Madden Monday on Penguins' woes: 'Nothing is going to change'

Duquesne’s 89-63 NCAA Tournament loss to Illinois on Saturday night hurt in more ways than one.

Not only did that decision end the Dukes’ magical postseason, but it also meant that fans of the Pittsburgh sports scene had to go back to primarily following the Penguins.

Woof! Bad timing for that.

Less than 24 hours after the Dukes were eliminated in Omaha, Neb., the Penguins played what may have been one of their best games of the season — for a while.

Then, it ended up being perhaps their most painful loss of the year.

The Pens built a 4-0 lead over the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Sunday afternoon, only to end up losing 5-4 in overtime.

COMEBACK COMPLETE! ????

The @Avalanche erase a 4-0 deficit and win this one in @Energizer overtime! pic.twitter.com/euJoK8hPBw

— NHL (@NHL) March 24, 2024

The victory was Colorado’s ninth in a row and Pittsburgh’s 11th loss in its past 14 outings.

In this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive says, if the point wasn’t made already, the collapse in Colorado should highlight the need for the franchise to take a drastic path this offseason.

Even if that means trying to get some of the veterans with expensive contracts to waive their no-movement clauses.

“I would consider all options,” Madden said. “I would consider burning it down. And I would call the big contracts in and say, “Listen, we’re burning it down. It’s up to you what you want us to do with you.”

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Yet Madden is doubtful that any significant restructuring will be made at PPG Paints Arena, despite what general manager Kyle Dubas may want to do.

“What frustrates me (is) knowing that nothing is going to change. Because if you bring back the four big contracts (Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin and Erik Karlsson) and the coach (Mike Sullivan), nothing changes. I think Dubas will do his best to work around that. But nothing will change,” Madden said.

Theoretically, one change Madden would support is making the NHL roster younger by opening 2024-25 with developing prospects such as Vasily Ponomarev, Ville Koivunen, Joel Blomqvist and Brayden Yager on it.

However, he is concerned that Sullivan would underutilize those players in the name of giving veterans more minutes.

“My worry with that would be that you put Koivunen on the team and he plays bottom six, and Noel Acciari gets more minutes. If you gamble through youth, you can’t have Mike Sullivan be the coach. You just can’t. Because he won’t play them,” Madden said. “If they retain Sullivan, Dubas has to say, ‘If Koivunen makes this team, he’s in the top six. And if you don’t play him there, we’ll get somebody who will.’”

Also, in the podcast, Madden and I discuss Duquesne’s NCAA Tournament run, the Steelers’ quarterback situation, and the Shohei Ohtani gambling controversy.