Pittsburgh Penguins Are Still Following Their Plan
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined NHL Morning Skate on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio on Monday with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick and was asked about the Pittsburgh Penguins and if the plan was still the same even after this winning streak.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Scott Laughlin: Dave Pagnotts here with us for a further couple of minutes here on the NHL Morning Skate. And Dave, if we’re going to rip on the Pittsburgh Penguins when they’re playing poorly, why don’t we give them their flowers when they’re playing better?
So they’ve won three straight games now, of course, and again, not saying they’re out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. There’s still some heavy lifting to do. But you know, the 5-4 win over Vancouver. They edged Boston, who won at TD Garden. On home ice, they beat Calgary 6-2. Gets a little bit chippy out there, and Crosby’s right there in the middle of it, as always.
But three straight victories for the Penguins, does this just kind of maybe buy Kyle Dubas some time? And we know he went out and made a subtle maneuver, a cosmetic procedure, perhaps by getting a young player, and Philip Tomasino from Nashville, is this maybe just buying him some time to maybe sit back a little bit and breathe a little bit easier on the fact that maybe, just maybe, there could be, could be a lead at the end of the tunnel.
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Dave Pagnotta: Don’t give him hope. Like this is a team. Yeah, It’s a nice little stretch. But I think you can’t take with how they perform to this point, yeah, it’s nice to see them put some wins together. But don’t take your eye off the prize. They already started that process in terms of moving out (Lars) Eller over to the Caps to deepen their roster.
They still have pieces that they’re listening on across the board. I still think the objective for this club needs to be overall improvement and long-term improvement. So, yeah, it’s nice. It’s nice to see them put some wins together. And, yeah, they’re, what is it, three points back of a playoff spot right now, but they still have so many teams that they’ve got to climb over.
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I think, don’t take, don’t let this deviate from whatever new plan you’ve implemented. I think, yeah, maybe buys them a little bit of time. And maybe the sense of urgency has dissipated a little, but I still think this team is going to be looking towards making those types of moves and improving retooling versus the rebuild. I think it’s a retool for that group, but this little stretch, I think, buys in time in terms of the sense of urgency to pull the trigger on another type of move.
I still think they’re going to maintain the course. And again, you don’t want to, you know, it looks good, it looks nice. But where are the underlying numbers with this group? I think, if anything, it just lets it alleviate some pressure from having to make some moves. I still think they’re focused on kind of where they’re at, even before they put these 3 Ws together.
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