DK’s Double Shot of Penguins: The big crunch

0:00Hi, guys. Welcome to Double Shot of Penguins. I'm Dan Kovatovich. He's Chris Hallock. We're from ZK Pittsburgh Sports. One of us is on a couple hours of sleep, flying home from Boston. Watch a heck of a hockey game late this morning, but at least I got to really document a doozy. Yeah, that was for the masses. Yeah. Last night at TD Garden. You know what? That game was so nondescript. Yeah, that you couldn't even really, I couldn't bring myself to criticize the penguins, at least not for anything other than the first few minutes of games. Yeah, the opening was not not great. Of course, I get the goal really, really early on. Kindle doesn't even that was a joke. Yeah, it was because like, yeah, Kindle, you know, does a good job of getting in front of the net. He gets pushed to make a tad big contact with swimming, but not enough to call a cold center interference. Oh, you

1:02never know. Well, that's true. But then, you know, Carl, I love that Marco Sturm tried. I know, right? I thought that was a great one. Why not? On Sturm's part. It's like, I'm looking around the league and I'm going every time somebody is even like breathing near my goal tender, I'm going to call it. Yeah. But yeah, the, but then, yeah, the two goals in what, 50 seconds, it was just, it wasn't just the goals. They just, the Bruins were all over everything. And I don't think it was anything necessarily that they were doing as much as it was that the penguins were kind of like, ah, when they say the game started, and it happens. But that's enough to lose a game, though. It's enough to lose a game against an opponent like that. Yeah, especially when the gold tender standing on his end. That's why I went out of my way. I felt like with the column that I wrote from the event for DK Pittsburgh sports was like, I wanted to see them solve it. I wanted to see them go against

2:04an opponent like that, like a Boston, like an Ottawa, like what? I'll agree, did to them in January. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Where you just basically soccer term, park the bus. Oh, yeah. The Bruins last night, dude, the Bruins were, they would give up possession. And then they would line up all five of them, like a, like a clothes line, like frat bros, and just skate backward. And we're like, we're not going to let you come into this zone. And then once the penguins did get into the zone, I was actually joking about this with Crystal Tang last night after the game. But once they did get into the zone, it looked like old schools, a day no chara and two karrask and those guys just eating up the middle. It's a lousy way to play hockey. It is. But they've won 11 and a row at home. And the penguins just happened to go there at the wrong time. And to me, I just like the fact that the penguins still generated 35 shots on goal. Yep. Some quality out of that three clean breakaways

3:09would have been nice if somebody had scored. Yeah. Anthony Manta, Yeg or Gina Cove, Noah Chari, but they all had breakaways. Nothing because as you just said, Swaman came in and stole a couple of points. He, uh, he looks nothing like the guy who was in between the pipes for the United States and the Olympics. Swaman looked like the first goal. Yeah. The Olympics. Well, I was going to say like, I think what they, what they did at the TD Garden was, you know, the whole thing about the dark boards over at the Olympics. I think what they ended up doing was bleaching all the boards at the TD Garden to make sure that nothing dark could possibly like there were like screw ads. We don't even need ads and advertisements anymore. What does that white boards so that he can always see the puck? Um, yeah, he was great last night. Um, yeah, it's just sometimes you run into that. He was. The Bruins themselves were, were, were, were saying after the game that, that Swaman was the reason that the Bruins got the two points. You get bullied sometimes. Yeah. This happens.

4:10It happens. It happens. And it's not it, you know, what you have to do is you have to get right back on the horse and bring your best against these guys again, just like they did in that last game up in Buffalo right before the Olympic break. Yeah. Sometimes you get a raw deal, but where can we get a really good deal? We get a really good deal right around the corner at the most southwest grill. Chris, as a matter of fact, since you asked, it's over there in market square. It's also in a dozen other locations across southwestern Pennsylvania. They are currently offering what they call a value meal. That's an appropriate term for this because it's most junior burrito 10 inches of pure flavor. Two ounces of most famous queso drink to go with all of that. It's a full, leaping meal with gold flavor and all that other good stuff. And the friendly greeting when you walk in. Welcome to Moose. For 9.95. That's ridiculous. That's pretty nice. Take from a guy who was just paying for food

5:13at airports or 10 inch burrito. Good lord. Wasn't nothing 95 didn't even allow you to look at it. That's it. So the topic that I want to bring up today is the trade deadline. It's not something that we've talked a whole lot about. You needed to get a little bit closer, I think, in this case, to start even seeing it clearly. But we're here now. Do you make any kind of move if your Kyle Dubas to count for Sydney Crosby not being there? By the way, exclusive reporting on our app within the last couple of hours, Taylor Haas did her sneaky thing and went to cranberry. She found Sid Skating. You can't take that. I can't stop reporting from reporting. You can't stop

6:16her from doing it. That's for sure. So she went up there and just absolutely killed it. We have the we have the big, flashy headline. Yeah. Sid Skating exclusive, but he is. Yeah. And according to our resident sneak up there, he's skating and he's like doing it with a purpose. He's not just going for a glide. Yeah. So that's great news. It is great news. Any time that they can get Sid back, obviously, it's one of those, it's a hard line to ride because you need him healthy. If you're going to go on any kind of run it all and not saying that the penguins are an all-in team this year, they're not. That's not the way this team's built. If they were all in, Kyle Dubas has so many assets to to part with to go fully all in that he could do it. They're building for compete on an annual basis, not just compete or try to win this year and next year and then that's it. So you, but if you are going to go on a run, you need Sid healthy.

7:21And so whenever he comes back, he you better make sure he's healthy. But I also know just the drive with which he plays the game. He wants to be back on the ice badly. No, I don't think anybody would ever. Yeah. And not anybody rational or knowledgeable, whatever doubt that as it relates to Sid. For the deadline, the first question that I always find myself asking is for what? As opposed to for who? What's the position that you're looking at here? They just got somebody for this year and next year that they think is going to help Sam Gerard. I've yet to lay a highs on that. But he's been here for four games. I'm not going to bury him either. No. I just haven't seen it. Other people have, I could tell you this too, in the press box in Madison Square Garden. And I happen to be sitting next to a New York writer who used to cover

8:24the avalanche. And he said, you're really going to like this guy. And I go really because I really haven't yet. And he goes, now he's he's good. You're going to like Sam Gerard. Open mind and like him again last night. Well, it's been four games. It's been four games. It's fair. But the easy answer was left handed defense. Yeah. Yeah. Now it's not. Now you got I mean, you got more than what you need. Yeah. I mean, you can always go get prime of his career Nick Lidstrom. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have Orion Shae. You have a Parker Watherspoon. And now you have Gerard. I really liked what I saw of Elias Lovia. And he's still here. And they're still keeping Ryan Graves around. That's what I'm saying. They got as well. So there's a lot there. Do you add it to the right side? Then move Connor Clifton out. That's

9:25possible. I think so too. You can pick your spots for Clifton just like you pick your spots for Boko, which is to say the flyers are coming to town this weekend. You and I'll be there for that one. That's right, pal. And you can always upgrade off forward spot or whatever. But going and getting someone because it isn't there. I have a tough time with that. Even with the ongoing base off calamity that is upon us. Yeah. That's a problem. I mean, you got to, I mean, Stewart, you know, you were talking with him last night. I mean, Skinner was in there. Yeah, Skinner was saying like, oh, it's part of the game. Yeah. It's a part of the game. And you can't you can't overlook it. I mean, if you lose a face off, it doesn't matter if it's in the offensive zone, neutral zone or defensive zone, you lose possession. But it especially hurts in your own zone. Really, really. You don't want to hand the other guys 30 seconds of free time in your end. No, doubly hurts when it happens on your short-handed. Yep. Now, the positive to that,

10:28if it can be said that there there was one last night was that a chari was given. No, a chari was given more draws. He wasn't great. He was four and five. You won the one big one late. He was out there for chari was out there. It was one of the people for the extra with the goalie off. Yeah. Because you just needed somebody to win the draw. And then you win the draw, you can't just send him. You can't Jeff Carter him best of the bench. He's got to stay out there and play a little bit. Sid is needed. But if Sid is skating, when I'm not playing his, you know, orthopedic doctor here or whatever here. If Sid is skating, he can't possibly be that far off. And so, you know, I see occasionally somebody will mention a Vince Trocek here or someone like a, you know, you've got to give up something for Trocek. And Vince is a wonderful hockey player and he's local and all that other stuff. He's also 32.

11:33And then what do you do with Vince or what do you do with your other guys when you have you have five don't cold centers. Yeah. When Sid's back. Yeah. I think that's that's the other part. The one thing that I don't think any GM should do. And maybe I don't know. Maybe it's just because I cover the Steelers and I pay close attention to Omar Khan and the way he handles things, at least with most positions, not all of them. Sometimes he will just collect as many good. It's Omar Khan, the general manager. Sometimes he just collects as many good players as he can and he'll figure it out later. Yeah, that's not this. I understand that. But when you look at, I look at years past, I look at some of the years, like the years, the five years, the panels have won the Stanley Cup. There have been some years where they didn't do much to deadline. And then there have been other years where they did a lot. And that includes both 91 and 92.

12:36They made so. And 2016 and 2017. They're major moves. And then there are some where all you got was Justin Schulz and Schulz ended up being your number one defenseman for the following years. So you never know how that stuff goes. I don't see something mind-blowing here. I do see that there are players available that fit into the Penguins or Kyle Dubas specifically, desired age bracket, like a Robert Thomas from the Blues. He's 26. He can really play. He's not being noticed as much anymore because he's insane. Lewis and the Blues aren't anywhere near what they were when they finally climbed to the top of the mountain. It's 2019. I think you could see them getting involved in something like that. But I've also taken a look at what some of the alleged prices are. The Blues really want to hit a home run here because in addition to Thomas being good and young, he's also signed through his age 30 season at a really good rate, like 5 million a year.

13:39That makes him very valuable. So that's the kind of thing where you say, I don't care where he plays, he's going to play. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. I have an opportunity to add a Robert Thomas. I'm going to do that. I'll figure it out later. Yeah. And I think that's what you're looking at. And when you look at what Kyle Dubas is doing and the way he's gone about building this team and the way he's acquired assets, I don't see them making a move that they're not going to go get a rental. They're going to get a guy that they could possibly have here for years to come. That's when you would look at a Robert Thomas. We've I know talked at length on this show about Jason Robertson in the past, too, if Dallas, whatever, even consider trading him. But yeah, you have to you're looking at more that type of player. Now you could you find a place for Vincent Trochex? Sure. You could. I don't know if you're giving up some very, very, very valuable assets to bring a Trochex in unless you

14:39feel like there's some sort of whether it's a two year run, three year run, whatever it is, if you feel like he can be part of it. Again, this is not a situation where you're looking at adding rentals. Right. Right. Let's take a look at some of what our community has to share at first. I want to let you know that this here is defer coffee. That is the product of originally they're out in the strip district where their roastery is. My wife and I used to frequent the place quite a bit. I say used to only because we lived out there. Then we moved downtown. But guess what? They moved with us. They just opened the place over on Penn Avenue, just about two blocks away from where we are right now. It's locally roasted specialty coffee. It is really good. This is going to be a lame read for you because we're just telling you how it is. They brought the machine in here to prove it to us because you know, you

15:41any coffee that you're making on the spot is going to be better than you pick up somewhere else, right. Right. And the machine is here. Take you on a little tour of it at some point in the near future. If you're interested in either defer coffee or how to have it in your office, that down there below is the web address. That's where you want to go defer.coffee slash office. It's not just a downtown thing. You can get it wherever you are in the region. And yeah, it's good. It is good. We should like charge them for coming up with a slogan for them. Yeah, it's like really good. But it is. It is really good. It is really good. I really enjoy it. So let's take a look at some of what our members have to share on this particular program. First off, Andrew Stafford becomes a member. And for you to do that yourself, go to dkps.net slash

16:44join penguins and make sure the join penguins is all lower case. MJ, it's a terrific question. How do you beat teams that play like boss and is it speed or size? The penguins look slow to me at times last night. They weren't slow. What happened is that they skate up and they run into that clothes line. Well, they're not dumb. They're not just going to go barreling into people. However, as the game went on, they made it through the neutral zone with more and more and more speed. You have to have speed. And what happens to the other team when you attack them with speed? Well, speed is overwhelming. So especially when you're not as fast as the other team is, regardless of how much bigger and stronger you are than them, it's overwhelming. It's hard to keep up. You can then start out skating them. You tire them out. And then you don't necessarily need the size as much to win on four checks anymore, just because you're making them chase you at that point and you're faster than them. And this is what I like them, Jay. They did this,

17:48this thing that you're describing. They did it for 50 minutes out of 60. Yeah. And they generated a lot of offense. They generated a lot of chances. And it wasn't just that there was no quits and resilience and all that other stuff, the intangibles. It's that they executed it. And they created high danger scoring chances. They got bullied. That's that happens. That's what happens. You know, those ceremonies after the game where the players have some kind of helmet or something that they give out. Who do you think the Bruins gave their helmet to? It's on their social media. Yeah. They went right over to swimming and said he won this one for us. Yep. He's still gold hunters can still use games. It's legal. Yep. It's legal. It's a good, really good question. Legal robbery. Michael Bobrick, a member asks, he says the, we already got this. Didn't we trade deadline is upon us? Any chance they find someone with a face off. Yeah. We're talking about one week need here. You don't make a trade for

18:50something. What Dan Mew's stress last night, by the way, so with a little bit of a bite to him. The coaching staff really was delivering to the penguins a message that face offs are not a one person. Oh, yeah. You're supposed to get your rear end in there as a winger and help. Take that puck wherever it was supposed to go, but help out. So sometimes your center gets in there and just ties up the other center. Yeah. Yeah. He's not trying to win it's when it's cleaner. He's trying to win it at all. He just wants somebody else to swoop in there and get it. Yep. And apparently this did not happen to the head coach's satisfaction. He had a bit of a bite last time. I kind of like that though. Yeah. You want to see that? You want to see that kind of fire from your coach? Cynthia asks, just as we need a Tanev or a Hornquist, every team says that when they lose a game. Brandon Tanev and Patrick Hornquist are the universal murals. She says, I know Hornquists don't grow on trees. You're right about that too. Do not. But I

19:58mean like a big energy guy, maybe slightly insane and sees ghosts. Well, she heard that Brady could chuck his on the market. That's what happened. That's what happened. What was the one? You know what, guys, this is the time of year to stay away from hockeyroomhours.com or hockeyroomhours.ca. I made that up. I don't think that site exists. But if it did, that's what it would be called. Yeah. Stay away from all this stuff. Here's, I'll do a quick summary of what's on there. All right. You ready? Yep. All the good players are going to the leaves for all their bad players. Yeah. Yeah. Be end. Yeah. Energy guy. They were missing Blake LaZot. They were. Badly. Ideally for the penguins. That is a one-game episode. Looking at him yesterday, he had no boots, no brace, no nothing. So whatever it is that he's got, it looks like quite literally.

21:04It'll be day-to-day. We'll see how he is for tomorrow against the Sabers. 56.50 goes up here. He's not a member, but he's about to change that. He's about to go to dkps.net slash join penguins. Join penguins. All over case. He might not have known that in advance, but he knows it now. We have three levels. They're all they're friendly for you that way. You can pick them on the works best for you. He says main problem is Kevin Hayes is a terrible fit. Between Brazil and Mantha, I can't believe Muse thought that was a good idea. But little haze between the big guys and then big haze on the fourth line. Well, at least you're doing something more creative than just saying that everything that's gone wrong in the world is Kevin Hayes' fault. Kevin Hayes, whenever he's played the majority of the games, the majority of the games that he's played this year, they've lost. Not only have they lost, but they've been without either Malkin and Luzat or Crosby and Luzat. He's aware. I know.

22:09He's also aware that they're all his fault. He didn't he did not play well last night. I was advocating for him to get back in the lineup. It didn't go well, including face-offs, which was one of the reasons that he was brought back in. He went over five in fact. And nothing was happening with that line. No, and he was a big part of the reason nothing was. So that's just that's just calling it like it is. I really, really like the guy. No, and I'm playing well as a separate subject. Independent of who's in the lineup? Who's not in the lineup? He didn't play a game last night. James Pekarski closes us out for the day, even though James also is not a member yet. James also can change that at DKPS.net slash joint. Penguin says once Sid and Luzat are back in the lineup, you've got four lines with great chemistry and buy-in. Do you really want to throw a monkey wrench into that? Well, my answer to that is, well, what if you come up on another situation where

23:10you're sitting in right now where you're missing a couple guys? And all of a sudden, your four lines that are great when everybody's healthy aren't your four lines because not everybody's healthy. And you run into a situation where one of your main players, like a Crosby or Maulkin, are out because of an injury. You need the firepower. If you're going to, if you're going to make a run in the playoffs, you need the firepower. It can't just be a bunch of penguins fourth line guys. Now, I'm not taking anything away from the fourth line as constructed when everybody's healthy. The fourth line's been nominal. It's been not just probably the best fourth line in all hockey, but I'd put up their production to get some third lines. They've been really good, but you also have to account for injuries. You have to account that, especially the penguins. I feel like every single season, the penguins have something where they're among the league leaders and man games lost or whatever, just because... Yeah, this year they've been pretty healthy, though. I think it might not feel like it at the moment,

24:13but they've kept their people on the ice. I think a lot of that has to do with just the denim uses. Spread the shifts and the ice times so evenly here. Ed comes in as a new member. Lead with Chris actually does get the last word for the day. I don't even trust him, because I think you're like half, I'm getting halfway through this and I'm going to run into some damp on that I didn't even notice. So you read this one. Insert obligatory, who are we trading for a question here? But for real, does the new double salary retention trade restrictions hamper the dead? Yikes. I have no idea. That's a question for Taylor. That's a question for Taylor. It really is a question. All that stuff for us. Yeah. I can answer your questions about the NFL salary cap. Taylor is your actual son. I know something Chris today happens to be her live Q's day on the app. So you can go ask her right now. Tell her that we sent you. That would be a question for Taylor. So yeah, sorry about that. All right, guys, listen.

25:18Football time heading on over to the football channel. And this program will be back tomorrow in advance of the Penguins semi big game against the Buffalo Sabers. You