes with the, what, what they're doing of you conducting a very thorough review of the organization. So I, that said, I would have to think if Brian Burke and Ron Hickstall are not going to be the guys moving forward with, what, with what is it going to be a very pivotal point in this franchise's history, they're going to want to make that move sooner rather than later.

Because again, you know, think about, you know, the draft is coming up soon, free agencies in a month and a half, just about, you're going to want to start those contract negotiations with Crystal Tang, of Guinea, Malkin, maybe Brian Russ, or Carter, Kellogg and Rodriguez. You're going to want a GM in the president of hockey ops in place fairly quickly because, you know, say both of them are not back, you know, then what's hanging in his agent, they may be negotiating with someone that, you know, they don't really know that well. So, you know, they're going to have to make this decision really soon if there is one

to be made. Again, you know, right now, there are still employees of the team, both Burke and Hextall, until they aren't, you know, I'm not going to really speculate too much. But again, you know, I thought it was an interesting point in Josh's article that I had to bring up. at least that blurb was intriguing to me. A couple other parts of the article that I really liked. A former Penguins executive told Josh about Sidney Crosby, he's still one of the best three to four players in the league.

He goes, if you don't think that, that you don't understand the sport, he's dear me as great as he ever was, yes. Sid is still a ridiculous player. I'm not saying any breaking news here or anything, but yes, he was still a top three to top four player. in the league this year. And this was, I thought, also a big thing from Josh's article today. Numerous sources have confirmed to me that members of the Fenway Sports Ownership Group

are extremely impressed with Mike Sullivan and they view him as the Penguins coach for the present and the future. That's huge. You know, I mean, you know, I'm sure they saw the job that he was doing in the playoffs. And I'm sure they see that it was not his fault that they lost to the New York Rangers. You know, Sullivan is one of the very best at, you know, hit this profession other than Barry Tranch and John Cooper. People can argue those over Mike Sullivan, but there are not any other better coaches in this league, I don't think, better than Mike. So those are the main parts of Josh's article that I took away from that, you know,

obviously mainly the Ron Hextall, Brian Burke thing. You know, let me know what you all think is going to happen down the YouTube comments or you can DM me on social media and all that. You know, do you think that both Burke and Hextall will be back for next season? or do you think that Fenway Sports Group could be making a change and getting, you know, some fresh blood in there because, you know, it sounds weird because they haven't been here too long, but Fenway Sports Group is very big in data and analytics. Ryan Burke, bit of an old hand.

Ron Hextall uses them, but probably not as much as some of these other people would, you know, could that be a big difference maker for, you know, Fenway and, you know, Ron, and now he wants to construct the team moving forward. I think that's going to have to be a big talking point as well. Now, coming up with the next day, when we're going to get to the power play and what I want to see going into next year. But before I get to that,

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I want to follow me on Twitter, Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at Ellen. North Shore Penguins. So, you know, conducting, you know, some season reviews at this point. Let's just, let's get to the power play. I mean, outside of the goal tending, I think, well, obviously, obviously, the new special teams go hand in hand. I'm honestly more disappointed in the power play than I am with the penalty killed. Because, you know, I can understand that you're giving up some goals to the Rangers special teams, you know, and if it weren't for that even strength goal with 545, let the Penguins would have won that series, you know, even though the PK was not that good, but the power play just had so many instances in this series where they

could have taken the game over and they decided not to. I mean, you know, game five in New York, five on three for a full two minutes. You barely even get shots on goal. I think there's only two or three shots. During that time, you have a five on three for a minute seven in game six, two, two game in the second period, excuse me, and you're barely even able to get a shot on goal. That's unacceptable. And, you know, I don't think Mike Sullivan is going to fire Todd reared in i think todd is a good coach you know mike mathison spoke glowingly about him at his exit um day interview i think um you know also i believe in um josh's article today if i can find this here um let me just make sure yeah yeah he and he says here todd loves matheson we all saw the difference

working with todd is made for mike he's going to be a monster moving forward i mean yeah we all saw how great mike was this year we you know the defensemen have made strides under todd but the power play, it regressed this year. And normally he's known for running a really good power play, you know, did it in Washington for several years. The Penguins had a very good power play when he was first an assistant coach under Mike Sullivan, what, not under Dan Baosma, excuse me, but this year, just not up to the standards that, you know, I think a lot of Penguins fans.

I said just because, you know, there's so much talent on there. I mean, Sydney Crosby, Chris Elton, Jake Ensel, I'm Guinea-Mulk and Brian Rust. I mean, you know, with Russes, I put Robert McKell. up there. Evan Rodriguez was manning that top spot. Heck, even last year, when Jared McCann was a penguin, I mean, he was just absolutely killing it. But this year, I did not really think the puck movement was really that good. The zone entries left a lot to be desired. It seemed like the penguins were trying to do a lot of east to westing and not a lot of puck's, you know, on net to create, you know, traffic in front, you know, havoc and all that to get those high danger

chances. I think a lot of times they were looking to for that perfect shot to beat a goal tenor. I mean, especially it felt like that at times in the series, even though they were peppering Shasturkin quite a bit. I mean, they scored three plus goals in six of the seven games, but when they would get a power play, they were looking for that perfect play. You know, outside of that Heinen goal in game seven on the power play, they had the Brian Rust five on three goal in game one. And I believe they had another second unit goal in this series on the power play really did not do much. And again, you know, it's, they're not getting traffic in front.

The zone entries are not there. I mean, they're, they were committing way too many turnovers. This playoff series against the Rangers, you know, I don't think I've ever seen the Penguins commit that many turnovers on the power play. And, you know, before people come into the comments and tell me, well, a lot of it was of Guinea Malkin. I mean, sure, you know, he did have some turnovers. But, you know, Sidney Crosby in game seven, passed it literally right to a ranger in

the defense zone. Springs Tyler Mott for breakaway, Tristan Jari has to bail his butt out, bail their butts out, excuse me, to keep that a three to two game in the third period before Zabinajad tied it with 545 left. It's just, it's careless plays like that, that, you know, it's just, it's not good enough. And I want to see that cut down. I mean, the Penguins, the first unit this year, when they would get too comfortable or try to make a haul and glow try to play, they would just be too careless with the puck. And, you know, there were definitely a lot more shorthanded chances that I would like.

again, you know, you should not be giving up a lot of chances when you're literally up a man. I mean, they call it a power play for a reason. You are up a man. You are expected to get at least a lot of zone time. And you most of the time get a goal. Or the Penguins, for whatever reason, the series, they lost that battle badly. The Rangers penalty kill was honestly not even that good during the regular season. It was above average.

But it was still a unit that could we had. You know, they didn't really have Tyler Mott for a lot of this series. sure they put out some of their best players but you know the penguins you know they should have been able to do a lot more damage um on the main advantage i was i was someone that was talking about how you know they they should have started with the second unit at times because the first unit just kept screwing up so freaking badly and just you know even in game one Chris crider gets a short-handed goal um you know i believe it was in uh i think one of one of the home games uh one of the three home games they gave up another short-handed goal.

It's just, it was not good enough. And, you know, I'm sure Todd Reardon is going to go back to the drawing board and maybe, you know, fine-tune his things for the power play. And, you know, I know the unit may look a lot different next year because Crystal Tang may not be back. Again, he malcon potentially might not be back. But, you know, if it does look the same and the Penguins are able to get both those players re-signed, you know, I just want to see more consistency.

You know, power plays can really swing the momentum of games, you know, And say the Penguins, they did score in game five. It's potentially a completely different game with how they are playing. You guys, again, obviously, the chain reactions are a lot different. Cindy Crosby probably doesn't even get hurt with that. But down the stretch in the playoffs, it wasn't good enough. It needs to be a lot better. And I'm just looking for it to be more consistent.

I want better puck movement. I want more shots to the net and stop trying to go east-west. try to get that perfect play, cut down on the turnovers, these lazy passes. And, you know, I also do want to see this. You know,

my son of sometimes, he only puts his power play up there for 45 to 50 seconds. I don't want the team to, you know, go full Alex Ovechkin over here and have him play for the full minute 50 to two minutes. I think, you know,

that's a little too much, in my opinion. But, you know, maybe a minute 20, minute 25. Then you can put your second unit on there. I think that's fine. I would like to see both

Sullivan and Reardon give the first powerplay some more minutes because I think if you're only doing 45 to 50 seconds and maybe they're not getting in the zone you want to change up the units, I still think that first unit should get get I think at least a little more time on ice. That's strictly my opinion, though. We'll see if Todd decides to change that up. So that concludes this segment on the power play and why it just failed them, you know, when they need in the most. It's just, you know, the penguins have stunk at five on threes for a while.

That's, that's, you know, the five on fours, those could obviously be better, but the five on threes really have to be better. You know, it looks like the penguins, it looks like they're down two men when they have a five on three. They almost scored one five on three goal in the series, and they had numerous instances. I don't even think the Rangers didn't even have a five on three in that series. I just go to show out how the Penguins just bungled that so about. Still a little more to get to for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast.

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He's not going to follow me on Twitter at Honorable Hohdi's all this shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore penguins. So I did want to touch on a couple last things with Josh's article today because, you know, again, you know, this has a lot of pretty good information on it. I mean, he let everyone know about the Penguins and ownership group. They don't like to rebuild. They have a lot of money and they're prepared to spend it.

And again, they like their own people in charge. So, again, if the Penguins do have camps face this summer and say, you know, say they don't bring back again, you know, they want to go in a different direction. They want to put more youth in the lineup. Again, you know, I want youth in the lineup, but I still won't cause me walking back. I will disagree if they don't both come back. Okay. Let's say that happens.

And, you know, say, you know, maybe one of Raquel and Rodriguez don't come back. Say cap and he's gone too. All of a sudden, you do have a lot of cap room to play with where you can bring more player, some decently high-priced players in to build around Sydney Crosby and Jake Encel and Mike Matheson and Tristan Jari. I think Fenway Sports Group would spend that money because, again, you know, they didn't, they didn't spend $900 million to, you know, I don't think be cheap here. You know, with Liverpool, they spend their money.

With the Boston Red Sox, they spend their money. The Red Sox are one of the richest teams in baseball. Now, I will, in case people do not know some history with family who's work, so the Red Sox had Mookie Betts for my baseball fans out there. He's one of the best players in the sport, probably a tough player in the game. And a couple years ago, they actually traded him. The ownership group said, you know what? We don't think he's going to be that good in his future.

And they got a big package back for him, but it was still a move that was met with some pessimism because he was still in his prime at the time. But the Fenway group, they said, you know what? We're going to go through with this. And, you know, a year later, they were in the ALCS. They didn't go to the World Series, but, you know, they were only a couple games away from winning that. And, you know, the Red Sox right now, they're still not a, they're still not bad on the show. I think they're set up for, you know, good success, in my opinion.

So, again, you know, they're not afraid to make moves that I guess some of the fans won't like. And they're also not afraid to spend money to improve the team. So again, I'll say this. say they don't bring back saying, Ergeny Malkin, I truly do believe they would go out into free agency and be open and be very willing to spending their money and spending up to the cap. As long as you have Cindy Crosby and Jake Gensel

and some of these other core players, you are going to spend to the cap. I know the Penguins have been wanting to create cap space for a while now. I think Elliot Freeman touched on that in his 32 thoughts, blog and his podcast. They want more cap space moving forward and they look like they're going to get it, at least in some capacity.

even if Malkin and Let's hang our back, but they still want some flexibility, so they're not 50,000 under the cap or something like that. But again, Fenway, they will have no problem spending up to the cap here to say the least. There's also another thing I found very interesting from Josh here was about Brian Dumlin. many in the organization are concerned about him going into next year, and that age is playing a factor. The Penguins Coach Knav could not believe it, a source close to the Penguins Coach Knav said he's always been so solid

that he was not anymore. The coaches had no idea what to make of it. It was shocking. And, you know, this is what happens sometimes when you get over the age of 30. Your body starts to break down more. You're not as young as you used to be. You're not as good as you used to be. And now that contract is starting to look a little bit.

could that pave the way to P.O. Joseph coming up full-time. He's down in Woodbury. He had a pretty good year. He's been knocking on the door for a year or two. I mean, the Penguins, they will have options if they, say, even if they bring Chris Lattang back, they will still have an option to move one of their left-handed defensemen to bring P.O. Joseph up full-time. Because, again, he's probably ready at this one.

I mean, he's shown NHL Flashes before. Last year he looked ready the year before that. He looked ready a little bit. but this is the player that I think the coaching staff and the management are very high on. So, yeah, I mean, I know the coach said no idea what to make of it, but at the end of the day, it's just his body's starting to break down. He's been banged up a lot more. And, you know, he just, he may not have it.

And, you know, maybe that leads to him being traded. Who knows? But, you know, I think it's going to be a very interesting summer for number eight. I would not be surprised either way. You know, if they bring it back, I won't be. be surprised because, you know, I think that would be like a loyalty thing. But if they trade him and bring back like a forward or something like that, would not be surprised in the slightest just because,

and there were some people in the fan base clamoring for him to be scratched versus someone like Mark Freeman or something like that. And, you know, sure, the play, it didn't, how long is it is? You know, Mathes and LaTang was fine in the playoffs, but I still was more comfortable with Dumlin. I know people were telling me, well, you know, you're not really going to notice it. And, you know, at times I didn't, but other times I did because he still is that steadying,

calming presence that Latang has always needed throughout a square. Ever since they started playing together, you know, during the 2015-16 season. Josh also talked to Swarces about John Marino. He said, sources told Josh he was frustrating for the coaches. He's a good kid. The coaches like him. But they just wanted to shake him to snap him out of the funk that he was in for most of the season. They just wanted more from him.

And, you know, I think they got their wish in the playoffs outside of that bad play in Game 7. That was some of the finest play I think I've seen for Marino's career. And if he can continue that good play going into next season, he will be worth that $4.4 million A.A.V and much more. I still want to see more offense for him. He only had one freaking goal in 80-plus games. It's hard to believe that he only had one goal all season.

I really do not understand that, to say at the least. but if he can bring out more offense, that's great. Obviously, he's going to be known for, you know, being a defensive defenseman. But, you know, I still would like to see more offense from him to say the least. Josh also, you know, confirmed, you know, that Tristan Jari is going to be the man moving forward. You know, management decided last year that in August that he was going to be the guy. And the penguin seat, Josh has been told that they believe he is the man moving forward. If they were, you know, Casey DeSmith is a UFA.

Louis Duming is a UFA. They should go out and get a backup. There's no excuses not to you. You know, Casey Smith, he's a fine, he's a fine backup goal. That is what he is, but, you know, I still want a 1B goalie to come in here. That can take starts away from Jari and not have him play on a basically in every game basis. Because remember, you saw when the comedians went to the final about a year ago, right? Carrie Price didn't play as much down the stretch.

And again, I'm not doing a full Troops and Jari to Kerry Price. and error. But, you know, you saw that he didn't play as much because Jake Allen was able to take away some starts. If the Penguins can go out and get a veteran backup to take away some of those, it'll make Jari more fresh and hopefully lessens a chance of him getting hurt at the end of the year. So those are my thoughts on some of the other stuff from Josh's article and wanted touch on the stuff from Fenway and wanted to get to the power play for this episode. So I really appreciate every one of you listening to this one. I will be back with another episode on Thursday. we're going to continue some season reviews.

We're going to go into the penalty killing unit and what I'd like to see moving forward for next year. And then, you know, we're going to start going into some player-by-player season reviews and no one news is made available when Ron Hextal, Brianberg treats in the media, or if there's a move involving them, I will talk about that on the show. So again, thank you all so much for listening. I hope we all have a wonderful, wonderful Wednesday, and I will talk with you all on Thursday.