Dan’s Daily: Trade Chatter; Penguins Fading; Shesterkin Closing?

RALEIGH, NC — The Pittsburgh Penguins can only be described as close to a collapse. After placing an increased importance on their start, the team has just two wins and four points in their last 10 games. They were spanked Thursday night by the red-hot Carolina Hurricanes, though Penguins coach Mike Sullivan appeared to get close to his boiling point with one player. Elsewhere in the Daily, the New York Rangers appear to be close to a new mega-deal with goalie Igor Shesterkin but were then summarily run out of the building by the Buffalo Sabres. And the Toronto Maple Leafs are trying to deal a couple or few spare parts, or at least spare to them.

I’m still trying to digest what we saw last night. Erik Karlsson was similarly bad against the Vancouver Canucks a couple of weeks ago, but the group had an extraordinary third period to shift the internal narrative. Last night, I saw a defeated Sidney Crosby (as noted in the lead of the recap), and I saw Sullivan come as close as I can ever recall to absolutely ripping one player.

Some behind-the-scenes “dirt,” if you can call it that. Sullivan took a protracted time to come over for his media availability following the game. He goes through spurts where we wait a good while, but not usually when the team is out the door for a game the next day. While I cannot say for certain, he was probably taking a minute to choose his words carefully. He didn’t specifically answer the first question but veered to what he wanted to say–though he didn’t specifically say it.

The video is in the Penguins Grades feature, as well as some scathing analysis that is quite specific, with the video included.

Unfortunately, for the second building in a row, we didn’t have many replays, so I was hanging on by the seat of my pants, trying to analyze it in real-time and get the small details correct for the print stories. That can be incredibly frustrating.

The Penguins’ situation seems ready to pop’; The losing and the ways they’re losing tend to cause friction.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Erik Karlsson made his presence known early, and the Carolina Hurricanes took advantage. If you’re the kind of person who needs to smell the milk long after it has expired, the kind of person who needs to burn your tongue on the steaming coffee to make sure it’s hot, or the kind of person who needs to smell something after someone tells you it stinks, I present to you the full Penguins recap.

OK, READ THIS ONE: the Penguins doubled the Hurricanes’ shot total, had more scoring chances, and controlled a lot of territory, yet they were stomped. Sullivan very badly wanted to call out one player, and it was quite obvious who. Here is the scathing takedown as well as the locker room reaction from Alex Nedeljkovic, Sullivan, and the whole sorted story in the Penguins analysis.

PHN Video: I didn’t put the postgame video on the website. The accommodations and leaving the arena earlier than I wanted (so the friendly security guard could get home for some family stuff) put me well behind schedule, and eventually, I fell asleep before posting. However, I did upload and premier it on our YouTube channel. Here’s the Penguins postgame.

Check out our YouTube channel for all of the locker room reactions, including from Erik Karlsson and Alex Nedeljkovic, who valiantly took the blame (but really shouldn’t have).

PHN Video: Also, I did the Penguins Live Chat on Thursday as well. I feel like those are best experienced live. The sound was a bit wonky at a few points because we were on hotel Wi-Fi, which is notoriously unstable, and I’m not home for the professional sound setup, so I’m not making it available via podcast. But, I must admit, I was on point for the entire thing. From the trade chatter created by Kyle Dubas scouting the Predators-Capitals game to the team friction, check out the Penguins Live Chat.

I am shopping around for a travel setup to make that show available via podcast.

And if you missed it, Penguins GM Kyle Dubas was in Washington for the Predators-Capitals game, and we examined some of the Penguinst trade possibilities.

NHL Trade Talk, News & National Hockey Now

Spector’s Hockey: Lyle has compiled the Toronto Maple Leafs trade chatter from Calle Jarnkrok to maybe Nick Robertson re-entering the chat. Toronto needs to shed salary, so we can almost guarantee some movement on the NHL trade market.

Is Igor Shesterkin about to sign a mega-contract. Kevin Weekes is usually on it.

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$ 11.5M ?#HockeyX pic.twitter.com/Zl4OKtCAgY

— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) November 7, 2024

Buffalo Hockey Now: Perhaps with the contract for Shesterkin looming, the goalie was a bit distracted. In fact, the Rangers have been a bit subpar all week. Last night, they allowed the Buffalo Sabres to ring their bell.

New Jersey Hockey Now: It’s not easy to integrate a young, talented defenseman into the NHL game. We’ve seen the Flyers forced to push pause on one of their top d-man prospects. The Devils has to call timeout for Seamus Casey. And the latest young Devils defenseman to get called to the coach’s office for bad news is Simon Nemec.

Hear me know, believe me later, “play the young guys” isn’t the sure-fire solution that many think it is. Until a guy is ready, it can be tough on both sides. Playing through adversity can very quickly become harmful. And I’m sure that little pearl of wisdom will immediately cease all Twitter demands to “play the young guys!”

Florida Hockey Now: OK, this is pretty awesome. The Stanley Cup champions are toying with people now. Since you don’t change what you’re doing during a win streak, the Florida Panthers are wearing bathrobes to the arena?!

I’m on my way to D.C. If you’re in town, let’s grab one before I do the night monument walk.