The Pittsburgh Penguins failed to get any points from this weekend and Hunter and Pat are here to tell everyone what went wrong for this team. They detail how the same issues continue to pop up and how they can be fixed heading into the rest of the month before the trade deadline. They also analyze how this team is allergic to scoring goals and how that’s been a massive problem over the last month. They then look to the future and get into a long debate about what Kyle Dubas should do for the rest of the season. Should he get this team some help? Should he look towards the Summer a little bit more? They also look back at Dubas’ moves over the summer and how a lot of them haven’t panned out, which is a little bit scary. All that, plus much more is on this edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast.
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22 Comments
It’s time sell and focuse next season like there to many holes they have I know don’t like word sell but pens need sell get picks and younger player and dubas need use those assets to fix all those problems offseason
Trade Jake and get a prospect and a pick. The pens are going nowhere. I give them credit for giving it one last shot( even though I disagreed with keeping aging players together). This roster just doesn’t have it. It’s unfair to expect Crosby to carry the load at his age
Honestly this season is done, this weekend was more than likely the nail in the coffee. Their biggest problem is still goal scoring, you're just not gonna win when only one line is a scoring threat and you're only scoring 1 or 2 goals a game. It's too late now to fix anything, I kind of suspect Dubas knew all along this roster is a lost cause, considering he's just been sitting on his hands all season. Best we can hope for is Dubas gets some assets and the deadline and has a good offseason.
This Weekend just showed us fans the same inconsistent Team We seen All season.
I Say Sell at the Deadline Fill spots we need Badly come back better next season.
This team doesn't have the contender feel to it unfortunately.
The Reilly Smith and Ryan Graves moves, I absolutely loved when they happened. Smith has always been a solid NHL player and was key piece during his time with Vegas and people forget, Ryan Graves has been a really solid defenseman with both Colorado and New Jersey and played top four minutes with both. He played with Makar and Devon Toews in Colorado and last year in Jersey with John Marino and was really good.
It's unfortunate for The Penguins, that both are not living up to expectations and I am hoping Graves falls in the Paul Martin category. If anyone remembers, The Penguins signed Paul Martin (ironically from The Devils) back in 2010 and he struggled his first couple seasons and by his third season, really turned it around and became one of their most steady d-men for his tenure here and Sergei Gonchar was the same way. I'm hoping it's just a bad year for both, but it sucks that it happened to The Penguins.
The biggest thing that I think set this team back in regards to the bottom 6 was the complete botch of the 2021 Expansion Draft where The Penguins lost both Jared McCann and Brandon Tanev, that set this team back bottom 6 wise big time.
This past weekend may have been the last straw for me. I just don't think this team is it. I think the blame isn't just in one single place. It goes around everywhere from previous GM, current GM, to coaching and players. I'd love nothing more than to be proven wrong, but I don't see this team finally kicking things into another gear. But I think by the time the deadline comes, the team won't be near a playoff spot, and the only rational thing to do would be to trade Guentzel. Cap space is nice, but the return they could get on him is better than nothing. That's just simple asset management. There's no point logically in keeping him around for a season that's already lost when you haven't even had serious talks yet. That's not to say either that they can't bring Guentzel back after the season is over. I know it's a long shot but that's possible too. I didn't expect them to win a Cup but the fact that we're even discussing any of this is disappointing and sad with what the hope of optimism brought this past off season.
On July 1, Dubas went out and got the players Sullivan wanted. Sullivan wanted his bottom six to be two fourth lines essentially that were strong defensive,y and that’s it because they were going to get mostly DZ starts. That’s a terrible way to construct a modern NHL team. You can fault Dubas for following Sullivan’s lead when he came in here relatively late in the off-season. But still, a lot of the roster problems have to be put at the foot of Sullivan. Why he’s still employed is a mystery to me
Ek 65 on first power play Malkan on second. Pens have to get bigger ,tougher and need to take out people in front of their net Nobody is screening the opposition goalies. Need to make life very ,very difficult for any-one crossing their blue line .
I was at the game on Saturday in Winnipeg and nobody seems to mention the argument on the bench between Malkin and Karlsson you could hear in the crowd and it happened a few times in the first period maybe we should look at their relationship or their effort there seems to be no chemistry between those two
Zach Sill and Bobby Farnham are better than Jansen Harkins. I’ve watched them in Wilkes. Harkins is ABSOLUTELY USELESS
Today's episode brought to you by the words "Not Acceptable"
Fire the coach already? Not for missing the playoffs last season and probably missing the playoffs this season, but for losing in the first round multiple times, routinely losing playoff series when having series leads, for failing to sustain success with a single bottom-six type forward for 5+ years, and finally for matching this roster with a strategy which has sustained criminally low shooting % for 2 years. If not for unexpectedly great golatending, the Penguins would certainly be a bottom five team in the League as opposed to merely the 6th best team in the Division.
Can't remember who said this but was listening to MM and he had someone on and they were taking about Smith behind the scenes but they said he wasn't happy he had to leave Vegas since he was one of the original guys and wanted to stay they said his attitude having to leave Vegas and has a don't care attitude is some part of what is going on with Smith this year. But who knows how true it actually is, bottom line is that everyone gets traded and he came to a big name team pens gave term and money 5.5m i think. Play like u always have and play like a 5.5m guy no excuse
The frustrating thing, for me to watch, is the excessive, and poor, passing on the PP. On a few of the power plays, this past weekend, there were as many as eight passes between shots…and they weren't even good, accurate passes. Geno, Karlsson, or Malkin would set up for a one-timer and the pass to them would be too far in front, they'd have to take the pass on the backhand. Or they'd try a long, cross ice pass, through a crowd, and act surprised that it was intercepted, or deflected, leading to a rush the other way.
You could even hear the crowd screaming for them to "shoot it".
Loved the Baghdad Bob reference.
Another option, for Jake Guentzel, would be to trade him, at the deadline, and then resign him in free agency. With the increase of the cap, and losing Carter's cap hit, they could get some solid young assets, from trading Jake, and then bring him back at a nice pay increase, and still have cap space to make other moves. Is it likely to happen, probably not, but it's a possibility.
Multiple comments for your algorithm. Remember, Reilly Smith was acquired because he was dirt cheap, because of Vegas' cap issues. And, to be fair, he's only a little behind his career scoring rate. Yeah, there were huge expectations on him because he was going to be Malkin's new Zucker. However, Zucker wasn't really that good with Geno, until last year…a contract year.
While Blomqvist is doing really well, in WBS, remember that Hellberg, when he was called up due to Ned's injury, split a shutout with Jarry, and gave up only three goals in a win against a (then) hot LA Kings team. Yeah, the Pens have options if they want to capitalize on Ned's having one of the better years, in his career.
Lets not pretend they will, somehow, turn a corner. Lets not trade a good draft pick for a 33 year old who scored 30 goals 10 years ago.
I'm out of words. After 35 years of watching this team I'm so not interested at this point.
The draft 🤭
Matthew Knies for Jake 50 percent contract could be the move these next 5 games will surely tell that tale. Good luck Penguins it is always a great day for hockey at your party! 🍎
So many players are having down years. Wonder what the common denominator could be?