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Matt Vensel's Penguins chat: 10.25.24
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Matt Vensel
11:06
Happy Friday, Penguins fans. Look forward to chatting with you again today. I am out here in Edmonton with the team. Lots to talk about. We will get going at noon ET. In the meantime, start firing away!
12:02
OK, I've got my coffee in hand and I'm ready to go. Let's get started.
J D
12:02
Matt, is it an anomaly that a goaltender is demoted to practice elsewhere to improve his play?  If not, does past history on this type of move ever improve the goaltender's play or is this the beginning of a trade?
Matt Vensel
12:06
Hey, JD. The decision to send Tristan Jarry back to Pittsburgh to work with Jon Elkin, the director of goaltending, definitely raised eyebrows here in Edmonton. My first thought was whether this meant he would be going on waivers next. And maybe that's the case. But Kyle Dubas' comments to Josh Getzoff on Monday sure made it seem like that wasn't something that was on the table at this point. Anyway, yeah, this is a new one for me in my seven years covering the team. We'll see where it goes. The reality is that Alex Nedeljkovic hasn't been great either over his two starts, and the team defense is making it difficult for all of their goalies. But this latest twist with Jarry sure makes it feel as if something is up with that situation.
Bern
12:07
They sent Jarry home?  What does that even mean?  Can't recall seeing a headline like that previously.
Matt Vensel
12:10
Read the story, Bern! To add a little more detail that I left off in my previous answer, the Penguins had all three goalies on the trip, which makes for some awkward practices because there are only two nets. And I was watching Jarry for a bit at Tuesday's morning skate and I saw four players skate in and score on him from atop the circles. We are talking about a 30-second stretch here, but I couldn't help but feel that his confidence simply looked shot. The Penguins sent him back to Pittsburgh on Wednesday so he could work 1-on-1 with Elkin instead of Penguins goalie coach Andy Chiodo, and Mike Sullivan insisted that was the plan all along. Let's just say I have some skepticism there...
Dean
12:11
Hi Matt. I am sitting here wondering what is wrong with the Penguins. Especially when they acquire players to help the team and these players slowly become ghosts on the ice in their performance . Graves, Bunting, Rakell, Acciari, Karlsson  Beauvillier. Is it the Penguin system on how to play hockey. Or did the Penguin Scouts miss the open net on these picks?
Matt Vensel
12:14
Dean, I'm not going to go into every one of those players. I do think Bunting was very good last year but obviously that hasn't carried over to this season yet. But I do think it's fair to question the overall body of work for Dubas and his pro scouting staff. You can include keeping Jarry in there, as well. Many players have disappointed to varying degrees and the overall result is a team that has performed worse than what the Penguins did even in Ron Hextall's final season. The Erik Karlsson trade is the big one considering the picks they gave up to make the trade happen. He simply has not been a winning player here in Pittsburgh, despite having tremendous physical skills and advanced statistics that get the analytics crowd all worked up. As an aside, I've liked what I have seen from Kevin Hayes and Cody Glass, and the Pens got picks to take them on, too. So there's been a few wins.
Joe
12:15
Matt, how in the  world does Mike Sullivan still have a job here after six years of failure? I don’t care if he’s a “top 2-3 coach in the league” as FSG seems to think, he hasn’t been effective here in years. I guess the owners and front office really don’t care about winning
Let’s Go Pens
12:15
Matt, changing coaches because “the message gets stale” seems to be grasping at straws. However, Sully teams have rarely been good defensively. I do think it’s time to consider a change. Thoughts?
Sam
12:15
It's a bird, it's a plane....no it's Conner McDavid racing down the ice after another bad pinch.  Are the players playing within the risks of a flawed Mike Sullivan system, or are the players this bad?  What is the leash like on Sullivan if, less say we get to Christmas and the team is below .500 and still giving up 4+ goals per game.
Matt Vensel
12:19
We've gotten quite a few questions about the coach this week, and I think that's fair. No doubt the Penguins have been burned by poor goaltending in a few of their games. But this is perhaps the worst defensive team in the league so far. Last I checked with my friends from Sportlogiq, the Penguins were giving up the most high-danger scoring chances in the league. Opponents are getting a good bit of them on the forecheck, which also speaks to the breakout being a problem right now. And then you consider the bad giveaways and the blown leads, and it's hard not to point at the coaching. Joe is right that Fenway Sports Group has a lot of belief in Mike Sullivan, but I do think Dubas has a lot of say in this, too. If the Penguins continue to struggle and Dubas starts to get heat for the on-ice results, then you might see the organization consider a coaching change. I don't get the sense that anything is imminent, though. The season is still very young.
66fan
12:20
thanks for the chats Matt! wondering if you saw HCMS interview with the Trib a couple weeks ago? responding to criticism of his system he asserted that media, analysts and fans aren’t smart enough to notice all the changes he’s made over the years. furthermore he went on to cite C Sheary and Guentzel as examples of young players he has employed to refute the notion that he doesn’t play young players. Sully is the highest paid coach in the league now. the deck has been shuffled through players and coaches alike and nothing changes. when will the head coach be held accountable? thnx
Matt Vensel
12:25
I did read the interview that my friend Seth Rorabaugh did with Sullivan. I think there were fair questions from Seth and I do give Sullivan credit for giving them time. I'll address your two points. I've talked in prior chats about how the Penguins haven't had many young players worth playing in recent years. That has changed in the last year or so, so this theory is going to be tested this season. As for the strategic changes, I think we can all look at this team at a high level and acknowledge that the core philosophies of Sullivan's system are what they were back when they won the Cups. I don't doubt that there have been tweaks. But generally speaking, the Penguins are still trying to play the same way that they did eight years ago.
66fan
12:25
speaking just anecdotally from memory over the last eight years, the Pens players seem to tighten up and play a little better in front of their backup tender… Murray over Fleury, Jarry over Murray, Ned over Jarry. can we just say the Penguins have two number 2 goalies and call it good!??
Matt Vensel
12:27
I will just say that the Penguins appeared to play a little better and with more confidence when Ned was in net versus Jarry. It was a very small sample. But that's something others have observed, too.
Surley
12:27
I enjoy going to Wheeling Nailers games. Whats the Penguins plan with them. I rarely see players get promoted and even players on conditioning assignments go to W-B.  What’s the purpose of having a team to develop players, when they rarely do?
Matt Vensel
12:30
Good question, Surley. The ECHL is a developmental training ground for not only the players, but also coaches, executives, trainers, even the equipment staffers. You are right that it is rare to see players go from the ECHL to the NHL over time. The most recent example was Casey DeSmith, unless I'm forgetting someone else. Anyway, the Penguins use Wheeling to give fringe prospects a chance to play and develop and eventually get a foothold in the AHL. The reality is that higher-level prospects and solid pros aren't even going to play the ECHL. They're too good and skip right over that rung in the ladder.
Sunner in Orlando from Lebo
12:32
Who is the best defenseman Karlsson can play with on the roster that would cover him for his gaffes on defense to allow him to join the rush?
Matt Vensel
12:32
Marcus Pettersson. But he hasn't been great either to start the season and Mike Sullivan split those two up at the start of this trip. So far, the pairing of Karlsson and Matt Grzelcyk has been a mess, so I wonder if we will see Sullivan switch them back this weekend.
Jeff M
12:33
I was excited about the Dubas hire. BUt his 3 biggest deals have been really bad, Jarry extension, Graves deal and Karlson trade. How can he overcome these mistakes? The Graves deal is going to look even worse when Peterson is skating for a new team next season.
Matt Vensel
12:36
In the short term, I don't know if they can overcome the mistakes. Jarry's contract is currently untradeable. I don't know that anyone will want Karlsson unless there is some serious retention on Pittsburgh's end, plus Karlsson has no-trade protection. And Graves' first season was poor, though I will say that he looks better and more confident to me in the early going this season. Anyway, Dubas still receives a lot of praise for unloading a few bad contracts in the Karlsson trade. But few seem to acknowledge that he used the space to bring in contracts that are potentially even worse collectively.
#10
12:37
What would you guess Tristan Jarry's future will hold? Will he bounce back? I remember Fleury at one time couldn't stop a beach ball, and he somehow overcame it. Or do you think Jars is going to be out of the league like other goalies who have completely lost it. Thanks for any insight.
Matt Vensel
12:39
I have no way to predict this, to be honest with you. Right now, I would say it looks unlikely he will ever return to All-Star form as a member of the Penguins. Heck, he might not even rebound to become a league average goalie. That said, I would not be surprised if he got a change of scenery and pulled it together with his next team. For whatever reason, things just aren't clicking for him in Pittsburgh right now.
Sunner in Orlando from Lebo
12:39
I think tonight's game will tell us a lot about the Pens future this year. If they get boat raced, the writing is on the wall that the Pens cannot compete with the younger and faster teams. Win or play a tight game vs the highflying Oilers, then the team may have some hope. Your take?
Matt Vensel
12:40
I think it would be a big win if the Penguins can come away with two points between tonight's game in Edmonton and tomorrow's game in Vancouver. Edmonton has mowed them over in recent years. And then that's a late-night flight to Vancouver to play a feisty Canucks team on the second half of a back to back. This very well could be an 0-4 trip, which makes the blown leads in Winnipeg and Calgary really sting.
12:42
And that will do it for today's chat. Lot of questions. Love the passion. We'll do this again next Friday. Have a great weekend and try to enjoy the games. I will be covering them live for the Post-Gazette.
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