Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - 5 in a row with a chance to make it 6 on Saturday!

Episode Date: November 26, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to stay hot! They went into Philadelphia on Friday night and dismantled the Flyers, 4-1 as they've won their fifth in a row. Hunter starts the show by shouting out the 4th line as it was the main reason the Penguins got the result. He looks at how great Teddy Blueger has been since his return and why he is the glue that makes that line stick. He also praises Ryan Poehling as he continues to look more than just a throw-in for the Petry trade & why that trade is looking really good right now since they originally wanted to trade Blueger in the original offer. He then eats crow on Josh Archibald as he can't stop scoring goals for the 4th line. After that, he goes into more individual performances, including the play of Tristan Jarry and how Sidney Crosby continues to own the Flyers franchise. He also questions if this rivalry has fallen off in recent years due to where the teams have been before ending the show with thoughts on the Winter Classic jersey and a small preview of Saturday night's clash against the Toronto Maple Leafs.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL to learn more.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's up Penguins fans? Happy Black Friday and Penguins get their fifth win in a row seven out of their last nine. They're back in a playoff spot. The vibes are very, very good. For today's episode, we're going to fully recap the game against the Flyers on Friday evening. This is also the last episode that you all will see me in my childhood room. I'm going back to Richmond for the next few days before we drive up to Pittsburgh on Thursday. And then I will be with my new setup probably starting on Friday, if not the week after. it's going to look a lot different than this. I'm very much excited to move up there

and hopefully go to a lot more games. We actually got tickets to a game on December 12th against the Dallas Stars. That's probably the first of many that I will be in attendance for for the rest of the season. But for this episode, we're going to get into the fourth line and how good that line is looking.

Also, get into Cindy Crosby, continue to own the flyers, how bad the Flyers truly are, and just, you know, how good this team is playing right now and we'll also preview the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, which is set for Saturday. at PPG Paints Arena. So look for all that right after this drop. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honor Hodies. You're going to follow all the shows, Twitter, at L.O.S.C.P. Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. Today's episode is brought to you by Ben Online. Ben Line has recovered this season with more props, odds, and lions than ever before. That has been online where the game starts. So another Pittsburgh Penguins victory, a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. That's five in a row, seven out of nine, 20 points, 24, and 25 banked tonight. And they're up to

third place in the Metropolitan Division. They're one point behind the New York Islanders for second place in the Metro, which would be six points behind the Devils for first. It's almost like, gee, wow, I think the seven game losing streak. It was bad, but it wasn't like a death blow to this team. They've been playing some very good hockey these last couple of weeks, which just allowed them to climb back into a playoff start. They've gotten 15 out of a possible 18 points in their last nine games. This stretch has saved the season. But the biggest thing I think I want to take away from this game, the fourth line right now has been incredible. And, And, you know, I didn't know how much of a difference Teddy Bluger was going to make when he came back.

Wow. I could definitely say this has been quite the difference. You look at the stats on natural statutes tonight. The fourth line, by far, the Penguins' best line, Paling Blugher Archibald. When they were on the ice at 5E5, they had penguins had 75% of the shot attempts, three goals for, zero goals against 89.5% of the expected. objective goals, 88% of the scoring chances, 83% of the high danger chances. This line is playing better than the third line right now, which I did not think was

going to be the case heading into this season. Bluger has been awesome since coming back, was directly involved in the first goal, shoots it, goes off Carter Hart's pad, Archibald cleans up the garbage. Second one, Bluger is able to thread a nice pass over to Ryan Pilling. Well, actually, no, not threat, throw nice pass. excuse me, he's able to shoot a harmless shot from the point. Ryan Paling to flex it in. Peneling gets another goal.

This line is humming right now. And, you know, two-thirds of the players on it are players that, excuse me, I just really did not know how much they were going to affect the team this year. For example, Paling, when he came over, I was kind of like, okay, maybe he's just a throw-in, you know, so far has, what, five goals this season. He's playing very well right now. And I was impressed with him even before these last couple of years. games. I think he was really starting to find his game a little bit. I think obviously

Bluger being back helps him. But, you know, he's, he's been a very productive fourth liner. And Josh Archibald, I know people are going to come and clown me in the comments, come clown me on my, on my Twitter and stuff saying like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, you know, he's playing well. You didn't think he would. People, I love being wrong. Like, I give the best analysis I can just because I, you know, I have the platform here. I give the best takes I can. I hope I'm right. but for something like this, I want someone like Josh Archibald to prove me wrong. And so far he has. He has four goals on the fourth line this season.

And the Penguins, they looked at what he's done in previous seasons, his 10, 11 goal per eight and two game season. They were like, okay, we think he can do that here in the right environment. And so far, he's doing it. I mean, he's already basically halfway to double-digit goals. We're already 21 games into the season. you know, he's playing much better these last few games.

I have no, last few games, honestly the last few weeks. I have no complaints about him right now, 900K. He's doing what a fourth line player should be doing on this team for not even a million dollars.

Defensively, he's playing well. He's drawn the most amount of penalties on the team, also has four goals. He's throwing his body around. He's been a very good player, you know, for a lot of games this season. And I'm very glad I can be eating crow on him.

I gladly say that. Paneling as well, I think he's been defensively, you know, very solid penalty kill, which is usually not his strength with his game. I think he's also been pretty solid when it comes to that. And offensively, you know, you've been seeing him contribute, you know, at times tonight, two goals. The other one was just he just banked it off Carter Hart and in from behind the net. And speaking of Carter Hart, I don't know why he continues to struggle against the payments.

He's been having a really good year, top five to ten and goals eight above expected. had a really hot start. It's continued that start. It just stinks that the rest of his team is absolutely horrendous. You know, but the fourth line carried this team to the win tonight. Yeah, Cindy Crosby also had his goal. I'm going to go into that just a second. But the reason the Penguins won this game is because the fourth line was very solid.

And it's been playing that way for the last several games. Teddy Blugher so far this season, he has been awesome since coming back. trying to go and look at his stats overall here on natural statuary because they are good. I'm going to go find if I can find them here. So Teddy Bluger, he has only played six games this season. So about break even when he's on the ice, about 50% of the shot attempts. Goals for, goals against about 57%. I apologize if you heard my big dog downstairs barking.

My family down there is just playing some games and stuff. Expected goals, though. When he's on the ice, the penguins had 50. 49.6% of those scoring chances about 50-50. High danger-wise, 65% of the high-danger chances when he's on the ice. High-danger actual goals for, 75%, 3-4-1 against. His underlines are very solid. He is the glue that makes that line go, and you're seeing that so far.

Again, I did not know that he was going to make this much of an impact coming back. I think the penalty kill has also really improved since he returned as well. and, you know, to think that he was almost traded in the Jeff Petrie trade over the summer. Remember, I was told that the Penguins wanted originally do Pedersen and Petrae. Actually, excuse me. I apologize. I was originally told that the Penguins wanted to trade Pedersen and Blugher for Petrie. Imagine if they had done that.

Just pause the podcast. Imagine if that had been the trade for Petra right now. Where would this team be? Don't think they would be where they are right now. That's for sure with how Pedersons played this season. we thought Blugers played in the six games since he's coming back. I didn't want to trade Mike Madison, but kind of thankful that they did,

at least if they won a Petrie that bad. So on the fourth line, they were the reason why they won this. Their underlines continue to be spectacular. You know, the top two lines, they're humming. They're still doing good. Fourth line's been playing better. It's really just that third line that they got to figure out.

I think they can get another good third liner before the deadline. I think this team will be much harder to play against someone like an Evan Rodriguez. something like that, just because Jeff Carter's just kind of in the mud at times. You know, it would be nice if they could shed conspiracy competence contract, though. I'm not really sure how much success one Hexel is going to have with that. Brock McGinn's been playing a lot better. As of late, Jatin Hinen, though, still needs to wake up.

But that's it. I think if they can get another third liner in there, I think this team can really go some places. But fourth line right now, again, continues to be absolute just mint. I think it's the way to say, heck, Mike Sullivan even put them out there for a power play opportunity late in the game when it was 4 to 1. He easily could have just said,

hey, top guys, go out, do your thing. But he's like, no, no, no what? I'm just going to put my 4-fine out there. They've been the reason why we're winning and had some pretty good zone time and actually had a couple quality chances. So you wouldn't even know the first year. You honestly wouldn't even tell the difference

between them and the first unit with how the first few that's played the last few weeks. But yeah, can't say enough about those three players wanted to spend the first segment talking about that. Just great stuff from them. And then if they continue to play well,

that's one less problem this team will have down the stretch. So that does it for this first segment of the podcast. Coming up in the second segment, we're getting to other players that I thought impressed me in this game and also just get into just how awful the flyers are and how this rivalry just also continues to go downhill a little bit. But before I get to that, if I can get my wonderful,

beautiful bet online promo right up here. It's your number one source for sports betting info, stats, news, and analysis. You can get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there. For football to basketball to soccer and e-sports, we've got it all at bedonline.com. And if you love sports podcasts, you can find those at bet online as well. We're always the fastest, easiest way to get your betting fix. You can head to the website today or use your phone to learn more. That has been online where the game starts.

All right, I'm back on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodesmer to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes Hall of the show's Twitter, Eleanor Sopainments. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day.

Other players who I thought stood out to me in this one. In breaking news, Cindy Crosby still owns the Philadelphia Flyers. I got that confirmed by sources on my phone. Yes, and yes, obviously my girlfriend is my background for this. It's all on the video. Yes, can confirm Cindy Crosby still owns the flyers.

And if I believe I saw this correctly, if I can find this stat here. Yeah, he's, I believe me, he now has the record for the most goals scored ever against the Flyers. I'm just going to double-check this stat here real quick. Yeah, sole position of the Angel record for the most goals scored against Philadelphia Flyers. That is 52. You go on Wikipedia, you can probably find it under the Philadelphia Flyers franchise that Sidney Crosby is, in fact, the owner. I will always forever love that they continue to boo him every time he's announced in Philadelphia,

when he touches the puck. It only makes him stronger. Nice deflection goal. Off a shot from the point of the Penguins did a really nice job with some of their deflections tonight. You haven't really seen that a lot, but some of their goals this season, a lot of them are just clean looks,

but a couple goals tonight were off deflections. So, nice job there said, you know, great game. I thought just going over looking at the rest of the numbers, I thought the second line continued to play very well. Of course, that is the Zulker, Malkin, Rust. line. That came in attempt-wise a little bit, but scoring chances, I think, were, you know, they had 61% of those. Crossby, Gensel, Raquel, when they were on the ice, they had 65% of of the shot attempts. They also had 74% of the expected goals. 72% of the scoring chances,

you know, they continue to hum ever since Raquel was put up there. I want that as the first line for the rest of the season. P.O. Joseph, I think, continues to impress me a lot. He got walked, I think, once or twice in the game, but the game was basically over at that point. You know, he's just really rounding into form lately and I'm really liking his game. I also will say Tristan Jari, another solid performance. Wasn't really tested. Well, he was tested in the first few minutes. The Flyers had the first five shots of the game,

but the Penguins were able to take over that period relatively quickly. After that, the one goal that he allowed, kind of ever, you know, it's for nothing. I'm not going to judge him that hard. You know, he allowed one goal off 30 shots. So 29 out 30 for him. you know, that's three really solid starts in a row for him. Hopefully you can keep building off that. I think Chris LaTang was fine.

You know, I think that's two decently solid performances in a row for him right now. Honestly, no one really fully stood out to me outside of that. You know, everyone, I think, was just humming along, playing well. That said, Jeff Petra, I thought had a little bit an off game. You got kind of walked by Kevin Hayes on the sequence that led to the Flyers goal. Don't really know what he was doing on that play, to be honest with you. did not have his stick in the right place and just his skating it on there was kind of pissboard to me honestly that that's way for him because he's been pretty sorry looking for it he's been pretty

consistent i should say the last couple of weeks i think with his play so kind of uncharacteristic to see him have an off game like that but you know the game was over at that point if there was another thing i didn't like it was that the penguins were kind of letting up with about i guess the last half of the third period and i get it you know you have a back tip you have another game on saturday night you're not forward nothing with 10 minutes to go. You're kind of like, okay, let's just coast to the end here. We're playing a really bad team. They're just going to give up.

You give up that goal, okay, whatever. But the Penguins, they kind of continue to surrender some chances in the third period. I think the Flyers hit one or two posts. After that, Penguins were just kind of a little bit sloppy in the defensive zone. Just clean that up. You know, I don't want to see them turtle in those situations. I think if they were playing a better team, you know, that could have, the Penguins could have paid the price. A little bit, I think they got a little lucky that the Flyers are just really bad.

And speaking of that, I'm going to end the segment with this. man, that Flyers team is bad. I mean, wow. I know I have a lot of older listeners that listen to this show, and I get it. I'm 25. I'm a quarter of a century years old. I've been watching the sport for as long as I can remember. I don't think I have seen a worse Flyers team in my lifetime than the team I watched

tonight. They stink. Like, that is a bad, bad Flyers team. And I get it. He has some injuries, Ryan Ellis is, of course, hurt, Sean Couturee, James Gend, Reevesdike, Travis Connecting, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, Owen Tippett and Kevin Hayes are on their top lines. You know, you look at their forward group, and it's just a whole pile of mud. Their defensive group is not much better.

Carter Hart's had a really good year. John Torrella, you know, kudos to him for taking that job. And it's going to be a long year in Philly. That team is bad. And the Battle of Pennsylvania just continues to go downhill. You know, I remember when this rivalry used to be top three in the league, I don't think it's there anymore. These last few years, it just hasn't been the same. And I think a lot of England's fans, you know, I love to hear from you about this.

You know, have you just kind of lost some hate for the players? Because, you know, when I was a teenager, you know, from, when I was a teenager, I obviously hated this team. But when I got to college all throughout that, you know, I kind of started to hate them less, to be honest. just because, I mean, I guess it's just because I'm getting older. And obviously I started the podcast, so I obviously gave you a lot more objective and stuff. But I think it's just because this rivalry is just not the same anymore. Just not a lot of passion, I feel like. I think the Penguins, it also isn't, you know, the best of the Penguins, they've gotten a lot better over the course this rivalry while the Flyers have just been stuck in neutral or just really bad like you're seeing right now.

That game wasn't even close tonight. I think after the first, you know, five or six minutes, the Penguins had the much better of the play, and they took it to Philly. It's going to be a long year there. They had that nice hot start to the season, but man, it was, it wasn't even close. It was like watching an HL team playing HLD.

And, you know, I hope Chuck Fletcher stays the general manager there for a long time. I didn't like how the Flyers were kind of trying to goon it up at times when they were around three to four, and I think that's just a loser mentality. Marcus Pedersen fighting Nick DeLoo. Rie was definitely a little weird. But, you know, it's a John Perela team.

What do you expect? You know, he's always hated the Penguins. Players under him will always try to goon it up against the Penguins, you know, did it in Columbus, did with New York. I'm not surprised. So, you know, this is, it's almost like a match made in heaven when he's with the Flyers. But yeah, I mean, I think I had in the back line ahead.

I'm like, the Penguins should win this game. I just didn't think they would be this dominant over the Flyers. But they got the way they may need it to. Mostly everyone had a really solid performance. and, you know, you're on to the next one. I guess where the Penguins will be back in action on Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and we will be previewing that game

coming up right after these messages. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lock Time Penguins podcast. I am your host here, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter, Hunter Hodes, follow the show with Twitter at L.O.R.R.R.P. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen.

I also will say towards the very end of the show, I will have some thoughts on the Winter Classic jersey, got the scoop verified on that. I said it was going to come out on Black Friday. I said what the design was going to look like. I will go two out of two for that, even though I, of course, again, not a massive insider here, but when I hear something, you know,

I like to think it's going to happen. And, you know, I got both of those right, which is nice. But, you know, the Penguins, they will play their third and final game against the Maple Leafs on Saturday night of Puechipaterina. After the Penguins lost to the Maple Leafs on my birthday, it was a 5-2 loss.

Toronto lost in New Jersey. They beat the Buffalo. They lost to the Islander. They beat the devil's under that. And then they beat the wild, actually. So they are going to come in. They are on a back-to-back as well. So both teams will be coming in with the same situation.

Though this is a full road back-to-back for the Leaf. So this just makes it that much tougher. So the Leaves, they've won three out of their last five games. Ever since they won that game against Penguins, heck, if you want to include that, excuse me, they've won four of their last six. And you're going to see the same lines. Michael Bunting with Austin Matthews and William Nealander.

John Tavares is with Mitch Marner, Polly Yonkruck is up there, which is interesting. But I also think that comes down to, you know, I think he was up there the last time as well. Wayne Simmons, Pontus Holmberg and Alexander Kerrfoot, excuse me, on the third line, and then Aston Reese, David, Campton, Peter Engel. The Maple Leafs are very hurt defensively.

Morgan Riley, he is out. T.J. Brody, he is out. Jake Muzon, he is out. That is three of their top six. defenseman Jody Benix. He's also out as well as Ilias Samsona. He is out still. I want to see who played tonight. So Matt Murray got the start tonight. I would expect Eric Shalgren to get the start against the Penguins on Saturday. And for the Penguins against Leaves, I would expect Casey to Smith to go like he did last time. So the Leaves, they are hurt a lot defensively. Three of their best six

defensemen are out. Right now defensively, Mark Redmondo with Justin Hall, Rasmus Sandine, and Timothy Lingren, Victor Mette, and Max Hollowell defensively. Just not a good unit there. The Penguins will need to take advantage of that. You know, last time they kind of let the top line beat the Michael Bunting had a really good game against the Penguins. I think Nealander played well as well. Mitch Marner, I believe, had a goal as well. You know, they're going to have to really contain that top line with Matthews.

I'm just making sure. Geez, I almost screwed that up. Yeah, sorry. Marners with Tavares. But so, Bunting and Matthews played really well. in that game, Nealander do, too. But also, you know, the Tavares Martin line, I think that one also ate the Penguins a line

just about a week and a half ago. So they will have to be on high alert for both of the least top two lines. I'm not really concerned about Toronto's bottom six. I don't really think there's a lot of good players down there that can really score. It's just mainly the top six that concerns. The Penguins are going to have to play diligent defensively.

Kaston's fan that's going to have to play better. I think he led in a couple of lane goals that last time. So we'll have to. to see how he plays with that. This is a opponent that the Penguins know very well. Obviously, this month, they beat them in Toronto. Pink Leaves returned their favor in Pittsburgh. We'll have to see how this one goes.

This is one of the better teams at the Eastern Conference. And, you know, a matchup that I always like. I think there's going to be a lot more Leafs fans here for this game, just because it's not on the weekday. Usually the Leafs have one of the better away fans coming in for other aren't. So I think this one is going to be a lot of fun. to watch. Keys, I think it remained the same again. Stopping the Leaves top two lines, getting traffic in front of Shalgrin. He didn't have a good outing against the Penguins last time.

Again, had that game-winning goal, which I don't know if that should have went in. Penalty kill, continuing to play well against the Leaf's power play that can score well. Well, Power Play would like to see that get it going as well. And, you know, continuing to get scoring from all four lions. I would love to see the fourth line contribute offensively again on Saturday. I do not accept them to score three of the four goals if the Penguins get four goals against the Leaves, but it'll be nice to see them contribute again. But also, you don't have the top six get in there when needed.

This one, you know, should be a lot of fun that Penguins will be going for their six straight win, and I'll be going for eight out of your last 10. So that really wraps up this small little preview of the game against the Leafs. I mean, I've previewed them numerous times this year. You can go back and listen to those as well. Last but not least, though, to finish with this episode, which are a classic jersey. So as I as I kind of scooped on the show and as I scooped overall in, you know, just on my Twitter and stuff, I did say that it was going to be a Black Friday release, got that right.

And I also got the overall jersey right. I will put it to the screen here on my phone. If you all want to see this, my phone, I think is it zoomed in. Yeah. So, you know, the P is the crest directly in the center of it. Two black lines going across the day. and then the full white jersey. There was a mock out there saying that there was going to be a penguins across from it.

I was told that was not going to be the case. Got that right as well. My overall thoughts on their jersey, I think it's okay. I don't like it. I also don't hate it. It's kind of mid, as the kids like to say. It's average. Yeah, I think this is a jersey.

It's going to be forgotten about just like. You know, you remember the stadium series game against a lot of colleagues. I believe that was 2014. I recall correctly. You know, people were up in arms about that. Just a regular mid-tier jersey. You know, they wore that, I think, one more time. We won't want to two more times after that.

Never wore them again. This is what you're going to see here. They may wear them one more game this season after Winter Classic. They may not wear them again. Everyone's going to forget about it. It's going to be whatever. So, I mean, you know, people, you can like it. You can hate it.

But, you know, more than likely they're only going to wear it one more time. One time, excuse me. And if it's more than that. It's probably just one other time. So that's really all the thoughts I have on the Winter Classic jersey. Just glad I got a couple of things right about it. And, you know, you all can see that jersey in early January when the Penguins head up to Fenway Park to play the Bruins in the Winter Classic. So that will do it for this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast.

Really appreciate all of you listening to this one. Hope you got some good Black Friday shopping done. Hope you got some your loved ones and your friends and your family, some good Penguins. latest stuff. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving for my American listeners with your family and friends, ate some good food. I am absolutely stuffed from the meals that I had

in the previous day and a half. But again, that will do it for this one. I'll be back with more episodes next week. Starting on Monday, we will preview. Oh, actually, you know, we will have preview. We will recap the game against Toronto, and then we will also preview the game against Carolina on Tuesday. Then I will be fully recapping that one. I'll be

the Penguins first matchup against the Hurricanes this year. right now penguins in third place in metropolitan division one point at a second behind the new york islanders i think the demise of this team was exaggerated just a little bit and they're back to playing some winning hockey and they are in a playoff spot so again thank you all so much for listening hope you all have a wonderful weekend we'll see all the team does on saturday i'll talk to you all again on monday