COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ron Hextall's as good as gone, and Brian Burke might be right behind.
Hey, I sure didn't come here to cover a glorified exhibition. The only goal here -- well, other than those scored by Kris Letang and Jake Guentzel -- in the Penguins' season-ending, mercy-killing 3-2 overtime loss to the Blue Jackets on this Thursday night at Nationwide Arena -- was to engage in as many conversations, unearth as much information as possible to share in this, our company's franchise feature.
And that's what I got, per several sources, both here in the building and via other methods: Hextall's going to be fired very soon, possibly today. The consensus on that was universal. And all indications were that Burke would be part of that, as well, though I couldn't nail that half. And being that the time element on such events almost always is close to the end of the season, since offseason decisions must be made almost immediately after the final time Tristan Jarry gets beaten on a Johnny Gaudreau breakaway ...
... I wouldn't be surprised if it came early this very morning. Before the players splinter across the globe.
Both Hextall and Burke attended this game, seated in an enclosed booth on Nationwide's press box level. A few booths down were Kevin Acklin, the Penguins' president of business operations, and David Beeston, the Boston-based executive vice president and chief strategy officer of Major League Baseball's Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group, the conglomerate that owns the Penguins. Beeston visited the booth with Hextall and Burke at least once, from what I could see.
Beeston's been ownership's liaison and most frequent attendee at Penguins games -- I don't really have a fairer word than 'liaison' since he holds no known title with the team -- whereas the top two figures at FSG, John Henry and Tom Werner, have made it to no more than two games all season. So, given that scenario of absentee ownership, it's immensely likely that Beeston, who has no background in hockey that I could find, will make the call on Hextall and Burke.
I'm also under the impression, I should add, that Acklin will have a voice in the matter, as well.
I'll add more in this space as I have it, including overnight. To repeat, this should be quick.
MORE PENGUINS,
ALL PENGUINS TODAY
• No, Mike Sullivan's not part of this. Like, at all. He wasn't blameless in this mess of a season, but throwing him out after the team's roster and salary-cap setting were so badly butchered -- in addition to making no sense -- has never been brought up by a soul within this operation.
• One last time, after this game, I tried to get Sullivan to acknowledge the spectacularly flawed roster he coached and, to his credit, he didn't come close to biting:
• Once and for all, since this is bound to come up countless more times, Mario Lemieux didn't hire Hextall. His sole contribution to that whole process was advising David Morehouse and company to add Burke into the mix as an overseer. That's it.
• If Mario, Ron Burkle and FSG have mended fences since a recent dispute regarding share of ownership -- Mario and Burkle felt they'd earned more because they resolved a separate situation involving other minority partners -- I'm unaware of it. But I have heard that the divide between the parties isn't as great as it'd been.
• Which is probably a good thing unless the Boston baseball guys are planning to make some massively significant Pittsburgh hockey hires without help.
• Remember when I reported in this space that Jarry felt he was injured, even as the Penguins really didn't see it that way? Well, when our Taylor Haase asked Jarry after this game how he was feeling physically, he responded, "I’m still dealing with a lot,” then proceeded to say he'd been dealing with injuries all season and that they impacted his performance every day down the stretch. And yet, there he was, being utilized by the coaching staff, as ever with the blessing of the medical staff, in the most meaningless game imaginable.
• Sullivan did at least allow for an awareness of Jarry's injuries throughout the season, but that begs the bigger question of the departing GM: How could everyone have known that the starting goaltender was either banged up -- or thought he was banged up -- and Hextall didn't lift a finger to add a player at the most important position?
• No players are known to be needing offseason surgery. That includes Jarry, who confirmed as much.
• Jarry and Jason Zucker, the two most prominent of the potential free agents in the fold, both expressed a priority of returning to Pittsburgh, but I can share that no move was ever made by management on either front. That'll now fall to the new front office.
• There's an undercurrent on the inside that Hextall might've saved his job if only he'd acquired an actual $5 million player rather than a grossly overpaid one in Mikael Granlund, he of one goal and literally nothing else in 21 games. Alas, he got Granlund. For two more years at the same price. While parting ways with a second-round pick for no reason. Every GM of every team in every sport, once they're fired, has something like this that pushes the decision across the line.
• Nice to see Marcus Pettersson back on the ice for the finale. He could've been back sooner, from what I was told, except that Hextall's mismanagement of the cap forced him to put Pettersson, his best defenseman for big chunks of the season, on Long-Term Injured Reserve, meaning he couldn't return until this game.
• No, I'm not piling on. I'm barely scratching the surface.
• Time will tell if this was it for Brian Dumoulin after two visibly challenging seasons, as he worked to overcome the cumulative effect of several lower-body injuries that stripped down what once was dynamic skating. If he's done in Pittsburgh, please know that he was as deserving as anyone of those two Stanley Cup rings and that, even in the recent times, carried himself with immaculate class. A true champion.
• I'm compelled to add here that I never had an issue with Hextall or Burke at any time. They just didn't get their jobs done.
• I won't take this too far, but seeing Chicago management types legit angered by the Blackhawks' victory the other night at PPG Paints Arena, with one of them remarking that Buddy Robinson, the 31-year-old AHL journeyman who scored the winner, had been put into the lineup because he'd never score ... and then coming here and picking up on at least one similar sentiment from the Columbus side ... man, it's a good thing the NHL Draft's got that lottery. Can't imagine how much worse it'd be without it.
• What a sad sight from the visitors' perspective, too, as it related to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Watching these proud living legends, fresh off extraordinary season-long performances for their age level, being stuck in the hollowest conceivable finale. Watching their power play score twice with barely an arm raised. It can't ever be repeated. It just can't.
• I asked Guentzel, who had the second of those goals, about this:
"Yeah, it's definitely different," he'd reply. "A tough feeling. You never want to be in this situation again."
The first and most critical step toward ensuring that ... it's on the cusp of occurring.
