Dan’s Daily: High Trade Cost for Chychrun; The Penguins Had Enough

Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan had enough. Significant changes swept the Penguins lineup Monday at practice as the coach shuffled lines, dropping high-paid players either down in the lineup or out entirely. He didn’t mince words after practice, either. Elsewhere in the Daily, the Ottawa Senators are chumming the NHL trade waters but keeping a high price on Jakob Chychrun. Sportsnet has dubbed the Calgary Flames trade bait as Tanafin, combining Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev, and Elliotte Friedman had the latest update.

Tonight is THE night for the Penguins. Let’s be honest, if they lose to the Islanders, there’s almost no question it’s over. But I’ll use this space to bring up something else. Over the last week or more, there has been a crescendo against everything. Whatever it is, you’re against it. Make this change? No! Make that change? Terrible! But make changes!

Anything short of burning it all to the ground and peeing on the embers has been met with social media fist-shaking anger.

As I’ve done in the past, I’m going to try to present the real situation, giving you the objective, contextualized reality as the absolute best I can see it, stripped of all emotion. It doesn’t always make me popular. This week, I was even blamed for the Penguins re-signing Jarry and losing (pretty funny), but so be it. Populism is generally about anger, and bluntly, that’s easy for a writer. Tons and tons of clicks. The truth is hard, but I’m going to do my best, whether you like the truth or not.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Practice began with a bang. A new Penguins lineup. Ryan Graves rotated on the third pair and the spare pair. New lines. And it all happened with a couple thousand people watching. It was an interesting Penguins practice.

People thought Jaromir Jagr would be there?

The aftermath of practice was similarly unvarnished. Players dealt with changes and accepted the situation they found themselves in after just 52 games. Players felt the heat. Blunt and unhappy was Mike Sullivan.

Dave Molinari dug into the woeful offensive numbers. The Penguins offensive outage.

NHL Trade Talk, News & National Hockey Now

Ottawa Sun: Given the secondhand chatter that some in the Penguins organization were really keen to acquire Jakob Chychrun when he was dealt from Arizona to Ottawa, he seems worth keeping an eye on now. He’s available, but it’s no small price tag. The Senators are making others available at lower prices.

32 Thoughts podcast: The guys raved about the Jaromir Jagr jersey retirement ceremony and have dubbed the Calgary Flames sell-off the Tanafin sweepstakes.

Boston Hockey Now: One team that’s long been interested in Hanifin, a Boston boy, but is digging through the couch cushions to scrape together enough to make it happen is the Boston Bruins.

Philly Hockey Now (+): Yes, PHN+ subscribers can read it — The Flyers went through some mental exercises and more on their approach coming to the NHL trade deadline.

Detroit Hockey Now (+): The Red Wings are hitting a bit of a problem. Grand puba Steve Yzerman would like to make a few tweaks to solidify their playoff position, but the room chemistry is at stake, too. Some popular players would go. So, what to do for the Detroit Red Wings?

NHL.com: Dan Rosen previews the top storylines as we get to about two weeks from the NHL trade deadline, including the Jake Guentzel dilemma.

San Jose Hockey Now: Sheng Peng was struck by the Jagr ceremony. How about the same for Joe Thornton when they raise the teal and white to the rafters? “Absolutely,” coach David Quinn said. It sounds like the San Jose Sharks will follow suit.