Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - A MASSIVE home win for the Pittsburgh Penguins!

Episode Date: March 12, 2022

What a statement win by the Pittsburgh Penguins! Hunter has a full game recap ready to go for this one and he starts out by touching on the depth scoring returning when it needed to most. He first goes into Mike Matheson's goal and how he was able to make quite the impact with this return. He breaks down the goal and then touches on how he can't be the defenseman that gets shipped out if the team makes a trade. He then breaks down Mark Friedman's goal and how he continues to impress with this small sample size. Is he able to step into a larger role if a defenseman is moved? How high up in the lineup should he be able to play? He also shouts out Tristan Jarry for holding down the fort after the couple of goals that Vegas scored in the second. He also touches on Valtteri Puustinen's debut and how he should continue to get more of a look, plus has some listener takeaways to end the show. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.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 “LOCKED15,” 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!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic 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.

Here, everyone, big win tonight for your Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 over the Vegas goal nights. I have a full game recap coming up for you all. Right after this drop, we're going to get into Val Terry Pustin's debut and how good he looked. Another injury, of course, because, you know, it is the Pittsburgh Penguins after all, and there always are going to be injuries. Mark Freeman's really good game, Brian Rust, and a whole lot more coming up right after this drop. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Panthers.

Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows, Twitter at L.O. and Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So the Penguins, they get that massive 5-2 win over the Golden Knights Night's team that

has been really struggling. That's like they lost three in a row, I believe nine of their last 13. Now, this is a team that's only two points up on the Edmonton Oilers for the last playoffs. Well, one of the last playoff spots that are third in the Pacific right now, but it may not say that we're from. I'm going to mute the TV here because I don't need to hopefully have any background noise. Okay. That's all taken care of.

But, you know, the Penguins overall tonight, this was a pretty solid performance. I think that's my main takeaway. The second period, it wasn't all there for sure. they were outskated pretty bad. They were outchance pretty bad, high danger. Any scoring chance that the knights had, it basically tripled whatever the penguins had. I'm looking at a natural statuary right here.

The knights had seven high danger chances in that second period compared to only five for the penguins. It actually was 9 to 9 overall at 5E5. The Golden Knights only had one high danger chance in the third period. The Penguins were really good defensively in that third period. I'm sure Mike Sullivan must have said something to them in that intermission. But, you know, of course, Mike Matheson gets us started with the scoring, comes back tonight, and man, has he been awesome this year?

You know, I know there's a lot of trade rumors going around. Maybe the Penguins, you know, dealing in defensively Vancouver. I think that's been, you know, where the most smoke is. I'll get to maybe Ron Hextall's comments a little later on in this episode, if I have time. But, I mean, what Matheson brings to the table, you can't deal him. I mean, I know his contract is not the greatest, but he's playing at a really high level this year.

This is the best hockey I think I've ever seen him play. And I'm sure, you know, he would agree. This is probably the best hockey he's played for his career. So why would you want to get rid of that? You know, outside of Crystal Tang, he is their second best defenseman offensively. And he had a hell of a rip. right there to open the scoring in. You know, this is one of the biggest things here.

You know, the Penguins' depth scoring has really dried up as of late. That changed in a big way tonight. And the first person, of course, to start that off was Matheson. It was just a massive goal. He's been awesome all year and he continued his very stellar season with that goal. Jeff Carter, he makes it 2-0. It's his first goal since NAM basically. He had, I believe, like two goals in his last 23 games.

I think the number was. He definitely was, you know, his production was not where it was earlier in the year, but that was a big goal for him. You know, there's a staff that I saw this morning from Adam Gretz. And it was pretty, it was interesting. You know, you look at the shooting percentages overall combined of Brock McGinn, Evan Rodriguez, and Jeff Carter. And it was right around 5.7% combined for all three of those guys.

guys throughout Thur's limits right now. It is crazy how unlucky that is. And, you know, a bounce like that that Carter got tonight, that could be the balance that really gets his scoring touchback. So it was really good to see him get back on the scoring board. You know, again, he hasn't been on there much lately. It's been a big problem for the Penguins. I mean, I touched on that.

You know, one of my last episodes, and I've been talking about that a lot this last week of how, you know, the first 30 to 35 games, the depth scoring was there. And Ron Hextall said that to the media today. You know, we were one of the best teams in the league with our depth scoring. Since then, it's dropped off. And, you know, they've surely noticed that as the trade debt bind, of course, is only 10 days away. But, you know, it feels good at least for a night that Sidney Crosby and the usual suspects don't have to carry the load for the penguins. You know, Mark Friedman, he gets that third goal.

for Pittsburgh. That was his first goal of the year. And, you know, he continues to impress me. You know, I'm still not all the way there yet where I would be comfortable with him in a top four role. But if one of, if a bottom pairing defenseman was to go the other way in a trade, I would be comfortable with him stepping up in a bottom pairing role. I just, you know, people have been trying to argue, you know, on social media and stuff

and other platforms, well, you know, what if John Alino gets traded, you know, can Mark make him play those minutes? I just, I'm not there yet. though I know his sample size this year has been really freaking good. Again, I just, I'm not really, I don't know. I want to see a little more from him before I can fully declare that, you know, I'm comfortable with that, but just a hell of a rip past Lauren Braswa. And, you know, he continues to be awesome on a nightly basis.

He's also saved another goal. Today was a really odd bounce off the end boards, came right back in front of Tristan Jari. You see a lot of those, honestly, you know, every week. around a lot of NHL games. And had Mark Friedman not clear that puck, you know, it was probably a free goal for Vegas there because Trishon was not back in the net yet.

So really nice play by Friedman there. And, you know, I just, I continue. I probably said that about five times. I continue to be impressed with him to say the least. Brian Russ, you know, he's going to keep making that money. His price tag only continues to go out. This is now his third straight 20 goal season, a gorgeous goal on the power play.

You know, I thought the first penguin's power plate, night was not good. The zone entries were not there. They weren't setting it up, not getting the high dangerous scoring chance. It's just a total mess. Second one, much better. Had some awesome puck moving. Brasua had some nice saves.

And then that last one was just, you know, that was bread and butter for the penguins. They were moving the puck along very well, setting up nicely. And then Brian Ross was able to finish the game off and make it 4 to 2 with a little less than six minutes left. To play in the game, that was the dagger as some, you know, some other people. call it. And then, you know, Evan Rodriguez, he's able to get an empty net goal. I know, you know, it's just an empty netter. But, you know, maybe that's the goal that gets him going. So I, you know, I know, I basically kind of just recap all five goals. And, you know, I don't usually do that on my episodes. But I think I just wanted to make the overall point that, you know, the depth scoring was back tonight. And it was back in a big way. The penguins didn't need to have Sidney Crosby, you know, put the team on his back. You don't need Jake Gensel to score every goal. They don't need of Guinea Malkin, you know, to produce on every goal. You know, it's great that Brian Rust obviously did, but, you know,

they don't need him to do that every game as well. You know, same with even Chris Lattang. And I thought, yeah, he was marvelous tonight in most instances, excuse me, and, you know, he didn't really need to have a lot of production, too. So just a really sound win, you know, underlying numbers-wise, before I get to the next segment,

the Penguins, Brad, attempted, Vegas had 58% of those. Scoring chances, though, the Penguins had 52% of the scoring chances for, 50% for high danger. That was a clean split. Expected goals for, Vegas led the way a little bit, 51% compared to 48.6% of the penguins. If we go to all situations, it's pretty close.

Actually, Vegas had 52% of the shot attempts. Penguins had 58% of the scoring chances. They also had more high danger chances. 60% of those, actually, and they also had 60% of the expected goals when you factor power plays in and all that other stuff. So just again, a really sound performance tonight. They buzzed Vegas in the first period. That was probably one of their best periods they played all year, followed it up with a really bad of a dud second period,

and then the third period, just a defensive clinic. I thought Tristan had to make a couple of nice saves in that period, but overall the Penguins really tightened up in that third period. And, you know, it shows it on the stout sheet. The Vegas school nights only had one high danger chance for at all situations, not just five on five. So job well done. by the Penguins' defensive efforts in that period.

Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into Valterra Prustin, what I liked about him. I'm also going to get into some Teddy Blugert phrase because you can't have enough of that. And of course, you know, we're going to get into some Tristan Jari talk a little bit later on. And, you know, listener takeaways before we get into,

maybe a small preview for the game against Carolina. I have not, the Penguins have played them twice already this year. So there probably won't need to be too much of a preview. But before I get to that, before I get to the rest of the show, this is the time of year that I pretty much given up on all of my New Year's resolutions, but not this year. I'm sticking to my resolution to eat right. Thanks to Bill Bar. Almost feel like it's not really a resolution because I actually enjoy eating them. Have you tried the puffs?

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That's promo code locked 15 for 15% off at built.com. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So starting this segment off, get a shout out Teddy Bluger. He was magnificent tonight. There was a late power play in the third period.

Penguins are up 3-2. Mark Friedman had just scored about a few minutes prior. This was the first one, first of back-to-back penalties that Pittsburgh took. And, you know, very unorthodox because the penguins are obviously the least discipline, the least penalized team, excuse me, in the league. And, you know, Vegas is, you know, they're setting up, but, you know, the penguins are keeping them to the outside. A lot of that was because of Teddy Bluger.

you watched his work along the boards, just winning puck battles for checking the Golden Knights, you know, puck carriers ferociously, especially Jack Ike. I mean, Iko was having, you know, I think it was a handful for him to go against Bluger. And then Teddy's able to come down on a two-od-one, shoot it. And then it almost goes in off of a bounce.

I've noted how it stayed out. But it's just, it's plays like that. That just showed to me, and I think a lot of you all too, just how good Teddy Bluger is. And that's what the penguins were missing when he was out. At the end of the day, that's how good he is. And, you know, it's the PK, for as good as it is,

it is a night-in-day difference when Bluger is on the ice versus when he's off the ice. and I thought just that that play really stood out to me tonight. Overall, I'm going to change my webcam up here to make sure. Nope, there we go. That's the one I was using. For those that are on YouTube, I had like the wrong light on my ring light. So this, this looks, okay, much better.

Anyways, just wanted to shout him out there. He was also playing really well with Brock Beginning and Zach Astin-Rest and Reese tonight. Could have had a couple of goals, honestly. But he is just the perfect, you know, 200-foot player. And I just, I loved watching him, you know, on the PK there. And then the second PK, you know, Vegas couldn't get anything going. The Penguins, penalty killers were just absolutely torching them to every loose puck. And Vegas couldn't even get set up in the Penguin Zone.

That's how good it was. Now, to the young kid, Val Terry Pustin in, just a really nice debut. If I can find a tweet here overall. He looked pretty good tonight. So he had 10 minutes and 13 seconds. He was on the ice for three shot attempts for one shot on goal, two scoring chances. Now, overall, he was on the ice for two goals for, no goals against. So a little nice plus minus, shout out, plus two in this first game.

Six shot attempts for seven in attempts against, but 71% of the expected goals share. That comes courtesy of natural statrick. I saw it first via Danny Shiree. Shout out to him. I'm going to hopefully have him on the podcast soon. Really nice debut for our Valteri Puston. And then numbers aside at least. He had a couple really nice looks tonight.

I thought on those looks, he was going to have his first NHL goal. It would have been the total mark-dunk effect as a lot of the national hockey media and a lot of the other fans like to say for some other teams. Mike Sullivan, excuse me, was even putting him on the second power play unit. Definitely was a little surprised there. I thought he would kind of maybe wait to do that just because the Penguins have a lot of options to put on that second power pole unit. But, you know what?

screw it. I'm going to put him on there, see what he does. And he did not look out of place at all. Also had his first NHL point tonight. He had an assist on Jeff Carter's goal. I believe it was the secondary insist. And if I'm not mistaken. So just a really good performance. Actually, I am going to double check that stat.

I don't want to be like, oh, well, I believe it is. I'm going to make sure that he had it. Yeah. Second assist, Brock McGinn was the one that had the breakaway, of course. Like I'm a complete moron and almost forgot that. And then Puson was actually the one that flipped it from the Penguins defensive zone to the offensive zone to spring begin. He's able to shoot on net and then Carter is able to bury the rebound. So shout to Pustin.

First NHL point did not look out of place. I want to see more of this kid. I thought this was a really nice debut. Was also winning some puck battles for checking really well. Again, getting some good chances playing fine defensively. Again, he had some nice ice time as well. So I'm sure he's going to be in the lineup on Sunday. I'll get to Brock McGinn's injury update here in just a second.

But especially with that news, I think he's going to be in the lineup here. Moving forward a little bit, I'm not sure when Kisbury Kaplan is going to come back into the lineup. You know, I just, who knows, I think at this point. You know, I'm going back and forth. My Virginia Tech Hokies are playing the North Carolina Tar Heels right now, and VT really needs this win. So, again, great debut from Boostin tonight. Also, shout out Tristan Jari.

I did see a couple, a little bit of hate from him on social media. Well, I shouldn't say hate. Just that, you know, maybe he's off his game a little bit still. In my opinion, at least, those two goals that Vegas scored, I'm not really going to blame Tristan that much. The first one, I didn't really like the Penguins' defensive effort there. Don't know what Marcus Pedersen was doing on the ice. He was kind of just flopping around like a fish.

Cindy Crosby didn't really help matters by just standing next to Tristan and not really letting him see the puck. And then the second one, maybe he was a little too deep in the net there. He wasn't as aggressive, but I'm not really going to pin that too much on him. And one opportunity techs up 12 right now as I look over. So I'm not, again, I think it's totally fine, at least in my opinion. He was able to really shut the door after that. That's, I think, one of the most important things, at least for me,

was that he was able to stop some really nice chances for the rest of the second period. Remember Jonathan Marches-old had a breakaway. Jari had a really nice save. A couple big saves in the third period. When he needed to be called upon, he slammed the door and showed, again, why he has been one of the best goaltenders in hockey this year. So shout-out to him, especially.

And now the injury update before we get to our commercial break, Brock McGinn was seen with a cast on his right arm. And oh, my God, Virginia Tech up 15 right now. I'm getting so giddy. So I'll talk about both of my teams right now. I'm so excited. But again, cast on his right arm. Per a couple of the Penguins media people,

it looked like he blocked a shot. I didn't get a good look at it. I couldn't go back and find it. But it sounds like he blocked a shot on his right arm. And then when the Penguins are doing the, you know, the warrior helmet or whatever it is after the game, he was seen on the cast.

Mike Sullivan said that he is weak to week with that injury. I would assume it's maybe a sprained wrist, broken wrist, something like that. he's probably going to be out for at least a few weeks, if not a month. I don't know the full injury diagnosis, but when someone has a cast on that part of their hand or in rest, usually it's, you know, three to four weeks. You know, hopefully it's not longer. But, you know, as always, it's a soul for a soul with the penguins.

That's just how it is at this point. But coming up in the next segment, we're going to get to your listener takeaways and maybe get to some of Ron Hextall's comments today. Before I get to that, though, it's that time of year again, as college, basketball's tournament is finally upon us from all the latest odds, contests, and player props. Betonline.net is the number one source for all of your sports betting needs and info. Ben online remains the best spot for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. And it's not just basketball.

Betonline is your continued source for all of your sports wagering information needs, including live betting and your favorite Vegas casino games. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends in action. That is Bet Online, where the game starts. All right. Welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show's Twitter at L.O.

underscore Penguins. So getting to a couple of the listener takeaways tonight, Alan T. Yoder says that was one of the top three crowds all season. Shout out to you for being there, Alan. Glad you always have season tickets. Hopefully I'll be able to come up there for a game and meet you and, you know, all the other fans of the show that hopefully come to the game as well. He said it was a different kind of energy in the building. Matheson Carter Freeman, Rodriguez. is good start on the depth scoring pins need more Friday night home games that was fun yeah you know

they don't really have a lot of Friday night home games you know this year but you know moving for i think they have a decent amount of Friday games on the schedule um well actually they're this you know i think i got some recancy bias because they played carolina last Friday night um they have the rangers in a couple weeks they may don't play Friday night until April 29 just the last game of the regular season but they have a lot of Saturday night games coming up so i almost made myself to be a complete idiot there. But yeah, moving forward, Alan, I do agree. Maybe there could be some more Friday night home games next season.

But agree, you know, big start on the depth scoring. That's exactly what they need. And hopefully it can carry over to Sunday's massive matchup against Carolina. And yes, I agree 401-2724 pit. Yeah, Prustin and looked pretty good. You know, I just really enjoyed his performance tonight. Now, back to, so Ron Hextall spoke to the media this morning. And, you know, he has the typical GM quote.

You know, I like our team. I know our depth scoring is not where we used to be. Do I have to make a deal? No. But if we were looking at needs for a team, I could say we could add a little bit more up front. Am I going to be pressured to make a deal? No, but obviously it's something that I'm going to be looking at. If something along comes that looks right, we're going to do it.

And for some reason that got people mad. This is not Jim Brotherford here, people. I'll say that right here, right? for you all. This is not Mr. Jimmy Rutherford who is going to come out and say what he's going to do and then go do it. Ron Hextall is going to play things very close to the vest. That's how he's always been. You know, at the end of the day, that's how it is. We're going to have to see what happens here. I know there's been a lot of smoke with rumors about the Vancouver Canucks. I get it. But there's still 10 days. You know, maybe Rexdahl's looking at another option that we just haven't circled yet.

Or heck, that I haven't even talked about on the show. So I have no problem, honestly. with what Ron Hextall said to the media today, you know, just basic GMs speak 10 days before the deadline. He's looking to add he would like to, but, you know, he's not going to be pressured to do anything. Freeman went on the Jeff Merrick show. They both think that the penguins are going to take a swing, and they both think that if the penguins are going to do a deal,

it's going to be a hockey deal. It's not going to be for a lot of futures because they don't think the penguins want to give up a lot of those. So that will be interesting. I would probably agree with that, but, you know, I'm not really sure which defenseman they would move at this point. Close things up for you all.

I have a stat. So the Penguins are six games into this nine game stretch against some of the best teams in the league. They are four in one-in-one, have nine out of possible 12 points, and may have a point in at least five of those six games. Calls for a round of applause. If I do say so myself,

this team is a contender. They are elite. They are that good. Again, they're probably not up there with Colorado, Carolina, Florida. They're in that tier below, which is totally fine, but this team is really good,

and they are proving it by beating some of the best teams in the league. They're back in action on Sunday. Carolina comes to town. It's going to be, I'm pretty sure a pretty ruckus crowd. And, you know, we'll have to see if the penguins can

avoid being swept by the hurricanes this year. So I think I hit everything that I wanted to hit on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. It's a really big win tonight. You know, it looked like a nice crowd. Tristan Jolly was great. Pustin looked really good. Chris LaTang had a much better performance than he did on Tuesday against Florida.

Defensively, it was a clinic in the third period. The depth scoring was back in a big way. And, you know, I'll be curious to see if it carries over to Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode. Remember, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hode East, follow the shows for L.O. And I'll be back with you all on Monday for a fresh new episode. of the Locked on Hingman's podcast. Have a amazing weekend.