Good news, this might be the last time you have to listen to Pierre McGuire call a Penguins game. Neither ESPN nor Turner have reached out to him with a new contract. The bad news, well, that’s obvious. The Pittsburgh Penguins have now lost their fourth consecutive playoff series and the third in a row in the first round. Tristan Jarry can shoulder the entire blame as he was 2010-13 Marc-Andre Fleury bad. A truly pathetic showing for the first-year starter. He is currently “leading” the league in goals saved above average with -6.64 per Natural Stat Trick. There’s a good argument to be made he was a sleeper agent for the Islanders.

The Penguins skaters did what they had to do early in the contest. They earned three separate leads only to see them evaporate immediately. It is a tough thing to go through as a player. You are doing the things to win and there’s one player who is doing everything possible to undo your success.

Don’t underestimate the mental toll it takes on player to lose in the way they did in Game 5 and then have the three leads evaporate in Game 6. You can only overcome so much adversity. Even the strongest willed players would be hard pressed to keep battling at their highest level. The goaltending was terminal cancer.

Series Recap Thread: #LetsGoPens vs. #Isles

This series started as a stingy back-and-forth between two evenly-matched teams feeding off the home crowd. But it will be defined by the final two games, which the Pens lost despite utterly dominating. pic.twitter.com/dgoJXLDpmK

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) May 27, 2021

As far as what lies ahead anybody trying to sell you on a Malkin or Letang trade doesn’t understand much about the sport. Don’t waste your time or energy on them. The core of this team is still highly functional. A lot of the non-core players are also fine. This team after the Jeff Carter trade had a decent structure to it. Obviously, the goaltending will need to be changed. You can’t run back a Jarry-DeSmith duo. Cody Ceci will probably price himself out. Marcus Pettersson could probably be moved for cap space. Perhaps, Jason Zucker as well. My overall point is you are still shuffling the deck on the edges. Ron Hextall and Brian Burke don’t have to scorch the earth this summer. They absolutely should not scorch the earth this summer.

One change I wouldn’t mind seeing has nothing to do with the players. I am going to be very clear upfront. I do not think Mike Sullivan is a bad coach. I do think it is about that time for there to be a change. Since the 2017 Stanley Cup his playoff record has been 9-17. In the last three years the Penguins have been ousted in the first round by teams they were very much capable of beating. Their record is 3-11 during that span. Mike Sullivan is very rigid and I don’t think he has any creativity as far as game management. This is a bad trait during the playoffs when you face the same team night in and night out. A really bad trait if you keep butting heads with Barry Trotz. You need to be able to maximize your offensive weapons and sometimes you need to load up lines and shift things around. It doesn’t have to be for the full game, but specific moments. Using TV timeouts, end of periods, and after killing penalties. It also includes when you are trailing a team by two goals in the third period of an elimination game. Mike Sullivan is who he is,, though, More times than not he will just send the lines out in the same order for most of the game. The no Crosby/Malkin shifts at 5v5 deserves the repeated mentions it gets. It is so incredibly negligent to not use them more often together. Crosby and Malkin aren’t going to be able to just go do it on their own in the playoffs. They need help and sometimes it should come from clever deployment.

I suppose one benefit of being bounced early is you can make a coaching decision early. I see Gerard Gallant and Bruce Boudreau out there looking for work and they both have really decent track records. A different voice would probably help at this point. It happens to all coaches at some point in the NHL. It doesn’t mean Mike Sullivan can’t or won’t do good work in the league in the future. Although, I am already mentally preparing for the Penguins to hire Mike Babcock or Rick Tocchet if they let Sullivan go instead of the two candidates I prefer.

While it doesn’t change my mind about him staying on as coach of the Penguins Mike Sullivan is absolutely correct about his assessment of the team moving forward

Mike Sullivan: "We didn't lose this series because we weren't big enough."

— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) May 27, 2021

Can’t help but think that one is directed at his recently hired boss.

Coach Sullivan: "I believe in the core. This is the best core group of players that I’ve ever been around, bar none. They’re generational talents that can still compete at a very high level and they’ve shown it game in and game out."

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 27, 2021

He is overselling them a sliver given the aging curve, but I agree with him that the core is fine and shouldn’t be touched.

I guess that is where I’ll leave things tonight because there is a long offseason ahead. My overall closing thoughts are the team has a good base of players moving forward. The Jeff Carter trade saved them from even more hard offseason decisions. Ron Hextall and Brian Burke should not overreact to the horrible goaltending and blame the core of players. Mike Sullivan can both be a good coach and not the right guy anymore for the Penguins.

Any way you slice it this was another lame exit from the postseason and we are running out of time with Crosby and Malkin.

Thanks for reading!

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