The Pittsburgh Penguins have made things easy on Kyle Dubas for this week and that’s what Hunter and Pat start with for today’s show. They dive into what went wrong this weekend and how fragile this team is, starting with the game against the Calgary Flames. They analyze how the Penguins fell apart in the final 10 minutes of the third period and how that ended their season before briefly discussing the loss to the Edmonton Oilers. They discuss how the team showed no heart and no effort in that game and how it looks like Mike Sullivan can’t be back behind the bench next season before ending the show with a trade deadline primer. Who should stay? Who should go? What type of returns are we looking for? All that, plus much more is on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.
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35 Comments
Had the exACT same thought about just being sad to watch that last night. Looked exactly like the pens used to. Makes you really appreciate what we had as fans in those years.
Yes, Sully needs to go. No heart, No soul = sell, sell sell. We Pens fans will see now EXACTLY what Dubas is made of!! You two rock for sure!!👍🏻👍🏻
I feel like if you are trading guentz then you need to keep rust. I just don’t like Crosby losing both his wingers.
womp womp
I'm just completely done with Sullivan honestly. This is the most passionless and emotionless hockey team I've ever seen, they're a bunch of drones. That aside, this is gonna be an extremely interesting and important week for this franchise. It's really time to see what Dubas is made of.
Agree it's time to move on from Sully. But Ryan Graves needs to be the first to go.
Malkin is done there is not a team in the league that would take on the contract. He will be the new Jeff Cater in the coming 2 years
Don’t forget even red wings have goood young player for jake
Dubas want to trade jake he need to listen to ,kings,jets,red wings,cans,Canucks,
I've hesitated on going in the camp of "Fire Sully" throughout this year because I knew this roster had limitations but when you see a consistent pattern of the team just not even fighting, being mentally fragile, repeating the same mistakes with coaching related systems like the D-men making bad pinches, and not even getting into the power play and lack of finishing, I'm starting to feel they need to wipe the slate clean of coaching in addition to selling off as much as you can. Going to be sad to see guys like Guentzel go, but I'm interested to see what Dubas can get since he's very good at making them. And perhaps its a pipe dream, but maybe Dubas can swing a bigger trade in the offseason to bring a big name winger into the top-6 with all that extra cap space. I don't feel it's entirely unrealistic since he somehow traded all "bad players" for Karlsson and saved cap space last year.
Guentzel, Eller, Nedeljkovic, Smith, Rakell, Ruhwedel, Acciari, Pettersson, Jarry have all had GM's call and varying levels of interest in them according to Dave Pagnotta. I would keep MP28 and Jarry unless the offer is just TOO good to refuse, but all other 7 people I would be sending this trade deadline if I am Dubas.
You've hit the nail on the head that Sullivan's system isn't the right system for this team as it is constructed. They need to play a much more passive game. There is no other team in the league that gives up odd man rushes against at the regularity the Pens do, and it has been this way for several years. The Sullivan system really only suits Crosby and Rust at this point. (I'm assuming Guetzel is gone.) And with a different system, you "might" even get the Graves from NJ or the Smith from Vegas, etc. (Assuming they can't be moved.)
Looks like the team did before sully, with johnson
I was fearful missing Jake and Rusty would hurt us during that trip and it really did in the last 3 games. Cant get scoring from the bottom six every night.
Thank you for saying Vegas doesn’t have anything to offer. Their prospects are garbage and they have no picks
They need a 2C and to put Geno on Sid’s wing, it’s time.
I've been sick of Sullivan for years. I don't care if we stay at the bottom, I just don't want to see him anymore.
Question Guys from Lock on Sharks debate: You prefer the Sharks to get the first pick (Karlsson trade) this yeard 11-15 spot. Or next year, unprotected pick.
I’d take a look at Jaycob Megna paired with EK65. He’s a good physical/stay at home dman. It work in SJ last year.
Please trade PO, Graves, Rakell, Smith, Ned, Ruhwedel & I will be ecstatic
Trade Jake to the Rangers as part of a package for Matt Rempe , pride and real toughness, something the Pens are not even close to having .
Had the coachs addressed the pp issue instead of waiting until 40 games in maybe these games may not have mattered as much and this would be a whole different conversation, also the 5mill $ anchors were the other problem. Everyone is entitled to have bad nights it happens but at some point you have to own up to the contract you signed, period
k so remember when you said i was being negative in the comments before the season.
yeah.
well.
i was right.
Anybody know how Colorados prospect pool is? I have no idea but I wondered about possibly a Guentzel to the Avalanche trade.
I’m just looking forward to the Deadline and Off season
It just baffles me this team was
A good Powerplay
Consistent bottom 6
New coaching staff ?
From a playoff spot 😢
Is it just me or does it seem like Crosby lately has just stopped caring? I don’t think he’s losing it I think he’s genuinely upset of something in the background going on which I suppose is understandable with how he started the season and how the team is performing around him.
If a team beats good teams and lose to bad teams can we say the team is trying to say something?
I'm here through the good and the bad. I'll never forget the moments of 16-17 as I saw it live. I'll wait as long as it takes to get back and appreciate Crosby, Malkin, Letang for as long as I can.
GMJR towards the end was kind of bad I mean you give up first round picks and tons of prospects for guys like Ryan Reeves, Derick Brassard &Jason Zucker. All three of those players I didn’t really think were good enough for a deep playoff run. I mean you can make an argument for Jason Zucker. I really was concerned when we brought in Hexall. I didn’t really think that guy was the right choice. So Dubas Was able to pull off the EK trade and yes it was pretty crazy he was able to move those horrible contracts. Only problem is that all he did was replace those players with the same type just cheaper, hoping that something would stick. My whole thing was, I didn’t really see a need for a player like EK, I just didn’t think he was the type of player we needed.
And no, this isn’t revisionist history I don’t have a YouTube channel or anything to really prove what I was saying, but amongst friends and family or even just strangers talking hockey, I really felt like after the 2019 season it was really time to move on from Malkin and or Letang. I understand they’re very talented players. They were still very good players at that time but they’re just comes a time when a GM really needs to make tough decisions when it comes to aging core players. The fanbase I know would’ve been outraged, management probably would’ve never stood for it, but I just feel like they could’ve gotten such huge haul in return to help set you up for & where we are now we could be a real competitive team & possibly contending. We lost Fleury for nothing, we gave up way too much future & first round picks for Reaves & Brassard. I felt like it was time to pull the trigger & trade at least one of them. I was leaning more towards Malkin because the guy seemed like he was starting to emotionally check out of hockey. I was 100% convinced that he was going to retire once his contract was up.
Here’s something that I don’t know how much people really bring up in conversations & that is asset management. I feel like there’s been some prospects in our system like Daniel Sprong where there was so much speculation around him rumors of package deals and it makes you wonder like which teams were offering what kind of package again he was just somebody that just went away. Mike Sullivan kept talking about how he’s so deficient defensively, he needs to better on both sides of the puck and it’s like yeah OK well half of your roster including some of your core players are like that Mike, but there’s no accountability when they make mistakes yet, you wanna make a example out of Daniel Sprong? That’s why sometimes I feel like there’s a disconnect between the bottom 6 that have been on this roster the last 4 or 5 seasons between the coach, the bottom 6 and then like your top guys I feel like there’s like a disconnect; I don’t know what it is if it’s like some sort of maybe lack of respect or something? But I’d also like to know when it comes to asset management why is someone like Harkins or they get Puljujarvi when you have Sam Poulin? I mean, if you don’t want to give that guy some steady minutes at the NHL level then why haven’t you traded him? I’m also wondering with a lot of the bottom 6 we’ve had here in the last 3 to 5 years. Is there something wrong with our pro Scouts? Do we even have any pro Scouts cause my goodness this is just unbelievable no matter who we bring in here they just constantly seem to struggle to score goals and it always seems like there’s never any chemistry with the bottom 6. I’m still dumbfounded how we traded Sam Lafferty for Alex Nylander. It’s just moves like that I just don’t understand.
So many of the goals against them, this past weekend, involved Jarry making the first save and having zero support around the net to clear the puck. Opposition forwards right there to knock in the rebound goal, unhindered. A lot of the defensive breakdowns are veteran defensemen who should know a helluva lot better…two defensemen getting trapped in the corner, below their goal line.
This team has been this bad since the 2019-2020 season. Fans just haven't noticed it because there were many more worse teams. Before the season shut down, the Pens were limping to the end of the season, losing eight of their last eleven, with wins against terrible Ottawa, New Jersey, and Buffalo teams. Then, they lost their play-in round series against Montreal in four games. And it was the same issues….blowing leads, blow outs, and not even showing up for games.
All of that has just been magnified, with each season since, because you have many of the bottom-feeder teams rising to the top, while teams like the Pens and Caps struggling to remain relevant.
If they do get rid of Sully, in the next few months, who do you see as the new Pens' coach? An old retread, like Lindy Ruff? Someone who's won a recent (ish) Cup, like Craig Berube? Promote someone from within?
If they trade Jake to Detroit, one of the prospects that I'd love to see come our way, would be Elmer Soderblom…6'8", 246 lbs forward who did fairly well, at the start of last season, playing on an all Swede line.
The big question is how Damp continues to do a podcast with someone who interrupts him every 5 minutes
This team is having a hard time just winning a game.
Forget about winning 6 or 7 straight games in a row,
because this team lacks that type of Hockey. It is
just not clicking, and the score reflects this.